SUDHAN

Research NACHIAPPAN
Report & Short Answer Questions

SUDHAN NACHIAPPAN(239961)
1. Clearly define your research objectives for this project

To describe what factors are involved in satisfying the customers needs with the capabilities
available and not losing the customer.

2. Who are your industrys customers? Describe your customers and explain what kind
of services would they be looking for from you or your organisation (be specific)? How
would you find out their customer needs & provide them with a product or service
that meets these needs?

The customers we focus are LMS customers, eLearning systems. Our concerned
department is IT support. The software developed will not be the same as other standard
websites like YouTube or Facebook. The software would involve extensive use of the
software, so the users with very little computer knowledge will have a hard time figuring
out on how to use the software. Support in terms of this is very much expected. Customers
find bugs which wouldnt have been thought about by the Testing team, which sometimes
are challenging.

Our focus in this regard is supporting the customers needs by changing or developing the
functionality in the software, taking into consideration the importance of growth and the
feature requested. Sometimes, unlock that feature before the software release take places.

Our strength is usually calculated based on how easy to use it is. People with different
computer levels will use the software. Finding the customers queries are very much
important to stand out of the crowd from other industry competitors. For this reason, we use
software products like Intercom, which connects customers from different points of the
website to connect to the support team with their queries of the product. When the queries
are put forward, the software based on the keywords sends through support documentations,
along with assigning a support person who will consider the issue to support the customer
in any manner possible.

Depending on the how important the customer is, how important the feature is, how
competitive advantage will the feature give and similar questions will help make decision,
which will then by conveyed to the customer. The motive will always be to support and
guide the customer always. The features also include video examples, Live chats and many
more.

3. Using two specific customers problems that your chosen profession or company may
provide solutions for

a. How would you understand the customers specific needs in this area?

It is always recommended to be in the same channel as the customer. Guiding through each
process or step. Asking questions, listening to the customer and narrowing down the issue
to the specific area is important. Ask questions.

b. What services would you offer them and why?

 In my industry, Support is one of the important opportunity/ competitive advantage method
to keep customers. Services offered include from documentation help, live chat support
with an agent, depending on the customer it might reach a level of developing that feature
to that customer. The reason for that is finding customer is always harder than retaining the
old customers. Support and managing the customers with us should be the priority.

c. What services wouldnt you offer them and why?

Some customers might need some feature which are available to only certain customers,
like features of different plan. It very rarely managers approve the request of such feature
request. Such feature service requests are not offered to the customers.

d. Explain any legislation that you may need to make your customer
aware of and how this would affect the way you provide information to
the customer. E.G Product disclosure statements, building codes,
privacy legislation, WHS etc

Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014, as customer data is collected in the process of
support, it is always important to inform the customers about the data collection and other
privacy related information before the process of support.

e. Explain how you would use your professional knowledge to help make
your customer make the best choice. Would you offer them more than
one option? Describe those options.
It is always good to give customers with options, if in case the problem could be solved in
more than one way. We usually recommend the most popular solution and give the
customer recommended solution based on our experience as IT support engineers.

f. What information would you use and how would you get this
information to determine what would be the best option (s) for your
customer?

In IT industry, like for example in ATO (tax office), Kaanna is a knowledge shop where you
could find answers for all your questions. Similarly, all the IT industries will and should
have a knowledge shop where even the most experienced could find answers for any
questions they have.

4. What if your customer was unhappy with the restrictions placed on them by
legislation etc.; how would you deal with this?

Usually, customer information is taken to check what advice had been given to them earlier,
basically to keep a record of what sort of issues they had and for further improvement of the
software. Some customers might not be interested to give their details but our customer
policy give priority to customers but the IT support agent will inform the delay that might
be caused in the future. But, at last, customers are not pushed to give their details for the
support they need to use the software.
5. What would happen if your customer wanted a problem fixed that was outside of
YOUR area of expertise but within the organisations expertise?

Knowing every bit of software is completely impossible. Every module of the software has
an expert to it. When a customer query comes through, if it is then pushed through to your
department. It is always advised to put the customer on hold and gather as much
information form the expert team about the issue, apologise to the customer for putting
them on hold or transfer the call to the concerned department rather giving incorrect
information.

6. What would happen if your customer wanted a problem fixed that was outside of
YOUR area of expertise AND outside of the organisations expertise? List the steps
and actions you would take and justify why you might refer your customer to a
competitor. Include your organisations guidelines in this instance and two (2) ways
that you may keep this customer as a potential future customer. How would you
record this information for future reference?

This type of issue is usually common in IT industry. IT industries use SCRUM methodology
(Scrum is an iterative and incremental agile software development framework for managing
product development) to run sprints, which is so much flexible. Changing priorities and
changing task are everyday functions in the industries. When the feature or service requests
by the customer are beyond your organization expertise, we first apologise to the customer
for not having the feature, add the feature request to the product backlog (list of features to be
developed in the coming future), Inform the manager about the feature request, He then
decides based on different factors when the feature will be put into development. We will
then inform the customer based on the feedback from the Manager. It is also important to
give alternative options which could help them until the feature is ready. If the customer is
paid, the feature will most probably be ready in time between 2 weeks to a month.

7. What would you do to ensure that the information you provided is up to date and
accurate including your own skills & knowledge? Include the relevant procedures that
you may need to follow either by your own organisation and/or the relevant
professional body.

Knowledge shop is usually updated every sprint, thats 2 weeks in my organization. Thats
because giving customers the right information is always important than giving them
incorrect information. Trust is the keyword. Trusting your colleagues is always the key in
terms of support. After the development, the person involved in the development logs time
for updating the document, knowledge document. If every document is updated after
development, then the point of giving incorrect information is reduced.
PART 2: Research and Analysis Short Answer Questions

1. Which research methods did you use? How do you know that these are accurate and
reliable? Where did you get this data? Please cite your resource sources in your
report.

Most of the information are part of my life experience as I have been asked the same
questions every day. I also used Google to support my answers, like for the privacy act.

2. How would you utilise Boolean operators to conduct your research online?
Boolean operators form the basis of mathematical sets and database logic. They connect the
search words together to either narrow or broaden your set of results. It connects various
pieces of information to find exactly what you're looking for. TO add, three basic Boolean
operators are: AND (narrow your results), OR (connect two or more similar concepts), and
NOT (exclude words from your search).

3. Analyse your data findings from your research? What impact will this have on your
company?

Feedback from the customers are the only tool to understand if we are traveling in the right
direction or not. If the customers get back to you every now and then, it is evident that the
path and features being developed arent right. When the software did not reach the right
customer group then it is hard for the company to survive in the competitive market.
Feedback has huge impact on the growth of the organization.

4. Explain your data analysis methods used and how you applied these?
Jira is the software used to analyse every single of data about the software. We use Jira
extensively to analyse the time spent, support activity and customer feedback, product
backlog and other activities. This helps the team to figure out how better we are from the last
Sprint.

5. How will you this organisation monitor the levels of customer satisfaction in the
future to ensure that their levels of customer services maintain a high level?

We have rating system which the customer can give ratings on. Its three different types of
smiley. Along with that a feedback form to give us with feedback or appreciation if any. With
every customers records been stored, it is easy to monitor any changes in the way they use
the software. Software like Intercom can help us understand how the customer is liking the
software based on several factors like the time spent on the software.

6. What assumptions have you made in your research and why.

Very little assumptions. The reason is the above answers where from my everyday
experience. Making assumptions were not necessary.
7. What conclusions did you come to as to the best course of action? Justify your
answer with evidence-backed research. Include any feedback from research you may
have conducted.

It always depends on the situation and the customer who we are dealing with. In terms of
support, Apologies to the customer when the feature is not available. Give honest answers to
them tell the truth. It is important to give correct responses instead of error, quick responses.

Reference used.
How to determine the best course of action to correct Element not found errors.. 2017. How
to determine the best course of action to correct Element not found errors.. [ONLINE]
Available at: https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.000047369. [Accessed 02 April
2017].

8. Where would the organisation store this information for future reference? Which
departments would find this information useful for their operations? Should this data
be stored securely? If yes, why?

Organizations usually store the information in the server, which is backed up now and then.
Sales department and the tech department are most concerned about it. Yes, It should be
stored securely, its the law and its something that is very basic principle of doing business.

9. How might the organisation store this data securely to protect their intellectual
property

Data centres are located in different parts of the world. Data centres give companies the
opportunity to store data securely, increase the storage requirement from time to time and
many more. The main purpose of data centres is to store data securely of the host
organization. This is how organizations store data securely.

10. What policies and procedures may need to be updated as a result of your
research findings?
I think the current policies and procedures are up to date to meet the needs and satisfy the
requirements of the customers. I dont think there is any need for change at this point in time.

Reference:

Information Privacy Policy . 2017. Information Privacy Policy . [ONLINE] Available at:
http://www.education.vic.gov.au/Pages/privacypolicy.aspx. [Accessed 02 April 2017].

How to determine the best course of action to correct Element not found errors.. 2017. How
to determine the best course of action to correct Element not found errors.. [ONLINE]
Available at: https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.000047369. [Accessed 02 April
2017].