4A-Forming An Opportunity Belief

Assignment 4A

From my work experience in customer service management, I believe that there is a need for independent contractors that train restaurant and retail employees in customer service and hospitality. Customer service is an area of restaurants and retail stores that is often neglected, and therefore often forgotten about by employees. The training process for employees can be so intensive, in the operations areas, such as cash register training, training on what duties the employee are responsible for, etc. that customer service goes by the wayside. In reality, this is the aspect of businesses that affect the customer the most directly, and this can have a great impact on whether or not customers come back. I believe that an outside company, that exclusively focuses on customer service and comes in and trains new employees at businesses in the areas of customer interaction, customer satisfaction, general friendliness, etc. could be a huge asset to businesses. 

#1: Retail business owner of about 30 years.

- Q-How do you feel the level of customer service is in your restaurant, compared to where you'd like it  to be?

-A-Actually, it is pretty low. My employees are friendly, but they aren't ever going above and beyond for their customers. I always tell them to put the customer first and to go out of their way to make each customer's experience great, but they never really catch on.

-Q-Do you currently have a training program in place in your business?

-A-Yes, we have a two week program that goes over all responsibilities, safety and security, customer service and cash training. 

-Q-Do you feel that having an outside company come in and train on customer service, while your team handles the responsibilities and cash and safety part would be an asset to your business?

-A-It could be, but only if it wasn't too expensive. I think it would be a huge help to have that kind of company come in, and put special focus on that, it would just have to fit into our budget.

This business owner is interested but concerned about the costs. Business owners want to have their team customer service trained, it's just the matter of how and at what cost. 

#2: Restaurant owner of 35 years.

-Q-How is customer service in your restaurant?

-A-It's about average for a fast food restaurant. I'd like to see better, but we do what we can.

-Q-Do you get many customer complaints about customer service?

-A-Yeah, we do actually. We get multiple each week.

-Q-Would you be interested in hiring a company that comes in and trains your new employees in customer service exclusively? That way you just handle the operational side of training?

-A-Yeah absolutely. That would be a huge help. Having a focus on customer service from the get-go would majorly help. It just needs to be cost efficient.

So far we are getting positive feedback, but everyone is worried about cost. I think business owners want to put more focus on customer service, but do not really know how because they don't want to waste money paying an extra employee on shift to just train. I know from my own previous employment, I had a boss like that, who did not want to spend that extra money but still wanted the training done right.

#3: Retail business owner of 5 years.

-Q-How is the interaction in your store between customers and employees? 

-A- I'd say it is about average. Everyone is nice enough.

-Q-Would you say there is room for improvement in that area of your store?

-A-Oh yeah, there is definitely room for improvement. This is an area of constant work in our store.

-Q-How would you feel about hiring a company to come in and train your employees for you in customer service? And put a focus on that area of your business?

-A-I think that could be helpful. It is hard to put an emphasis on customer service, because there are so many other areas that we have to train on. Having a special focus could be good.

Again, this person is interested and sees the need. He obviously has room for improvement in this area of his business, but does not put a huge focus on it in training. He sounds like a potential customer of this type of business.

Summary:

These business owners all seemed interested in the idea, but the cost of having someone come in from the outside seemed concerning to them. This business could be profitable, I believe, but it would have to be able to prove itself. Business owners have a budget to stick to and they are not going to waste a huge amount of money on a service that may or may not work. This service would have to be affordable and also prove itself worth it, in order for it to be successful.