Customer service is basically about the employees helping customers locate a lot of items in which they need; customer service will benefit an organisation by having effects of them going to it again and again, customer service plays a major part in an organisations profit.

The office of fair trading

The Director-General of Fair Trading has wide powers to monitor and investigate trading activities and to refer monopoly or anti-competitive situations to the Competition Commission (often via the President of the Board of Trade).

Trading standards department

We enforce legislation controlling the quantity, quality, price, description, and safety of most goods and services. Other duties also include animal health, petroleum and explosives enforcement and licensing activities e.g. fireworks/explosives, petroleum, poisons, animal movements.

To ensure compliance, we investigate complaints, undertake visits to businesses, advise traders and consumers, and sample, test and survey goods and services.

All enquiries are recorded and evaluated. Appropriate complaints may be dealt with immediately, be referred for a later inspection, or the information used to assess trading patterns or malpractices, or for campaigns to improve consumer laws.

Planned or complaint follow-up visits are undertaken to business premises, shops, livestock markets etc., to ensure compliance with the laws we enforce. Goods, foods and services may be ‘test purchased’ or sampled to ensure their conformity. Business activities will be regularly monitored, e.g. sales of fireworks/cigarettes to children, counterfeit sales/production etc.

Competition Commission

The Commission may obtain any information needed to investigate possible monopoly anti-competitive situations referred to it.

ASA (advertising standards authority)

The ASA is here to make sure all advertising, wherever it appears, meets the high standards laid down in the advertising codes. Our website will tell you more about the rules for advertising, let you complain online, and explain how the ASA is working to keep UK advertising standards as high as possible.

UK Legislation EU Legislation

Data Protection Act

The Data Protection Act (DPA) is a British Act of Parliament that provides a legal basis and allowing for the privacy and protection of data of individuals in the UK. The act places restrictions on organisations which collect or hold data which can identify a living person. The Act does not apply to domestic use, for example keeping a personal address book.

Data collected by any person or organisation may only be used for the specific purposes for which they were collected. Personal data may only be kept for an appropriate length of time and must not be disclosed to other parties without the consent of the data owner. Schools, for example, may decide to keep information on former pupils for no longer than ten years.

The act is overseen by an independent government authority, the Office of the Information Commissioner. Persons and organisations which store personal data must register with the Data Protection Commissioner.

Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982

The Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that requires traders to provide services to a proper standard of workmanship. Furthermore, if a definite completion date or a price has not been fixed then the work must be completed within a reasonable time and for a reasonable charge.

Also, any material used or goods supplied in providing the service must be of satisfactory quality.

The law treats failure to meet these obligations as breach of contract and consumers would be entitled to seek redress, if necessary through the civil courts.

Food safety act 1990

The law says that it’s an offence to sell any food, which is “not of the nature, substance or quality demanded by the purchaser” i.e. if you ask for cod in batter, you shouldn’t be given anything else; your piece of cod shouldn’t contain any foreign bodies like glass, metal or insects; and it shouldn’t be rancid or mouldy. If you asked your butcher for 500g of pork sausages and he sells you 450g then that’s an offence under the Weights and Measures Act. If the sausages weren’t pork but a mixture of beef, pork and other odd scraps, then he could be prosecuted under the Trade Descriptions Act 1968 or the Food Safety Act 1990. There’s a certain amount of overlap between the Acts and several laws can affect one transaction or sale.

Toy safety regulations 1995

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It should be noted that the right to reproduce the text of Statutory Instruments does not extend to the Queen’s Printer imprints which should be removed from any copies of the Statutory Instrument which are issued or made available to the public. This includes reproduction of the Statutory Instrument on the Internet and on intranet sites. The Royal Arms may be reproduced only where they are an integral part of the original document.

Trade Descriptions Act 1968

The Trade Descriptions Act 1968 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which prevents manufacturers, retailers or service industry providers from misleading consumers as to what they are spending their money on.

As advertising became a crucial part of successful commercial enterprises and with fierce competition the temptation to push the boundaries of truth when making claims for a product is strong.

This law empowers the judiciary to punish companies or individuals who make false claims about the products or services that they sell.

Applying a false trade description to goods is an absolute offence. I.e., provided it is shown that the description was applied and was false the offence is proved and the accused has to prove certain defences in order to escape conviction.

False descriptions as to services require the more normal proof of means read (guilty knowledge).

The Act excludes matters relating to land and buildings, these being now dealt with under the provisions of the Property Misdescriptions Act.

The Food and Drugs Act

The Food and Drugs Act and Regulations set requirements for the production and sale of food and drug products. The Act governs the manufacturing, producing, marketing, labelling, importing and exporting of foods and drugs. The Act contains provisions for inspection and enforcement, and contravention of the Act can result in fines and imprisonment.

The Food and Drugs Act covers a broad range of products:

* Pharmaceuticals – prescription, non-prescription or over-the-counter;

* Biologicals – vaccines, blood and blood products, certain hormones and enzymes, allergenic extracts, tissues and organs, biotherapeutics, e.g. recomb, DNA products, genetic engineering, etc.;

* Radiopharmaceuticals;

* Medical Devices – medical and dental implants, medical equipment and instruments, test kits for diagnosis, contraceptive devices;

* Disinfectants;

* Low-risk products, e.g. sunscreens, antiperspirants, toothpaste, etc.;

* Cosmetics; and

* Narcotic controlled and restricted substances.

Under the Food and Drugs Act, if a manufacturer wants to sell a drug, a Drug Identification Number (DIN) is required. If a product defined as a drug under the Food and Drugs Act was sold without a DIN, it was not in compliance with Canadian law. The DIN is a numbers located on the label of any drug product that has been approved for sale. It indicates that a product has undergone -and passed- a review of its formulation, labelling, and instructions for use. The DIN is issued by Health Canada. Please refer to the national contact listed below.

Under the Food and Drugs Act, an establishment licence is required for all businesses engaged in any of the six activities related to the manufacturing and testing of all drugs in dosage or bulk.

The Disability Discrimination Act

The Disability Discrimination Act applies to all employers and everyone who provides a service to the public, except the Armed Forces.

It is a law designed to end discrimination against disabled people. It also meets the needs of small to medium sized businesses because it is flexible enough to take account of your business’s individual circumstances.

We know you are short on time, so this website concentrates on the most important things you have to know about the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). It is intended as a quick guide and it is not an authoritative statement of the law.

It highlights your responsibilities and illustrates how easy it is to make changes that will benefit you and your business.

Customer needs and expectations for Asda

The external customers at Asda are mainly generally mixed ages, who just want to shop to get there groceries, also external customers who go there are mainly customers who want to shop for George and also medical items, this makes it good as it would mean that customers would go to the store to get other item rather than just purchasing groceries all the time, so it gives customers another purpose to come to Asda.

The external customers are the main source of profit for Asda as they would want to have more external customers to come to the store and they will want people to make sure that it will be profitable and they will want the external customers to keep rising and they will want this to be made to make sure that they beat there other competitors and they will want to make sure that they do not slip in the market share, the external customers expect to get good customer service as they are the ones who mainly come back to the store and where they gain most of the money and to make sure that they keep them satisfied.

The internal customers of Asda are the customers that already work there and the ones who will want a discount from all there hard work and they will want this because it will make sure that the employees will be kept happy and they will also continue to work at the store and it will

Customer needs may be defined as the facilities or services a customer requires to achieve specific goals or objectives. Needs are generally non-negotiable, but may be optional or of varying importance to the customer. In any transaction, customers seek value-for-money, and will often consider a range of vendors’ offers before settling on a purchase.

Customer expectations are based on perceived values of facilities or services as applied to specific needs. Expectations are influenced by cultural values, advertising, marketing, and other communications, both with the supplier and with other sources. Expectations are negotiable and modifiable.

Both customer needs and expectations may be determined through interviews, surveys, conversations or other methods of collecting information. Customers at times do not have a clear understanding of their needs. Assisting in determining needs is a valuable service to the customer. In the process, expectations may be set or adjusted to correspond to known product capabilities or service.