E1

Communicate clearly with a variety of customers, listening carefully and responding appropriately.


The evidence used to meet this criterion must show how well you communicated with a variety of customers, including listening to the customer and responding appropriately, if briefly, to the situation.


individuals
groups
people of different ages
people from different cultures
non-English speakers
people with specific needs such as those whose hearing is impaired or those requiring
facilities for young children
business people.
By choosing a variety of customers you will demonstrate how different customers have
different needs. The description of your response will show how you appreciated their
needs and responded appropriately to the situation and the customer.

The details should involve a description of what happened with each customer, or the scenario for the role play. You should demonstrate the following customer service skills:

• listen carefully to the customer;
  • apologise in general terms for any inconvenience caused;
  • let the customer know that the matter will be fully investigated and, if possible, put right;
  • try to see the problem from the customer.s point of view;
  • keep calm and not argue with the customer;
  • find a solution to the problem;
  • agree the solution with the customer;
  • make sure that what you promised to do gets done.

Demonstrate how different customers have different needs and their responses should be appropriate to the situation and the customer.

Communication with customers may be face to face, over the telephone or in writing. All
customers will expect to receive a very high standard of communication.

Your tasks:
1. Write a description showing how well you communicated with a variety of customers,
which includes listening to the customers and responding appropriately.

2. Show that you can respond to customers over the telephone and in writing as well as face to face - you will need to devise role play situations for a telephone complaint and record your conversation using Audacity so it can be saved as a wmv file on a disc.

3. Include your witness statements from the Carol Concert, work experience or year 8 disco confirming your skills in communicating with the customers, as well as describing what you did and their views on how well you handled the situation. This must be signed and dated.

You will need to use appropriate:
Language
Pitch and tone of voice
Pauses and silences
Body language


You will need to be able to:
Work accurately
Listen and respond to customers
Ask appropriate questions (using open and closed questions)


Depending on whether you need to communicate with customers face to face, over the
telephone or in writing, some or all of the following points are important:
- dress
- personal hygiene
- personality
- attitude
- behaviour.
Mention these in your description. For example, when dealing face to face, dress and
personal hygiene are extremely important.