Course Outcomes

This service strategy session will:

  • Introduce the steps leaders in strong service organizations take to build a culture of superior service.
  • Outline the importance of hiring service-minded employees.
  • Describe how training and empowerment fit into the service ecosystem.
  • Share best practices for leveraging stories in service.
  • Suggest steps strong managers take to ensure the service system works as intended.
  • Discuss how transparency builds trust with internal and external stakeholders.

Course Overview

Whether it’s good, bad, or ugly, customer service starts at the top.  If the leadership team values quality, the organization usually values quality. If the people at the top take shortcuts, a short-term view seeps into the company’s DNA. It’s that simple. Strong leaders are an essential element in the customer service equation. This half-day program examines steps exceptional leaders take to build a strong culture and drive a team toward first-class service.

Program Objectives

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

  • Explain the importance of mission, vision, values and how to keep those ideas front and center.
  • Describe best practices in customer service recruiting and how hiring right is a central step in building a strong service team.
  • Outline the training options available to organizations and how often training should occur if service is to stay strong and consistent.
  • Discuss steps superior service organizations take to empower and engage their staff.
  • Articulate the value of storytelling and stories to build a strong service culture.
  • Describe a management team’s role in the customer service process.
  • Discuss how transparency has a direct correlation to customer trust.

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).

Workshop Outline

MVV: Defining What Matters

While a business is rarely all things to all people, it should be as good as it can be to its target market. This opening discussion focuses on the importance of defining a mission, vision, and value system. It also addresses the necessity of keeping those ideas front and center and not just mounted on the wall in some conference room.

Higher Hiring and Retaining Talent: Leveraging People Power

Some people are predisposed to providing great service. They delight in delighting others, they remain calm when the going gets tough, and they make good decisions once they have a general sense of boundaries. Successful service leaders know the importance of finding and hiring these people. This workshop segment focuses on recruiting and retaining a talented staff. It also addresses tactics for raising an existing team’s service level or making plans to transition them out of the organization.

Train and Retrain: Reinforcing Processes and Standards

Great service organizations don’t treat training as a one-and-done event.  From onboarding a new hire to refocusing staff, great service organizations methodically and consistently train employees at all levels of the business. This seminar segment explores the importance of developing all staff and not just those on the front line. It also reviews a host of training methods and when each is appropriate: instructor-led courses, on-the-job training, job shadowing, microlearning, self-guided study, and other options.  

The E-Square Advantage: Empower and Engage

No matter how good a mission, vision, and value system is, without employee empowerment, an organization is never as strong as it can be. Empowered employees look for ways to go the extra mile, and they treat the business as owners, not renters. They drive the organization forward and build great relationships with both customers and coworkers. This portion of the course looks at best practices for empowering and engaging staff and the process of putting more control in the hands of employees.

The Voice of the Customer: Collecting and Communicating Stories

Stories are some of the glue that binds and creates a cohesive culture, and strong service organizations recognize the benefit of using stories to reinforce their values and beliefs. This workshop segment looks at best practices for using stories to shape culture and reinforce great customer service.

Managing Service: Putting Strong Frameworks in Place

A company can do everything right, but if it doesn’t have a strong management team in place, it will not be able to sustain “A+” service. In this part of the program, we’ll review the essential processes good management teams follow to ensure consistently great service.

See-Through Service: Total Transparency

Nobody likes to be kept in the dark, and many great service organizations have capitalized on that idea. In this final discussion, we will examine the idea of transparency and its value in internal and external relationships.

By the conclusion of this program, participants should understand the actions leaders take to build and promote a culture of superior service.