Customer Service Excellence:How to Win & Keep Customers

Customer service excellence will give you the competitive advantage you need to survive in a tough and increasingly uncertain business climate. In today’s customer-oriented business environment, "people skills" are critical for personal and organizational success. 

How you handle your customers can directly affect your individual goals as well as your team’s and company’s performance. This training seminar on providing good customer service gives you the skills you need to communicate professionalism, gain respect, enhance customer relationships and secure an overall competitive advantage through customer service excellence.

Who Should Attend

Customer service representatives, technical and support personnel, field service representatives, account managers, credit and billing specialists, small business owners—as well as managers who want customer service training in order to reinforce their skills and train their staffs.

How You Will Benefit

• Deliver better, faster service and increase customer satisfaction
• Learn how to gain repeat business
• Know what customers expect
• Increase your credibility with customers—and your value to your organization
• Manage stressful situations more effectively
• Recognize the signals of customer irritation—and how to respond appropriately and assist in quickly finding a workable solution to your customer’s problem

What You Will Cover

• The benefits of providing good customer service
• Focusing on customer service excellence and success
• How customer service creates revenue
• Why customer satisfaction is based on perceptions
• Focusing on customers’ top two expectations to save time and reduce stress
• Managing customer expectations by personality style
• Dealing with difficult customers
• Responding effectively to specific customer behaviors

Course Outline:

Learning Objectives

• Identify the Three Cs of Customer Service Excellence: Credibility, Communication, and Conflict Resolution
• Understand How Customer Service Successes Create Revenue and Healthy Organizations
• Appreciate the Importance of Building Trust in Both Internal and External Customer Service Relationships
• Recognize How Prioritizing and Focusing on Your Customer’s Top Expectations Can Save Time and Reduce Stress
• Develop Strategies for Remaining Calm and Optimistic Under Pressure
• Expand Your Communication Skills and Improve Interactions with Customers By Understanding Both Personality and Listening Styles
• Understand the Power of Words When Communicating Via the Different Customer Communication Channels
• Recognize and Respond Effectively to Specific Customer Behaviors
• Remain Calm While Implementing the Recovery System to Turn a Challenging Customer into a Happy, Repeat Customer

The Power of Customer Service Excellence

• Understand How Customer Service Creates Revenue and Healthy Organizations
• Appreciate How Delivering Excellent Customer Service Reduces Your Personal Stress at Work

Creating a Culture of Credibility with Internal Customer Service

• Identify Internal and External Customers
• Appreciate That Internal Service Is Just as Important as External Service
• Understand the Two Levels of Customer Service
• Gain Influence Over Issues You Can’t Control
• Recognize the Importance of Building Trust in a Customer Service Relationship

Building Credibility By Managing Customer Expectations

• Discuss the Role of Perception in Satisfying Customers’ Expectations
• Identify the Source of Customers’ Expectations
• Determine Customers’ Top Expectations
• Recognize How Prioritizing and Focusing on Customers’ Top Expectations Can Save Time and Reduce Stress

Managing Conflict with Professionalism Under Pressure

• Understand How Emotions Are Created
• Develop Mental Strategies for Remaining Calm and Optimistic Under Pressure
• Use Body Language to Manage Your Emotional States
• Change the Emotional States to Avoid Negative Carryover

Effective Communication Styles for Customer Satisfaction

• Understand Your Own Personality Style
• Identify the Personality Styles of Others
• Use Personality Styles to Communicate with Your Customers Based on Their Preferences
• Expand Your Communication Skills for Better Results with Customers

Effective Communication with Personalized Listening Skills

• Enhance Listening Strengths
• Reduce Listening Liabilities
• Identify Your Customers’ Listening Styles and Your Own
• Build Rapport with Customers and Expand Your Influence

Customer Communication Channels and the Power of Words

• Identify the Different Types of Customer Communication Channels
• Appreciate the Power of Words
• Use Persuasive Language Patterns
• Identify Techniques to Stand Out on the Telephone
• Compose Email Correspondence That Customers Will Read, Understand, and Appreciate
• Use the Power of Social Media to Enhance Customer Service

Strategies for Dealing with Challenging Customers

• Recognize and Respond Effectively to Challenging Customers
• Understand the Physiology of Anger
• Turn a Challenging Customer into a Happy, Repeat Customer Using a Recovery System
• Apply Emotional Management Tools to Remain Calm During Interactions with Challenging Customers