“Excellent customer service is the number one job in any company!
It is the personality of the company and the reason customers come back.
Without customers there is no company!” ~ Connie Edler, Founder & CEO, Peak 10 Skin
Given the stiff competition in the marketplace for consumers’ time, attention, loyalty and, ultimately, their money, it has become more important and integral to a company to ensure that it focuses on creating a positive experience for its customers by maximising service and/or product offerings and building strong, lasting relationships.
This is where service-centric roles come into play – invaluable positions and people within any business that will ensure success and longevity.
As a result, customer service is a great field to get into for those looking for fresh ideas and inspiration that will almost certainly guarantee them jobs after graduation – especially since it’s more critical than ever for organisations to take a customer-centric mindset.
In response to the growing market demand, paired with this rapid global shift to a service-focused and experience economy, The Independent Institute of Education (The IIE), Africa’s leading provider of private higher education has established The IIE School of Hospitality & Service Management to specifically address the rapidly expanding need for service, hospitality and customer-centric education, spanning entry-level through to management-level qualifications.
The IIE qualifications offered at the school, and available in both face-to-face contact learning as well as through online distance-based learning, will equip graduates with both the requisite commercial and operational acumen necessary to successfully navigate the private and public sectors. In addition, the school will afford students the opportunity to participate in an immersive service and / or hospitality-centric academic programme that delivers a rich experiential and applied learning pathway.
Says Renee Hill, MD of The IIE School of Hospitality & Service Management: “The IIE School of Hospitality & Service Management represents the embodiment of a new gold standard in industry-aligned service and hospitality-focused qualifications, each underpinned by a strong commercial learning foundation.”
The good news for job seekers is because the customer service role is both relatively new and rapidly evolving, career options abound and they are not limited by a linear track. As one recruiter put it: “When you work in support, you get to write your own ticket based on what interests you.”
Good customer service has four key qualities: It’s personalised, competent, convenient, and proactive. These four factors have the biggest influence on the customer experience.
Key attributes for those wanting to or thinking of getting into the service industry are:
patience, attentiveness, the ability to communicate clearly, time management skills, goal-oriented focus, persuasion skills, tenacity empathy and willingness to learn.
So if that describes you to a T and you are looking for a career in a service centric role, then give the team at The IIE School of Hospitality & Service Management a call. For more details of the courses offered, visit https://www.iiehsm.com/ or call 086 111 2433
- The IIE School of Hospitality & Service Management, 3 Keyes Ave, Rosebank, Gauteng
- The IIE School of Hospitality & Service Management, 33 Stellenbosch, Vlottenburg Rd, Stellenbosch, Western Cape
The Independent Institute of Education (IIE)
The Independent Institute of Education (Pty) Ltd is a private higher education institution registered with the Department of Higher Education and Training under the Higher Education Act, 1997 (reg. no. 2007/HE07/002). The IIE is internationally accredited by the British Accreditation Council (BAC) as an Independent Higher Education Institution, and a leading registered provider of private higher education in South Africa, it offers world-class standards. Students can be confident that their IIE learning experience meets international best practice standards. The IIE operates across 26 sites offering more than 90 registered and accredited higher education qualifications from Higher Certificate to Masters level.
