Question

Customer service is not only important to we the customer, but it is important our company and our customers. We want our customers to return again and again to improve the lifetime value of that customer to our company, right? Compare reactive and proactive customer service. Define customer service failure, and provide an example for a grocery store. What are customer needs and wants, and why are these important to the topic of customer service?

Answer 1

Reactive customer service refers to a situation where the customer experiences a failure and calls in for help. So it basically solving the problem of the customer when he reaches to you. On the other hand proactive approach is reaching out to the customer beforehand so that there is no bad or failure experience.

Service failure is a broader term where in the customer is not satisfied with the product, service or with experience while dealing with your company. It can be rude behavior while dealing with client, bad quality of product or late delivery.
For example at a grocery store while purchasing a product the customer was inquiring on he details of the product from the shopkeeper, where the shopkeeper didn't provide any information and rather replied very coldly to the customer and in turn the customer fought and left the store without purchasing anything. This was a bad experience for the customer and is a service failure.
Needs are the requirements of a consumer which if associated with a product becomes a want. It is important to know what a customer needs so that the service or product can be designed in such a way in order to facilitate a better service experience.