阅读理解：Customer RelationsCustomer

阅读理解：

Customer Relations

Customer relations describes the resources of a company-be it a store, manufacturer, or service industry-that are devoted to discerning and then serving the needs of customers. In earlier times, this was known as the complaint department, the part of the operation that dealt with negative customer comments, returns, and other concerns. Renaming this function customer relations is more than a word game. It reflects the proactive nature of the department in modern industry and retailing. Customer service extends beyond sales and advertising to ensure that the company understands its customer base and what its customers really want. Customer relations works within the business to direct the quality of the product or service, its delivery, and advertising strategy to meet that need. This part of a business operation responds to customer inquiries and complaints and resolves problems so as not to lose customers; at the same time, customer relations works with the marketing department to attract new customers.

The short answer to why so much attention should be paid to customer needs and dissatisfied customers is that such attention has been found to support long-term success. Some of the earliest such endeavors began with concern over product reputation-as far back as the early days of the Industrial Revolution in the l89Os. Placing one’s name on a product was considered to be a bond of tie between the customer and the merchant and/or the manufacturers.

Over the years, many firms developed a policy of “the customer is always right,” finding that it was more profitable to take a small loss and keep a customer than to argue with customers about alleged defective products or problems that occurred with staff. Firms developed complaint departments to deal with customers who had bad experiences with products or services.

As consumer consciousness grew in the late twentieth century the focus of the industry shifted from dealing with dissatisfied customers as they complained, to a more active approach of reaching out to discover why the complaint was made , to ensure that the dissatisfied customers remain customers, and to study each case and improve the product or service and the way in which it was delivered to customers. In the 1 960s the complaint department began to be known as the customer relations department. Customer relations departments still take on complaints. The advent of toll-free numbers makes it easier for people to register complaints-and praise. Customers who phone in praise for or complaints about a product are often offered free coupons and recipes for that product.

Studies of the customer relations movement show that the shift to an aggressive policy of customer study is more than “nice”, it is profitable for business. Resources expended in the customer service area are more than offset by savings from customers not lost.  Goodwill toward all customers reaps tangible rewards in the form of increased profits for business.

In a study of service industries, Ron Zemke cited two studies by Technical Assistance Research Institute (TARI) in Washington D. C., on consumer complaints. TARI found that one in four customers was upset enough about a product or service or both to seek an alternative business for that product or service. Of those unhappy customers, however, only five percent had bothered to complain. The other 95 percent just voted with their cash by switching. To reduce the loss of customers in the future, customer relations tries to analyze the five percent who complained in order to understand the ninety-five percent who did not complain yet were unhappy. Customer

relations must anticipate the needs of each individual Customer, up and down the social scale, across the racial and cultural lines that make up the American melting pot.

Zemke and others offer many strategies for building a good customer relations department.The best strategies involve learning as much as possible about the customer base and training staff well as to what the customers want and the way they want it. Zemke and others show that a company with excellent service toward customers is one that understands the tie between employee relations and customer relations. A well-trained satisfied employee is better able to satisfy the needs of the customer.

An acknowledged leader in customer service in the retailing field is Nordstrom’s department store. Nordstrom’s stresses quality in every aspect of its service and merchandise down to the last detail. A 1994 Washington Post article about a survey of the quality of women’s rest rooms in metro-D. C. stores and malls reported that the heat overall was Nordstrom’s. Nordstrom’s was not seeking to highlight this area. When interviewed the Nordstrom local officials seemed not to understand the fuss. Maintaining their store rest rooms as one would maintain one’s home bathroom for expected guests is just one small part of Nordstrom’s total commitment to customer service. Nordstrom associates are encouraged to learn about their customers, to send thank-you notes, to send postcard reminders to customers when products they might like arrive and to give regular customers advance notification of Nordstrom’s infrequent sales.

The conversion of complaint departments to customer relations departments became so widespread that in 1973 the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals in Business was founded.Consisting of more than 3, 000 members who are involved with the management of consumer affairs divisions of business, the society takes the cause of customer relations to a national level, promoting harmonious relationships between business, government, and consumers. The society works on ways to help businesses assess and compare their successes and failures in consumer relations and maintains a library and bookstore of materials on customer relations as well as publishing a magazine, Mobius Quarterly.

According to the text, when dissatisfied customers complain, the most important thing a business should do is to ________.
A、set up a complaint department
B、deal with customers’ complaints
C、find out why they complain
D、study some typical cases
【正确答案】：C
【名师解析】:根据文本内容，当不满意的客户提出投诉时，企业最应该做的是找出他们为什么会投诉。文本中提到，随着消费者意识在20世纪末的增长，行业的焦点从处理投诉的客户转移到了更主动的方法，即主动了解投诉的原因，以确保不满意的客户仍然是客户，并研究每个案例，改进产品或服务以及向客户交付的方式。这表明，了解客户投诉的原因对于企业来说至关重要，这有助于企业更好地理解客户需求，并采取相应措施来提高客户满意度和保留客户。因此，正确答案是选项C：找出他们为什么会投诉。