Quality Customer Service

Blue-Ribbon Practices Used by Top Professionals Everywhere

Class Summary

This powerful 1-day session is unlike any customer service program you and your staff may have encountered before. It concentrates on proven techniques for building rapport and relationships with external and internal customers. It emphasizes quality work and follow-through to ensure high customer satisfaction.

— “I gained a whole new perspective on customer service.” (more)

CSV175 5.0
One 7-hour session

Managers, supervisors, team leaders, and service teams/team members will all benefit from this customer service "essentials" program.

  • Greater confidence in your ability to provide quality customer service.
  • Increased customer satisfaction.
  • A reputation for excellence in customer relations.
  • Improved workplace morale and job satisfaction.

By the end of this program, you will be able to:

  • List the traits of genuine customer service.
  • Describe techniques for determining what your customers want and need.
  • List the steps in building a customer-friendly environment.
  • Name and describe the four service climate types.
  • Explain the relationship between ethics and quality customer service.
  • Describe the traits of a successful customer service team.
  • List and practice proven techniques for dealing successfully with customer complaints and difficult customers.
  • Explain how clear communication and quality customer service are related.
  • List the most important telephone skills and behaviors needed for quality customer service.
  • Describe how to stay energized, motivated, and positive in a high-customer-contact environment.
  • Customer service basics
    • What customer service really means
    • The traits of genuine customer service
    • The chain of command in customer service
  • The ultimate quality commitment: To be customer focused (both internal and external)
    • Knowledge and training–the foundation of quality customer service
    • The importance of living up to the company mission statement
    • Every staff member’s role in surveying customers
    • How to determine what customers want and need
    • Customer service and the customer’s perception
  • How to create a customer-friendly environment
    • Developing rapport with your customers
    • What makes customers go elsewhere?
    • How to apply empathy over apathy
    • Be proactive, not reactive
  • Creating the right climate for your customers
    • Defining organizational climate
    • The four service climates
    • The two essential ingredients of quality-oriented service climate
  • Ethics and quality customer service
  • Working as a team to serve customers with quality
    • Definition of a team
    • Teamwork: The three service support levels in every organization
    • Traits of a successful customer service team
  • How to be an effective salesperson in quality customer service environment
    • Four guiding principles for quality customer service selling
    • Relationship selling: Building trust to keep customers for life
    • The importance of self-confidence in selling yourself
  • Coping with customer complaints and difficult customers
    • Listening and responding to customer complaints
    • Five main reasons why customers complain
    • The quality way to say “no” to unreasonable customer demands
    • Four ways to confront difficult situations
    • Assessment instrument: How do you handle difficult customer situations?
    • How to remain CALM rather than getting angry
  • Quality customer service means clear communication
    • The process of communication
    • The four ways we communicate
    • A powerful formula for positive, non-verbal communication
    • Six key skills of a good listener
  • Building effective telephone skills
    • Ten key telephone skills and behaviors
    • Six tips for sounding professional on the telephone
    • The basics of voice mail
    • The importance of voice tone on the telephone
  • Self management and quality customer service
    • Learning to choose your own emotional state
    • Understanding “contact overload syndrome”
    • Monitoring your behavior to prevent burnout
    • How to keep yourself energized, motivated and positive
  • Action Planning

Many of the ideas in this seminar come from Jim Temme’s book, Total Quality Customer Service: How to Make It Your Way of Life.

This seminar can be presented in half-day or full day formats.