Customer Service Training

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Essential Customer Service Skills




SESSION 29 Building Customer Focus
  • The benefits of great service – For you and the customer!
  • Who are your customers?
  • Understanding and clarifying your customer’s needs
  • Meeting your customer’s needs
  • The importance of initiative and being pro-active
  • Projecting the appropriate image to your customers
  • Developing trust and rapport
  • Building confidence and integrity
  • The importance of follow-up
SESSION 30 Advanced Customer Service Skills
  • Delivering professional customer service
  • Giving individualised service
  • Enhancing your service style – lifting the bar!
  • Appropriate problem management
  • Focusing on the need rather than the problem
  • Identifying other opportunities
  • Developing and maintaining a positive attitude
  • Business Acumen
  • Awareness of the bigger picture
  • The role we play
  • Cause & Effect
  • Customer service in a changing environment
SESSION 31 Customer Communication Skills
  • What is effective communication?
  • The key elements of effective communication
  • Active listening
  • Using appropriate language
  • Giving clear information and explanations
  • Overcoming the barriers to communication
  • Physical barriers
  • Psychological barriers
  • Semantic barriers
  • Using positive communication
  • Communication via email – when to use and how
  • Understanding and interpreting body language
SESSION 32 Telephone Techniques
  • Telephone communication skills
  • Managing inbound and outbound calls
  • Opening the call
  • Your speaking voice – the importance of confidence
  • Using the right words, tone, intonation and speed
  • Managing the body of the call
  • Closing the call
  • Controlling the call
  • Guidelines for screening calls
  • Putting the caller on hold
  • Transferring a call
  • Taking messages
  • Call time management
SESSION 33 Dealing with Difficult Customers and Situations
  • What is a difficult customer and why?
  • Identifying customer problems
  • Never tell customers your problems
  • Turning complaints into opportunities
  • Dealing with a anger and emotion
  • Identify and how to deal with abusive customers and other challenges
  • The importance of politeness
  • Managing stress and pressure – Emotion vs. Logic
  • Conflict Resolution – Getting to a ‘win-win’
  • Real life scenarios
SESSION 34 Appropriate Assertiveness
  • Understanding your natural influence style
  • Directness of communication
  • Consideration for customers and colleagues
  • The Interpersonal Influence Model
  • Open aggression vs concealed aggression vs passivity
  • Why assertive communication is most effective
  • Building assertiveness using the ASERT process
  • Analysing the situation
  • Stating your position – feedback
  • Evaluating nonverbal behaviours
  • Receiving feedback
  • Testing for understanding
  • Application and response planning for future situations

Customer service strategies

SESSION 35 Customer Psychology
  • Treating customers as individuals – Who are you dealing with?
  • Reading your customer’s style and expectations
  • Adjusting your style to become more effective
  • Dealing with misinterpretation
  • Coping with over-sensitivity
  • Using behaviours that build rapport
  • Recognising behavioural changes under stress
  • Adapting your communication to become more ‘customer friendly’
SESSION 36 Serving Internal and External Customers
  • Identifying internal vs. external customer needs
  • How do your internal customers evaluate service?
  • Guidelines for providing exceptional internal customer service
  • Increasing communication between different roles and departments
  • Educating your internal customers – clarifying their expectations
  • Meeting deadlines and keeping internal customers informed
  • Prioritising competing requests
  • Creating a positive environment
  • Taking a team approach
SESSION 37 Adding Value to the Customer
  • Taking responsibility – owning your customers and sales
  • Building integrity in our actions – keeping your customers up to date
  • Identifying opportunities for adding value in the eyes of the customer
  • How to make recommendations without appearing ‘pushy’
  • Keeping the customer happy
  • Ensuring customer continuity
  • Identifying common goals
  • Developing customer loyalty
  • How to keep the customer coming back for more!
SESSION 38
Overcoming Barriers To Service
  • Identifying challenges of our unique environment
  • Recognising sources of conflict
  • Signs and symptoms of ongoing stress
  • Defining specific problems / issues to solve
  • Analysing potential causes
  • Generating and selecting the best solutions
  • Implementing the solution – who is responsible?
  • Evaluating the successful impact on customers
  • Stress management techniques
  • Increasing motivation and empowerment among the customer service team
SESSION 39 Creating a Customer Service Vision
  • Focussing the organisation on customer service
  • Actions that develop customer service discipline
  • The steps for writing a customer service vision statement
  • Identify the criteria for a good customer service vision statement
  • Implementing and monitoring service standards
  • Identifying lessons learnt
  • Food for thought
  • Where to from here?
SESSION 40 Building a Strong Customer Service Team
  • Components of successful customer service teams
  • “What’s in it for me?” – the value of teamwork
  • What is my role within the customer service team?
  • Making our customer service team work
  • Managing the teaming process
  • Where are we now and how do we move forward?
  • Building relationships among team members
  • Managing diversity, disagreements and conflict
  • Increasing cooperation and team results