Page 20 - CUST SVC TEXTBOOK 2020

Unit 7

Determining Customer Needs

7.1 Methods to Determine Customer Needs

The core / importance of excellent customer service is to meet customer needs. To meet that
need, focused marketing uses the following methods to find out the true needs of customers:

1. Face-to-face interviews

2. Telephone interviews

3. Research
4. Survey / Questionnaires

To find out what customers really need, Service Providers must pay attention to the following:

- Do not assume that you know what customers want
- Be patient and listen to customers

- Be alert and receptive to comments, proposals and views

- Get information from customers and pass information to Supervisors/Managers

7.2 Customer Inquiries

Before Service Providers ask information from customers, one of the first things that they must
learn about is the products or services offered by the organizations that they work for.
Typically, customers would like to know the following:

1. Prodcut Knowledge

- Prices of food

- Contents of dishes (what is in the dishes – onions, garlic, fish, herbs etc)

- Flavours of dishes (salty, sweet, spicy, sour)
- Operating hours

- Cooking methods (steaming, grilling, boiling, frying, stewing, roasting)

2. Company Guidelines and Policies

- Reservations of tables
- Terms and Conditions of reservations of tables

- Cancellation of reservations of tables

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