Year 11 Term 3 Week 8 - Quality Customer Service

Quality Customer Service

Key Terms and Concepts
Active listening	Conflict resolution techniques
Interpersonal skills	Quality service
Colleague	Customer
Needs, preferences and expectations	Questioning techniques
Communication process	Customer service skills and practices
Personal presentation	Service
Complaint handling	Effective communication techniques
Product	Special needs

  

Complete the following tasks in your Entertainment workbook

Communication and listening skills

 1. Summarize the features of:  

• Active listening
• Non-verbal communication
• Physical appearance

Types of Customers

The Entertainment industry is a wide and varied industry and attracts many different types of customers.

2. What is the difference between external customers and internal customers? 
Give an example of each type of customer.

3. What type of customers are the following and describe the customer service  an Entertainment employee should provide?

• Industry Colleagues
• Venue Hirers
• Event organisers

4. As an Entertainment employee what are your responsibilities when dealing with the following types of patrons?

• Theatre, concert or cinema patrons
• Event and festival patrons

Interpersonal Skills

To work successfully in the Entertainment industry an employee must have strong interpersonal skills.  

5. Summarize the interpersonal skills an Entertainment Industry employee should develop.

• Language skills
• Cultural sensitivity
• Managing conflict

6. Why is personal presentation important in the Entertainment Industry?

Quality Service

Without customers, there is no reason to have a business. Some people in the Entertainment Industry become so involved with the technical aspects of their job that they forget about the customers. Customers are the reason businesses exist so they must be treated as a valuable resource and looked after. Customers’ needs must be central to any business’s policies. The Entertainment Industry is a very competitive industry and businesses with excellent customer service will attract more customers.

7. Describe the features of each of the following with regards to providing quality customer service:

• Professionalism
• Communication skills
• Customer focused service

Good Customer Service Practices

A quality customer service employee needs to demonstrate a number of skills and attributes to be effective in their job.

8. Summarize the main features of the following customer service practices/skills:

• Knowledge of enterprise products/services and policies
• Customer specific language
• A friendly and courteous manner
• Positive gestures and body language
• A prompt response to resolve complaints
• A solutions-oriented approach

Customers with Special Needs

Special needs customers are just customers. You may require a little extra help and patience when serving them, but, like any other customer, they wish to purchase a product or service, and it is your job to serve them. 

9. Choose TWO customers  with special needs and the type of service you might provide service provide for these customers:

• Older customers
• Customers in wheelchairs
• Customers with hearing impairment
• Customers with a sight impairment
• Customers with an intellectual disability or speech difficulties

Procedures for Handling Customer Complaints

Customer complaints are usually about poor service, faulty goods or goods that don’t meet the customer’s needs. A skilled employee can turn a customer complaint into a positive experience for the customer.

10. Create a 10 step plan that can be followed when dealing with a customer’s complaint.

11. What are two good customer service practices that can help resolve a complaint?

12. If you cannot resolve a customer complaint what is the next step? 

Complete the following activities and email the task to your teacher.

QUALITY CUSTOMER SERVICE ACTIVITIES

Activity 1 True or false 

1. The correct behaviour to follow if a customer walks into your shop and starts shouting at you about the faulty product you sold is to shout back at them to show you are not intimidated. True/False

2. A customer complaint is usually related to poor service or goods not meeting expectations.  True/False

3. If a customer is raising their voice and making a scene it is best that you talk to them in front of the other customers so everyone can see how silly they look.  True/False

4. Learning the greetings and farewells from other countries make customers feel valued.  True/False

5. As different cultures have different perceptions of personal space let the customer determine the personal space by how close they come to the employee. True/False

6. Having some basic skills and knowledge about other areas in the Entertainment Industry makes you more employable and gives you a deeper insight into the entire production process.  True/False

7. When referring a customer to a colleague or supervisor it is best not to give them any details about the customer’s issue as it only causes confusion. True/False

8. Addressing a customer by name makes them feel uncomfortable. True/False

9. If a customer asks for a light globe for their Par Can, explain to them and anybody else who is listening that the correct term is lamp. That way they will know the correct term to use next time. True/False

Activity 2 Customer Service Faults

Read the scenario below, list the problems which could have led to customer complaint, and explain how they could have been more appropriately handled.
(2 paragraphs)

The local ballet teacher booked a club auditorium for her end of year ballet and performing arts concert. This was a very important concert as it marked her 40th year of teaching ballet. The venue rules stated that if she wished for audio and lighting support, she would have to use the club’s technicians. She was not allowed to bring in her own. She would have rather used her regular technicians as she knew they always did a good job, but was prepared to use the club technicians if that was a requirement. She stipulated that she wanted them there one hour prior to the performance as she wished to discuss her lighting and audio requirements. 

This particular ballet teacher was very experienced and highly organised. She liaised with the venue about table size and table layout options. She requested the tables be set out in a certain layout and each table labelled with its number according to her diagram. She had organised helpers to collect the tickets and to show people to their tables. Unfortunately the tables were not set out in the layout she had specified or labelled as requested, because a “more important” function had subsequently been booked in the larger function room and they were using the table numbers. Chaos reigned at the door as her poor volunteer helpers tried to draw up a new seating plan diagram for the actual seating layout, and show patrons to their seats. 

Twenty minutes before the concert was due to start, a well dressed, confident technician came in, apologising for his lateness. He ascertained her requirements and started setting up microphones where required. Five minutes later he brought an unshaven scruffy looking technician to meet the ballet teacher and explained that this was the actual technician who would be looking after her. The confident technician was actually due to work at another venue, and had turned up just to make sure that the duty technician was OK. He quickly told the duty technician (the late, scruffy one) what the teacher’s requirements were. The new scruffy technician apologised for being late but said that he had not been to bed since Friday night (this was Sunday afternoon) and so he was a bit tired. He also said that this was the first time he had worked in this venue, but everything should be OK. 

He brought a big foldback wedge and put it into the middle of the stage. The ballet teacher, who by this stage was very stressed told him to “get that thing off her stage as the children would trip over it". He calmly explained that due to the speaker placement in the venue, the children would not be able to hear the music if the foldback was not used, but he could move it over to one corner. 

The technician then proceeded to tape the leads down for safety. The teacher then asked him to play one of the CDs as she was concerned that the foldback could be too soft or too loud. The foldback did not work! The technician tried different leads and different desk settings. The concert was now late starting. The teacher insisted he fix the problem because if she had to put up with a big speaker on stage it had better work. The technician then mentioned to the ballet teacher that the other technician doing the lighting hadn’t arrived yet so the concert couldn’t start anyway. Then he made some desperate phone calls and found out that the reason the foldback did not work was that the foldback amps were not turned on, and, furthermore, the amps were locked up in cupboard behind the stage that he did not know about. Luckily he discovered that he had the keys for the cupboard and was able to get the foldback working. 

Once the lighting technician had arrived, the show was able to start only fifteen minutes late. The lighting was atrocious as there were not any down lights or side lights, two things that are critical for dance. There were a few colour washes on the Front of House Bar, but they were not focussed properly, so the lighting was uneven. As a result the photos and video were poor as there was not enough light on stage for the cameras to work properly.

After the concert, the ballet teacher demanded a refund for the technician fee and the venue hire. She will not use that venue again.

Activity 3 Scenarios

Outline the procedures you would follow in the circumstances below.

Use your 10 step plan as a guide to provide quality customer service.

a. An angry customer comes into your shop, loudly telling all the customers in the shop about the faulty product you sold them.

b. A customer from a non English speaking background comes into your production company and wants to hire lights for a family wedding.

c. A new customer comes into your hire company and wants to hire a PA system for an event they are organising. The customer reads brands of equipment from a list that somebody else has written for them, and doesn’t appear to understand what they are asking for.

Email your responses for activities 1 to 3 to your teacher at vetassess01@gmail.com