Customer Service and Customer Relationship Management
This domain covers service quality, customer satisfaction, loyalty and the use of CRM to build repeat business. The exam tests service dimensions, complaint handling and customer lifecycle thinking.
Core rules and concepts
- Service quality is often assessed through reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy and responsiveness (RATER).
- CRM is a strategy for collecting and using customer data to improve relationships; software alone is not CRM.
- The customer lifecycle includes awareness, acquisition, conversion, retention and advocacy.
- Complaint handling follows listen, acknowledge, apologise where appropriate, solve, and follow up.
- Loyalty comes from consistent value, not one-time discounts.
Worked example
A customer’s altered trousers are promised for 6 p.m. but are not ready. The associate should listen without interrupting, acknowledge the inconvenience, apologise for the delay, check the actual completion time, offer a realistic option such as immediate finishing or collection later, and record the case for follow-up. Reasoning: the first goal is recovery of trust; promising an impossible time repeats the failure. A discount may be offered only under store policy.
Traps that cost marks
- CRM is not just a database or software package.
- Satisfaction is not automatically loyalty; a satisfied customer may still switch.
- Do not argue with or blame the customer.
- Do not promise compensation outside policy.
Key points
- Use RATER to diagnose service quality.
- CRM is a relationship strategy supported by data.
- Complaint recovery needs listening, action and follow-up.
- Loyalty depends on consistent value.