Communications and Customer Service Excellence

Prerequisites

Anyone in contact with the customers of an organisation, who can positively or negatively impact on the impression held by those customers.

Course Objectives

Having completed the training the participants will
Understand their role in enhancing the customer experience
See the link between the customer experience and customer loyalty
Have a strategy for dealing with difficult situations
Use active listening and effective questioning techniques to resolve problems
Learn some techniques for managing customer expectations
Use the telephone and email as business tools
Create an action plan for applying the new learning

Delivery style

The interactive workshop will use a variety of activities and exercises to enhance the learning. It will have a focus on experiential, action-based learning with the participants understanding the key principles and applying them to their situation. They will be involved in a number of training exercises where they can assess their own attitudes, skills, and responses. They can then identify the relationship between their behaviours and their effectiveness.
The learning will be supported by post course tip sheets and interactive quizzes to transfer the learning to the workplace.

Definition of customer service

The building blocks of customer service
How customers judge the quality of the customer service
Your contribution- what can you do?

Telephone Skills

Telephone as a communication tool
Conveying a professional message
Using continuity noises
Using a professional greeting and sign-off
Speaking to English second language customers

Written communication

Understanding the potential readers of your email
Structuring your email
Email guidelines

Managing the customer expectations

Communication as a business tool
Effective, appropriate and responsive communication
Understanding the communication funnel
Active listening skills
Paraphrasing and clarifying

Managing difficult situations

Dealing with difficult customer situations in a professional manner
Delivering bad news
Barriers to delivery excellent customer service
Frame of reference and self fulfilling prophecy

Face to face meetings

Non verbal communication
Demeanor and tone of voice
Professional & appropriate appearance
Approachability