Students should be able to understand the importance of providing good…

The idea

Good customer service means meeting or exceeding customer expectations before, during and after a sale. It matters because satisfied customers are more likely to return, recommend the business and overlook minor problems, which can raise sales and profit. Poor service can lead to complaints, lost custom and damage to reputation. Businesses use several techniques to provide good service, including recruiting and training staff in communication and product knowledge, setting clear service standards, responding quickly to enquiries and complaints, offering after-sales support such as help lines and servicing, and collecting customer feedback to identify improvements.

What earns the marks

• Explains that good customer service can increase customer satisfaction, loyalty and repeat purchases.
• Explains that good customer service can improve a business's reputation and lead to positive word-of-mouth recommendations.
• Explains that poor customer service can cause complaints, lost sales and reputational damage.
• Identifies techniques such as staff training, clear service standards, fast complaint handling, after-sales support and customer feedback.
• Analyses how a technique works, for example training staff improves product knowledge, which helps them answer queries accurately and reduces customer frustration.
• Applies techniques to a specific business context and considers possible costs or limitations, such as the expense of training or the difficulty of maintaining consistent service.

Common mistakes and how to put them right

• Describing customer service only as being polite.

  Put it right: Good customer service also includes product knowledge, speed of response, reliability and after-sales support.

• Listing techniques without analysing them.

  Put it right: Explain how each technique affects the customer and the business, using a cause-and-effect chain.

• Ignoring the cost or difficulty of providing good service.

  Put it right: Consider that training, extra staff and support systems use resources and may reduce short-term profit.

Exam tips

• For 'analyse' questions, use connectives such as 'because', 'which leads to' and 'as a result' to build a chain of reasoning.
• Link each technique to a specific effect on the customer, such as feeling valued or receiving a quick solution, and then to a business result, such as repeat custom.
• Use business terminology accurately, for example customer loyalty, reputation, complaint resolution and after-sales service.