Customer Service Excellence

The broad aim of this course is to introduce participants to key knowledge, attitudes and skills pertaining to Service Excellence and Quality in the work environment.The course covers the following Customer Service principles:

Customer Driven Organization:

• Understand the vital importance of the customer to any organization
• See the value in having excellent service for both internal and external   customers
• Identify the factors that can prevent an organization from maximizing customer value
• Understand how to critically look at the customer service levels and to establish if the organization is truly customer driven.
• Identify different customer types and interact appropriately with them

A customer driven organization is one that:

•  Listens to its customers
• Integrates customers into its business and vice versa
• Provides customer focused solutions
• Has a culture which positively embraces the customer

Loyalty of Customers

• Customers will stay where they feel they are being valued
• Customers will receive what they require
• Customers will trust the organization
• Business will be protected from the competitors

Focus on Value Add

• The organization will focus its resources on the activities which add value for the customer
• Customer driven operations focus on what the customer wants
• Core competencies can be identified and developed so as to deliver what the customer values

The importance of Quality Management to organisations

• Understand the importance of quality management
• Identify the key components of a quality management system
• Describe the factors that cause quality management systems to fail
• Understand the different ways that you as an employee can affect quality
• Use the material presented to develop a quality-centred approach to your role
• Identify the role of the quality management system and the interdependencies within your organization required to make it function

Upon completing the course, participants should be able to:

• Clarify what is meant by Customer Service;
• Explore who our customer is and what their diverse needs are;
• Use questioning techniques to identify specific needs of customers;
• Explore the values and attitudes necessary for improving quality in customer care;
• List the benefits of setting professional service standards for the organisation;
• Explain the importance of product knowledge in customer care;
• Receive and give honest feedback in order to learn from mistakes with difficult customers;
• Encourage team members to develop a self-critical approach;
• Discuss my role and responsibilities when serving customers;
• Setting up a Customer Relationship Management system;
• Monitoring customer feedback, analysing the data, rectifying the problems;
• Identify obstacles to, and challenges within, customer service programmes;
• Apply skills and techniques necessary for effective Customer Relationship Management;
• Developed an understanding of how CRM creates value for organizations and customers
• Develop a plan for exceeding customer expectations within a team environment;
• Prepare strategies for retention of customers;
• Set KPI's for customer service staff
• Conduct a performance appraisal for customer service staff

• The critical principles of customer service
• Determining your personal vision
• What am I responsible for? - Job Descriptions
• Why is customer service important to my job
• Quality Management Concepts & ISO
• Deming's 14 points on quality management
• Quality framework for Customer Service
• Your company's Customer Service policy
• Customers- our life line
• The DISC approach: your varied responses to different customers
• Product differentiation
• Understanding Customer needs
• Understanding your customers through questioning techniques
• Customer service oriented verbal communication, polite, specific, helpful
• Listening skills, listening with empathy
• Transactional analysis: understanding how to communicate effectively
• Customer service skills using the phone
• Key Performance Indicators for customer service staff
• Exceeding client expectations
• Conflict Resolution and difficult clients