Customer service training course

Customer service training is the training given to employees to help them improve the support they are able to provide and increase customer satisfaction. However, it’s not just for ‘customer service’ staff. Customer service is a mindset, not a department. Everyone in an organisation should offer customer service.

I delivered a customer service training programme for one company in London and a young woman called Helen, one of the receptionists, said that she didn’t see how she had any real part to play in customer service! A while later she was convinced how everybody has a part to play.

Nor is customer service training a one-off training session. It needs to be an ongoing process of continuous improvement.

Eagle Training tailor all our training programmes to meet the specific requirements of our clients, so no two customer service training programmes are the same. However, there are some ‘usual suspects’ that appear in most training of this kind. They include effective listening, product knowledge and communication skills.

We would add to that list the ability to build rapport with the customer, understanding their mindset and being able to handle difficult conversations and conflict. There are also some key models that can be included in customer service programmes. One such model is the RATER model which says that 5 key elements of effective customer service are reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy and responsiveness.

In the words of John Jantsch, President of Duct Tape Marketing, “Great customer service is a great opportunity to exceed your customers’ expectations”. Jan Carlzon, former head of SAS Airlines describes it as “The opportunity to deliver a moment of truth”, those few seconds or minutes of customer contact which can be a moment of magic or misery.

So, if applied in the workplace customer service training can improve employee skills, confidence and motivation which can lead to increased levels of customer satisfaction, which can lead to increased customer retention and loyalty, which can lead to positive word of mouth advertising from advocates of your company, which can help to increase sales…… Are you getting the idea here? Fundamentally, customer service training can be an incredible source of competitive advantage.

A well designed customer service training programme will provide delegates with both the skills and the confidence to deliver high levels of customer service through their interactions. Our client’s needs usually require our customer service training to get the delegates to begin to define what exceptional customer service actually is and to identify the benefits that it offers to both the company and the customer.

A common objective that our delegates challenge us to do is to equip their people with the ability to manage ‘awkward’ or ‘difficult’ customers and deal with their complaints in a way that satisfies them and turns them around. This obviously requires us to work with the delegates’ ability to recognise specific customer behaviours and a process for building rapport with the person in front of them or on the other end of the phone.

There are so many important skills, but we believe that there are some which are essential if an employee is able to offer the highest levels of customer service. These include having empathy for the customer’s situation, which includes great listening skills and a highly developed sense of acuity. Both of these can be badged as communication skills, which are obviously critical.

There is also the ability to adapt your style to meet the situation, but always remaining in control and assertive; not being passive or aggressive. The ability to diffuse a conflict situation is another key skill to develop and, again, this requires the skill of building rapport.

Finally, although it is not perhaps a ‘skill’, an important factor in customer service is having a customer service mindset.

As with all our programmes, our customer service training programmes begin with a diagnosis phase to identify the client’s current situation in this area. This often includes reviewing their current levels of customer satisfaction from any surveys, mystery shopper exercises and/or customer complaints they have had.

We then design the programme and agree the content with the client sponsor. Our delivery will include the use of group discussion, contrastive analyses, case studies and scenarios. We always try to ensure that training exercises and activities in which the delegates get involved are both relevant and practical. By doing this, we believe it will help to embed a positive customer service mindset.