Customer Service And Communication Skills

Customer Service Communication Skills will help learners develop soft skills as well as enhancing their skills in listening, grammar, pronunciation and reading. Each of these is approached in the context of communication needs in a customer service environment. Learners have the opportunity to practise combining the skills they have learned as they record and play back their own responses to customer queries. Each unit of work is based around an authentic customer service interaction and is focused on a specific skill (such as “Active Listening” or “Giving Clear Explanations”).

Course Objectives

• Defining Good Customer Service
• What Customer Service Skills do you Already Have?
• Dealing with Difficult, Rude or Indifferent Customers
• Achieving Real Excellence in Customer Service
• Advanced Listening and Responding Skills
• Make the Customers Point of View Work for you
• Developing New Customer Relationships
• Caring for Yourself as well as your Customers
• Handling Complaints with Empathy and Efficiency
• Gaining Confidence in your Customer Service Role

Who Should Attend?

Designed for any member of a customer-facing team who wants to hone their communication skills and improve their interactions with customers.

Specifically useful for contact centers and teams adopting new media channels to communicate with customers – where both verbal and written skills are essential to positive customer experiences.

Course Outline

Module One: Defining Customer Service

• What does great service look like and feel like?
• Sharing our own experiences of good and bad service
• Responsibility for customer service
• Stepping into your customers’ shoes
• Individual and group exercises, facilitated group discussion

Handling customer enquiries

• Customer contact model and service standards
• Creating lasting first impressions
• Building and maintaining rapport
• Using positive language and tone of voice
• Demonstration, facilitated group review, pairs exercise with group review

Module Two: Establishing customer needs and responding to requests

• Questioning
• Active listening – including taking notes
• Summarising
• Practical exercises in pairs and trios with group discussion

Handling work based customer requests

• Identifying challenging customer requests
• Responding to challenging customer requests assertively
• Group discussion, short practice sessions in pairs with feedback

Module Three: Service recovery

• Turning disappointment into delight
• Identifying the nature of customer complaints
• Responding to customer complaints
• Introducing colleagues to resolve customer service issue
• Group discussion, presentation, exercise with group review

Complaint handling practice

• Practise brief
• Practise sessions
• Complaint handling practice sessions with feedback, group review

Module Four: Managing the delivery of customer service excellence

• Delivering a next generation customer experience
• Developing a customer strategy - planning for an interactive business relationship
• Change management of processes, metrics, incentives and skills to deliver the customer experience
• Benchmarking to achieve competitive differentiation
• Setting up internal information supply streams that flow through and around the organization
• Knowledge management as a customer service tool
• Using a performance management framework
• Coaching - a tool for self and others
• Influencing exercises

Module Five: Building customer relationships

• Relationship triangle – trust and loyalty
• What differentiates us from our competitors?
• Identifying ways to add value and exceed customer expectations
• Following up
• Presentation, revolving flipchart exercise in small groups, group review

Applying the learning and next steps

• Review of learning and action planning
• Course feedback

Course Methodology

A variety of methodologies will be used during the course that includes:

• (30%) Based on Case Studies
• (30%) Techniques
• (30%) Role Play
• (10%) Concepts
• Pre-test and Post-test
• Variety of Learning Methods
• Lectures
• Case Studies and Self Questionaires
• Group Work
• Discussion
• Presentation

Course Fees

This rate includes participant’s manual, Hand-Outs, buffet lunch, coffee/tea on arrival, morning & afternoon of each day.

Course Timings

Daily Course Timings
08:00 - 08:20       Morning Coffee / Tea
08:20 - 10:00       First Session
10:00 - 10:20       Coffee / Tea / Snacks
10:20 - 12:20       Second Session
12:20 - 13:30       Lunch Break & Prayer Break
13:30 - 15:00       Last Session