INTRODUCTION

It is customer satisfaction drives successful private sector business .highperforming business have direct principals & strategies for achieving customer satisfaction this paper presents a frame work or set of ideas for using customer satisfaction principles & strategies to improve the quality responsiveness and accessibility of public sector and privately provided services in vulnerable communities the frame work suggested that resident who live in though neighborhood can be supported through customer satisfaction strategies to become empowered individuals who's informed prospective influence decisions about what, how .& where services are available to them .

WHAT IS CUSTOMER SATISFACTION? Research has identified a core set of attributes & actions of successful customer service organizations within the market economy. regardless of whether these organizations provide goods or services they recognize the satisfied customers are the key to their success .achieving high levels of customer satisfaction requires a organizations continually monitor and examine the experiences opinions and

suggestions of their customers and people who are potential customers. At the same time that organizations act to attract and satisfy customers the customer them selfs exercise ultimate influence .their satisfaction depends on both their expectations and their treatment

WHY CUTOMER SATISFACTION IS IMPORTANT IN THE BUSINESS WORLD? Marketing experts maintain that satisfied customers are critical to profitability because they , Stay with a co. longer as repeat customers deepen their relationship with the co. Demonstrate less price sensitivity, & Recommend the companys products or services to others According to some customer satisfaction is more important in the current market place than ever before .in the past business relied on technology and product innovation for competitive advantage. big business attitude must give way to

small business mentality were frontline associates treat customers with dignity" CUSTOMER SARTISFACTION OF TOOLS AND STRATERGIES The few strategies for engaging consumers, electing their feedback and responding to their concerns are described below. COMPLAINT RESOLUTION PROCESS: The process of using complaint resolution is used by organizations to track and analyze customer complaints, ensure prompt response, help ten learn from complaints to improve their services. CUSTOMER SERVICE : Questionnaires, comment cards follow-up calls, on line service and other type of polls are most common method used by business organization to asses customer satisfaction performance TESTERS OF SERVICE AND "SECRETS SHOPPERS": Organizations use the strategy to test firsthand how services are being delivered by employees. Secret shoppers are who visited wait3ing rooms and observed interactions between workers and customers to test the way that employees served customers who called

in for services

CONTINOUS FEEDBACK LOOP : This model includes surveys, focus groups, follow up calls, daily conversations etc... To determine customers needs and requirements .this approaches used to plan, design. Measure, asses & improve a service . Customer satisfaction, a business term, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key performance indicator within business and is part of the four of a Balanced Scorecard. In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers, customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of business strategy. There is a substantial body of empirical literature that establishes the benefits of customer satisfaction for firms. Measuring customer satisfaction

Organizations need to retain existing customers while targeting non-customers;. Measuring customer satisfaction provides an indication of how successful the organization is at providing products and/or services to the marketplace. Customer satisfaction is an abstract concept and the actual manifestation of the state of satisfaction will vary from person to person and product/service to product/service. The state of satisfaction depends on a number of both psychological and physical variables which correlate with satisfaction behaviors such as return and recommend rate. The level of satisfaction can also vary depending on other factors the customer, such as other products against which the customer can compare the organization's products. Work done by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (Leonard L) between 1985 and 1988 delivered SERVQUAL which provides the basis for the measurement of customer satisfaction with a service by using the gap between the customer's expectation of performance and their perceived experience of performance. This provides the researcher with a satisfaction "gap" which is semi-quantitative in nature. Cronin and Taylor extended the disconfirmation theory by combining the "gap" described by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry as two different measures (perception and expectation) into a single measurement of performance relative to expectation.

The usual measures of customer satisfaction involve a survey with a set of statements using a Likert Technique or scale. The customer is asked to evaluate each statement in terms of their perception and expectation of performance of the service being measured. Methodologies

American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is a scientific standard of customer satisfaction. Academic research has shown that the national ACSI score is a strong predictor of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, and an even stronger predictor of Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) growth. On the microeconomic level, research has shown that ACSI data predicts stock market performance, both for market indices and for individually traded companies. Increasing ACSI scores has been shown to predict loyalty, word-of-mouth recommendations, and purchase behavior. The ACSI measures customer satisfaction annually for more than 200 companies in 43 industries and 10 economic sectors. In addition to quarterly reports, the ACSI methodology can be applied to private sector companies and government agencies in order to improve loyalty and purchase intent. Two companies have been licensed to apply the methodology of the ACSI for both the private and public sector: CFI Group, Inc.applies the methodology of the ACSI

offline, and Foresee Results applies the ACSI to websites and other online initiatives. ASCI scores have also been calculated by independent researchers, for example, for the mobile phones sector.[5] The Kano model is a theory of product development and customer satisfaction developed in the 1980s by Professor Noriaki Kano that classifies customer preferences into five categories: Attractive, One-Dimensional, Must-Be, Indifferent, Reverse. The Kano model offers some insight into the product attributes which are perceived to be important to customers. Kano also produced a methodology for mapping consumer responses to questionnaires onto his model. SERVQUAL or RATER is a service-quality framework that has been incorporated into customer-satisfaction surveys (e.g., the revised Norwegian Customer Satisfaction Barometer[6]) to indicate the gap between customer expectations and experience. J.D. Power and Associates provides another measure of customer satisfaction, known for its top-box approach and automotive industry rankings. J.D. Power and Associates' marketing research consists primarily of consumer surveys and is publicly known for the value of its product awards.

Other research and consulting firms have customer satisfaction solutions as well. These include A.T. Kearney's Customer Satisfaction Audit process[7], which incorporates the Stages of Excellence framework and which helps define a companys status against eight critically identified dimensions. For Business to Business (B2B) surveys there is the InfoQuest box[1]. This has been used internationally since 1989 on more than 110,000 surveys (Nov '09) with an average response rate of 72.74%. The box is targeted at "the most important" customers and avoids the need for a blanket survey. Improving Customer Satisfaction Published standards exist to help organizations develop their current levels of customer satisfaction. The International Customer Service Institute (TICSI) has released The International Customer Service Standard (TICSS). TICSS enables organizations to focus their attention on delivering excellence in the management of customer service, whilst at the same time providing recognition of success through a 3rd Party registration scheme. TICSS focuses an organizations attention on delivering increased customer satisfaction by helping the organization through a Service Quality Model.

TICSS Service Quality Model uses the 5 P's - Policy, Processes, People, Premises, Product/Services, as well as performance measurement. The implementation of a customer service standard should lead to higher levels of customer satisfaction, which in turn influences customer retention and customer loyalty Customer satisfaction, a business term, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key performance indicator within business and is part of the four of a Balanced Scorecard. In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers, customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of business strategy. There is a substantial body of empirical literature that establishes the benefits of customer satisfaction for firms. Measuring customer satisfaction Organizations need to retain existing customers while targeting non-customers;. Measuring customer satisfaction provides an indication of how successful the organization is at providing products and/or services to the marketplace.

Customer satisfaction is an abstract concept and the actual manifestation of the state of satisfaction will vary from person to person and product/service to product/service. The state of satisfaction depends on a number of both psychological and physical variables which correlate with satisfaction behaviors such as return and recommend rate. The level of satisfaction can also vary depending on other factors the customer, such as other products against which the customer can compare the organization's products. Work done by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (Leonard L) between 1985 and 1988 delivered SERVQUAL which provides the basis for the measurement of customer satisfaction with a service by using the gap between the customer's expectation of performance and their perceived experience of performance. This provides the researcher with a satisfaction "gap" which is semi-quantitative in nature. Cronin and Taylor extended the disconfirmation theory by combining the "gap" described by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry as two different measures (perception and expectation) into a single measurement of performance relative to expectation. The usual measures of customer satisfaction involve a survey with a set of statements using a Likert Technique or scale. The customer is asked to evaluate

each statement in terms of their perception and expectation of performance of the service being measured. Methodologies

American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is a scientific standard of customer satisfaction. Academic research has shown that the national ACSI score is a strong predictor of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, and an even stronger predictor of Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) growth. On the microeconomic level, research has shown that ACSI data predicts stock market performance, both for market indices and for individually traded companies. Increasing ACSI scores has been shown to predict loyalty, word-of-mouth recommendations, and purchase behavior. The ACSI measures customer satisfaction annually for more than 200 companies in 43 industries and 10 economic sectors. In addition to quarterly reports, the ACSI methodology can be applied to private sector companies and government agencies in order to improve loyalty and purchase intent. Two companies have been licensed to apply the methodology of the ACSI for both the private and public sector: CFI Group, Inc.applies the methodology of the ACSI offline, and Foresee Results applies the ACSI to websites and other online

initiatives. ASCI scores have also been calculated by independent researchers, for example, for the mobile phones sector.[5] The Kano model is a theory of product development and customer satisfaction developed in the 1980s by Professor Noriaki Kano that classifies customer preferences into five categories: Attractive, One-Dimensional, Must-Be, Indifferent, Reverse. The Kano model offers some insight into the product attributes which are perceived to be important to customers. Kano also produced a methodology for mapping consumer responses to questionnaires onto his model. SERVQUAL or RATER is a service-quality framework that has been incorporated into customer-satisfaction surveys (e.g., the revised Norwegian Customer Satisfaction Barometer[6]) to indicate the gap between customer expectations and experience. J.D. Power and Associates provides another measure of customer satisfaction, known for its top-box approach and automotive industry rankings. J.D. Power and Associates' marketing research consists primarily of consumer surveys and is publicly known for the value of its product awards. Other research and consulting firms have customer satisfaction solutions as well. These include A.T. Kearney's Customer Satisfaction Audit process[7], which

incorporates the Stages of Excellence framework and which helps define a companys status against eight critically identified dimensions. For Business to Business (B2B) surveys there is the InfoQuest box[1]. This has been used internationally since 1989 on more than 110,000 surveys (Nov '09) with an average response rate of 72.74%. The box is targeted at "the most important" customers and avoids the need for a blanket survey. Improving Customer Satisfaction Published standards exist to help organizations develop their current levels of customer satisfaction. The International Customer Service Institute (TICSI) has released The International Customer Service Standard (TICSS). TICSS enables organizations to focus their attention on delivering excellence in the management of customer service, whilst at the same time providing recognition of success through a 3rd Party registration scheme. TICSS focuses an organizations attention on delivering increased customer satisfaction by helping the organization through a Service Quality Model. TICSS Service Quality Model uses the 5 P's - Policy, Processes, People, Premises, Product/Services, as well as performance measurement. The implementation of a

customer service standard should lead to higher levels of customer satisfaction, which in turn influences customer retention and customer loyalty. Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase. According to Jamier L. Scott. (2002) Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation." Its importance varies by product, industry and customer; defective or broken merchandise can be exchanged, often only with a receipt and within a specified time frame. Retail stores will often have a desk or counter devoted to dealing with returns, exchanges and complaints, or will perform related functions at the point of sale. Customer service may be provided by a person (e.g., sales and service representative), or by automated means called self-service. Examples of self service are Internet sites. However, In the Internet era, a challenge has been to maintain and/or enhance the personal experience while making use of the efficiencies of online commerce. Writing in Fast Company, entrepreneur and customer systems innovator Micah Solomon has made the point that "Online

customers are literally invisible to you (and you to them), so it's easy to shortchange them emotionally. But this lack of visual and tactile presence makes it even more crucial to create a sense of personal, human-to-human connection in the online arena."] Customer service is normally an integral part of a companys customer value proposition. In their book Rules to Break and Laws to Follow, Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D. write that "customers have memories. They will remember you, whether you remember them or not." Further, "customer trust can be destroyed at once by a major service problem, or it can be undermined one day at a time, with a thousand small demonstrations of incompetence.

From the point of view of an overall sales process engineering effort, customer service plays an important role in an organization's ability to generate income and revenue. From that perspective, customer service should be included as part of an overall approach to systematic improvement. Some have argue. that the quality and level of customer service has decreased in recent years, and that this can be attributed to a lack of support or understanding at the executive and middle management levels of a corporation and/or a customer service policy.