BSBCUS402

Address customer needs

 Housekeeping

 Emergency procedures
 Ground rules
 Mobiles, security issues
 Break times/smoking policy
 This course is “interactive” – ask questions
 Respect, confidentiality, practice
 Assessment Timetable
 Assessment process and submissions
 Assessor’s SBTA email and contact details
 Printing facilities for students
 Objectives

 Discover how to assist customers to identify their

needs
 Learn how to satisfy complex customer needs
 Understand how to manage networks to ensure
customer needs are addressed
 Gain the skills and knowledge required for this unit
Assist customer to
articulate needs
1.1 Ensure customer needs
are fully explored,
understood and agreed

1.2 Explain and match

available services and
products to customer needs
Without customers, a
business does not exist

“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not

dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in
our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business.
He is part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is
doing us a favour by giving us an opportunity to do so.”

Ghandi
 Customer needs will be influenced
by factors such as:
Budget and available resources, including income levels and disposable income

Time available

Previous experience with your organisation or organisations similar to yours

General demographics such as age, where they live, gender etc

Prior experience with products or services you are selling

Whether or not the customer is employed, a student, not working etc

What their needs and wants are

Their values and what they believe in

Their areas of interest, hobbies etc

Educational background and qualifications

Cultural factors

Their mood

Reasons for wanting or needing the product or service

It is important to understand customer
needs by qualifying leads and
prospects:
 Asking the right questions
 Determining their needs and wants
 Determining what their ‘pain’ is and how you can
solve it
 Determining if they can afford your product or
service
 Gathering information on who your customers and
potential customers are
 Finding out why they would buy your product or
service
Assist customer to
articulate needs
1.3 Identify and
communicate rights and
responsibilities of customers
to the customer as
appropriate
 Contributing factors in
customer purchases
 Accessibility of products
 Legal responsibilities
 Affordability of products
Satisfy complex customer needs

2.1 Explain possibilities for

meeting customer needs
Some of the most common aspects that
will determine your ability to stay ahead
of the competition include:
 The service you offer
 Warranties
 Product quality
Another important factor is that staff members must believe
in the product or service they are selling. If they don’t, it will
be obvious in their dealings with customers, and customers will
be hesitant about purchasing from them and from your
organisation.
Satisfy complex customer needs

2.2 Assist customers to

evaluate service and/or
product options to satisfy
their needs

2.3 Determine and prioritise

preferred actions
There will be a number of reasons why a
customer will want to purchase your
product or service:

 A necessity to make their life easier

 A want for ego related purposes
 A need for organisational goal achievement
 A legislation requirement
Customers expect the
following;
Satisfy complex customer needs

2.4 Identify potential areas of

difficulty in customer service
delivery and take appropriate
actions in a positive manner
 It’s all about attitude...

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”

Winston Churchill
 Having a great attitude will
impact on other factors...
 Your tone of voice
 The words you choose to use
 How much empathy you display
 How much you are willing to help sort out any problems
 How you deal with other staff members
 How much genuine concern you display towards the customer
Having a great attitude
Be around positive people in the workplace
Have daily inspirations quotes for everyone to see – perhaps
encourage a different staff member to put one up each day
Accept that mistakes made are just feedback on how not to do
something the next time
Find something to do that motivates and inspires you at lunch
time such as going for a brisk walk or exercising
There are opportunities in almost every situation – find them
Realise that people are not always out to annoy you – they are
simply reacting in an effort to protect themselves
You can never please everyone. Sometimes, no matter what you
do to try to rectify a situation, you will still be unable to make
someone happy
Dealing with complaints
 Don’t take it personally
 Never get angry back at the customer
 Escalate or hang up if they become abusive
 Show you genuinely want to help but understand
your limitations
 Manage networks to ensure
customer needs are addressed
3.1 Establish effective regular communication
with customers
3.2 Establish, maintain and expand relevant
networks to ensure appropriate referral of
customers to products and services from
within and outside the organisation
3.3 Ensure procedures are in place to ensure
that decisions about targeting of customer
services are based on up-to-date information
about the customer and the products and
services available
3.4 Ensure procedures are put in place to
ensure that referrals are based on the
matching of the assessment of customer
needs and availability of products and
services
3.5 Maintain records of customer interaction
in accordance with organisational
procedures
 Strategies to maintain regular
communication with customers
Consistency
Make sure your customers are
contacted regularly – you can call them
to let them know about special offers,
or send emails, newsletters or mail-
outs to let them know of new product
launches etc
It’s all about them
Customers like to feel valued – show
them how much you value their
business by offering them specials that
others may not have access to, such as
promotional evenings, ordering
specials etc.
Provide something extra
Customers like to get a little more, so
always under promise and over deliver.
This gives the customer the ‘wow’
factor and makes them feel as though
they have good reason to buy with you.
Follow up
Follow up any interest shown or when
you say you will. If a customer is not
ready to buy at the time, ask if it is OK
to call them in 1 month, 3 months etc.
Follow up any potential leads.
 Using tone
You can use the following sentence as an example. Say it aloud, each time, put the emphasis on
the word written in bold.

“I didn’t say you were wrong”

“I didn’t say you were wrong”

“I didn’t say you were wrong”

“I didn’t say you were wrong”

“I didn’t say you were wrong”

“I didn’t say you were wrong”

 Factors to consider when talking to
customers over the telephone
 Answer the telephone within a certain number of rings (your organisation is likely to
have a Service Level Agreement in place which will stipulate this)
 Answer the phone by identifying yourself
 Find out who is on the line and use their name, record the details of the conversation
in your CRM system – ask them to spell their name if there is any doubt
 Don’t interrupt your callers
 Speak slowly and succinctly so that they understand you clearly
 Let the customer explain the reason for their call
 Use your tone to create a pleasant phone conversation
 If you need to keep the customer on hold for a long period of time, offer to call them
back instead – note, if you do this, ensure you call back when you say you will call back
 Ask for permission before putting someone on hold
 If you are not the right person to answer the customer query, let them know who is
and advise that you are going to transfer the call to that person
 Be empathetic to any issues raised
 Thank the customer for calling
 Let the customer hang up the phone first so they don’t hear the hang up signal when
you hang up
 Managing networks

There are usually three main steps involved in

successful networking:
 Communicate with people you would be interested
in networking with
 Determine how the person/people you meet can
help you now or in the future
 Maintain contact with the person/people
 Possible prospecting methods

 Direct mail
 Telephone calls
 Networking events
 Gimmicks
 Conferences
 Database or prospect list
 Advertisement
 Cold calling
 Personal visits
 Referrals
 Creating an action plan

Procedures and policies should be questioned – is there a better way,

does it need to be done that way, what would happen if we made
changes, who is benefiting most from the procedure or policy?
Continuous improvement processes – ways to make the procedure
better should be looked at – how can it be improved, who is
responsible for the improvements, what else does the customer want
or need? Utilise feedback processes from both internal staff and
external customers to make the system better. Keep track of changes
via version control.
What can we do that our competitors haven’t done? Think of new and
innovative ways of getting things done, improving processes and
systems and customer offerings. What can you do for your customers
that no one else is doing?
Solving issues the fun way – when a customer makes a complaint, look
for fun and innovative ways of solving the issues.
Solve problems as a team – team work in any customer service driven
environment is important. Work together to solve problems,
brainstorm, do things differently, think outside the box and become a
strong force within your organisation.
Skills and Knowledge Checks
 Assessments

 Process of submission
 Finalising assessments
 Projects or tasks to complete
 Trainer and assessor SBTA contacts
 Feedback

 Did we meet our objectives?

 How did you find this session?
 Any questions?
 Congratulations!
You have now finished the unit…

‘Address customer needs’