Deal with customer queries, requests and problems

This standard is part of the customer service competence area related to Handling Problems, Queries and Complaints. It includes dealing with customer queries, requests and problems. It covers the behaviours, processes and approaches that are most effective when handling customer service problems.  Remember that customers include everyone to whom you provide products and services. They may be external to your organisation or they may be internal customers.

You provide consistent and reliable customer service, however your customers will sometimes expect more. They can signal this in various ways and when they do you know how to handle the situation. Customers ask different questions and request special treatment and you respond to these within your organisation's guidelines. However, some problems will occur that you cannot resolve because you do not have the authority or experience to deal with them. In these circumstances you collect information for colleagues to deal with the problems or use a specialist support.

This standard is for customer service professionals who deal with customer service queries, requests and problems by passing information to colleagues and keeping customers informed about what is being done.

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1. deal with queries and requests from customers following your organisation's guidelines
2. seek information from colleagues to answer customer queries or requests
3. inform your customer what is happening to deal with their queries or requests
4. identify problems from your customers point of view
5. intervene to minimise the impact of problems you identify
6. deal with challenging customer behaviours following your organisation's procedures
7. acknowledge when your customers are raising a problem
8. listen to your customers to develop your understanding of their problems
9. take details to identify your customer transactions using your organisation's systems
10. ask questions to clarify what has caused customers problems
11. check your understanding of what customers see as the problem
12. ask questions to clarify customer expectations about the services or products that are causing problems
13. record what your customers tell you about problems in your organisation's systems
14. confirm the details of what customers have told you about the problem back to them
15. identify sources of information that your organisation uses to identify customer transactions causing problems
16. gather details from colleagues, customer service records or product specifications to resolve problems
17. tell customers the actions you will take to resolve their problem
18. tell your customers the next steps in your organisation's process without making promises
19. pass the customers problem details to colleagues who can deal with them
20. seek specialist support where problems or issues cannot be resolved
21. follow the legal, organisational, codes of practice and policies relevant to your role and the activities being carried out

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1. the colleagues in your organisation who are able to give help and information
2. your role and responsibilities in relation to dealing with queries, requests and problems and the limits of your authority
3. the communication techniques that you can use to speak to people who are dissatisfied to acknowledge their needs
4. how to deal with customers who are more demanding than usual and use behaviours that you find challenging
5. the expectations that customers have of your organisation's services and products
6. the importance of recognising problems from what customers say or do
7. how to recognise a problem expressed by a customer through social media
8. how to collect details of customer service problems expressed through social media
9. the customer service behaviours that can make a problem worse and how to manage yourself to avoid using these
10. the customer expectations of your organisation's services or products that may cause problems if they are not met
11. how to respond to customers who raise problems in a way that reassures them that you can help
12. the reference codes or identifiers that your organisation uses to identify customers
13. the types of questions that can be used to gather information to resolve problems
14. the information that your organisation needs to resolve customer problems
15. the details that your organisation uses to identify specific customer transactions
16. the teams and colleagues to whom you should pass details of problems
17. the types of specialist support, where required
18. your organisation's processes and systems for passing on details of problems to colleagues
19. the legal, organisational, codes of practice and policies relevant to your role and the activities being carried out

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1

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01 Mar 2026

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Current

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Original

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Instructus

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CFACSC1, CFACSC2

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Customer Service Occupations

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7219

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customer queries; customer requests; customer problems; recognition; customer expectations; dissatisfaction; customer service; communication; problem solving; behaviours; work with others; giving information; teamwork;

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