Tag: Customer Services

  • What are the good qualities of customer service?

    What are the good qualities of customer service?

    Good Qualities of Customer Service; Great customer support is the holy grail of enterprise. Once you have it, it looks like it has the energy to expose all the secrets of achievement. Providing perfect carrier, however, is not usually clean.

    Here are the articles to explain, what are good qualities of customer service.

    And whilst the look for tremendous customer service abilities and abilties is extra latest undertaking, many CEOs could argue it’s just as elusive because of the mythical grail that precipitated the Crusades. No count number what number of customer support talent assessment surveys you send out, a lot of the customer psyche will stay a thriller.

    Thankfully, researchers have been collecting information on customer service delight for years. Unlike the look for the Holy Grail, the look for desirable customer service comes with a miles greater designated street map, and all of it starts evolving with the people you rent.

    What Does Customer Service Mean?

    • Customer service is a term you notice a lot in career advice and job descriptions when you’re applying for jobs.
    • It approaches how properly you figure with customers to cause them to feel glad in their buying revel. It’s a sincerely crucial skill due to the fact so many jobs involve encouraging clients to buy something and walk away happy.
    • You might use your customer service talents face-to-face in a restaurant or supermarket or a sales assembly with a purchaser. You may use them online or over the cellphone in a customer service name center. You don’t have if you want to see your purchaser cause them to feel like their time, money, and happiness is valued by the enterprise!
    • You might also have excellent customer service skills clearly, due to your personality and who you’re. You also can build them through the years, and with more revel in managing customers on your paintings!

    Here are the pinnacle customer service capabilities your representatives want, in step with facts.

    Pay attention to commitments

    “People without trust, I don’t know what they can” No one wants to deal with untrustworthy people. This is the case in daily interactions, let alone dealing with God. A promise is a responsibility, and it must be fulfilled when it says.

    To take tolerance as beauty

    Sometimes, the customer service staff may face some “unreasonable” or grumpy customers. At this time, it is necessary to be able to understand him: because he is angry. If I was him, I might be very anxious; just solve the problem.

    Be humble and honest

    Be humble with God. Honestly, it’s easy to understand. Relatively speaking, honesty is more important. One person’s lie may survive, but your business is not yours alone, and sooner or later the lie will expose, which will only irritate your customers.

    It is what it is, and sincere communication with customers in the process of solving problems can better retain customers for your business.

    Be compassionate

    We have all heard of compassion, but compassion is more needed in the service process. So, what is compassion? It is to think from the perspective of customers, to truly understand customers’ thoughts and situations. This is the same mind.

    Be positive and enthusiastic

    A positive and enthusiastic attitude will pass on to everyone around you, creating a warm and harmonious atmosphere, and customers will have a good impression of you. No one wants to associate with someone who grieves every day. And customer service staff must keep in mind that the customer always likes to associate with the person who can bring him joy.

    Be service-oriented

    Service orientation is a willingness to help others that is not directly related to work. Generally speaking, women’s service orientation is stronger than that of human beings who have become mothers and are stronger than women who have never given birth. This is because the mother has paid a lot, but she feels very happy. She will see the child because Her hard work has grown, and this growth has brought her sincere joy.

    There’s Always Enough Time For Great Customer Service.

    When you cope with clients every day – and frequently plenty of them – you’ll see they may be slow in instances. When it’s their turn to order fast meals or beverages. They don’t know what to reserve and that holds up the queue. Or they want lots of recommendations from you before selecting what they want.

    Or they get frustrated because the component they want is out of inventory.

    • Even while you can’t supply fast carriers, the consciousness of the fantastic carrier.
    • Fast service is vital, but if you pass too speedy you may get sloppy and make mistakes (which is bad customer support, glaringly). You can also make the client angry due to the fact they sense you’re no longer being attentive to them.
    • It’s better to make an effort to apprehend what that purchaser wants and serve them nicely than it’s miles to ignore their need for help and rush on to the subsequent client.
    • You have managers and paintings colleagues that will help you if things get busy or heated. But live affected person and try to assist that client if you can.

    Why Customer Service Skills are Important?

    If you’re already operating in or deliberating running in a patron-facing role. Then it’s crucial to brush up on your customer support abilties.

    Customer provider capabilities are essential due to the fact they fulfill client desires. As the announcement is going, the customer is usually right, so you wouldn’t need your services to let human beings down. Because your team of workers and systems weren’t orchestrated around pinnacle-notch service.

    There is an immediate correlation between satisfied customers and those that make sales and repeat purchases. The apparent customer service talents include a proper verbal and written verbal exchange. However, we’ve indexed numerous different capabilities which can be vital to the customer support characteristic. You may understand above what are good qualities of customer service.

    General personal presentation recommendations:

    • Be smooth
    • Be tidy
    • Wear your uniform efficaciously, if you’re expected to wear one
    • Stay in keeping with health suggestions in case you need to (E.G. On a cheese deli counter you’ll be required to wear furnished gloves to address meals).

    Customer service abilties are frequently something you can begin getting to know in your first job. But they’re essential for every sort of activity wherein you meet or work with human beings—all the manner up to supervisor jobs or starting your very own commercial enterprise.

    Finding a customer service team member with a lot of these competencies is hard. But there’s no need to sense overwhelmed. Training your group of workers doesn’t take place in a single day, so take it in the future at a time.

    Each talent builds on and complements the others; consciousness of the customer support abilties that can improve the most and flow directly to every extra skill from there. Chances are, you’ll see a marked development earlier than you believe you studied.

    Of course, this list of customer service competencies might not be ideal for each organization or entire for each customer service group. A robust customer support branch is based on using stable leadership and empowered personnel. Start there, then construct your team with an emphasis on the customer support talents indexed here, and your purchaser pride scores will react accordingly and to your preference.

    What are the good qualities of customer service Image
    What are the good qualities of customer service? Photo by UX Indonesia on Unsplash.
  • Customer Services for easy writing a good resume

    Customer Services for easy writing a good resume

    Customer Services: In today’s society, commodities and products are emerging in an endless stream, and technology is constantly developing. Now, more than the appearance, technology, function, and material of commodities, and products, consumers, and customers care about the services behind the products. The quality of a product is important, but the service of the product is also essential. When a product fails, the quality of after-sales customer service is what customers value most, and publicity lies in customer service. It is the embodiment of emotion and respect between people and cannot replace by any product.

    Here are the articles to explain, What does customer services are? for writing a good resume

    Customer Service Specialist: Also known as an Account Manager, in simple terms, is the person who serves customers. Receive customer inquiries, help customers answer their questions, or undertake full-time customer service.

    Classification of customer services;

    Customer service divides into manual customer service and electronic customer service. Which can further subdivide into three categories: text customer service, video customer service, and voice customer service. Text customer service refers to customer service mainly in the form of typing chat, video customer service refers to customer service mainly in the form of voice and video, and voice customer service refers to customer service mainly in the form of mobile phones.

    Customer service generally divides into three categories in business practice, namely: pre-sale service, in-sale service, and after-sale service. Pre-sales service generally refers to a series of activities that an enterprise provides to customers before selling products, such as market research, product design, providing instruction manuals, and providing consulting services.

    In-sale service refers to the service provided by the seller to the buyer in the process of product transaction, such as reception service, commodity packaging service, etc. After-sales service refers to services that associate with the products sold and are beneficial to the characteristics of buyers, including services such as delivery, installation, product return, repair, maintenance, and technical training.

    Customer Service Job Responsibilities;

    • Accept customer inquiries, complaints, suggestions, and opinions, and make records;
    • Collect customer and related market data, establish and manage customer files and information databases;
    • Responsible for business coordination with relevant departments to solve problems raised by customers promptly;
    • Quickly grasp the company’s new policies, and new business, and actively promote the company’s new products during the telephone service process, to encourage customers to have the willing to use the company’s products;
    • Accept business applications and customer complaint calls and accurately record the content of complaints, and generate electronic work orders for businesses that require assistance from other positions and transfer them to the background team;
    • Assist in arranging training materials within the group and coaching junior customer representatives. Participate in various pieces of training to improve overall quality. Participate in various team activities and support team building;
    • For questions or materials that are not in the database, record the content of the question, hand it over to the assistant manager on duty and transfer it to the business team. Collect mobile business information in a timely and accurate manner, strive to learn mobile business knowledge, assist in collecting customer demand information, and put forward suggestions for improvement of service work;
    • Use multi-channel methods (such as phone calls, text messages, emails, etc.) to communicate with customers to achieve service or sales purposes;
    • Do a good job in user consultation and complaint handling, do a good job in reporting and dispatching users’ obstacles, and summarize and feedback on users’ suggestions and opinions;

    Job Requirements

    To be a qualified customer services staff, you should have a rigorous work style, enthusiastic service attitude, skilled business knowledge, positive learning attitude, patient explaining to customers, humble listening to customers’ opinions, etc.

    Full of enthusiasm for work and serious work attitude. To be a qualified customer services staff, only if you love this career can you devote yourself to it. So this is a prerequisite for qualified customer service staff.

    Proficient business knowledge. You should have the proficient business knowledge and keep studying hard. Only if you have mastered all aspects of business knowledge, you can accurately provide users with various services. Such as telephone bill inquiries, business inquiries, business handling, and complaint suggestions. Let customers get better service in satisfaction.

    Answer questions patiently;

    A qualified customer services staff, the core is the attitude to customers. In the process of work, you should maintain a warm and sincere working attitude. While doing a good job of explaining the work, you should be gentle and not arrogant or impetuous. If you encounter problems that customers do not understand or are difficult to explain, you must be patient. Do it again, until the customer satisfies, and always keep the promise of “melting smile into voice” and bringing sincerity to customers. In this way, you can better keep yourself moving forward.

    Good communication and coordination skills;

    Communication ability, especially effective communication ability is a basic quality of customer service staff. Customer service is the work of dealing with customers. Listening to customers, understanding customers, inspiring customers, and guiding customers are the basic skills when we communicate with customers. What kind of service and help do customers need, and where are the complaints and dissatisfaction of customers? Can we find out the problems existing in our company, prescribe the right medicine, and solve customer problems?

    Work content

    Customer data management
    1. Data collection: In the company’s daily marketing work, the collection of customer information is very important to work, which is directly related to the realization of the company’s marketing plan. The collection of customer services data requires customer service specialists to carefully extract customer information files every day to pay attention to the development of these customers.
    2. Data collation: The customer information files extracted by the customer services specialist are submitted to the customer service supervisor. The customer service supervisor arranges the information summary, analyzes and categorizes, assigns special personnel to manage various data, and requires daily updates to avoid omissions.
    3. Data processing: The customer service supervisor is assigned to the relevant customer service specialist by the principle of balancing the number of customers and taking into account business capabilities. The customer in charge of the customer services specialist should communicate with the customer within a week and make a detailed record.
    Conduct irregular return visits to different types of customers

    The needs of customers are constantly changing. Through return visits, we can not only understand the needs of different customers and market consultation but also find out the deficiencies in our work, make timely remedial and adjustments, meet customer needs and improve customer satisfaction.

    Efficient complaint handling

    Improve the complaint handling mechanism, pay attention to the standardization and efficiency of handling customer complaints, and form a closed-loop management process, so that complaints are accepted immediately, results are quickly obtained, and there is a return visit after handling; so that customer complaint can be efficiently and satisfactorily resolved. Create a complaint file.

    Communicate closely with various departments, participate in marketing activities, and assist in market sales. The implementation of telemarketing by an enterprise plays an important role in the success of sales. Which requires customer service specialists to have certain sales business capabilities and master certain business skills.

    Development Path;

    Customer Service Specialist — Customer Service Supervisor — Customer Service Manager

    How to do good customer service?

    The ability to adapt to life without fear

    Customer service staff needs to be resilient. As a customer service agent, you face different customers every day, and many times customers present you with some real challenges. For example, front-line customer service personnel, those who work in hotels, those who work in retail stores, those who are telephone operators, and those who are telephone customer service personnel, may encounter some challenging environments.

    For example, a customer in a retail store complained. Maybe he drank a little wine and smashed the counter when he came in. What should you do as a customer services staff at this time? In this way, why is the customer so unreasonable? Hurry up and call the police, and some very experienced customer service staff can handle this matter safely. This requires a certain amount of resilience. Especially when dealing with some vicious complaints, it is necessary to be calm.

    The ability to withstand setbacks

    Salespeople often encounter some setbacks. What kind of setbacks can the customer service person suffer? For example, will you misunderstand the customer? Will you take anger on the customer service person? Because he has suffered too much, there needs to be an outlet. Therefore, customer service personnel need to have the ability to withstand setbacks.

    Emotional self-control ability

    What do you mean by self-control and the ability to regulate emotions? For example, if you receive 100 customers every day, you may scold by the first customer. So your mood becomes very bad and your mood is low. You don’t go home either, and the 99 customers behind are still waiting for you. At this time, will you transfer the unpleasantness that the first customer brought you to the next customer? This requires you to control your emotions and adjust your emotions. Because for the customer you are always his first. Therefore, the psychological quality of excellent customer service staff is very important.

    The ability to support the full emotional effort

    What is full emotional effort? It is that you provide the best service to every customer. I can’t have reservations, I can’t say it, because I need to laugh at 100 people today. And I guess I won’t be able to laugh for that long, so I should laugh less at the beginning. Is it okay to do customer service? No. You treat your first client with the same passion you need to treat your last client.

    Positive and enterprising, never-give-up mentality ability

    What is a good attitude of being proactive and never giving up? Customer service personnel need to constantly adjust in their jobs. The external ability of customer service personnel must be supported by an internal thing. The most important thing is literacy. So, what qualities do customer service personnel need to have? Take a look at “Qualities Necessary for Customer Service”

    Some people are not service-oriented or their service-oriented is not strong enough. Once they choose a career in customer service, they will be very miserable, because they do not have the initiative to help others, and they will feel very uncomfortable every time they provide service to customers. On the contrary, if you are a person with a strong service orientation, you will find that service is a very happy thing, because you can feel happy by helping others every time, and you will regard the happiness of others as your happiness, take the elimination of other people’s troubles as your own greater happiness.

    How to write a customer services resume?

    First, double-check the written CV for typos, grammar, and punctuation. It’s best to have a good writer review it for you because others are more likely to spot errors than you. Customer service work requires staff to be careful. If there is such a low-level mistake in your resume, it will make HR a bad impression of you, and even cause HR to directly ignore your resume, and you will lose an interview.

    Secondly, keep in mind that your resume must highlight the key points. It is not your autobiography. You should try not to write anything unrelated to the job you are applying for. Experience and experience that are meaningful to the job you are applying for must not miss. So, write about the experiences you’ve had about customer service work. For example, the following experience is good:

    Of course, if you don’t have relevant work experience, you don’t need to be afraid. Let’s take a look at the following requirements for a company’s recruiting customer service:

    • College degree or above from a national unified recruitment institution, with no restrictions on majors;
    • Good image, good temperament, clear articulation, outgoing personality, cheerful and confident;
    • Strong language skills and interpersonal communication skills;
    • More than one year of sales experience or service marketing management experience and traditional advertising industry work experience is preferred;
    • Proficient in using MS-office office software. Computer-level, outstanding graduates are preferred.
    Other things

    From the above description, we can see that the company does not have high requirements for the position of customer service, and students of any major can apply for this position. If it is a voice customer service, “articulate, outgoing, cheerful, and confident” is a must. So how do you reflect that you have the above abilities? You can write that you have served as the host of an activity in the school, participated in the school’s broadcast agency, or actively participated in the performance of various activities in the school.

    These can well reflect that you are suitable for customer service in terms of oral expression and character. Yes; if you are applying for written customer service, you need to highlight your good written expression skills. Such as contributing to the school newspaper, writing some small words, and joining the school’s literary club, all of which can write into your resume. For example, Some customer service positions require face-to-face communication with customers.

    At this time, you may require to have a “good image and good temperament”. Attaching a formal job search photo can bring a lot of extra points to your resume. Of course, If your appearance is more “graceful”, it is recommended not to attach photos, and the best job position is a customer service position that does not communicate with customer service face-to-face, to avoid reducing your chances of interviewing yourself due to some inherent disadvantages.

    Customer Services for easy writing a good resume Image
    Customer Services for easy writing a good resume; Photo by Amy Hirschi on Unsplash.
  • How to deal with difficult customers

    How to deal with difficult customers

    What do difficult customers mean? Have your friends who are looking for a job considered working in customer service? For customer service practitioners, it is impossible for every customer they encounter in their work to be an easygoing customer. And they also encounter several difficult customers from time to time. How do you deal with difficult customers at work? In this issue of Job’s resume, the editor will introduce how customer service handles difficult customers. Interested friends may wish to learn about it below;

    Here are the articles to explain, How to deal with difficult customers

    Give the customer a reason

    Research shows that people are more receptive to problems being told the cause. Then to the issues that they don’t even know the cause of. The customer service of a computer printer manufacturer handled a complaint like this. A customer called to complain that the color printed by the printer was wrong, and this situation has been going on for 3 days. The customer service rep told him that the customer was dissatisfied because of the weather. And he asked for a clear answer when his problem would resolve. At this time, the customer service representative continued to explain that. This situation stood caused by too much humidity around the printer. If he wanted to solve this problem as soon as possible, he could buy an air dryer. Do you have this easy-to-follow answer to a general customer complaint?

    Find out the reasons for customer dissatisfaction

    Patience is necessary for the face of difficult customers. Still, the most important thing is to find out where the customer stands dissatisfied. Whether it is your problem or the customer’s problem. If it is your problem, you should ask the customer to apologize and correct it in time. The problem itself should also be patient in explaining the misunderstanding of the customer to the customer. In the end, I still have to apologize, saying that I have not served well and asking customers to bear more and be considerate. In this way, they will no longer embarrass you.

    How to deal with difficult customers Image
    How to deal with difficult customers; Photo by Blake Wisz on Unsplash.
  • What are Advantages and Disadvantages of GST?

    What are Advantages and Disadvantages of GST?

    Learn and Understand, What are Advantages and Disadvantages of GST?


    Implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) was one of the long-awaited fiscal reform and due to various reasons it was only hanging around and could not circumvent the obstacles for the substantially long period of time so much so that people started saying that the reform may not see a light of the day. At this juncture, we need to understand that GST could eventually become a reality only because of the various advantages it brought along. Of course, no reform can be full proof and so is GST and therefore the implementation of GST had its own disadvantages with few being inherent and intrinsic to the idea of GST, few due to the structure in which it is brought and a lot is due to the manner in which it is implemented which could have been largely avoided. Also learn, Benefits of GST, What are Advantages and Disadvantages of GST?

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    While we take a stock of GST as of today, we need to acknowledge the efforts taken by the government in making it much simpler from the time first model GST code was released in June 2016 to today when we are at the brisk of 200 days post its implementation. While we take a deeper dive into understanding the advantages and disadvantages of GST, we need to appreciate the fact that this being a transactional tax its advantages and disadvantages cannot be equated for all. For instance, it is possible that one sector or industry is largely benefitted due to the implementation of GST while other sector or industry has taken the exact opposite position. The point that we need to take home is that many advantages and disadvantages of GST can be closely understood only when its impact is measured industry or sector wise.

    The list of advantages and disadvantages of GST can be very long, but herein we look at some of the major ones as explained below: 

    The Advantages of GST (Goods and Services Tax):

    • Boosts Foreign Investment and improves the overall investment climate.
    • Single assessing authority.
    • Increased certainty/ Reduced litigation.
    • Erosion of parallel economy.
    • Reduced corruption.
    • Downslide of prices.
    • Common national market throughout the country, and.
    • Increase in employment opportunities.

    The Disadvantages of GST (Goods and Services Tax):

    • Not a one nation one tax in spirit.
    • Multiple Tax rates.
    • GST Portal issues.
    • Hurried implementation of the Law.
    • Working capital blockage.
    • High compliance burden.
    • Elimination of local tax incentives/ schemes, and.
    • Disconnect from Foreign Trade Policy.

    What are Advantages and Disadvantages of GST - ilearnlot


  • Do you Know Benefits of GST (Goods and Services Tax)?

    Do you Know Benefits of GST (Goods and Services Tax)?

    Learn, How, What is it, Do you Know Benefits of GST (Goods and Services Tax)?


    GST stands for Goods and Services Tax which will be levied on the supply of goods or services or both in India. GST will subsume a number of existing indirect taxes being levied by the Centre and State Governments including Central Excise duty, Service Tax, VAT, Purchase Tax, Central Sales Tax, Entry Tax, Local Body Taxes, Octroi, Luxury Tax, etc. Also learn, GST, PDF, Do you Know Benefits of GST (Goods and Services Tax)?

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    It brings benefits to all the stakeholders’ viz. industry, government and the citizens. It is expected to lower the cost of goods and services, boost the economy and make our products and services globally competitive. GST aims to make India a common national market with uniform tax rates and procedures and removes the economic barriers, thereby paving the way for an integrated economy at the national level. By subsuming most of the Central and State indirect taxes into a single tax and by allowing a set-off of prior-stage taxes for the transactions across the entire value chain, GST would mitigate the ill effects of cascading and thereby improve our competitiveness.

    GST or Goods and Service Tax is common tax system proposed by the government. As the name suggests it is a common tax for Goods and Services. In simple words today we are paying multiple taxes such as excise duty, customs duty, value added tax, octroi, service tax etc.

    The Benefits of Goods and Services Tax (GST):

    Elimination of Multiple Taxes:

    The biggest benefit of GST is an elimination of multiple indirect taxes. All taxes that currently exist will not be in the picture. This means current taxes like excise, octroi, sales tax, CENVAT, Service tax, turnover tax etc will not be applicable and all that will fall under common tax called as GST.

    Saving More Money:

    For a common man, GST applicability means the elimination of double charging in the system. This will reduce the price of goods and services & help common man for saving more money. It is expected that price of FMCG products, small cars, cinema tickets, electrical wires etc is expected to reduce.

    Ease of business:

    GST will bring one country one tax concept. This will prevent unhealthy competition among states. It will be beneficial to do interstate business.

    Easy Tax Filing and Documentation:

    For a businessman, GST will be a boon. No multiple taxes means compliance and documentation will be easy. Return filing, tax payment, and refund process will easy and hassle-free.

    Cascading Effect reduction:

    GST will be applicable at all stages from manufacturing to consumption. GST will provide tax credit benefit at every stage in the chain. Today at every stage margin is added and tax is paid on the whole amount, in GST you will have tax credit benefit and tax will be paid on margin amount only. It will reduce cascading effect of tax thereby reducing the cost of the product.

    More Employment:

    As GST will reduce the cost of producing it is expected that demand for the product will increase and to meet the demand, supply has to go up. The requirement of more supply will be addressed by only increasing employment.

    Increase in GDP:

    As demand will grow naturally production will grow and hence it will increase gross domestic product. It is estimated that GDP will grow by 1-2% due to GST.

    Reduction in Tax Evasion:

    GST is a single tax which will include various taxes, making the system efficiency with very little chances of corruption and Tax Evasion.

    More Competitive Product:

    As GST will address cascading effect of the tax, inter-state tax, high logistics cost it will make manufacturing more competitive. This will bring advantage to businessman and consumer.

    Increase in Revenue:

    GST will replace all 17 indirect taxes with the single tax. Increase in product demand will ultimately increase tax revenue for state and central government.

    Goods and service tax is a boon for the Indian economy and the common man. It is a welcome step taken by the government.

    Do you Know Benefits of GST (Goods and Services Tax) - ilearnlot


  • What is GST (Goods and Services Tax)?

    What is GST (Goods and Services Tax)?

    Learn and Understand, What is GST (Goods and Services Tax)?


    First, take analysis GST Full Form is Goods and Services Tax. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is a value-added tax levied on most goods and services sold for domestic consumption. The GST is paid by consumers, but it is remitted to the government by the businesses selling the goods and services. In effect, GST provides revenue for the government. Also learn, the Concept of Financial Decisions, What is GST (Goods and Services Tax)?

    What is GST? GST (Goods and Services Tax) is the biggest indirect tax reform of India. GST is a single tax on the supply of goods and services. It is a destination based tax. GST has subsumed taxes like Central Excise Law, Service Tax Law, VAT, Entry Tax, Octroi, etc. GST is expected to bring together state economies and improve overall economic growth of the nation.

    Before learning more about Goods and Sevice Tax, let’s try to understand how taxes in India work. The Government of any country needs money for its functioning and taxes are a major source of revenue for a Government. The taxes thus collected are spent by Govt. on the public.

    History of GST:

    The goods and services tax (GST) is an indirect federal sales tax that is applied to the cost of certain goods and services. The business adds the GST to the price of the product; a customer who buys the product pays the sales price plus GST, and the GST portion is collected by the business or seller and forwarded to the government.

    France was the first country to implement the GST in 1954, and since then an estimated 160 countries have adopted this tax system in some form or another. Some of the countries with GST include Canada, Vietnam, Australia, Singapore, UK, Monaco, Spain, Italy, Nigeria, Brazil, and South Korea. India is set to join the GST group on July 1, 2017.

    Most countries with a GST have a single unified GST system, which means that a single tax rate is applied throughout the country. A country with a unified GST platform merges central taxes (e.g. sales tax, excise duty tax, and service tax) with state-level taxes (e.g. entertainment tax, entry tax, transfer tax, sin tax, and luxury tax) and collects them as one single tax. These countries tax virtually everything at a single rate.

    Only a handful such as Canada and Brazil have a dual GST structure. Compared to a unified GST economy where tax is collected by the federal or central government and then distributed to the states, in a dual system, the federal GST is applied in addition to the state sales tax. In Canada for example, the federal government levies a 5% tax and some provinces/states also levy a provincial state tax (PST) which varies from 7 to 10%. In this case, a consumer’s receipt will clearly have the GST and PST rate that was applied to his or purchase value.

    India is proposed to have a dual GST set up in 2017, which will be the biggest reform in the country’s tax structure in decades. The main objective of incorporating the GST is to eliminate the tax on tax i.e. double taxation which cascades from the manufacturing level to the consumption level.

    Brief History of GST in India:

    Introduction of GST is considered to be a significant step in the reform of indirect taxation in India. Amalgamating of various Central and State taxes into a single tax would help mitigate the double taxation, cascading, a multiplicity of taxes, classification issues, taxable event, etc., and leading to a common national market.

    VAT rates and regulations differ from state to state. On the other hand, GST brings in uniform tax system across all the states. Here, the taxes would be divided between the Central and State government.

    The current system with no GST implies that tax is paid on the value of goods and margin at every stage of the production process. This would translate to a higher amount of total taxes paid, which is carried down to the end consumer in the form of higher costs for goods and services. Implementing the GST system in India is, therefore, a measure that will be used to reduce inflation in the long run, as prices for goods will be lower.

    These taxes are broadly classified into two types: Direct Tax and Indirect Tax

    Direct Tax – Direct Tax is imposed on the Income of an individual. The amount of Tax payable varies on the income earned by the individual from various sources such as salary, house rent income etc. So, the more you earn, the more tax you pay to the Government which essentially means the rich pay more tax in comparison to the poor.

    Indirect Tax – Indirect tax is not imposed directly on the income of individuals. Instead, it is imposed on goods and services which in turn increase the cost MRP) of Goods and Services. Unlike the direct tax, an indirect tax should be borne by the end customer, rich and poor alike., There are many indirect taxes. Some of these are levied by the Central Government whereas some are levied by the State Government making the indirect tax system an extremely complicated system.

    GST has been introduced to replace multiple indirect taxes levied by State and Central Governments in order to simplify the indirect tax system. GST has replaced almost 17 of the existing state and central indirect taxes (more to come in the future) such as central excise duty, additional customs duty, VAT, entertainment tax, service tax etc.

    It is called as Goods and Services Tax because it is applicable to the supply of both Goods and Services. Click for understanding GST with a simple example.

    What is GST (Goods and Services Tax) - ilearnlot


  • Understanding and Learn Innovation in Indian Banking Sector!

    Understanding and Learn Innovation in Indian Banking Sector!

    Understanding and Learn Innovation at Indian Banking Sector. Innovation derives organization to grow, prosper & transform in sync with the changes in the environment, both internal & external. Banking is no exception to this. In fact, this sector has witnessed the radical transformation of late, based on many innovations in products, processes, services, systems, business models, technology, governance & regulation. A liberalized & globalized financial infrastructure has provided had provided an additional impetus to this gigantic effort. So, what we going to discuss; Understanding and Learn Innovation in Indian Banking Sector! Also learn, What is an Entrepreneur?

    Now, Understanding and Learn Innovation in Indian Banking Sector!

    The pervasive influence of information technology has revolutionaries banking. Transaction costs have crumbled & handling of astronomical brick & mortar structure has been rapidly yielding ground to click & order electronic banking with a plethora of new products. Banking has become boundary-less & virtual with a 24*7 model. Banks who strongly rely on the merits of ‘relationship was banking’ as a time-tested way of targeting & servicing clients have readily embraced Customer Relationship Management (CRM), with the sharp focus on customer centricity, facilitated by the availability of superior technology. CRM has, therefore, has become a new mantra in service management, which in both relationships based & information intensive.

    Thanks to the regulatory changes & financial innovation, large banks have now become complex organizations engaged in a wide range of activities in the US & some parts of Europe. Banking is now a one-stop provider with a high degree of competition & competence. Banking has become a part of financial services. Risk Management is no longer a mere regulatory issue. Basel-2 has accorded a primacy of place to this fascinating exercise by repositioning it as the core banking. We now see the evolution of many novel deferral products like credit risk management tool that enhances liquidity & market efficiency. Securitization is yet another example in this regard, whose strategic use has been rapidly rising globally, So is outsourcing. 

    The retail revolution with the accent on retail loans in the form of housing loans & Consumer loans literally dominating the banking globally is yet another example of product & service innovation. Various types of credit & debit cards & indeed e-cash itself, which has the potential to redefine the role of monetary authorities, are some more illustrious examples.

    Need to Push Full Throttle Ahead:

    Increasing knowledge among societies is forcing the banks to adopt international best practices to remain in business. Important dimensions of change are market, customers, competition, technology & society. Banks should focus beyond technologies and geographies to accelerate growth. Indian banking sector has adopted many dynamic innovations but still, some more are needed like risk management, e-commerce etc. The new game requires new strategies with an accent on innovational transformation. 

    Two roads diverged in a wood, and I

    Took the one less traveled by,

    And that has made all the difference.

    –  Robert Frost 

    It is Customary to describe the unfolding world as of unprecedented change, of a whirlwind of ideas, of the explosive growth of since-based technology. Prospects for continued escalation of change are awesome: the world’s knowledge-based now doubles every eight years, but by 2020, the doubling time is estimated to be slashed to 76 days. A strong momentum and apparent inevitability of globalization strongly suggest an accentuation of the pace of development. Such contextual changes records. An impetus through increasing integration of the productive process, rapid technological advances, splashing of legal & institutional barriers to global trade & a smoother flow of global capital.

    Michale E Porter demonstrated that in an industry, the nature of the competition is embodied in the treatment of new extent, the threat of substitute product or services, the bargaining power of suppliers/ buyers and the rivalry among existing competitors. The significance of introducing a steady stream of innovative products for banks emanates from its potential to salubriously impact all these factors.

    Management theories & practice are characterized by a bewildering diversity of opinions. But the view, that the challenge to innovate is urgent & continuous, enjoys a fair measure of consensus across the development spectrum. In the present world, where all elements are critically in ferment, launching of innovative products by strong business analytic tools, optimized processes & a modern centralized IT system is central to ensuring short-term survival, achieving long-term prosperity & eventually gaining competitive advantages.

    An appropriate approach to the growth matrix in an era of change, where the convergence or real & virtual worlds has become a part of our daily lives, requires a clear understanding of microeconomic framework, education & training policies, trade & competition policy & socio-economic milieu. To what extent can difference in innovation explained the observed difference in growth, profitability & financial performance of industries & even firms within the same industry? How has innovation been instrumental in influencing the Indian experience of development of banks? What lesson can be gleaned from the recent Indian experience & that of other countries? What should be the roadmap for innovation? This article attempts a brief look at some such issues of growing concerns & provides insight into the impact of the driving forces and factors, behind innovation, on Indian with particular reference to banks.

    Discontinuity: The New Disequilibria:

    Everything in business is always in flux & flow. Engel’s stressed, “equilibrium is inseparable from motion & all equilibrium is relative & temporary”. The quickening of change (Table 1), however, caused discontinuity & ripples of concern on the boardrooms. But it is necessary to realize, as powerfully argued by Gary Hamel, “We stand on the threshold of a new age – the age of revolution. For the first time in history, we can work backward from our imagination rather than forward from our past”.

    TABLE 1: DIMENSIONS OF CHANGES
       Sectors Change Impact on Business
      Markets Local to Global – Investments in Identifying

    & Servicing New markets

      Customers Acceptance to delight – Listening to Consumers.

    – Knowing &Understanding
    their needs.

     

    – Fulfilling Customer’s
    Requirements.

      Competition – Increased Competition

    – Shortage to surplus Economy

    – Squeeze in margins leading

    to cost cuttings.
    – Consolidating &
    Convergence.

      Technology Gradual change to quantum Change – Innovational Shareholders

    Transparency.

      Society Demanding Rights – Corporate Governance

    – Concern for social
    Obligations.

           

    Historically, Changes in society have always been preceded by the flow of ideas, which provide the Cutting Edge of development. In contemplating the challenges, the approaches of those enterprises. Which successfully weathered the challenges of this volatile era. Shows that innovation is not only power but also the key to sustained economic success. While the debate over innovation in the world of business has raged for long. Innovation has now rapidly emerged as a critical lament of the growth strategy.

    Despite the multi-layered, any multi-dimensional aspect of ubiquitous change, most an organization still disconcertingly confine themselves to incremental improvement & innovation without trying to alter the rules of the game, bring about breakthrough innovation. What is prognostically alarming is that most companies in the given industry or market tend to follow. The same unwritten rules for conducting business with limited deviations from de facto strategies. This is reflected by the fact that though agglomeration & the location of innovative activities are closely related, important sectoral clusters like textiles (Tirupur), diamond-cutting (Surat), hosiery (Ludhiana), call centers (Gurgaon), auto-companies & automobiles (Chennai), with the notable exception of Bangalore (IT) are largely confined to incremental innovations.

    Apart from this, the speed of the mistake of change quickly needs to be done to make existing strategies obsolete and continuously improving. Therefore, an important policy assessment, therefore, the impetus in the banks by radical and unbalanced innovative measures for better performance in this turbulent era.

    ‘The Innovation Imperative: Accelerating Growth beyond Technologies and Geographies’

    Traditionally, innovation has been defined with the focus on traditional concepts of industry research & development & the commercialization of new products and/or process technologies. But the definition of innovation as “acceptance of & readiness to change across the organization, dedication to continuous improvement processes, willingness to experiment and explore novel ways, building new relationship & alliance, establishing new approaches to markets, channels, customers, pricing strategies & new & varied approaches to organization, measurement and performance measurement” is generally a acceptable.

    The history of the growth of financial development, as indeed of all other development, is intertwined with the growth of innovation. Compelling & incontrovertible cross-country evidence prove that successful innovation is crucial to the competitive edge of all businesses. But innovation is particularly important for banking & finance companies. Innovation, which transcends invention, represents the point of convergence of invention & insight. Organizational ethos needs to stress innovation as a key driver of growth that surprises & delights the customer with new, differentiated & relevant benefits, this is not a cliché but defining characteristics of the modern cooperate saga.

    Understanding and Learn Innovation in Indian Banking Sector
    Understanding and Learn Innovation in Indian Banking Sector!

  • Innovations of Customer Services in Indian Banking Sector!

    Innovations of Customer Services in Indian Banking Sector!

    Understanding Innovations of Customer Services in Indian Banking Sector!


    Learn, Innovations of Customer Services in Indian Banking Sector: Satisfied customers are the best guarantee for the stability and growth. Customers will satisfied only when the banks provide the customized and innovative products and services at responsible cost. This article focuses on the kind of services provided by developed countries and level of innovative services provided by Indian banks. Many innovative services are currently available from Indian banks like E-Banking, ATMs, Anywhere Banking etc., but there is a wast6 scope of improvement. Globalization, the buzzword, which engulfed all the nations of the world since the beginning of the last decade of the past millennium, did not leave the banking industry untouched. The opening of the world trade has brought out several changes in the global banking map.

    The continuing evolution of the banking and financial market has created opportunities both for providers and for users of financial products and this evolution has proven beneficial to the economy. However, innovations in financial products also have given rise to some new challenges for market participants and their supervisors in the areas of corporate governance and compliance. The changes that are taken place in the last decade demonstrate again the technical weakness and weak corporate governance at a few firms can dramatically change the cost of capital and impose an additional regulatory burden on even well-managed organizations.

    A conventional bank may treat its customer as coldly as they cash they deposits or borrow. Many banks have conveniently used control and security as reasons for their remarkable slow and impersonal services. In recent, other service industries, not able fast food an airline, has proven that customer service can a swift and enjoyable experience for both the clients and employees without sacrificing control, costs, and profits. Some banks have finally adopted these new services Paradigms, and are now branch marking with the nonbank institution to learn about their best practice.

    The growing concern about the improvement in service quality can gauges by recent news in the business standard dated June 1, 2005, where it was given that “Banks are putting their best face forward for improving service quality. While some like the Oriental Bank of Commerce has prepared a detailed dress code for their employees, others have gone a step forward and are recruiting people from the airline and hospitality industries to improve the quality of front line sales staff.”

    The major brakes in the internal controls of big corporations and institutions such as share market in the past few years. And the role of bankers has led bank regulators to change their view of bankers’ relationships with their corporate clients. Technological innovation has helped in overcoming any such problems. There was a time when we used to hear that duplicate share certificates were flooding the market and a large amount of money was being embezzled. Now with demat accounts, this risk is taken off.

    Let’s see the currently booming plastic card market. In India, the growth is not that phenomenal but among the emerging economies, India is picking well.

    Technology is rapidly transforming the banking industry- and expanding its ability to reach the unbanked. Employers in the developed countries are turning increasingly to electronic payroll cards as a cost-effective way to reduce the burden of writing and processing checks. Consumers are using their payroll cards and other versions of the prepaid debit card- also known as stored value cards- as a substitute for cash and checking accounts. Monitoring this trend, the American Bankers Association reported last December that in 2003, for the first time, electronic payments surpassed cash and cheques as consumers preferred payment method for in store purchases- an “evolution of payment behavior,” the ABA noted, “driven by the increasing popularity of debit cards.”

    In a country like America, Debit cards accounted for nearly one-third (31%) of in-store purchases in 2003, up from 21% only four years ago. Reliance on credit cards held steady during that time, at about 21%. Cash and checks, which accounted for 57% of in-store purchases in 1999, dropped to about 47% last year. In India, if we see then, people still prefer to pay by cash. The reason behind this mindset is safety for money. Still, we are far behind in terms of Internet security and E-money security.

    Coming across through the performance of Banking Institutions of the west and seeing their performance in the use of innovative methods to make themselves more customer-friendly we would have no doubts about their strong banking mail-order company L.L. Bean, know for its superb order-taking and service delivery systems, as its model for change. A major result of this functional benchmarking was the establishment of a 24-hour customer service center that can not only respond to queries and complaints but also promote and sell the bank’s products and services.

    The center even allows customers to open a checking account anytime or negotiate an overdraft at 2 am. The ATM was also reconfigured from mere cash dispenser to a versatile and tireless account executive. The machine can even buy and sell mutual funds. Inspired by LL Bean, Banks published a 50-page catalog to help customers appreciate and select from its more than 160 financial services.

    Seafirst Bank in Seattle redefined itself from a “retail bank” to a “retailer” and has benchmarked with retailers know for world-class customer service such as fast-food restaurant chains. Insider by these models, one other bank instituted a 5-minute guarantee that says, “wait any longer than 5 minutes in line and the bank guarantees $5 to your account.” Moreover, if the customer complains of any other inconvenience, he or she gets a $5 “I’m sorry coupon”. Its branch offices have official “greeters” to greet and guide customers to the right tellers or desks, much like the Guest Relation Officers (GRO) or receptionists of 5-star hotels.

    The greeter mans a kiosk at the entrance of the bank. To reinforce this service philosophy, branch managers are rated not only on sales but on service goals. Achieving or even exceeding sales targets without achieving customer satisfaction goals will not qualify a branch manager to receive the bank’s prestigious “Gold Club” award. Executives from the CEO down are encouraged and expected to visit branches regularly to monitor service and get a first-hand feel of the action. When Seafirst decides to redesign and re-layout its offices to improve services, it acquired the services of an expert from the Godfather’s Pizza chain. One result making the teller counter waist-high. It is now more open and personal than the traditional counter that is intimidating and creates a barrier between the client and the teller.

    Back offices of banks are known for the snail-paced bureaucracy that hampers front line operations and ultimate customer service. By applying the concept of “mass production”, streamlining, and standardization of tasks, Citicorp aims to remove this critical bottleneck. The bank also benchmarked with Chrysler in getting its functional departments work effectively as teams.

    Other banks in the west have sledded their conversation “finance and control” images, have likewise adopted innovative service strategies and practices. Many Banks have established an information center or “encyclopedia” in the waiting lounge. Here customers can browse through various bits and pieces of important service information like the average time to finish a transaction and the company’s products and services. Information about the busiest day or days in the branch is displayed so that the customers who want to avoid these periods may do so. Phone lines dedicated to customer service have been installed. Many Indian banks have also adopted some of these systems. Any customer can pick up this phone and relay his or her complaints, questions, or difficulties.

    The facility is designed to represent the company’s commitment to services and also serve as the customer’s last resort in case everything else fails. Similarly, modern day banks have established phone centers to accept, process, and resolve customer complaints. They also have a customer feedback program whereby whoever the customer complaints to, say a staff employee or manager, will be responsible for giving the client feedback on the status and progress of his or her complaint. The banks have customer service centers where they have created two customer flows or lines to deliver services more effectively. One was for loans and similar products that require customized and personalized services. The other was for the standard and repetitive services like deposits and withdrawals. By creating two service environments that cater to two different types of needs, service is enhanced and speeded up.

    Modern day banks have extended the concept of “Mobile Banking.” Some banks in the European and American continents have launched floating branches on boats that provide full branch bank services, to the convenience and delight of customers living in longhouses along the river banks. To further enhance service, banks have also reconfigured their Automated Teller Machines to dispense not only cash but also commodity prices and information about its products and services. The Korean Technology Banking Corporation (KTB) is setting up a Technology Financing Information Center to serve the various needs of its clients.

    Most of which are setting up joint-venture overseas. The centers will contain a huge database of information analyzed from various data from internal and external sources. By accessing this database, clients will get information about specific technologies, local information, and other data relevant to the ventures they are setting up. To facilitate processing, development financial institutions like the Industrial Development Bank of India requires borrowers to submit loan application forms in electronic floppy disks.

    Some banks and financial institutions have done such a remarkable job in improving and reinventing customer service that they themselves have become the benchmarks of other companies outside the banking sector. For instance, American Express, the credit card company, is the recognized benchmark to emulate when it comes to improving a company’s billing process. Amex’s billing is reportedly the fastest and most accurate in the world in any industry. Xerox, the benchmark for many quality practices, used the Amex model in enhancing its billing system.

    In China, the benchmark for customer service and customer courtesy is surprisingly a bank; The Industrial and Commercial Bank. Hundreds of retail shops and department stores, many of which are known for rude service, visit the bank’s branches to learn a few lessons on satisfying and delighting customers. Before sweeping changes were made, the Industrial and Commercial Bank was also known for bad service and discourteous front line employees who even swore at clients. One radical and highly effective policy it instituted was coming about with a list of words and phrases their employees were forbidden to use when dealing with customers. For instance, the popular expression, “when will you sleep complaining?” was included on the banned list. While other banks may refuse to change or accept soiled or old currency notes, the bank will replace these without question.

    Even clearinghouses have adopted the new service paradigms to support the banks’ initiatives. For instance, the Singapore clearing House Association has cut the clearing of US $ checks deposited in Singapore from two weeks to 3 days. The new system requires participating banks to open US dollar accounts with Citibank to service their respective clients.

    Innovation banking in customer service is indeed a welcome and long-awaited development. Our Article focused on the kind of services provided by the banks in the developed countries but this is not to deny the fact that the banking sector in India and other developing countries has also started doing up well in terms of providing innovative and modern day banking facilities along with good customer service. We hope that other left out banks and financial institutions will follow suit soon. Satisfied customers are the best guarantee of stability and growth. As in other service sectors, bank customers deserve the very best. In the past, banks have rarely treated customers as people, preferring to treat them as account numbers, passbooks, and loan applications. Customer service, in contrast to customer processing, is a concept whose time has come for the banking industry worldwide.

    Innovations of Customer Services in Indian Banking Sector - ilearnlot