Advance Consultancy, St Mary’s House, 25 Church Street, Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, ST14 8AG

Customer service training course

Customer Service Is Not Important, It's Vital

Why is customer service training important?

Good customers are hard enough to find. Don’t give them away to your competition! In today’s very competitive environment, customers have a wider choice of who to select to work with and buy from. So, when customer service is poor the consumer and the business both lose.

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Customer Service Training Course

WHO IS THE SERVICE ADVANTAGE PROGRAMME FOR?

Our customer service training course is for you if you care deeply about your customers. Because customer service cuts across all functions of an organisation, the Service Advantage Programme is for anyone who is in a customer facing role, whether face-to-face or over the telephone in telesales and call handling. This includes

  • Service professionals
  • Salespeople
  • Front line personnel
  • Customer service teams (obviously!!)

What is the Service Advantage Programme?

Our customer service training course is a highly acclaimed and interactive two-day event that has been specifically designed to play an important role in improving customer service; the difference that makes the difference. It identifies the essential features that any and all organisations need to win and then keep customers, turning them from prospects into customers and then into apostles for your business.

Customer Service Training Company

In just two days, delegates will learn:

01.
The what, why and how of customer service (vision, purpose and process)
02.
Where they are on the customer service spectrum
03.
The difference between a customer driven and a process driven organisation
04.
What customers really expect from organisations today
05.
The power of a common language
06.
The 6 P’s of a profitable organisation
07.
Managing your mindset
08.
The importance of rapport and how to build it
09.
The powerful beliefs and values of customer service
10.
How to master conflict situations
11.
How to handle difficult conversations
12.
What and how to measure customer service
13.
The ‘Laws’ of customer service

How does our customer service training course work?

The customer service training programme uses a combination of approaches – questionnaires, activities, open discussion and feedback – to challenges the delegates’ perspectives of customer service in the 21st Century and what it means to them, their organisation and its customers. Delegates will identify the key elements of customer service based on the three key principles of retention, repeat business and referrals.

Customer Service Training
Frequently Asked Questions

What is customer service training?

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.

What is taught in customer service training?

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.

What are the benefits of customer service training?

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.

What are the objectives of customer service training?

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.

What are the most important skills in customer service?

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.

How do you deliver customer service training?

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.

If what you have read here sounds interesting to you and you feel it would make sense to have a conversation about our customer service training, please contact us and we will call to arrange a convenient date and time with you.
What do people say about
the Service Advantage Programme?
1
Michelle Graham
NHS London

Ian’s teaching and coaching skills are fun, interesting – when you leave the training you have a different mindset to before you attend. Excellent work.

Abdul Muhith
NHS, London

Ian was enthusiastic, innovative and used humour to illustrate & demonstrate certain points. He used scenarios that were relative to the job role. He also de-coded that jargon making the material easy to understand. Thank you Ian!

Nicole Belfon-George
London Central and West Unscheduled Care Service

The material and strategies used on this course is different from other customer service courses I had in the past. This course is not customer service focused but on customer service delivery and management

Samantha Halden-Evans
Advance Consultancy, Uttoxeter

A very different and positive way of looking at customer service that goes beyond the usual clichés.

Leeanne Austin
London Central and West Unscheduled Care Service

Ian was very welcoming and made everyone feel comfortable. He made the learning fun and the course very enjoyable. I can’t wait to put into practice the information I learnt today.

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