Deck 18: Customer Service

Question 1

Review the Retailing View 18.2 about customer service at IKEA. How does this retailer utilize a self-service model as a competitive advantage strategy, compared to traditional furniture stores

Answer 1

The typical furniture store uses a showroom to display some of the merchandise the retailer sells. Complementing the in-store inventory are books of fabric swatches, veneers, and alternative styles from which customers can order. Salespeople assist customers in going through the books. When the customer makes a selection, the order is placed with the factory, and the customized furniture is built and delivered to the customer's home in six to eight weeks. This system tailors the furniture to the specific customers' preferences, but increases costs and prices. Sales associates need to spend time with customers helping them "design" the furniture they want, retailers need to recover the cost of delivering the furniture to the customers' home, and customers must wait weeks to get the furniture.
In contrast, IKEA uses a self-service model based on extensive in-store displays and information. At information desks in the store, shoppers, as they enter the store, can pick up a map of the store, plus a pencil, order form, clipboard, and tape measure. Every product available is displayed in over 70 room-like settings throughout the 150,000 square foot warehouse stores. Thus, customers don't need a decorator to help them picture how the furniture will go together. Adjacent to the display rooms is a warehouse with ready-to-assemble furniture in boxes that customers can pick up when they leave the store. After studying displays, customers proceed to a self-service storage area and locate their selections using codes copied from the sales tags.
Although IKEA uses a "customers do it themselves" approach, it also offers some services that traditional furniture stores do not, such as in-store child-care centers, restaurants serving fast food, and extensive information and displays about the quality of the furniture. Toddlers can be left in a supervised ballroom filled with 50,000 brightly colored plastic balls. There are changing rooms in each store, complete with bottle warmers and disposable diaper dispensers. Displays cover the quality of products in terms of design features and materials, with demonstrations of testing procedures.

Question 2

Assume you're the department manager for menswear in a local department store that emphasizes empowering its managers. A customer returns a dress shirt that's no longer in the package in which it was sold. The customer has no receipt, says that when he opened the package he found that the shirt was torn, and wants cash for the price at which the shirt is now being sold. The shirt was on sale last week when the customer claims to have bought it. What would you do

Answer 2

Customer service refers to the service provided to the customers which will be considered as good when it is offered in a timely, attentive, and upbeat manner ensuring that customers are offered whatever they need from the firm related to their purchased product or service.
It is assumed that an individual is a department manager of the menswear section in the local department store and likes to empower the managers in the store. In one instance, a customer returns a shirt in the package which was not the one in which the shirt was sold. The customer also does not have the receipt for the bought shirt and is demanding cash return stating that when he opened the packet, the shirt was torn. This shirt was on sale last week when the customer claims to have bought this product.
In this situation, the individual (department manager) will politely communicate to the customer that as this shirt was bought in the sale period, as per the store's policy, the product could have exchanged or returned only during the sale period. However, the store would have exchanged the product of the customer would have provided the receipt for the product. But, as the customer neither has the receipt not the product is brought for exchange during the sale period, the store cannot return or exchange the product. The individual would have also advised the customer to check the merchandize properly before paying for it as it is very difficult for the store to ascertain that the product was not torn or defective at the time when it was sold to the customer.

Question 3

Consider a situation in which you received poor customer service in a retail store or from a customer service provider. Did you make the store's management aware of your experience Whom did you relay this experience to Have you returned to this retailer or provider For each of these questions, explain reasons.

Answer 3

Customer service refers to the service provided to the customers which will be considered as good when it is offered in a timely, attentive, and upbeat manner ensuring that customers are offered whatever they need from the firm related to their purchased product or service.
The individual has received poor customer service from a departmental store when the individual went to exchange a trouser bought by him few days back. The personnel responsible for taking exchange items denied to exchange the product stating that the product was bought in the sale period and cannot be returned or exchanged. The personnel even insulted the individual for not checking the proper size before buying the merchandize.
Over this, the individual complained about the personnel's attitude and poor customer service experience to the store manager by stating that the employee has not only asked him to wait for half an hour but also criticized him for buying the wrong merchandise. The individual made it very clear that he was not aware that the product he bought was of sale merchandise and if the executive would have mentioned this at the time of buying, the individual would have not come to exchange the product at all.
The individual narrated this experience to his family members and friends making them aware of the poor customer he obtained from the store. The individual asked his near and dear ones to be careful while buying products from this particular store as it offers pathetic customer service.
In the future, the individual never returned to that store owing to the bad service he was offered there. The individual has no issues with the non-exchange of the product but the reason for his dissatisfaction was the bad attitude of the store's personnel. The individual believes that store employees should communicate with customers with politeness and should offer redressal to their issues in a convenient and quick manner. This is the reason the individual never returned to that store again.

Question 4

Gaps analysis provides a systematic method for examining a customer service program's effectiveness. Top management has told an information systems manager that customers are complaining about the long wait to pay for merchandise at the checkout station. Take the role of the systems manager and use the gaps analysis table below to evaluate this problem and suggest possible approaches for reducing the wait time.

Question 5

How could an effective customer service strategy cut a retailer's costs

Question 6

How can retailers provide high quality personalized service Use an ophthalmologist's office that also sells eye glass frames and fills prescriptions for contact lenses as your example. How does this retailer's service provided with 1-800 CONTACTS online or in-store as its bricks-and-mortar partner, Walmart

Question 7

Consider a recent retail service experience, you have had, such as a haircut, doctor's appointment, dinner in a restaurant, bank transaction or product repair (not an exhaustive list), and answer the questions below: a) Describe an excellent service delivery experience.
b) What made this quality experience possible
c) Describe a service delivery experience in which you did not receive the performance that you expected.
d) What were the problems encountered and how could they have been resolved

Question 8

For each of these services, give an example of a retailer for which providing the service is critical to its success and an exaple of a retailer for which providing the service is not critical: (a) personal shoppers, (b) home delivery, (c) money-back guarantees, and (d) credit

Question 9

Both Nordstrom and McDonald's both are noted for their high-quality customer service, but their approaches to providing this quality service are different. Describe this difference. Why have the retailers elected to use its particular approaches

Question 10

Have you ever worked in a job that required you to provide customer service If yes, describe the skills you needed and tasks performed on this job. If no, what skills and abilities would you highlight to a potential employer that was interviewing you for a position that included customer service in the job description