Abstract
Customer service is essential in an organisation as it is the interaction between the organisation and its customers and it ensures the creation of sustainable customer relationships. Customer satisfaction results in customer retention, which, in turn, ensures ongoing purchases by the customer, generating sustainable revenue for the organisation. Skills development through employee training is one of the ways of improving customer service. Employees are directly involved in the provision of services to customers and the literature suggests that formally trained employees are efficient in customer service performance. This research study focused on determining the relationship between employee training and customer service quality in the alcohol beverage industry. The study further investigated the importance of employee training and the influence that it has on customer service quality. Research was conducted in the context of the alcohol beverage industry in the distribution environment. The study followed a quantitative research design, using the survey technique to collect data from the South African Breweries Alrode Depot employees and the South African Breweries Alrode Depot customers. Stratified sampling was used to select the respondents from the customer sample and random sampling was used to select the respondents from the employee sample. Descriptive and inferential analytical methods were used to analyse the data and determine the relationship between employee training and customer service quality. The results of the research indicate that employee training has a positive influence on the quality of customer service and that employee training effectiveness significantly predicts customer service quality. The overall conclusion of the study is that the level of customer service quality is dependent on the level of employee training provided and that the training of employees results in improved service quality and customer satisfaction.
M.Com. (Business Management)