WORKBOOK MODEL ANSWERS

Apply client service techniques to improve service delivery 

US ID: 120310
NQF LEVEL 5 
WORKBOOK ANSWERS

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WORKBOOK MODEL ANSWERS

Field 03 - Business, Commerce and Management Studies

NQF Level 5
2nd Edition Nov 2012

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and data used in examples herein are fictitious unless otherwise noted

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WORKBOOK MODEL ANSWERS

Group Activity / Pair Activity:1

1. Define and explain the term customer.

2. Identify methods that can be used to measure
customer satisfaction.
3. Describe the steps that can be taken to measure and to
determine customer royalty.
4. Carry out a research on the way how you can
measures that customers are satisfied and present
your findings in form of a report. Your report should
include;
a) Winning customer loyalty.
b) Satisfying customer needs and wants.
c) Marketing mix used in marketing.
d) Promotional tools used in marketing.

Model answers
1. A customer (also known as a client, buyer, or purchaser) is
the recipient of a good, service, product, or idea, obtained
from a seller, vendor, or supplier for a monetary or other
valuable consideration. Customers are generally categorized
into two types
 An intermediate customer or trade customer (more
informally: "the trade") who is a dealer that purchases goods
for re-sale.

 An ultimate customer who does not in turn re-sell the things

bought but either passes them to the consumer or actually is
the consumer.

2.

 Open questions gather information

 Closed questions get the sale
 Reflective questions clarify information
3. Customer loyalty is the degree to which customers will
patronize your business and your business alone because
you've developed or created an emotional bond with them.
You've gone beyond their expectations and addressed
something more innate - their emotional needs as a

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WORKBOOK MODEL ANSWERS

consumer. Customers have come to expect fast, friendly

service. They expect to get an answer to their questions. They
expect you'll answer their call promptly and return their
messages. Do those things well and you'll be in the game.
4.
a) Winning customer loyalty.
b) Satisfying customer needs and wants.
c) Marketing mix used in marketing
d) Promotional tools used in marketing

Group Activity / Pair Activity:2

1. Describe a need to prioritise customer’s needs and wants and

show how customer prioritises can be done effectively.
2. Identify challenges that are likely to be meant in trying to
establish customer satisfaction.
3. Describe the tools that can be used to prioritise customer’s
needs and wants.
4. Carry out a research on the measures that can be put in place
to ensure that customer royalty is maintained and suggest
ways of protecting a business from outside competitors.

Model answers
1. Prioritization helps to;
a) To build customer loyalty
b) To satisfy customer needs
c) To increase sales
d) To increase customer satisfaction
e) Sales volume (dollars or units)
f) Gross margin on sales
g) Length of established relationship
2. Challenges
a) Costs are likely to increase due to advertisement.
b) Competitors can borrow the same ideas

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WORKBOOK MODEL ANSWERS

c) Price discrimination.
3. Tools of prioritilisation

a) Paired Comparison Analysis

b) Grid Analysis

c) The Action Priority Matrix

d) The Urgent/Important Matrix

e) Pareto Analysis

Group Activity / Pair Activity:3

1. List down and explain the methods that can be used when
listening to the customers and suggest measures that can be
used to improve on listening skills.
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of listening
to your customers and show how this can be done if best
results are to be achieved.
3. Show how customer feedback can be done effectively and
make an effort to design a checklist showing items that needs
to be addressed.

Model answers
1. Methods include;
Telephone
E mails
Direct approach
Television
Radios etc.
2. We listen to customer because of the following:
a) Understand their needs

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WORKBOOK MODEL ANSWERS

b) Understand their wants

c) To establish customer loyalty
d) Improve quality
e) Out compete competitors
f) Business perspective.
3. Design a checklist in form of questionnaire that can be given
to clients to give their opinions .At least 5 questionnaires
should be filled.

Group Activity / Pair Activity:4

1. Describe the significance of an action plan to the

business that is striving to achieve the best results.
2. List down the nature and the types of stakeholders that
need to be involved in business affairs.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of the
degree of involvement of stakeholders in the business
affairs.
4. Identify factors that might result into conflicts with
stakeholders.
5. Suggest ways of avoiding such conflicts in business.

Model answers
1. Significance of the action plan.
a) Relevance of action plan
b) Increase productivity
c) Increase efficiency
d) Increase sales
e) Increase customer satisfaction
f) Increase profits
2. Types of stakeholders
 People who will be affected by an endeavour and can
influence it but who are not directly involved with doing the work.

 In the private sector, people who are (or might be) affected by

any action taken by an organization or group. Examples are
parents, children, customers, owners, employees, associates,
partners, contractors, and suppliers, people that are related or
located nearby. Any group or individual who can affect or who is
affected by achievement of a group's objectives.

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WORKBOOK MODEL ANSWERS

 An individual or group with an interest in a group's or an

organization's success in delivering intended results and in
maintaining the viability of the group or the organization's product
and/or service. Stakeholders influence programs, products, and
services.

 Any organization, governmental entity, or individual that has a

stake in or may be impacted by a given approach to
environmental regulation, pollution prevention, energy
conservation, etc.

 A participant in a community mobilization effort, representing a

particular segment of society. School board members,
environmental organizations, elected officials, chamber of
commerce representatives, neighbourhood advisory council
members, and religious leaders are all examples of local
stakeholders.

3. Shareholders involvement.
a) Control purpose
b) Increase productivity and profit.
c) Stewardess Principal.
d) Reduce risks on their investment.
4. Producing accurate and timely reports

Group Activity / Pair Activity:5

1. Design an action plan that can be presented to the

stakeholders. Show clearly how it can be
communicated to the stake holders.
2. Describe the relevance of an action plan to the
business.
3. Show how an action plan can be developed and
identify issues that need to be addressed.

Model answers
1. Action plans.
a) Customer Acceptance Action Plan
b) Customer Appreciation Action Plan
c) Customer Care Action Plan
d) Customer Feedback Action Plan
e) customer Experience Action Plan
f) Customer Focus Action Plan
2. Relevance of action plan
Increase productivity

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WORKBOOK MODEL ANSWERS

Increase efficiency
Increase sales
Increase customer satisfaction
Increase profits.
3. Research question the learner is expected to get data from
the field.

Group Activity / Pair Activity:6

1. Design an action plan in your working environment that

will address the following;
a) Improving customer service
b) Handling customer complaints
c) Satisfying customer needs.
d) Meeting customer targets.
2. Describe the effectiveness of the SMART goals in an
organisation. Show how those goals can be achieved by an
organisation.

Model answers
1. Your discussion should address the following;
e) Improving customer service
f) Handling customer complaints
g) Satisfying customer needs.
h) Meeting customer targets
3. SMART goals
S= Specific
M=Measurable
A= set achievable.
R= realistic goals
T= Time frame.

Group Activity / Pair Activity:7

1. Define and explain the term marketing MIX and list

down the main components of a marketing mix.
2. Identify the social responsibility of the business to its
customers.
3. Explain the significance of social responsibility to the
growth of the business.
4. Demonstrate an understanding why a business should
invest in social aspect rather than other activities. How

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WORKBOOK MODEL ANSWERS

does it affect the business activities?

Model answers
1. The marketing mix and the 4 Ps of marketing are often used
as synonyms for each other. In fact, they are not necessarily
the same thing. Marketing mix" is a general phrase used to
describe the different kinds of choices organizations have to
make in the whole process of bringing a product or service to
market. The 4 Ps is one way – probably the best-known way –
of defining the marketing mix, and was first expressed in 1960
by E J McCarthy.
The 4Ps are:
 Product (or Service)
 Place
 Price
 Promotion
A good way to understand the 4 Ps is by the questions that you need
to ask to define you marketing mix. Here are some questions that will
help you understand and define each of the four elements:
2.

Social responsibility is an ethical ideology or theory that an entity, be it

an organization or individual, has an obligation to act to benefit society at large.
Social responsibility is a duty every individual or organization has to perform so as to
maintain a balance between the economy and the ecosystem. A trade-off always
exists between economic development, in the material sense, and the welfare of the
society and environment. Social responsibility means sustaining the equilibrium
between the two. It pertains not only to business organizations but also to everyone

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WORKBOOK MODEL ANSWERS

who’s any action impacts the environment.  This responsibility can be passive, by
avoiding engaging in socially harmful acts, or active, by performing activities that
directly advance social goals. :)

Student Social Responsibility

Student social responsibility is the responsibility of every student for his/her actions.
It is morally binding on everyone to act in such a way that the people immediately
around them are not adversely affected. It is a commitment everyone has towards
the society – contributing towards social, cultural and ecological causes.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR has been defined by Lord Holme and
Richard Watts in The World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s
publication ‘Making Good Business Sense’ as “…the continuing commitment by
business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while
improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as the local
community and society at large". CSR is one of the newest management strategies
where companies try to create a positive impact on society while doing business. 

Group Activity / Pair Activity:8

1. List down the 4 elements of a marketing strategy.

2. Design a marketing strategy that can be employed to meet
customer needs and expectation.
3. Describe the relevance of comparing the budgeted with actual
action plan for marketing.
4. Show how an action plan can be improved to prevent further
variances.

Model answers
1.
a) Step 1
Define the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) for the company.
Describe the stated benefit that a product has for the
customer. Outline, using the USP, the claim you are making
about the product: why a customer should purchase it and
what value the customer will receive from it. Describe a USP
for each product to help narrow down your marketing focus for
that product.
b) Step 2
Describe the targeted audience for the product. Narrow the

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WORKBOOK MODEL ANSWERS

focus of the product by identifying who will be buying. Shape

the marketing campaign around that description. Picture the
expected customer in your mind and on paper (or in a word
processing program). Reach out to that customer specifically.
c) Step 3
Define the product in detail. Take the time to describe the
specific value and qualities of the product. Go beyond the
obvious. Look for the unique features that the product has to
offer. Showcase these in a marketing campaign.
d) Step 4
Create a pricing strategy for the product. Indicate how similar
products are selling in the marketplace, using the market
research that you have collected. Gather this market research
and study it to ensure that you do not overprice & dash;
or underpriced & dash; the product. Reach the company
& rsquo; s stated sales and profit objectives for that
product, using the pricing strategy.
e) Step 5
Identify the place where the product will be marketed.
Recognize that place goes beyond geographic location. Look
more closely at the type of venue where the product will be
featured. Note whether the product will be marketed in grocery
stores, department stores or small boutique shops.

4. Budgeting in a business has benefits and consequences that

go beyond the financial dimension and have more to do with
business management in general. Consider the following
benefits of a budgeting process:

 Budgeting forces managers to do better

forecasting. Managers should be constantly scanning the
business environment to spot changes that will impact the
business. Vague generalizations about what the future may
hold for the business are not good enough for assembling a
budget. Managers must put their predictions into definite and
concrete forecasts.
 Budgeting motivates managers and employees by
providing useful yardsticks for evaluating
performance. The budgeting process can have a good
motivational impact by involving managers in the budgeting
process and by providing incentives to managers to strive for
and achieve the business’s goals and objectives.
 Budgets provide useful information for superiors to evaluate
the performance of managers and can be used to reward
good results. For example, budgets supply baseline financial
information for incentive compensation plans. And the profit
plan (budget) for the year can be used to award year-end

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WORKBOOK MODEL ANSWERS

bonuses according to whether designated goals were

achieved.
 Budgeting can assist in the communication between
different levels of management. Putting plans and
expectations in black and white in budgeted financial
statements — including definite numbers for forecasts and
goals — minimizes confusion and creates a kind of common
language. Well-crafted budgets can definitely help the
communication process.
 Budgeting is essential in writing a business plan. New and
emerging businesses need to present a convincing business
plan when raising capital. Because these businesses may
have little or no history, the managers and owners must
demonstrate convincingly that the company has a clear
strategy and a realistic plan to make profit. A coherent,
realistic budget forecast is an essential component of a
business plan

Group Activity / Pair Activity:9

1. Define and explain the term customer satisfaction.

2. Design an action plan that can be used to meet customer
satisfaction.
3. Identify areas of focussed discipline that needs to be
addressed in an action plan stated above.

Model answers
1. Customer satisfaction, a term frequently used in marketing,
is a measure of how products and services supplied by a
company meet or surpass customer expectation. Customer
satisfaction is defined as "the number of customers, or
percentage of total customers, whose reported experience
with a firm, its products, or its services (ratings) exceeds
specified satisfaction goals

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2. An action plan is core to the marketing process – a constantly

evolving document which is cascaded to the relevant people
and monitored regularly. Most action plans are relatively short
term documents which focus on the coming year, but longer
term implications should also be considered.
3. Action planning is a stages approach:

 Clarify goals, and ensure they are SMART

 Link back to your objectives and tactics

 Set criteria for success

 Prioritize

 Set timings

 Determine who will complete each action point

Group Activity / Pair Activity:10

1. Design a checklist showing issues to be addressed in an

action plan’. The action plan should address the following:
a) Key performance indicators.
b) The gap analysis
c) Feedback analysis
d) Ways of monitoring company performance

Model answers
1. The action plan should address the following:

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WORKBOOK MODEL ANSWERS

a) Key performance indicators.

b) The gap analysis
c) Feedback analysis
d) Ways of monitoring company performance.

Group Activity / Pair Activity:11

1. Describe a number of action plans that are needed to

be documented if customer’s needs and wants are to
be meant. These may include the following;
a) Ratio scales
b) Interval scales
c) Ordinal scales

Model answers
4. Action plans.
g) Customer Acceptance Action Plan
h) Customer Appreciation Action Plan
i) Customer Care Action Plan
j) Customer Feedback Action Plan
k) customer Experience Action Plan
l) Customer Focus Action Plan
5.

1) Nominal scales This, the crudest of

measurement scales, classifies individuals,
companies, products, brands or other entities
into categories where no order is implied. Indeed
it is often referred to as a categorical scale. It is
a system of classification and does not place the
entity along a continuum.
2) Ordinal scales involve the ranking of individuals,
attitudes or items along the continuum of the
characteristic being scaled.
3) Interval scales
It is only with an interval scaled data that
researchers can justify the use of the arithmetic
mean as the measure of average. The interval or

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cardinal scale has equal units of measurement,

thus making it possible to interpret not only the
order of scale scores but also the distance
between them.

Group Activity / Pair Activity:12

1. Explain the meaning of the term variance analysis.

2. Describe the importance of analysing variance in business.
3. List down different types of variances in business and explain
the implication of each in business.
4. Demonstrate an understanding of the reasons that can course
those variances in business plans.
5. Show how those variances can be rectified.

Model answers
1. VARIANCE ANALYSIS is the analysis of performance by
means of variances. Used to promote management action at
the earliest possible stages. After a budget (based on
standard costs) has been set, its usefulness lies in the review
procedures which compare actual results against the budget.
Variance analysis is the process of examining in detail each
variance between actual and budgeted/expected/standard
costs to determine the reasons why budgeted results were not
met (material costs too high, sales prices too low, etc.).
2. Variance analysis is important to assist with managing
budgets by controlling budgeted versus actual costs. In
program and project management, for example, financial data
are generally assessed at key intervals or milestones. 
Forecasting Relationships between pairs of variables might
also be identified when performing variance analysis
3. Variance analysis is the rubric for comparing actual results

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with plan — whether budget or rolling forecasts. There are

three types: Traditional variance analysis — It works like
this: compare actual amounts at the natural class account
level to budget or forecast with a column that computes the
dollar or percentage variance. Alight does this for all
combinations of time periods — month, year to date, full year,
etc. Not so traditional variance analysis — It should work
like this, but usually doesn't: compare actual units, rates and
amounts at the line item level to budget or forecast with
columns that compute variances for all three data types. Alight
does this. Causal analysis — Where actuals and plan line
items include units and rate as well as dollar amount, you may
compute a causal analysis variance. This variance type
calculates how much of the total dollar variance is due to
higher or lower units (the volume impact) or a higher or lower
price/cost (the rate impact). Alight automatically computes
volume and rate impacts for all revenue, expense, headcount
and balance sheet line items that incorporate units and rates.
4.
a) Labour: Labour costs are affected both by the budgeted
pay rate and the number of hours that employees work. If
employees take longer than expected to perform their job,
the company will also end up paying more wages. The
company budgets for overtime; so if workers receive more
or less overtime than usual, this also causes a budget
variance.
b) Materials The cost of materials is the other major factor
in the budget variance. The budget can also vary because
workers waste materials or are more efficient and use less
materials than the company expects
c) Flexible Budget To avoid variance because a
company made more or less products than normal, a
company creates a flexible budget. According to Oregon
State University, a standard budget sets costs based on the
amount of products the company plans  to produce, and
the flexible budget assigns costs based on the amount of
products that the company actually makes. The flexible
budget eliminates variances that occur because the
company makes more or less goods than usual, helping
the company determine how efficient its manufacturing
processes are.
d) Cost and Efficiency Both materials and labor are
split into a cost and an efficiency variable. For labor, the
cost per hour of each employee is separated from the
amount of products each employee makes per hour.

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Group Activity / Pair Activity:13

1. Explain the term records management and describe using an

example a performance management cycle.
2. Discuss the advantages of keeping proper records.

Model answers
1. Records management is a process of ensuring the proper
creation, maintenance, use and disposal of records to achieve
efficient, transparent and accountable governance Sound
records management implies that records are managed in
terms of an organisational records management programme
governed by an organisational records management policy .
2.

3. Keeping good records helps you avoid paying too much tax
and makes filling in your tax return easier and quicker avoids
interest and penalties by making it easier to pay the right tax
at the right time gives you the information you need to
manage your business and help it grow makes it easier to get
a loan helps you budget for tax payments helps us to check
your tax position accurately could help reduce your
accountant's fees if you use one - well-organised information

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saves them time, too may support your claims to some reliefs
or capital allowances
4.

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