How to give best customer experience using the 5 Ethical Approaches.

1. CUSTOMER SERVICE
USING
ETHICAL APPROACHES

2. TOPICS
• Ethics vs. Business Ethics
• The meaning of Customer Service
• 5 Ethical Approaches
• Applying Ethics to Customer Service
a. Utilitarian
b. Rights
c. Fairness
d. Virtues
e. Common Good
• The Best Approach

3. THE DEFINITION OF ETHICS
&
BUSINESS ETHICS
Ethics
The value system that promotes a
person’s or group’s behavior.
Business Ethics
The study of business behaviors that
guides the way a business behaves.
Image Credits:
(1) Ninja Blogs. Accessed April 15, 2016. http://blogs.ubc.ca/leedy/2011/09/14/business-
ethics/
(2) ACFE. Accessed April 15, 2016. http://www.acfe.com/ethics-and-compliance.aspx

4. WHAT IS CUSTOMER SERVICE TO YOU?
• Assistance or advice that is being provided by a person or company to those who
buy their products and/or services.
• An act that is designed to enhance the level of customer experience.
• It is the feeling that gets produced when a service has exceeded the customer’s
expectations.
• To troubleshoot and make use of good interpersonal and intrapersonal skills.
• Using problem solving skills in order to interact with customers appropriately, like
having a positive attitude towards your work and towards the customers.

5. 5 ETHICAL APPROACHES
Utilitarian – The inept greatest good. To have a balance of benefits and harms from
an action; The ethically right thing that would give the biggest benefit.
Rights – To make decisions that will best maintain the rights of those who are being
affected.
Fairness – Treating people as fair as possible and equally or proportionally.
Virtues – Be a good human who does certain practices of fairness, honesty,
integrity, etc.
Common Good – How does this benefit everyone if we engage in a particular
action?

6. WHY SHOULD WE USE ETHICAL APPROACHES FOR
CUSTOMER SERVICE?
There are times when there comes a difficult dilemma and we need to use ethical
decision making skills, in order to resolve them. By using these ethical approaches,
it means that it can help determine the right course of action. Sometimes with using
business ethics, it can teach us to analyze if decisions or reactions are correct for a
particular setting. In customer service, plays a vital role between business and their
clientele. It is essential that ethics influence the manner of how companies behave
in customer service. Implementing ethics approaches keep businesses prepared for
conflicts that arise in diverse situations in the workplace.

7. APPLY: WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
A common example of an issue with customer service is:
A customer who comes into a store buying a product, and not liking the quality.
The customer then tries to return the product for a refund. While it is hard for most
companies to accept that there may be something wrong with their product, “the
customer is always right”. Maybe the product works perfectly fine, but it does not match
up to the customer’s needs. Sometimes the problem is the customer does not know
how to use the product. Therefore, the customer should get some knowledge about the
item they purchased.
Even though a company needs the sale, this situation can lead to having a bad
customer experience. Should a refund be issued? What shall be done?
Lets take this example and go through the 5 Ethical Approaches!

8. UTILITARIAN APPROACH
• If a refund is being issued to the customer, than there is a higher chance of the
customer experiencing good service. The company will then benefit from having a
fair review and can have the potential to gain more customers. And even though
a certain product did not work out for that customer, they might be willing to
give the company another try at a different item. This means that since their
customer service experience improved, the company does not lose their clientele.
With issuing a refund, yes the company will lose a little bit of sales, but that does
not compare to the amount from continuing to provide grand customer service
and customer loyalty.

9. RIGHTS APPROACH
COMPANY’S RIGHTS
• It is the company’s right to stand by their
product and not issue a refund.
• The company can argue that since the
customer is not knowledgeable on their
product, that they do not have to give a
refund.
• A right of the company is to refuse service
to a customer.
CUSTOMER’S RIGHTS
• It is the customer’s right to ask for a refund
on a product that does not work for them.
• The customer can argue that since no
employee gave them information on how to
use their product, they have a right for a
refund.
• A right of the customer is to have their own
choice for a refund, to be respected like
they would for a company’s.

10. FAIRNESS APPROACH
Benefits and Non-Benefits of Giving a Refund
• The company gets their profits from not issuing a refund. Employers from the
company will strive to increase receiving sales and gain revenue. Also, the company
will upkeep a good morale or face value to their customers. While the customer is left
with an unsatisfied product that is not wanted anymore. The customer will feel that
their needs have not been met and is left hanging very unhappy. Thus the company
are benefited and the customer is not.
• This distribution of benefits and non-benefits are unfair. Is the company really giving
good customer service? Are they working hard to gain the customer’s respect? The
company can also respond that with the customer paying for their product, they can
repay and still be loyal by exchanging to a more desired product.

11. VIRTUE APPROACH
Good Virtues to influence giving a refund:
- Respect: It shows a sign of respect to the customer. This means that the company pays attention to their needs and not worried about their
personal needs.
- Honesty: Giving a refund is being honest and can build a better customer relation to help maintain more clients in the long run.
- Courtesy: This goes a long way in bringing happiness to customers and bring self confidence to the company.
- Commitment: With agreeing to issue a refund, the company gains trust in the customer and it signals reliability and can influence their
opinions on the store.
Bad Virtues to influence not giving a refund:
- Greedy: If the company does not allow a refund, they are being selfish and wanting to keep the sales to themselves without caring about the
customer’s needs.
- Reputation: A bad customer service experience can give the company a bad reputation.
• Apathy: Not caring about the customer’s concerns and making it the company’s concern because lack of interest.
• Hostility: When an employee comes into a difficult situation being already unfriendly, it makes the customer service a horrible experience for
the customer.

12. COMMON GOOD APPROACH
• It would be good to promote giving a refund because not only does this action looks good for
the customer, but also to the company’s reputation, and great for the community.
• A better reputation and giving valuable customer service means more sales. It will also bring
relief to the customer to receive a refund. Giving good customer service brings happiness to a
customer and the idea of happiness can spread like wildfire. A customer can give positive
reinforcements to the company that signifies that the ethics they are practicing are a good thing.
• The common good will influence having a better economy, which means more employees and
more jobs.
• The only negative conflict is if the customer wants a refund for their malicious thoughts and
material gain. For example, a customer just wants the refund to be difficult, gain extra money
from the company, and see the company as an easy place to collect money.

13. THE BEST APPROACH
The best approach to use in this example of Customer Service:
COMMON GOOD APPROACH
- The Common Good calls attention to the conditions that are important to the
welfare of everyone. This approach takes the real life situation and give a reality
check for the customer and company. It shows how each group can participate to
creating a successful decision or come up with the correct action for a conflict.
• With this approach, there is very little conflict between the customer trying to
have good customer service.