Critical Elements of Superior Customer Service

Audience:

This class is beneficial to everyone, but is of special significance to employees in a customer service role.

Prerequisites:

None

Description:

While many companies promise to deliver an incredible customer experience, some are better at delivering than others. This two-day course is designed around six critical elements of customer service that, when the company lives them, bring customers back to experience service that outdoes the competition.

Course Objectives:

This two-day workshop teaches participants to:

• Demonstrate a customer service approach
• Understand how your own behavior affects the behavior of others
• Demonstrate confidence and skill as a problem solver
• Apply techniques to deal with difficult customers
• Make a choice to provide customer service

Outline:

Lesson 1: Course Overview

• You will spend the first part of the day getting to know participants and discussing what will take place during the workshop. Students will also have an opportunity to identify their personal learning objectives.

Lesson 2: What is Customer Service?

• This session will define customer service and introduce the six elements of customer service which will form the basis of this workshop. Participants will also learn about the first element: a customer service focus.

Lesson 3: Who Are Your Customers?

• In most organizations and agencies, customers take two forms: internal and external. This session will look at both types of customers, as well as all customers’ basic needs.

Lesson 4: Meeting Expectations

• This session will focus on the critical areas that customers have expectations for.

Lesson 5: Pre-Assignment Review

• Next, participants will review the answers to the pre-assignment, which asked questions about common customer service assumptions.

Lesson 6: Setting Goals and Targets

• During this session, we will look at setting long- and short-term goals and creating a personal vision.

Lesson 7: The Second Critical Element – Defined in Your Organization

• In this session, you will think about what your organization expects of you, and how to ensure that those standards line up with what customers expect.

Lesson 8: The Third Critical Element – Given Life by the Employees

• Next, participants will explore why customer service must be a philosophy that is practiced by all employees.

Lesson 9: Communication Skills

• This session will give participants an introduction to key communication skills, including empathy, body language, asking questions, and listening.

Lesson 10: Telephone Techniques

• This brief lecture will look at an ideal telephone call, from the greeting to the conclusion. We will also look at common situations, such as placing a caller on hold and taking a message.

Lesson 11: Dealing with Difficult Callers

• During this session, participants will work in small groups to complete a mix-and-match exercise on common types of difficult callers and appropriate responses.

Lesson 12: Dealing with Challenges Assertively

• There are many types of unexpected challenges that we encounter every day. Participants will work in small groups to develop responses to some of these issues.

Lesson 13: Dealing with Difficult People

• This session will give participants an opportunity to understand difficult behavior, identify some coping strategies, and discuss the difficult person they find most trying.

Lesson 14: Dealing with Conflict

• We will examine five ways to deal with conflict.

Lesson 15: The Fourth Critical Element – Be a ProblemSolver

• We will look at a six-step plan for solving problems. Then, participants will role-play the plan.

Lesson 16: Seven Steps to Customer Problem Solving

• Next, we will look at a plan designed specifically for solving customer service problems. Then, participants will practice using the plan in a role play. We will also look at a six-step process that you can use to turn unhappy customers around.

Lesson 17: The Fifth Critical Element – Measure It

• The only way to know what’s really going right and wrong is to measure regularly. This session will give participants some ideas for measuring customer service.

Lesson 18: The Sixth Critical Element – Reinforce it

• Next, participants will learn some ways to keep a customer service focus strong. We’ll also share some powerful phrases that can help you build a positive image.

Lesson 19: Dealing with Stress

• This session will offer some quick, easy ways to de-stress in any place, at any time.

Lesson 20: Workshop Wrap-Up

• At the end of the day, students will have an opportunity to ask questions and fill out an action plan.