Customer Service Training Seminars

Having a Customer Service mindset means putting others before yourself. Putting others first requires re-ordering your priorities and taking care of another’s needs ahead of your own. This doesn’t sound fun.

The reward in placing yourself after others is in the value you get – from your own actions – and from the affirmations of those you’ve helped. Practice means improvement, and getting better at focusing on others means that you will develop a more keen emotional sense of what people need, expect, and want.

IMPROVING CUSTOMER SERVICE

an eight-hour training session for up to 20 participants

Customer Service is an organization’s ability to supply its customers’ wants and needs. Improved customer service skills are constantly and consistently exceeding the customers’ expectations.

Customer service class for industry professionals who want to maximize their efficiency, develop better customer skills, and increase their value. The focus of Improving Customer Service is to increase repeat business because of customer satisfaction and referral. Participants will find a greater level of productivity, job satisfaction and the potential for advancement. For client-facing service personnel, these areas of development will be very beneficial. Improved customer service skills means increased internal and external customer satisfaction.

Attendees will be able to:

• Focus on others to project a UB4I, customer-centered attitude;
• Empower people with respect (acknowledging) and control (offering choices);
• Understand customers better and develop emotionally-intelligent methods for managing their fears and reactions;
• Listen more intently to develop the best rapport;
• Communicate clearly with conviction, projecting greater credibility;
• Create positive, diplomatic messages even from negative, modeling a problem-solving, can-do attitude; and
• Create and refine phone-answering and email templates, to appropriately address customer concerns and increase the potential for repeat business.

IMPROVING INTERNAL CUSTOMER SERVICE

an eight-hour training session for up to 20 participants

In the Internal Customer Service Course, participants discover and internalize the basics of Customer Service, gaining understanding of how they provide this service to coworkers (internal customers). They identify and describe the value that they and their coworkers bring to the organization, which will positively shift how they perceive themselves and others.

Because of this session, attendees will find and implement new ways of communicating value to others, which will develop a praise-based workplace atmosphere, motivating leaders and staff alike. Finally, the group will share best practices to improve Internal Customer Service at the departmental and organizational levels.

This session uses the Building Excellence (BE) Survey, which identifies a combination of elements that affect how well each individual achieves and performs. Respondents glean vital insights about their strengths and productivity preferences useful in developing individualized solutions and concrete action plans to improve performance. Using the BE, staff and leaders develop new ways to assess individual productivity needs, respectfully advocate for learning and productivity preferences, develop self-leadership skills, and become more accountable and responsible.

Attendees will be able to:

• Discover the BE Assessment as a tool for increasing productivity;
• Gain awareness of Learning & Productivity Styles to maximize on-the-job performance;
• Identify, respect, and capitalize on diversity of styles (complementary and opposing);
• Apply principles of Internal Customer Service, creating a more pleasant and productive environment; and
• Gain greater awareness of the impact of in-person and remote communication, ensuring respectful treatment for all.

IMPROVING CUSTOMER SERVICE FOR PROFESSIONAL OFFICES

an eight-hour training session for up to 20 participants

Professional places of business are service providers for walk-in customers. These are enterprises like doctors’ and lawyers’ offices, stores, and even utilities.

All service providers face important challenges with their front-line staff. How a person is treated from entry to exit and beyond will affect how your business is perceived. It will also have a significant impact on the kind of recommendation that the customer will give to others.

Attendees will be able to:

• Gather critical data efficiently for accurate and concise service requests, using empathy and professionalism;
• Express customer concerns and goals clearly to ensure quick and correct changes and solutions;
• Communicate for success internally and externally by answering questions diplomatically, educating customers, and solving problems;
• Follow up quickly and positively to gain crucial feedback and earn new business through referrals, cross-selling, and up-selling; and
• Share best practices (adding value, asking for referrals/testimonials, following up) with others in the organization to help ensure customer satisfaction and retention.

CUSTOMER SERVICE AUDIT

a customized, business-specific evaluation and intervention plan

Make the decision to Improve Customer Service skills. To provide the staff and customers of your organization maximum benefit, Improving Communications will conduct a start-to-finish Customer Service Audit of what it’s like to do business with your company and provide detailed feedback to improve the customer experience. This “mystery shopper approach” will give leadership a true picture of how the customer is treated and provide an appropriate roadmap for change.

The Customer Service Audit is (are) visit(s) and transaction(s) conducted with your enterprise followed with an anecdotal, written description of the experience from start to finish. In consultation with middle- and upper-management, the “as is” and “should be” of customer service is decided. Upon mutual agreement for the optimal customer service experience, Improving Communications tailors and delivers an Improving Customer Service program that builds on existing strengths and addresses deficiencies.

We will gather detailed data and report back on our experiences with:

• Booking/setting appointments (sometimes through multiple channels);
• Entering the location(s) and describing what we see and feel, as well as interactions with the staff;
• Consuming (buying something, having service provided), including customer service problems that may arise;
• Exiting and related events;
• Interviewing leadership and staff after the visit(s) to discover their perceptions of what works and what doesn’t; and
• Interviewing other customers to discover their likes/dislikes of their experiences.

Procedures

For triangulation of information, Improving Communications will send different mystery shoppers on multiple occasions.

Date(s), time(s), and location(s) of the targeted training will be based on results of the audit.