Customer service is a process whereby a representative of a company provides services or products to a customer in a satisfying manner. Undergoing a course on customer service can drastically change the direction your business is going. It increases customer satisfaction and in the long run yields customer loyalty.
Customer service can occur practically anywhere. The following are just some of the examples:
Personal or face to face
Telephone
Order-taking
Complaint handling
Bills, payments, documents
Online and/or via email
This customer service course aims to give you a quick run-through on how to improve customer service skills. First, one must understand that no amount of course on customer service can teach the following:
Attitude ? having the right attitude is something innate, something that makes up the whole personality of the person.
Commitment ? as an entrepreneur, you can't force an employee to be committed to the job. It must come from within.
Happiness ? this trait depends on the person and when you are happy, everything else that's good follows. You have a positive disposition in life.
Let's discuss a few simple steps on how to improve customer service.
Smile ? an act as such gives a feeling of satisfaction to the customers. Most likely, customers will have an impression that the establishment has good customer service.
Know the customer's name ? customers appreciate it when their name is mentioned by a company representative. It somehow gives the feeling of personalized customer service
Be courteous
Ask for feedback ? this way, a customer feels that his/her opinions matter.
A basic customer service course usually includes:
Definition of customer service
Forms of customer service
Achieving excellent customer service
How to deal with different types of customers
How to improve listening skills
Responding skills
Developing personal action steps to improve customer handling
A good customer service course must be personalized according to needs of the participants. They also must learn techniques on how to handle different tricky situations. Another point to be tackled in a good customer service course is to relate to different types of customers and different communication styles. It's also beneficial to teach non-verbal cues that are ideal as well as how to read the customers? body language. More often than not, body language speaks more than words. It would also be very helpful that a course on customer service can teach the participants how to empathize with the customers so they can gain the customers? confidence. Excellent customer service is simple as long you know the basics and you have the passion to achieve it. Without that passion or commitment, you can never succeed in anything in any industry.
Customer Service Training Courses
I have used the word perception in the first paragraph and it really is one of the most important words to remember, as good customer service or bad customer service really is down to perception.
I recall shortly after 9/11 I was travelling to Florida, we were supposed to change flights in Newark, but what happened was the flight was late landing in Newark and we missed the connection flight to Florida.
The reason given for the delay was that the flight had to change its flight path due to the recent tragedy at the World Trade Centre. Although this was understandable it was still amazing to watch the reactions of the customers like us, who were affected by missing connecting flights.
From a customer service view point, it was obvious to see that the airline staff had been through some level of customer service training. They apologized, showed empathy offered options and tried their utmost to calm some of the more difficult customers, just the type of key skills one would learn on a customer service training course.
Just as we are always taught on customer service training courses, put yourself in the customers shoes, and offer options, the airline staff offered free accommodation and meals for those who had to wait overnight etc. The customer service training had really paid off, or so I thought.
Unfortunately when we were being transported by coach to the nearby hotels many of the customers were not happy with the service. At least 50% of customers felt the service was poor as it should not have happened in the first place. Although they did feel the people dealing with the problem did show good customer service skills they felt they would be reluctant to travel with the airline again.
The other 50% understood the problem and although were not happy about missing the connecting flights felt the customer service skills the staff had show were excellent and they had done their utmost to resolve a situation they had no control over.
That evening I learned 2 crucial lessons about customer service. I learned that approximately 40 customers had received the very same service but their perceptions of the customer service they received were very different.
I also learned that customer service training should really concentrate on 2 key areas the first being the personal service the client receives from an individual or a company. The second being customer service training courses should also concentrate on the performance or standards of service.
Both sets of customers were right the personal service was excellent; however the standards of performance were poor. With this in mind all customer service training courses should concentrate on the 2 Ps of customer service training.
Both Sheila Mulrennan & Frank Otools are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Frank Otools has sinced written about articles on various topics from Customer Service, Sales Training and Networking. To learn more about the 2 Ps of customer service training contact Frank O'Toole from Premier Training. They are helping people to achieve with customer service training.. Frank Otools's top article generates over 1900 views. Bookmark Frank Otools to your Favourites.
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