Wk 4 BA541 Asign Interacting with Customers Essay

Wk 4 BA541 Asign Interacting with Customers - Essay Example (Global Logistics, n.d.) Currently, the company offers business tips, recipes for diet enthusiasts, rebates, membership programs, etc. (Kraftfoodservice, n.d.) To gather data, the company checked sales of their different product lines, conducted customer interviews, used technology like the Internet, etc. Interactivity, email and wireless communication are greatly involved in their strategies as evidenced on their website. Kraft is very successful in being the premier relationship company in its industry with its superconsumers currently estimated at 2.4 million. (Yoon, E., Carlotti, S. & Moore, D., 2014) Ford Motors was able to become a premier relationship company by improving its image and products. The company gets feedback from blogs and chat rooms. It has also come up with several endeavors designed to increase the satisfaction and experience of its customers like setting up self-service websites for visitors and dealers and a direct dialogue channel for car owners. (Ford’s Innovative, n.d.) Interactivity, email and wireless communication also figure in a lot in Ford’s strategy as evidenced by the programs they have implemented. I can say they are successful in being the premiere relationship company in the automobile industry because they have been popular with customers even outside America. Anadarko has made itself closer to its customer by being very visible in their humanitarian endeavors. It supports Habitat for Humanity, Junior Achievement and United Way and has employed strategies that have allowed it to market around 3 billion cubic feet per day in North America. (Community Involvement, n.d.) On its website, Anadarko has provided links to make the reachable to investors and other queries. As with most companies nowadays, interactivity, email and wireless communication are involved in building their relationships with customers. The email addresses of the key people in their

What did my experience when I first went abroad or visited a different Essay

What did my experience when I first went abroad or visited a different culture than my own How did I overcome the cultural differences - Essay Example The plane trip was uneventful. When I arrived at the Vienna airport however I began to have a bit of culture shock. Everything was written in German—not in Russian! I heard lots of people around me speaking a language I didn’t understand. I went to a shop to buy some food and I could see all the magazines were different and there were many different types of food available that weren’t available in Russia. When I walked out of the airport I was surprised to see that the temperature was much warmer than it was in Russia. I wouldn’t be needing all the winter gear I had brought with me from Russia. I got in a taxi and explained that I wanted to go to a hotel in the downtown part of Vienna. It took quite awhile for the driver to understand what I wanted: communication with people was difficult. As we drove down the streets I noticed that there were many different models of cars on the streets. Many people had more expensive cars than they did in Russia, for ex ample. As I got to know Vienna over the next few days I realized it was a city of wonderful architecture and very friendly people. I was amazed at how clean the streets were and how green the parks were. A big difference was the quality of life of pensioners. In Russia many are very poor, but in Austria I could see they were well taken care of. Generally, people seemed to be happy and kind. I began to realize that I had been nervous about nothing. How did I deal with all of this? In the end I found my trip to be very enjoyable. In the beginning I had been nervous and unsure, but I made sure to keep an open mind. I was curious about Austria and I wanted to learn more. I didn’t necessarily think my own country was better—I wanted to learn. By keeping an open mind while traveling it is easier to adapt to a foreign

Buyer behaviour and market research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Buyer behaviour and market research - Essay Example These activities comprise of; necessity recognition, information research, weighing options, creations of willingness to purchase, the actual act of buying, consumption and discarding. This approach of buyer behaviour has gone through series of development over several decades as emerging research methods and paradigms are amalgamated. A good number of varied methodologies have been amalgamated in researches pertaining to decision making processes based on clashing psychological traditions. The stages that a buyer undergoes while making a purchase decision can be illustrated diagrammatically as follows. The process starts with a vast number of consumers but these consumers may at any stage of the model. A consumer is likely to go through all the stages of the decision process only during the first time of purchasing the commodity. It also occurs during purchase of costly and high quality products. Customer behaviour and buying process can be modelled as shown below. This decision is known as complex decision (Sumathi et al., p. 12). For a vast number of products, the buying behaviour is a frequent affair where the aroused urge is catered for as a habit as a repeat purchasing of the product takes place. In essence, the past reinforcement in their experience contributes directly to purchasing. As a result, the last two stages are skipped. This is known as simple decision. It is important to note that the buyer a times may consider re-entering into the entire decision making process where there are changes in terms of cost, item, availability and services. This is done with a view of picking alternative choices. The following diagram shows a stimulus response model in purchasing behaviours In order to determine the potentiality, size and demand, there is need to conduct a thorough market analysis that will take into consideration the attractiveness and

An Analysis of Psychology in Art Essay Example for Free

An Analysis of Psychology in Art Essay Kahlo’s painting Self Portrait with Cropped Hair (1940) and Lichtenstein’s Drowning Girl (1963) both use emotive techniques in order to convey more subtle feelings. While Lichtenstein employed a more bold look to his female subject, Kahlo uses a formal stance in her self-portrait, but both give the viewer the idea of sorrow being the center subject behind these female figures. Kahlo’s self portrait shows a woman on a chair (presumably Kahlo) with the cut pieces of her hair scattered all about her. This use of the hair being all around the main figure gives the viewer the impression of a battle – that Kahlo lost. Hair is a metaphor in the painting – a metaphor of peace or strength. In the bible the symbol of hair can be found in the story of Samson and Delilah in which Samson got his strength from his hair, and the prostitute Delilah cut it all off thereby rendering the hero useless. If then, Kahlo’s hair is her strength it is almost as though the viewer is peering on to a death sentence of the woman. The death sentence in Lichtenstein’s work is much more blatant as the drowning girl states in her bubble â€Å"I’d rather sink than call Brad for help† which coordinates this theme of desperation and sorrow. The stance of either female in their respected representations are opposite: Lichtenstein gives his subject a subdued and hopeless stance being already almost entirely submerged in the water and thereby closer to death while in Kahlo’s painting, although nearly all of her hair is spread about her in a form of defeat, the figure stands in erect position rather in a stance of having lost the battle. There is distinctly more depth present in Kahlo’s painting, with the cut hair scattered on the ground and the angles of the chair making the viewer fell as though they are peering into this event. In Lichtenstein’s work the viewer is given a close up of the woman who doesn’t allow for much depth to be viewed – but in classic Lichtenstein technique, his use of flat planes further develop this loss of field of depth. This is perhaps a metaphoric sense of depth since Kahlo’s portrait is subtle and the viewer has to read into the subject and the subtler emotions involved in the work while in Lichtenstein’s work the viewer merely has to read what the girl says in order to understand everything about the painting in one glance. With a second glance at the figure in Kahlo’s work (and with the history of her recent divorce from her unfaithful husband Diego Rivera) the viewer may guess that this cutting of the hair is symbolic of Kahlo’s state of emotions. Perhaps she is shedding the part of herself that Diego had claimed as Kahlo has said of her art, I do not know if my paintings are Surrealist or not, but I do know that they are the most frank expression of myself. (Kahlo). Thus, in cutting of her hair (presumably he loved long haired women) she is making a claim of self identity away from her cheating husband and thereby the painting becomes transformed into a woman losing hair, into a woman gaining her identity. The top of Kahlo’s painting even states as much in saying, â€Å"Look, if I loved you it was because of your hair. Now that you are without hair, I dont love you anymore. † Lichtenstein’s portrait of a woman who is also in the bad end of love also has a small bit of this identity. She states that she would rather die than have Brad come and help her, but the viewer wonders, why doesn’t the woman try and save herself? The depth that is lacking in the field of vision with Lichtenstein’s work is replaced by a depth into personality of the woman. A psychologist might argue that the woman has an Ophelia complex (from Hamlet) in which she would rather die than live without her lover. In either instance, it is clear that both artists are trying to depict an emotional state in which love is the cause of the effects. Lichtenstein’s work is predominately innovated through DC comics (a panel of which inspired The Drowning Girl). His use of Benday dots emphasize a stylistic approach. Kahlo’s art is more surreal in nature and symbolic in style as is evident in Self Portrait with Cropped Hair. In surrealistic style, Kahlo allows the interchange of gender to play a dominate role in the painting. The figure, Kahlo herself, is dressed in men’s slacks and a shirt, thus allowing the short hair to almost define her in a masculine capacity. In Lichtenstein’s work the gender of the painting is quite clear with the woman showing attributes a helpless woman drowning in the water as well as in love. This woman relinquishes her control over her fate in a rather docile component of femininity (the viewer is reminded of the big bosomed females in horror movies who run from the monster in drastic steps only to fall in their high heels and be destroyed by their pursuer). In Kahlo’s painting, perhaps because of this gender bending idea, the woman becomes like a man, that is, able to survive, or, in comparison, she becomes the pursuer and thereby strong. In opposition to the bible story then, Kahlo does not in fact become weak in losing her hair, but rather the painting is meant to suggest that she becomes strong in this shedding of hair, and husband. In either painting it is clear that both artists are interested in the psychology of their subject. In the DC comic world by which Lichtenstein gained inspiration, women were somewhat helpless creatures in the 1960’s only gaining a feminine stance in the 1980’s or so. His vision of women through his portrait gives the viewer the idea that without love, a woman does not have an identity, and thus, death is a logical substitute to not having a ‘Brad’. In Kahlo’s painting the same may be deciphered; she allows her femininity to surround her on the ground in the form of her hair, and her transformation into a man makes her stronger. It is then interesting to note the decades which lie between either painting – it may be said that Kahlo was progressive with her painting style and her representation of women (perhaps taking note of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening in which the protagonist cannot live in a man’s world and thus drowns herself in an act of freedom). It is clear that in both artworks there are strong emotions which propel the subjects into the places they stand before the viewer. The emotional journey has come to an end in either painting or the female figures either claim their identities (in the case of Kahlo) or they become submerged in a world where they cannot live without love (in the case of Lichtenstein). The psychology of the main characters becomes evident through the artists’ rendering through the use of space, script, and symbolism. Works Cited Alloway, Lawrence, Roy Lichtenstein, N. Y. : Abbeville, 1983 759. 1 L701A Claudia Bauer, Frida Kahlo, Munich: Prestel Verlag, 2005. Frida Kahlo, ed. Elizabeth Carpenter, exh. cat. , Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 2007 759. 972 K12FR Gannit Ankori, Imagining Her Selves: Frida Kahlo’s Poetics of Identity and Fragmentation, Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 2002. Hayden Herrer, Frida Kahlo: The Paintings, N. Y. : Harper Collins, 1991. 759. 072 K12H Lobel, Michael, Image Duplicator: Roy Lichtenstein and the Emergence of Pop Art, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002. Pop Art: A Critical History, Steven H. Madoff, ed. , Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1997 709. 73 P8242 Waldmann, Diane, Roy Lichtenstein, exh. cat.. , N. Y. : Guggenheim Museum, 1993. 759. 1 L701WAL Whiting, Cecile, A Taste for Pop: Pop Art, Gender and Consumer Culture, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Christian Anthropology

Christian Anthropology Introduction This essay will explore, from the perspective of Catholic anthropology, the Churchs views on resurrection. The paper begins by looking at Platos dualist theory of the soul and its impact on the development of thinking. The views of Aristotle and his influence on the writings of St Thomas Aquinas on the nature of the human soul. It will also explore the notion of the whole person and then relate this to different anthropological approaches. The essay will conclude with the teaching of the Catholic Church Magisterium. Plato Dualism In the tradition of philosophy there are two main views of human beings; Dualism where immaterial soul and material body meet and Materialism where we are one being. (Selman 2000, pg13). The Father of Dualism may be said to be Plato who lived in Athens from around 428-347 BC and who was, as far we are aware, the first to write on the subject of the soul at any length. Plato presents at least two theories. The best known, because of its enduring influence, was the one he developed in the Phaedo, which describes a dialogue his friend Socrates has with some friends shortly before his death on what happens at death. Selman (2000, pg 12) states that there are two main theories about the human body and its relationship with the soul. One of these is the dualist view, which suggests that there is a total division between the immaterial soul and the material body. The other is the idea that the body and soul of a human being are completely unified. In his theory, through the words of Socrates, Plato holds that the soul is separate from the body, is immortal, immaterial and pre exists the body and therefore does not depend on the body for its existence or survival. This concept -that the body and soul are two different entities, which happen to uncomfortably occupy the same space during life -is termed dualism. Platos theory goes further by elevating the role of the soul. The pre existent, immortal soul spends time in the body -a period of punishment -and death releases the soul from its exile in the body. Not surprisingly, Platos concept of dualism produced difficulties for early Christian philosophers and theologians, although his views were not unpopular and his view of the soul remained the dominant one in Christian thinking for the first thousand years (Selman 2000, pg15). Aristotle Aristotle was another philosopher who tried to explain the idea of the body and mind. Even though Aristotle was a pupil of Plato, his thoughts on dualism were very different from that of Plato. He still believed that the soul was the part of the body that gives it life and that the soul turned all physical form into a living organism of its particular type. However Aristotle believed that the body and soul were inseparable, the soul still develops peoples skills, character and temper, but it cannot survive death. Once the body dies then the soul dies with it. The soul is the form of the body, because it is what makes the body be a living body (Selman 2000, pg17). Aristotle developed the concept that the soul was the principle of life and life is manifest in activity. From these activities, he distinguished three types of soul: vegetative, sensitive and rational. Plants have the basic or vegetative soul allowing them to grow and reproduce. Animals have a sensitive soul enabling them to grow, reproduce, and experience sensation and movement. Humans have a rational soul, which enables them to grow, reproduce, and experience sensation and movement and to think, reason and understand. In all it is the type of soul, which defines the form of the body and thus body and soul are untied as one being. (Selman 2000, pg 19). For Aristotle then a body without a soul is dead matter. Dead matter no longer acts. It is only acted upon. While Aristotle could see that the body and soul were united he could not make the leap to speak about an immortal soul. This would be left to later philosophers such as Aquinas who would consider this point from a Christian perspective. Aquinas agreed with Aristotle in the sense that he thought that the soul animated the body and gave it life and he called the soul the anima. Aquinas believed that that the soul operated independently of the body and that things that are divisible into parts, are destined to decay. As the soul is not divisible, it is able to survive death. However, because of the link with a particular human body, each soul becomes individual so even when the body does die, the soul once departed still retains the individual identity of the body it once occupied. Descartes believed the soul retains its nature in the absence of the body but Aquinas argued that the disembodied soul is in an unnatural state. The human soul is naturally the form of the living body. Now that the soul is what makes our body live; so the soul is the primary source of all these activities that differentiate levels of life: growth, sensation, movement, understanding mind or soul, it is the form of our body (St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theological). St Augustine, like most of the Church fathers, was influenced by the teaching of Plato who considered that the body and soul were two substances. (Selman 2000, pg 18), St Augustine held that the soul, like the body, is derived from the parents in the act of creation. According to Augustine, original sin is transmitted from Adam down through the ages in this way. This is the way in which he explains how original sin could exist in a soul created by God because God could only create that which was good. He later renounced his view that the soul is traduced. This heresy was condemned by the Council of Braga in 561 which stated that the soul is not traduced but is directly created by God (Neuner and Dupuis, pg 167). The title phrase introduces the idea of the whole person as opposed to parts of a person, which requires us to discuss how a person could be understood to be in parts. The most common way to talk about the relationship of the body to soul is Cartesian dualism, of the separateness of the two. Cartesian dualism comes from Descartes, who in fact first argued that the body and mind,soul were separate and distinct so that he would be able to continue making medical advances without the interference of the Church. In saying that the body and soul were separate he made the soul the domain of the Church, leaving secular scientists to look at the body, whereas before secular scientists had been looked at with suspicion or even imprisoned for trying to make discoveries However, dualism has a longer history than this even in the West, with Plato and other classical philosophers discussing ideas about the material world as a shadow world of a pure world of ideas. This could be seen as another wa y of describing the sinfulness of the material world body and the perfection of heaven, which will be the eventual home of the soul, freed from its imperfect trappings (The way of perfection by St Teresa of Avila CH 1 17). The Resurrection of the Flesh The quote in the title comes from the The Reality of Life after Death, written by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1979 and published amongst the Vatican II writings in 1982. It refers to the teaching of the Catholic Church of the resurrection of the flesh, in which it is not just the soul, which survives after death, but the body as well. This can be related to other Catholic teachings, such as its tradition about Mary, who ascended bodily into heaven (LG 58), and teachings about the role of the flesh and denial of the flesh in salvation. Tertullian, talks extensively about the role of the body in salvation, making a claim for the potential purity of the flesh by pointing out that man was made of flesh before the fall: the clay, therefore, was obliterated and absorbed into flesh. When did this happen? At the time that man became a living soul by the inbreathing of God (Tertullian 2004, pg 49). He also shows the link between the actions of the flesh and the state of salvation of the soul: the flesh, indeed is washed, in order that the soul may be cleansed, the flesh is signed with the cross, that the soul too may be fortified the flesh feeds on the body and blood of Christ, that the soul likewise may fatten on its God. (Tertullian 2004, pg 63) His intention is to show the relationship between body and soul, to assert that resurrection at the end of days will be bodily, and to extol the mortification of the flesh in the name of Christ, but in talking so extensively of the differences between the two. Selman (2000, pg 60) states that the human body can be raised up on the last day because it will be joined once again to its soul which has remained in existence since they were separated at death. Furthermore, if the soul is not immortal then there can be no Resurrection (Selman 2000, pg 60). For Aquinas, when God raises the dead on the last day, souls will be reunited with what is materially continuous with what came from the mothers womb Selman (2000, pg 59) states that the same person can be raised up because the body will be restored to the same form as it originally had in this life. The above views contrast very differently to, for example, the attitude of the Mormon church, as studied by Fanella Cannell (2005, pg 335- 51 ) . In her article The Christianity of Anthropology, she looks at the assumptions in anthropology, which are descended from its Christian background a particular sort of Christian background though. The Mormon Church show how the same teachings can be interpreted in different ways and that dualism is not necessarily, what Christianity has to result in. Not only do Mormons believe in full, literal resurrection, but also they believe that heaven is going to be exactly like earth, but perfected. In particular, they believe that people will continue to have children and families into eternity, and it is legitimate to ask questions like will there be chocolate in heaven? a question that most other denominations of Christianity would view to be frivolous or inappropriate Church Teaching Magisterium The Catechism (365) declares that the unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be the form of the body. The Council of Vienne (1312) refuted all other doctrines, which were not consistent with this declaration (CCCC 365). The Lateran Council (1513) also condemned any philosophies, which denied that the soul is essentially the form of the human body (CCC 366). The The Second Vatican Council (GS 14) declared that man made of body and soul is a unity. Furthermore, the human body is not to be despised as it is part of Gods Creation (Gen 2:7) and will be raised up on the last day. St Paul said that the human body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 3:16). As a result it should never be undermined, or seen as something that separates humanity from God. Vatican II teaching of the soul as a very separate entity to the soul: we believe that the souls of all those who die in the grace of Christ, whether they must still make expiation in the fire of Purgatory, or whether from the moment they leave their bodies they are received by Jesus into Paradise like the good thief, go to form that People of God. (Austin Flannery 1982, 394). By using the phrase leave their bodies, Vatican II demonstrates that they see the soul and body as detachable. Even if the body is to be resurrected eventually, it is still the soul that gets to heaven first, after leaving the body behind (Teaching notes Perth). Conclusion In considering the question, I have looked at the nature of the soul from main philosophies of the soul as put forward by Plato and Aristotle. I have shown how Augustine, Tertullian, and Thomas Aquinas to present a Christian anthropology. I have contrasted this view with the Mormon Church and their belief of the resurrection. I have found that the Magisterium, in seeking to hold true to revelation and Biblical tradition, has preferred to use the teaching of St Thomas Aquinas, which holds that the soul is the form of the body. The soul is with the body now and will be again after the resurrection from the dead Bibliography Wansbrough, Henry. 1994.(gen ed) The New Jerusalem Bible. London: Darton, Longman Todd Flannery Austin, O. P. 1982. Vatican Council II Vol 2. New York: Costello Publishing Co. Neuner J. and Dupuis J. 2001. The Christian Faith. New York: St. Pauls/Alba House The Catechism of the Catholic Church. 1994 London: G. Chapman Aquinas, St Thomas. Summa Theologica Part Ia q.75 articles 2 and 6; and q.76 art1. Tertullian, 2004. On the Resurrection of the Flesh. Kessinger Publishers. Cannell, F. 2005. The Christianity of Anthropology Anthropology Today 43: 335-51 Selman, Francis. et al.2002. Christian Anthropology. Birmingham: Maryvale Inst Internet International Theological Commission. (2002) Communion and Stewardship: Human Persons Created in the Image of God. (online) Available from: Vatican web (April 2008) Saint Teresa of Avila. The way of perfection. (1995) (online) Available from: http://www.ourladyswarriors.org/saints/wayperf.htm. (April 2008)

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight :: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a story full of tests and inner challenges, was written by an unknown author somewhere in the late 14th century. The poem begins the same as it ends: with the mentioning of the fall of Troy. After the fall of Troy, the Trojan survivors ventured to Europe where each began a new kingdom. "Ticius to Tuscany, and towers raises, Langobard in Lombardy lays out homes, and far over the French Sea, Felix Brutus on many broad hills and high Britain he sets, most fair." (Norton p. 202) In the same lines in the original text, "And fer ouer the French flod Felix Brutus On mony bonkkes ful brode Bretayn he settez wyth wynne" Britain is described as a land that is settled "wyth wynne" or, with joy. The second stanza describes how many warriors and "bold boys" were bred in Britain. The text continues and describes that many exceptional things are happening in this land than in any other for a long time. Most importantly, the text proceeds to offer a description that sets up the visualization and stature of the setting and characters included in the poem. Of all of the British kings, "King Arthur was counted most courteous of all" (Norton p. 203). He was the most respected, and therefore was the most powerful and most successful. There are many stories about the Arthurian Legend, but the author denotes that the story that he is about to retell, is one that is incomparable to any other. "Wherefore an adventure I aim to unfold, that a marvel of might some men think it, and one unmatched among Arthur's wonders. If you will listen to my lay but a little while, as I heard it in hall, I shall hasten to tell anew." (Norton p. 203) The author is saying that he heard it in passing and doe sn't want to offend anyone by what he is saying. The final stanza of this passage offers a description to the scenery, traditions and some of the usual festivities that take place at Camelot. Under King Arthur's command, the New Year's party is underway, including song, dance, and competitions. It describes how only the youngest and best of all the knights and the fairest of all the ladies were present. "And the loveliest ladies that lived on earth ever, and he the comeliest king, that that court holds, for all this fari fold in their first age were still.

Creating a culture of Customer Care Essay

1. Good customer care is vital for the success of the centre as the businesses success revolves around the customers, without the customers there would be no business. The benefits for the business of good customer care are – * It gains a positive reputation (which means that people will spread through word of mouth that they received excellent customer service and will recommend the business to their friends and family) * Creates a client base ( Builds a relationship between the client and the business) * Repeat Business (Customers will be so pleased with the high quality of the service provided to them that they will return in the future and recommend the business to family and friends. The benefits to the staff are – * Incentives/bonuses ( for their hard work, commitment to the company and providing excellent customer service to customers) * Job security/ promotions/less pay offs and redundancies ( As the client base expands, the manager of the business may promote people due to their hard work or provide them with job security. The benefits for the customer are – * Satisfaction (The customer would be happy with the product or service provided by the business and feel like a valued customer, they would the return to the business and build a relationship with the business, therefore resulting in them feeling a certain loyalty to the business and purchasing from them often and recommending them to friends and family. * Aftercare ( If there are any problems with the product, the business can provide a solution such as an exchange, refund, advice and returns etc. 2. Internal customers are departments or co-workers within an organisation that may help or give information to other departments to help provide a product or service to an external customer. (E.g. human resources, funding, credit control, stakeholders, employees, shareholders) External customer is a person or business who is not directly linked to the business and is interested in the business and would like to purchase goods or services from the business. (E.g. joiner, builder, consumer, student) The connection between the internal customer and external customer is called the chain of service. The better you treat your internal customers, the better external service you will get. 3. The organisational structure and management best suited to supporting effective customer care is a shorter and flatter one as it allows an easy flow of communication (chain of command) there are less people to consult with and the chance of miscommunication if lower than in a tall structure. It will support effective customer care as the lower level employees can give direct feedback from the customers to management easily and complaints can be dealt with quickly and promptly, it will help the business improve and grow and the customers will gain satisfaction as there feedback will be heard. 4. Empowerment is giving the lower level employees the initiative and power to make decisions on their own without consulting a manager or higher ranking employee within boundaries. It gives the employee a sense of power and save the employees troubling superiors and pulling them from their important duties. It can increase profit within the business and give employees more responsibility. Empowerment helps achieve good customer service as it gives the employees the power to make decisions a high ranked employee would, it gives the employee confidence and authority. It prevents the customer standing around while the employee consults with a manager about a decision that’s to be made and it gives the customer faith in the employee as the employee doesn’t have to consult a manager. Total quality management is an approach that seeks improvement of quality and performance which will exceed or match the customers expectations. The flatter the organisational structure the more empower that employees will receive therefore giving them a higher level of responsibility and decision making, which relieves the managers of the tasks of making less important decisions. 5. The key factors that will contribute to excellent customer service within the visitor centre are – * Staff (staff that have the knowledge to assist and treat customers, have attended regular training courses, are friendly and willing to help) * Feedback forms ( for customers to complete so that the business can see how the improve their customer service so they can strive to do better) * Events/Fun days ( to encourage new clients/visitors) * Customer Aftercare (exchanges, returns and refunds) * Leaflets (alerting visitors of different events that will be taking places) * Following up telephone calls/ emails * Product knowledge * Advice on purchases The strategies that I would suggest for dealing with complaints would be – Let a trained member of staff knowledgeable(empathetic, compassionate and sympathetic) that deals with complaints to deal with the customer. * Log complaint * Apologize for the inconvenience * Propose a solution * Offer compensation Face to face * Let a trained member of staff knowledgeable(empathetic, compassionate and sympathetic) that deals with complaints to deal with the customer. * Take customer into a private room ( to provide them with privacy and confidentiality) * Log the complaint * Apologize for the inconvenience * Propose a solution * Offer compensation Customer Aftercare is the care that the customer receives after they make a purchase (good or service) with a company. Customer care includes returns, refunds, exchange and warranty. Customer Aftercare contributes to improving the levels of customer satisfaction because if the customer is unsatisfied about a product or service that has been provided to them, they can them receive a refund, exchange the goods or exchange it for another good. They will be satisfied with the aftercare they have received and return to the business in the future as they had a good experience. Customer aftercare is vital as it is a part of customer service; it’s the company’s way of showing commitment to their customer service. Examples of customer aftercare are follow up phone calls, text messages or online surveys, this is vital to the business as they can gather feedback on customer service, products, alert customers on upcoming events, sales, special offers and measure customer satisfaction. Customers then feel like their opinion matters and feel valued.