Project – Design and Implementation of customer service information system

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1    Background to the Study

In the business industry satisfaction of the customers and their relationship with the business is the key factor that every service provider looks upon to deliver the best. There are different ways and means of achieving this. This study focuses on the customer service as far as customer care and satisfaction are concerned. The information obtained from the study was quite enthusiastic as the quality customer service starts from the small factors that one does to satisfy its customers. Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase. The perception of success of such interactions is dependent on employees “who can adjust themselves to the personality of the guest”. Customer service concerns the priority an organization assigns to customer service relative to components such as product innovation and pricing. In this sense, an organization that values good customer service may spend more money in training employees than the average organization or may proactively interview customers for feedback.

Customer service can be described as one of the factors of ensuring that the customers are satisfied with the product or the services offered by the concerned party. The customer service takes place in different perspectives during day to day transactions and the activities taken in a day. The customer service takes place in different ways for example ranging from in-person interaction, the phone calls between the customers and the service providers, the self-service systems or by any other means that lead to the customer satisfaction. Efficient customer service delivery to the Customers takes the full responsibility of the responsible personnel in delivering the quality of the services to the desired people in the market. To achieve this there is a need of the full commitment of the relevant given authorities within a given period, hence quality service delivery.

Customer service management can be explained as the practices and methods that are used to maintain and enhance the customer’s interaction by the companies and organizations. It is basically used to analyze the business relationship between the customers and the service providers and as well as the data throughout the customer’s life cycle, with the main objective of developing and improving the business relationships with the customers, improving customer retention, and as well driving the sales growth to achieve the best in the competitive markets. By observing such terms and the requirements, the system enables the companies and organizations using this model of customer relationship to retain most of their customers and even to expand their marketing and sales territories through the customer’s reputation from the experience. For the enhanced good customer relationship to be realized, strategic approach that emphasizes the disciplines of planning as compared to the properties of a model as considering the organization´s own unique human resources (Becker and Huselid 2021).

Customer service relationship is a business strategy focused on improvement of customer satisfaction and building customer loyalty. Both of the objectives can be achieved by better understanding of customer characteristics and purchase patterns, by adjustment of the offer to customer needs and by efficient service and providing reliable and exhaustive information directly to customer (Lis, 2021). Due to the extended ranges of services and channels for customer and organization beyond telephone, the interactions have increased complexity for call center management. These make call centers can be defined as a department in an organization that interacts with customers or prospective customers through any one or multiple communication channels. Customer service is confronted with many challenges, including wide range and complex customer enquiries (Malisuwan, et al. 2020).

“Know-Your-Customer” has evolved into a mantra of the current business world due to increasing customer purchase and abundant product/service varieties (Bierck, 2019 and Blasor, 2020).  The mass production strategy of the last century has focused on the manufacturing of new products without investigating individual customer needs in detail. The maturity of the current marketplace limits the profitability of mass-produced products (Payne, 2020). In contrast, customers are attracted by product/service features that are tailored to their needs and desires. Understanding and meeting individual customer needs has become a crucial aspect of successful product/service management.

To enable rapid response to changes in customer needs, information systems and tools that incorporate traditional techniques have been developed to automate time-consuming customer analysis. Customer service relationship is a holistic relationship concept that acquires and strengthens relationships with carefully targeted customers with the objective of increasing customer value and corporate profitability (Stefanou, et al. 2021). Generally speaking, a Customer service relationship support system comprises a few data warehouses and data analysis applications (Payne, 2020). Most of the data analysis applications in customer service information systems work for structured data. However, textual and mixed format data are more expressive and customers have more flexibility in expressing their needs. Although such data allows easier data entry, the format flexibility makes these data more difficult for analysis. Data mining techniques to effectively identify valuable information from these data are still in development.

1.2    Statement of the Problem

Customer service information is designed with popular techniques to manage customer needs. These techniques assist organizations to systematically discover customer needs and match them with product/service features. These techniques usually involve interactions with customers; the interactions are generally time consuming and costly. Other challenges of this study include:

1. Manual service techniques
2. Manual records
3. Manual payment techniques

From the stated problems, the researcher chooses to design and implement customer service information system.

1.3    Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of the study is to design and implement customer service information system. While the specific objectives are:

1. To design a user-friendly interface for the system
2. To design a system to solve manual service delivery
3. To design a system that can automate records of customers
4. To design a system that has online payment functionalities.
5. To implement customer service information system using PHP and MySQL.

1.4    Significance of the Study

The study is significant to the following groups in the society. It is beneficial to operators of services oriented businesses or companies which will facilitate their service delivery to customers. It will be of immense benefit to the public on ease of service and rendering to the public.

1.5    Scope of the Study

The study covers design and implementation of customer service information system for service oriented businesses.

1.6    Limitations of the Study

Carrying out research of this magnitude it is required to note some of the limitations that could hinder or slow down the success of the project work.

Paucity of Fund: Secondly, there was paucity of fund. A lot of fund was involved to gather data. However, the research was able to make judicious use of the available data in order to conclude the research.

Software Development: Writing codes for database can be time consuming, designing the software or program is challenging and it is still in progress.

1.7    Project Layout

The project layout for this research are chapter one which discussed the introduction and background to the study, chapter two discussed the literature review, chapter three explained the system analysis and design of the program, chapter four explained  the system implementation and chapter had the summary, conclusion, recommendations and contribution to knowledge.

1.8    Definition of Terms

Customer: It is defined as a person who buys goods or services from a shop or business.

Service: It is defined as work that someone does or time that someone spends working for an organization.

Customer Service: It is defined as the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.

Information System: It is seen as an interconnected set of components used to collect, store, process and transmit data and digital information.

Manual service techniques: It is seen as that which provides comprehensive information and guidance for service, repairs and maintenance.

Manual records: It is defined as a bookkeeping system where records are maintained by hand, without using a computer system.

Manual payment techniques: It is seen as any payment in which the vendor has to manually contribute to the process.

Project – Design and Implementation of customer service information system