Chapter 11 Customer Service Strategies 258 Career Ready Practices Most people use technology on a daily basis. Using technology in the workplace can help employees be more productive than working without it. In other instances, technology can be a distraction. Create a list of fi ve types of technology and how people can use each to be more productive in the workplace. Reading Read a magazine, newspaper, or online article about e-tailing. Analyze the article and distinguish the facts from the author’s opinions on the subject. Write a report in which you draw conclusions about the importance of e-tail. Use visuals, such as graphs, to share specifi c evidence from the article with your class to support your understanding of the topic. Research Using the Internet, research information on ergonomic solutions. What are some products available to businesses that need to create an ergonomic work environment? Write a short paper on your fi ndings. Cite all of your sources. Teamwork Working with your team, debate the effectiveness of synchronous and asynchronous customer service. Share your personal customer service experiences. Which type of customer service does your team favor? If the entire group does not agree on which type is more effective, try to persuade each other with facts and experiences. Diversity Skills As part of a job interview, you may be asked about your travels or other experiences with people from other cultures. Companies are interested in this information for good reasons. Many companies serve customers from a variety of geographic locations and cultures. Some companies have offi ces or factories in more than one region or country. You may need to work closely with people from diverse cultures. Your job may involve travel to company locations or vendors in different countries. Employees that speak more than one language and have traveled, studied, or worked in other countries can be valuable assets. These employees can help the company understand the needs and wants of its diverse customers. They may also be better able to communicate and get along with coworkers. 1. Identify travel or other educational experiences that helped you learn about another culture, such as foreign languages studied. 2. Write a paragraph that describes the experience. Explain how the information you learned might help you better understand customers or coworkers from this culture. 3. Save the document fi le in your e-portfolio. Place a printed copy in the container for your print portfolio. College and Career Readiness College and Career Portfolio