Report and Customer Service Plan (2000 words), driven by a their own business requirements and comparison to their field work, where the student will develop a customer services plan: assessing given data and creating a tactical plan that will improve the customer service techniques. (100%) (Learning Outcomes 1 - 4)

Shaw, C. & Ivens, J. (2004) Building Great Customer Experiences Palgrave Macmillan.
Bacal, R. (2004) Perfect Phrases for Customer Service: 101 Customer Service Training Scripts for Handling Any Situation
Blanchard, K. & Bowles, S. (2004) Raving fans: Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service Harper Collins Business.

Staffordshire University electronic resources and off-campus library facilities
The Blackboard website

Journals
Journal of Marketing
Marketing
Marketing Week
Retail Week
International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management

Market Research Reports
Market research reports from Euromonitor, Mintel and Keynote are available in print format and online from
the Learning Centres.
HABIA

Electronic Resources
British Retail Consortium (www.brc.org.uk)
Institute for Retail Studies (www.marketing.stir.ac.uk/irs/)
Centre for Retail Research (www.retailresearch.org/home/index.php)
Interactive Media in Retail Group (www.imrg.org/)
The Committee for the History of Retailing and Distribution (www.wlv.ac.uk/shass/chord.html)
Forrester Research Retail (www.forrester.com/Research)
Chain Store Age (USA)
HABIA (www.habia)

The learning strategy for this module requires students to commit 150 learning hours (including assessment). This will include 24 hours of class support and 126 hours of independent and self directed study.

The class sessions will include formal lectures, case study analysis and group discussions based on student experiences in the subject area. Students will be encouraged to integrate their work based experiences with new knowledge and skills developed in the classroom as the module progresses.

This module develops the learners ability to look objectively at the entire spectrum of communication with the client in order to ensure every aspect of the business meets the highest standards, and where there is improvement needed to identify this and action and evaluate this objective.

The learner will do this by
- Identifying the numerous opportunities and points at which a client makes contact with your business both formally and informally
- Ensuring regular quality checks through the mystery or unknown shopper
- Developing mechanisms to deal with client dissatisfaction, (research and evaluate client requirements)
- Understanding the client care culture
- Developing strategic plans to improve the quality of client care in the salon
- How to set up quality systems to monitor client care in the salon
- Understanding the principles of client care management
- How to define the quality of client care in the salon.