Do Coworkers Make the Service Customer? A Field Study in the Public Sector

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Acknowledgement

I would take this opportunity to thank my research supervisor, family and friends for their support and guidance without which this research would not have been possible.

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This study aims to contribute to the literature by addressing the following question: How can a public servant be supported by their co-workers to ensure service delivery? The way in which individuals deal with their colleagues in a customer service context has yet to be examined in detail, although Moynihan and Pandey (2008) made some inroads into this issue.

Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business. You can offer promotions and slash prices to bring in as many new customers as you want, but unless you can get some of those customers to come back, your business won't be profitable for long.

Good customer service is all about bringing customers back. And about sending them away happy - happy enough to pass positive feedback about your business along to others, who may then try the product or service you offer for themselves and in their turn become repeat customers. If you're a good salesperson, you can sell anything to anyone once. But it will be your approach to customer service that determines whether or not you'll ever be able to sell that person anything else. The essence of good customer service is forming a relationship with customers - a relationship that that individual customer feels that he would like to pursue. How do you go about forming such a relationship? By remembering the one true secret of good customer service and acting accordingly; "You will be judged by what you do, not what you say." I know this verges on the kind of statement that's often seen on a sampler, but providing good customer service IS a simple thing. s there anything more exasperating than telling someone what you want or what your problem is and then discovering that that person hasn't been paying attention and needs to have it explained again? From a customer's point of view, I doubt it. Can the sales pitches and the product babble. Let your customer talk and show him that you are listening by making the appropriate responses, such as suggesting how to solve the problem.

Organization is a structured social unit of people (both employer & employee) working together to pursue common objective. Good organizations try to correlate the service they render, customer loyalty and their profitability for the sake of seeking success in the long run. All organization has different management departments that preside over the internal activities and collectively help in dealing with external employees e.g. customers (heskett et.al 1994, p.164). For any organization, customers are very momentous. The success of any organization merely depends upon how well they gratify their customers & how well content they are. The purpose of all organization is to execute its customer need, in return gross profit (Beevers 2005, ...