A number of research projects have suggested key areas to attend to if you are interested in improving the level of the service that you provide. These models suggest that of good customer service includes Responsiveness, Assurance, Tangibles, Empathy and Reliability or RATER for short. While there are commonly acceptable meanings for these terms, it is important that organisational participants be provided an opportunity to create their own definitions and meanings specifically in the context of your organisation.
Responsiveness means:
- Prompt service to customers
- Willingness to help customers
- Readiness to respond to customers' requests
- Going out of the way to make customers happy
- And specifically in our organisation, responsiveness means to perform well on ________________________
Assurance means:
- Employees who instill confidence in customers
- Making customers feel safe in their transactions
- Employees who are consistently courteous
- Employees who have the knowledge to answer customer questions
- And specifically in our organisation, reliability means to perform well on ________________________
Tangibles Means:
- Modern equipment
- Visually appealing facilities, uniforms, memory devices
- Employees who are neat and have a professional appearance
- Visually appealing materials associated with the service
- Convenient business hours
- And specifically in our organisation, tangibles means to perform well on ________________________
Empathy Means:
- Giving customers individual, personal attention
- Employees who deal with customers in a caring fashion
- Having the customer's best interest at heart
- Employees who understand the needs of their customers
- And specifically in our organisation, empathy means to perform well on ________________________
Reliability Means:
- Delivering services as promised
- Dependability in handling customers' service problems
- Performing services right the first time
- Providing services at the promised time
- Keeping customers informed about when services will be performed
- And specifically in our organisation, reliability means to perform well on ________________________
