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2.1 Customer Service Provision in BusinessUnit 2: Developing Customer Relations

2.1 Customer Service Provision in Business

Unit 2: Developing Customer Relations

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Learning objectivesContents

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Teacher’s notes included in the Notes Page

Flash activity (these activities are not editable)

Printable activity

Key skills

For more detailed instructions, see the Getting Started presentation

Web addresses

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External customers

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In this section, you will consider the external customers of organizations.

Different external customers

Identifying external customers

Categorizing external customers

Meeting customers’ needs

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Therefore, the supermarket is an external customer.

What is an external customer?

A business must provide customer service for two types of customer: internal and external.

External customers are the people or organizations who use another organization’s goods or services.

Think of three other examples of when a business is an external customer.

For example, a supermarket is a business that sells milk, but it buys that milk from a dairy farmer.

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Organizations will try to identify the type of customers that are most likely to be interested in their products or services and cater to these requirements.

A successful organization will have a good understanding of what its customers’ specific requirements are and will devise procedures to ensure these requirements are met.

Needs of external customers

External customers are the people who contact an organization in line with their specific needs.

Different types of customers will, of course, have different needs.

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Categorizing external customers

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Meeting customers’ needs

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Internal or external?

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Assignment: developing customer relations

Developing customer relations

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1. Identify and describe which different types of customers use the organization.

2. Describe the needs and expectations of these customers.

3. Suggest how the organization has attempted to meet each of the needs of the different customers.

4. Describe how the organization has adapted its services in recent years to meet actual or anticipated changes in needs.

Choose an organization from your local area that you are familiar with and then complete the following tasks.