6 - Manage Customer Service

Managing customers before and after the delivery of services. This includes developing and planning customer service practices with an eye on steering processes relating to inquiries after sales, feedback, warranties, and recalls.

6.0	Manage Customer Service
6.1		Develop customer care/customer service strategy
6.1.1			Define customer service requirements across the enterprise
6.1.2			Define customer service experience
6.1.3			Define and manage customer service channel strategy
6.1.4			Define customer service policies and procedures
6.1.5			Establish target service level for each customer segment
6.1.6			Define warranty offering
6.1.6.1				Determine and document warranty policies
6.1.6.2				Create and manage warranty rules/claim codes for products
6.1.6.3				Agree on warranty responsibilities with suppliers
6.1.6.4				Define warranty related offerings for customers
6.1.6.5				Communicate warranty policies and offerings
6.1.7			Develop recall strategy

6.2		Plan and manage customer service contacts
6.2.1			Plan and manage customer service work force
6.2.1.1				Forecast volume of customer service contacts
6.2.1.2				Schedule customer service work force
6.2.1.3				Track work force utilization
6.2.1.4				Monitor and evaluate quality of customer interactions with customer service representatives
6.2.2			Manage customer service problems, requests, and inquiries
6.2.2.1				Receive customer problems, requests, and inquiries
6.2.2.2				Analyze problems, requests, and inquiries
6.2.2.3				Resolve customer problems, requests, and inquiries
6.2.2.4				Respond to customer problems, requests, and inquiries
6.2.2.5				Identify and capture upsell/cross-sell opportunities
6.2.2.6				Deliver opportunity to sales team
6.2.3			Manage customer complaints
6.2.3.1				Receive customer complaints
6.2.3.2				Route customer complaints
6.2.3.3				Resolve customer complaints
6.2.3.4				Respond to customer complaints
6.2.3.5				Analyze customer complaints and response/redressal
6.2.4			Process returns
6.2.4.1				Authorize return
6.2.4.2				Process return and record reason
6.2.5			Report incidents and risks to regulatory bodies

6.3		Service products after sales
6.3.1			Register products
6.3.2			Process warranty claims
6.3.2.1				Receive warranty claim
6.3.2.2				Validate warranty claim
6.3.2.3				Investigate warranty issues
6.3.2.3.1					Define issue
6.3.2.3.2					Schedule field service
6.3.2.3.3					Request and receive defective part
6.3.2.3.4					Investigate issue/perform root cause analysis
6.3.2.3.5					Receive investigation result/recommendation for corrective action
6.3.2.4				Determine responsible party
6.3.2.5				Manage pre-authorizations
6.3.2.6				Approve or reject warranty claim
6.3.2.7				Notify originator of approve/reject decision
6.3.2.8				Authorize payment
6.3.2.9				Close claim
6.3.2.10				Reconcile warranty transaction disposition
6.3.3			Manage supplier recovery
6.3.3.1				Create supplier recovery claims
6.3.3.2				Negotiate recoveries with suppliers
6.3.4			Service products
6.3.4.1				Confirm specific service requirements for individual customer
6.3.4.1.1					Process customer request
6.3.4.1.2					Create customer profile
6.3.4.1.3					Generate service order
6.3.4.2				Identify and schedule resources to meet service requirements
6.3.4.2.1					Create resourcing plan and schedule
6.3.4.2.2					Create service order fulfillment schedule
6.3.4.3				Provide service to specific customers
6.3.4.3.1					Organize daily service order fulfillment schedule
6.3.4.3.2					Execute product repair
6.3.4.3.3					Manage service order fulfillment
6.3.4.4				Ensure quality of service
6.3.4.4.1					Identify completed service orders for feedback
6.3.4.4.2					Identify incomplete service orders and service failures
6.3.4.4.3					Solicit customer feedback on services delivered
6.3.4.4.4					Process customer feedback on services delivered

6.4		Manage product recalls and regulatory audits
6.4.1			Initiate recall
6.4.2			Assess the likelihood and consequences of occurrence of any hazards
6.4.3			Manage recall related communications
6.4.4			Submit regulatory reports
6.4.5			Monitor and audit recall effectiveness
6.4.6			Manage recall termination

6.5		Evaluate customer service operations and customer satisfaction
6.5.1			Measure customer satisfaction with customer problems, requests, and inquiries handling
6.5.1.1				Solicit customer feedback on customer service experience
6.5.1.2				Analyze customer service data and identify improvement opportunities
6.5.1.3				Provide customer feedback to product management on customer service experience
6.5.2			Measure customer satisfaction with customer- complaint handling and resolution
6.5.2.1				Solicit customer feedback on complaint handling and resolution
6.5.2.2				Analyze customer complaint data and identify improvement opportunities
6.5.2.3				Identify common customer complaints
6.5.3			Measure customer satisfaction with products and services
6.5.3.1				Gather and solicit post-sale customer feedback on products and services
6.5.3.2				Solicit post-sale customer feedback on ad effectiveness
6.5.3.3				Solicit customer feedback on cross-channel experience
6.5.3.4				Analyze product and service satisfaction data and identify improvement opportunities
6.5.3.5				Provide feedback and insights to appropriate teams (product design/development, marketing, manufacturing)
6.5.4			Evaluate and manage warranty performance
6.5.4.1				Measure customer satisfaction with warranty handling and resolution
6.5.4.2				Monitor and report on warranty management metrics
6.5.4.3				Identify improvement opportunities
6.5.4.4				Identify opportunities to eliminate warranty waste
6.5.4.5				Investigate fraudulent claims
6.5.5			Evaluate recall performance

Process and performance improvement, helps organizations adapt to rapidly changing environments, build new and better ways to work, and succeed in a competitive marketplace. With a focus on productivity, knowledge management, benchmarking, and quality improvement initiatives, organisations such as the APQC works with its member organizations to identify best practices; discover effective methods of improvement; broadly disseminate findings; and connect individuals with one another and the knowledge, training, and tools they need to succeed.

This APQC Process Classification Framework® (“PCF”) is an open standard developed by APQC, a nonprofit that promotes benchmarking and best practices worldwide. The PCF is intended to facilitate organizational improvement through process management and benchmarking, regardless of industry, size, or geography. To download the full PCF or industry-specific versions of the PCF, as well as associated measures and benchmarking, please visit www.apqc.org/pcf.

6 - Manage Customer Service

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