Research Papers / "Going the extra distance" - research paper -- and customer service [11]

Please help me, this essay is driving me nuts. I am trying to fill 6 pages and only at four. what do I fill it with? is word choice good? what other aspects of customer service can I had to the training? thanks

Going the extra distance

The goal of every business is to be successful. Prosperity is needed in order for a business to flourish and grow and one of the ways to acquire success in business is customer service. There are varying degrees of customer service from very poor to the exceptional and while many people are capable of providing some level of customer service not everyone knows how to effectively provide this vital part of the thriving business puzzle. Gaining loyal customers retention, and increased market share is vital to any business. Businesses should provide an educational stand point to inform their employees on how to give and receive great customer service along with being able to deal with conflict resolution properly.

What is customer service? Defined by Wikipedia dictionary, "Customer Service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction- that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation."(Wikepedia)

There are endless benefits to providing superior customer service that also present a positive viewpoint in society. But what happens when business employees provide an unpleasant experience? In very large companies, a single employee who is lacking training might have a disadvantageous effect on the overall performance of a business. In a small company though, four or more people that lack the knowledge stand for 25 percent of the workforce, and has the potential to harm a significant amount of business.

Ever walk into a store and not receive acknowledgement from an employee? What about looking around a store trying to find the right product and asking for help but there is no employee who knows where it is located? If they do know where the product is located but, the person does not have the knowledge and cannot answer any questions, the customer may become frustrated? What about employees annoyed by the fact that a customer inconvenienced them by asking a question? The employee may dismiss the customer, never having acknowledged the buyer. The patron, having been passed over by the worker will probably not return to do business.

These are all examples of inferior customer service. A statistic from Moran Consulting Inc. suggests that 69 percent of customers do not return to a business because of unsatisfactory customer service (Moran Consulting, Inc.). Many customers do not get the attention, time and, follow through that they would expect when receiving customer service. "It takes 12 positive service incidents to make up for one negative incident" Art Waller stated (Homer).

So how do we change bad customer service for the better? We train! As written by Michael McDermott, in 2007 alone, businesses large and small spent more than $58 billion for customer service training. On average about $1,202 was spent per employee. Seminars commonly range from $20-$50 per trainee. There are many three day off site programs that range from $1800- $2000. Onsite one day training may start at a minimal $250. For extensive ongoing training that include materials, in person training and coaching it could cost a company between $10,000 and $30,000, depending on the extent of programming. Training is an essential aspect of customer service and it is critical to any business because the employees are the face of a business. Many techniques are implemented and here are a few that are the most essential.

Projecting a positive attitude and making a great first impression. An upbeat attitude comes from how the employees are treated at work, not only by their employer but by the customers they serve. Creating a comfortable, trusting atmosphere will make a lasting, positive, and enjoyable impression to those people who visit the establishment.

Internal customers must have a matching commitment to an overall focus in a company. Departments, management, vendors, and consultants all need to be a part of the focus. Customer service starts within the organization itself. Making sure products, service and information are available at all times to make certain that everyone is able to do their job correctly and efficiently. Quality, teamwork, morale, communication, and responsiveness really depend on the business owner. External customers appreciate it when all aspects are met and are in working order.

As stated by Art Waller, "Never, never, never ignore a customer" (Homer). By greeting a customer using verbal or non-verbal cues within the first 30 seconds the patron enters the establishment, communicates to the shopper that they are acknowledged. Being enthusiastic, courteous, and attentive while having good listening skills allows the consumer to feel that their needs will be met.

Customers will do more business with workers that they like. Establishing rapport and making an affirmative connection will gain approval toward the employee. Asking open ended questions, making eye contact, distinguishing common ground, and calling a customer by their name are all innate gestures to get the customer to participate in the transaction. It also makes the customer feel valued and enthusiastically satisfied. Customers talk and are a great resource for free advertising.

A typical business hears from only four percent of disgruntled customers. The others 96 percent walk away quietly, in spite of this, 68 percent of those customers do not disclose their dissatisfaction because they thought the employee had lack of concern for their needs. If an unhappy consumer cannot convey their distress, they will communicate their unhappiness to other sources such as friends, family, and neighbors. The average consumer will tell eight to ten people about their issue. One in five will tell 20 people. If an issue is resolved on the spot, 95 percent of shoppers will do business again. The ability to solve conflict and finding a resolution to any problem that a customer may have, will help create a strong customer base and expand earning potential. Businesses can then ensure that when they are talked about, it is in a positive perspective.

For customer service training to be effective it must be offered in ways to accommodate the learning styles of all employees to guarantee equal training. Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic are three particular learning styles that most people use in today's diverse delivery methods.

Visual Learners use images and displays such as diagrams, illustrated materials, and videos to enhance the effect of learning. They also need to see firsthand the trainer's body language and facial expressions to get the most out of training and implant it in their brain.

Auditory Learners rely on the tone of a person's voice. The pitch, speed and other such indications are used by the auditory learner to search out the primary meaning of words that are spoken. They enjoy talking through issues and listen to what others have to say.

Kinesthetic learners benefit the best from the use of the hands- on approach. They need the opportunity to keenly explore, through touch, the physical aspect of doing a task. It is usually difficult for them to sit for long periods of time. The learning experience is best understood by the kinesthetic learner if they perform the task themselves. Information is processed and makes more sense to them when they can carry out the assignment given. Sometimes, a short attention span leads them to be easily distracted.

Giving information in as many ways as possible heeds to all those that are involved. It makes the learner be in responsible of his or her own learning. In this new- aged world, technology provides many of these outlets and helps in many cases. Trying to find a trainer that knows how to present material in all three learning styles may be difficult, but learning has to match the audience and situation.

With customer service training completed, make sure to implement and practice training to gain experience. Training is all too often imprudent rather than practical. Many companies will see a revenue increase by 25-90 percent and profitability up to 75 percent. Customers that are well served by trained employees buy more per year, buy higher-priced options, and buy more often. Satisfied customers are fewer price sensitive, are less costly to serve, and have a higher lifetime value.

Thus, when a business provides educational customer service training, it allows the customers to take pleasure in the product served and affords their employees to harvest the benefits of satisfying customers. It must continue to be an ongoing attempt at every business. Things constantly change and people need to be efficient at all times.

Writing Feedback / narrative essay- giving birth, its not graphic [2]

I need feeback on adding/deleting details. Sentence structure, fluidity. grammar/punctuation.
identify thesis and making sure ending fits.

It was two thirty in the afternoon on a gorgeous sunny, fall, Tuesday. My favorite day of the week. I received a long awaited phone call from Tacoma General hospital. A nice young lady with a soft voice let me know that there was an open room available and to come as soon as I could to be prepped for induction. I was two weeks overdue in my pregnancy. After hanging up the phone, I just stood in one place as my mind went blank. I then had a rush of excitement and angst. I was about to give birth, and it was going to happen within the next twenty four hours, whether I was prepared or not.

I first ran down stairs to find my mom and let her know the good news. I mumbled "Mom, they have a room opened and we have to go NOW!" so fast, she had to yell my name and told me to calm down and start my sentence over. "We don't need to go right away, Anna." she said. "I have to take a shower and get my over night bag ready." "What about you, are you ready? Do you have extra clothes?, What about the baby bag? Are you going to take a shower or go in the pajamas that you have been wearing for the last two days?" I ran up the stairs and into my room to grab as much belongings as I could and stuff it into a over night bag. I was anxious to finally meet the little baby that had been growing in my body for the last nine months. I was jumping up and down from all the excitement and joyous feelings rushing through my plump, expanded, overindulged body.

An hour later I was ready to go. I did a lot of double checking to make sure I had everything. I checked the car seat to make sure it was in place and all pieces were in contact. I tightened the seat belt fives times. I popped the trunk twice to make sure all bags were in. I plopped into the passenger seat, strapped in and took a deep breath. This would be the last time I leave my house alone. I will be guaranteed to return with a little bundle of joy in my arms.

My mother and I arrive at the hospital forty five minutes later. We drive around the block twice, there is no parking available anyway near the entrance. We drive around once more and finally see a spot about to be opened. Before we even pull in, I have my seatbelt off and my hand on the car door ready to open it. As soon as she pulls into the spot, I jump out of the car and walk briskly to the door. My mother yells "Anna, what about all of your stuff!" I stop mid step, turn and walk back to the car.

Together, my mother and I enter the left wing of the hospital. We pass through two sets of sliding glass doors. My heart is pounding and I feel a little dizzy as we approach the counter. My mother speaks for me and asks directions of where we need to go to get admitted. The receptionist points down the hall and tells us to enter through the third door on the right. As we are walking down the hallway, I am being stared at by all the passersby's. There is a janitor strolling along on the left side of the hallway with his yellow bucket and drenched mop. The smell of sanitized, clean mopped floors and pristine white washed walls makes me nauseas.

I sit down inside of the little room that we entered. I am handed a clip board and was told to read, sign and date the stack of papers. As I am finishing I have a nurse approach me to take my blood pressure and vitals. She then tells me to take a seat out in the hallway, I am looking down and to my right is a little old lady with a wheel chair. She comes up to me and says "get in, we are going to your room" I told her that I was ok to walk and that I didn't need a wheel chair. She snarled at me and said "you better take the chance now while you have it." So I obliged and sat down. I was taken to the fourteenth floor, room 201.

The room was beautiful. There was a bed in in the middle of the room on the right side. The bathroom was in the back right corner. Five feet to the left of the bathroom was a huge oval bay window, overlooking all of Tacoma. It was so clean you could see your reflection in it perfectly. The sun was setting and it cast the most beautiful sunset into the room. Golden rays of light shine through the window and painted the walls yellow. It was breathtaking.

I lay my stuff down and plopped onto the bed to check the cushiness of the mattress. I found the remote and started to pushed buttons and raised the head of the bed up and down. I was like a kid exploring a whole new world of technology. The same remote also controlled the TV. I kept the TV. on for background noise and distraction from all the crazy thoughts that were wondering about in my head.

I wanted my pregnancy to be very private. I had my midwife and my mom with me. I had a great friend named Victoria too. She was there to take pictures and video of my sons birth. The hospital was to far away for anyone to come visit, and that was just fine with me.

When I get nervous I start to fidget and crack jokes a lot. I try to laugh as much as possible so I do not overwhelm myself and start to cry. With this said, the nurse came in. She had told me to get undressed and to put the robe on. She handed me a pair of cotton netted panties and a pad too. I had made a joke that I was here to give birth not be stuck in granny panties. Victoria took a picture of me modeling the underwear. The nurse laughed.

I lay in the bed as the nurse checked my vitals, blood pressure and temperature. She said she needed to get and IV started. That's when I freaked! I hate needles, and the feeling of it poking your skin and piercing the vein in your hand. I started to cry and told her I did not want an IV. As a general rule in my mind, when you are in the hospital staying overnight I always thought you needed an IV hooked up. I was wrong. After calming me down, the nurse handed me a 44oz. cup and told me I needed to fully drink one of those an hour. I was relieved and totally abided to it, no way in heck did I want that needle in my hand. The nurse wrapped a monitor around my belly to check on the baby's heart rate. He was doing just fine.

I was dilated two centimeters but was not in labor and had no sign of contractions. The nurse told me that I needed to open up more. She sent me on a walk around the fourteenth floor. I was prancing around the hallways and stopping to do a little boogie shakes here and there. I was waving at all the nurses. There was a group of couples that were getting a tour of the floor. I did a little dance for them too. They all looked at me as if I was crazy. When giving birth everyone expects the worst pain ever and the mother to be not mobile at all. I was feeling ecstatic. I felt I could dance around the world.

At 5 p.m. the nurse came back into my room to check to see if I had dilated any more. I was up to a four this time. She said the doctor would be in soon and to wait patiently. I fiddled with my thumbs and watched the news on the TV. I was hungry and asked to get room service. They brought me some dry chicken and rice pilaf, with a side of orange juice. Though disgusted with it, I devoured the food within minutes.

Finally after three hours of patiently waiting, the doctor came in. She was a very quiet middle aged Asian lady, with kind eyes and delicate hands. She made me lay down and scoot to the edge of the bed. She asked if I was ready to have my water popped and to begin labor. I said "Lets get this show on the road!" The doctor inserted a plastic stick and popped the bag of fluid inside of me. It came rushing out and soaked the sheets of the bed. I was embarrassed, but the doctor reassured me that it was ok. I felt exposed and unaware of what was going to come next.

Ten minutes after my water had been popped, I had a rush of excruciating pain contract through my upper abdomen and in through my lower pelvis. The doctor said I had started to labor and contractions were going to become strong. The wave of pain came every four minutes. It happened so fast that I could not catch a breath in between. No longer did I feel like I had control over my body. It took the nurse, my mother, and my midwife to ease me up off the bed and into the bathtub. The bath tub was equipped with water jets on all sides and was a standard tub. I lay my lower back on one jet as it soothed the horrible pain retracting through my body.

The contractions now were every two minutes. I was in the bathtub maybe twenty minutes. The nurse checked and I had dilated to seven centimeters. She explained to me that the bathtub was not big enough to give birth in and that I needed to get out and move to another room. They had a big bath tub filled up for me, so that I may labor an under water birth.

It took three ladies' full body strength to lift me up and out of the bathtub. I could only walk a few steps. I was inadequate to make it to the other room. As a contraction came on and paralyzed me from my belly down to my thighs I landed on the bed on my hands and knees. I cried out in pain as I felt the baby push through my pelvis. I thought he was going to fall out right then and there. The contraction passed and I was able turn over on my back in the bed.

The contractions were now every thirty seconds. I was not able to take a deep breath and started to panic. My body took over and my mind went blank. I could hear nothing. The voices of my mother, nurse, midwife and doctor floated in the air and dissipated. All I could do was scream in agony. I just wanted it to stop.

The doctor let me know that it would be in a matter of minutes before the baby was to be brought in this world and take his first breath. She placed a mirror between my legs so I could see what was going on. My mother propped me up with her arms and held me tight. She soother me as much as she could. The doctor told me on the next contraction that I needed to push through my bottom and hold it for a count of ten.

As the wave of heat, pain and sweat enveloped my body, I took a deep breath and pushed. One, two, three, four,... "please make it stop!!!" I screamed. As I tried to push, my contraction ceased and I would have to wait for another one to come on. On the second push I could see my sons head crown at the opening of my vagina. It made me want to push more, but the contraction stopped. His head had sunken back in to my body. Three times in a row this happened.

Finally, on the fourth push I felt a release of pressure. My sons head had come out. The doctor had told me to push lightly. As she helped ease him out of my body, she turned his shoulders to help him make way through the rest of the birthing canal.

The doctor reached up and lay my son upon my chest. The most intense, beautiful, serene moment of my life. This perfectly pink little wrinkly body lay dependant in my loving arms. I just brought another human being into this world. All I could say was "Oh my GOD!"

After all the commotion subsided and everything was under control. I look back and think of all the wonderful things I learned in the three hours of laboring a child into this world. It takes patience, and understanding. I had to be vulnerable and trusting with strangers. My body took over and did what it needed as it lacked in mind. It was the most intimate moment of my life. I would do it all over again.

Writing Feedback / motherhood (Motherhood is Amazing) [3]

I believe being a mother is the most extraordinary gift, yet most challenging to overcome. It's all about responsibility, endless commitment, and rewards harvested beyond what anyone could imagine. I have changed as a person as I became a mother.

We take on enormous amounts of responsibility for a child once becoming a mother. Always making sure the child is fed to his means, not yours. Having warm clothes and a clean body is important. Doctor's appointments seem to reoccur every few weeks to every few months and we have to make sure shots are up to date and that our child is healthy. Our child relies on us to make them happy. A child is dependant on us to feel safe and secure in every environment. As a care taker, being responsible for you mentally and physically is a must. After giving birth it seems to be all about the baby. There is mommy time and then there is "me" time. Everyone needs "me time." Motherhood is endless dedication to your child. That child belongs to you and only you. Contributing to the well being of your child is your number one priority.

There are many rewards to being a mom. Waking up to that wonderful smile, or getting a giant hug just because he wants too. When your child says the most unusual things that make you laugh till you cry. That child loves you from the moment he comes out of you. Those eyes stare at you and analyse your every move. Watching your child grow into an adult and become someone successful, you feel successful. These are the little things that you can never attain from anyone else. That feeling of giving and receiving eternal love to another person is so powerful and self gratifying.

Nevertheless there are many challenges when raising a child. In the early morning hours, waking up to the loud shrill of a baby crying just because he wants a bottle. Making a choice to take a day off work when bills are due; to stay home and take care of a child who is sick with the flu. Not able to find a babysitter just for a few hours to take time for yourself. Your house is a disaster because your child wants to play and read books with you instead of watching you clean. All you want to do is sleep an extra ten minutes, but your son is crawling all over you, pulling your hair, pinching your nose, and biting your arm. Heart wrenching ache goes through your body as you leave your child at day care for the first time. When you walk out he reaches his hands out for you and cries. These are only a few of the experiences.

After becoming a mother, I believe it changes you as a person. Your patience may rise. Your attitude becomes warm and inviting. You fight for your child and defend him in situations that he gets into, good or bad. A feeling to become successful and achieve something in life becomes important. You make friends with other moms and some how become a home body who rarely wants to go out. When having conversations it seems that all you want to talk about is how your child went potty on the toilet, or how he took his first steps. Bravery is then holding your son down as he gets a shot. Picking a booger out of your childs nose is an everyday thing and is not so gross to you anymore. You think your child is the most perfect being in the world, even if other people do not agree.

Motherhood is amazing. Most mothers would say they wouldn't change it for anything in the world. I agree with all of them. Challenges arise and you overcome them, it maybe a bit of a battle but you find a way. The rewards are infinite. All the tribulations and hard work are worth it in the end. Life somehow feels complete.

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Teacher requires feedback before turning in. thank you so much for helping me.
Look for thesis, topic sentences. Hard core about making sure my topic sentence go with thesis. Spelling, sentence structure and any other feedback you may have.