Who We Are and What We Do
In Module One, you will learn:
- who we are and what we do
- who are our customers
- what customer service is
- the ten rules of great customer service
- who are customer service providers
- types of customer service
- how the best companies deliver superior customer service
- why do customers leave a company
Establishing Your Attitude
How do you train to deliver good customer service?
Customer service means different things to different people. To some, it means going beyond what’s expected of them. To others, it means adding value and integrity to every interaction. To others, it means taking care of customers the way you would take care of your grandmother. We might all define customer service a little differently. Still, we can all agree that you need to put energy and enthusiasm into your interactions with customers to provide great customer service. Great customer service begins with a great attitude.
What are some of the qualities of customer service professionals?
- Those with a positive attitude and a cheerful outlook
- Those who can allow customers to be right (even on the occasions when they are not)
- Those who genuinely enjoy working with and for other people
- Those with the ability to put the customer on center stage
- Those who view their job primarily as a human relations profession
In Module Two, you will learn how to establish your attitude, be in the know, behavior that turns-off customers, what you can do right away to improve customer service, and courtesy counts.
Communication Skills
To establish a productive relationship with your customers, you must develop excellent communication skills. Effective communication skills have three components: listening, verbal, and non-verbal communication skills.
In Module Three, you will learn communication skills, how to provide excellent service through effective communication, listening skills, seven ways to listen better, asking good questions, verbal communication skills, and the seven c’s of communication.
Identifying and Addressing Customer Needs
What is the purpose of customer service training?
The first step in improving customer service is determining what customers value in their interactions with your organization. What do they want? What do they need? The most obvious way to find out what customers want and need is to ask them. Businesses spend lots of time and money surveying customers, and they often come up with valuable feedback. The people on the front lines of customer service, who interact with customers daily, can gain useful insights into what customers value by listening to and observing them.
Once you have identified customer needs, the next step is to commit yourself to meet them. But you can’t stop there. To provide exceptional service, you need to go the extra mile to show customers how important they are to your organization.
In Module Four, you will learn how to identify and address customer needs, understand the customer’s situation, stay outside the box, meet customers’ basic needs, meet the special needs of customers, go the extra mile, and measure your customer efforts.
Generating Return Business
What is a customer service program?
People who have been in business for a while know the value of return business. Experts believe it costs at least six times more to attract new customers than to keep existing ones. If you think about advertising and salespeople’s cost, you can see why winning a new customer is more expensive.
Your customers are like everyone else. They want to feel appreciated. If they feel you have forgotten about them as soon as a transaction is complete, they may take their business elsewhere. On the other hand, if you show a genuine interest in keeping in touch with them and meeting their needs, they will return. We all like to do business with companies we know and trust. You should strive to be that kind of company.
In Module Five, you will learn how to maintain happy customers, follow up, address complaints, what customers do not want to hear, the L.E.A.R.N. model for handling complaints, turn difficult customers around, and recover from a service breakdown.
In-Person Customer Service
What are the areas of customer service?
In-person interactions provide a great opportunity to build rapport with customers. When you talk to a customer on the phone or exchange emails, it can sometimes be difficult to understand what the other person is thinking and feeling. But when you talk to a customer in person, you get constant verbal and nonverbal feedback. It’s easy to tell if you are creating the right impression.
In Module Six, you will learn in-person customer service, dealing with at-your-desk requests, and the advantages and disadvantages of in-person customer service.
Giving Customer Service over the Phone
When you talk to someone in person, body language makes up a large part (some would say more than half) of your message. But as soon as you pick up the phone, body language becomes irrelevant. The success of your interactions depends almost entirely on your tone of voice and your choice of words. Getting these things right isn’t easy, but anyone can learn how to provide excellent customer service over the phone with a little practice. Customers hear your smile through your voice.
In Module Seven, you will learn to give customer service over the phone, telephone etiquette, handling complaints by phone, and the advantages and disadvantages of telephone communication.
Providing Online Customer Service
Most customer interactions are taking place online or by email. Younger people, in particular, prefer to do much of their business online rather than in person. But online and email interactions have limitations. To provide excellent customer service online or by email, you need to understand what works and what doesn’t and make the most of available tools.
In Module Eight, you will learn to provide online and email customer service, the advantages, and disadvantages of electronic communication, understand netiquette, tips and tricks, and how to eliminate electronic ping pong.
Recovering Difficult Customers
How do you deal with someone not satisfied with your customer care?
One of the challenges customer service staff faces is dealing with difficult customers. Sometimes customers have a legitimate reason to be upset, and sometimes they don’t. The customer service staff must be prepared to deal with difficult customers and find ways to win them back.
Whether the problem is caused by the customer or by the company, what is important in any contact with a difficult customer is what you do to resolve the problem and how valued you make the customer feel.
When a customer complains, look at it as an opportunity to improve.
In Module Nine, you will learn how to recover difficult customers, steps to effectively handle difficult customers, de-escalating anger, establish common ground, set your limits, and manage your own emotions.
Understanding When to Escalate
Providing great customer service does not mean you have to face threats, intimidation, or vulgar language from customers. If customers are out of control, you need to take over the situation and protect yourself.
In Module Ten, you will learn to understand when to escalate, deal with vulgarity, cope with insults, and deal with legal and physical threats.
This course is offered for each level of customer service:
For the customer service representative, this two-day class examines who we are and what we do as customer service representatives. We analyze our attitude and communications skills and take a hard look at what our customers need. We learn customer service skills whether delivered in person, over the phone, online, or by email. Finally, we learn how to handle complaints and difficult customers.
For managers, we discuss managing the customer service program to build a motivated customer service team.
For policymakers, we examine how company policies can impact customer service. In most cases, company policies are responsible for customer dissatisfaction. Policies made for what is most convenient and profitable for the company, with little consideration on how they impact the customer relationship, can have a devastating impact on customer retention resulting in declining sales. Poor customer service policies will also affect employee retention. Employees consistently forced to deal with angry customers will soon seek employment elsewhere.
