Available Formats

• Half Day
• One Day
• Two Days

Program Overview

What is good customer service?  How can it go from good to great? What are the pitfalls that many people experience when trying to deliver customer service?  Does attitude count?  What is the best way to handle difficult customers?  What techniques can be used to reduce customer-service stress?  Find out the answers to these and other important customer-service questions during this information-packed training session.  Participants will learn what exceptional service is, how to project a customer-friendly image, how to handle demanding customers, and more.

Program Objectives

At this program's conclusion, participants should be able to:

• Describe exceptional customer service.
• Identify the benefits of great customer service.
• Recognize barriers to the delivery of outstanding customer service.
• Adapt to specific customer behavior styles.
• Demonstrate how to measure customer-satisfaction levels and take corrective action if needed.
• Learn techniques for dealing with angry or upset customers.
• Develop a personal action plan to improve customer-service skills.

The following outline highlights some of the course's key learning points. As part of your training program, we will modify content as needed to meet your business objectives. Upon request, we will provide you with a copy of the participant materials prior to the session(s).

Course Outline

Get Ready to Serve: Where Excellence Starts

Knowledge goes a long way toward the delivery of exceptional customer service. The introductory lesson looks at the factors that make service outstanding and those that send customers to a business's competitors.

Stand and Deliver: Know the Nine Expectations

Delivery of a product or service alone will not guarantee repeat business. Another portion of the program explores nine expectations customers have of their service providers and explains how these expectations can be met.

The Communication Jungle: Understanding Different Communication Styles

Customers have varied behavioral styles. Learning how to adjust to each improves customer service and communication. Using Business Training Works' signature diagnostic tool, The Communication Jungle, participants will learn to identify their own behavioral styles and those of their clients and customers in order to adjust to each for better communication. This unit is beneficial to all who wish to provide exceptional customer service to a variety of people.

It's Not What You Say: Rephrasing for Better Relationships

The lesson in the saying "it's not what you say but how you say it" is one that takes some people years to learn. In this component, participants will learn how to use language to its best advantage during customer interactions. Special emphasis is placed on learning to say "no" in ways that reduce conflict and eliminating phrases such as "that's not my job" and "I don't know."

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Dealing with Difficult Customers

Not all customers are easy to deal with. Using real-world case studies, participants will learn in this discussion how to interact effectively with angry customers, complaining customers, customers who try to take advantage of organizations, and other troublesome people.

Tools of the Trade: Voicemail, Email, Memos, and More

When used poorly, certain office communication tools designed to improve business communication and customer service do the exact opposite. Anyone who has ever sent a misinterpreted email can attest to this fact. From writing style and grammar to telephone etiquette, this component reviews customer-service communication tools and how to use them for maximum effectiveness.

The Clinic: What We Can Do Better

This action-oriented section looks at an organization's current customer-service practices and asks participants to list the things that they personally and as a group could do immediately, within a few weeks, and within a few months to improve customer service.

Customer-Service Stress: 15-Minute Mini Spa

Dealing with customers' needs, wants, and frustrations can lead to unnecessary stress. The course concludes with stress-management techniques to ensure the providers stay refreshed and alert and that the service they deliver is the best it can be.

At the program's conclusion, participants will have an understanding of what makes a good customer-service experience, how to deliver excellent customer service, how to deal with difficult customers, and how to take care of themselves while taking care of others.

Find this course by searching for: customer service training, customer service course, customer service seminar, customer service program, improving customer service