World Class Customer Service, the Series
WORKSHOP ONE
Customer Service in the New Age of Business
This engaging workshop is the cornerstone to exceptional service. This first course in your series will set the groundwork for further workshops and will be designed for your team. This event fully engages participants and reveals what exactly gold-plated customer service looks like.
Course Objectives/Anticipated Results:
- Maintain current relationships.
- What is your organization’s culture and what is the relation to customer service?
- Build a customer service language that is used by all.
- Understand the internal vs. external client. Why do you need both?
- Learn the Pivot. Deal with the angry client. Forge a new relationship.
- Use positive language every step of the way.
- Analyze and improve listening skills.
- Keep morale high.
- Learn assertive questioning to help serve your client.
- Learn to proactively serve your clients’ every need.
- Customer service thinking that plants the City of Arlington at the top.
This course discusses the external client relationship and is designed to give participants tools to direct focus, assist those with needs and think with increased accountability. Learn to use communication properly and with power. Anticipate your clients’ every need, evaluate options quickly and leave the client with the sense that they are treated royally and that your organization continually appreciates their business.
Creating a customer based culture in today’s business environment is imperative to success and growth. As we explore the impact on internal customer service, it becomes clear that there is a direct link between the quality care of clients and the positive relationships between employees. The improved communication between work partners makes for the most positive teams. This in turn, creates a workplace people want to stay. Learn concrete techniques to make customer service your focus.
Participants will take a popular and most effective behavioral exam. This quick learning tool will help workshop members understand “strategic flexing”. This enables those that work very differently, learn to work well as team mates and to function highlighting individual strengths. Workshop participants will learn the best tactics to communicate with peers and clients. The study determines communication styles by individual actions, as opposed to what they are thinking, as actions have most impact.
WORKSHOP TWO
Building a Service Culture
Accountability is Key
Create a vision of accountability – participants will leave with a vivid picture of an accountability-driven culture. This is a place everyone wants to work! Functional barriers come down, results replace explanations, and people are committed beyond themselves. This is a place where everyone takes ownership of problems and understands the importance of follow-through. This is how the City of Arlington becomes distinctly different – customers see and experience the difference with every contact.
Module I: The Difference Accountability Makes for the Customer, the Company, and the Employee
- Reflective Exercise—Imagine a Culture Where People:
- Take personal responsibility
- Own their efforts and outcomes
- Keep their promises
- Push through obstacles to find solutions
- Fix problems, not blame
- Focus on what they can do something about
- Empower themselves with skills and information
- Explore new approaches
- Are committed beyond themselves
- Are open and honest
- Trust and are trusted
- Hold themselves and others accountable
- Participants will identify and isolate “low accountability” beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors.
- Learn to recognize immediately the symptoms of low accountability.
- They will create a common language (for example ZOLA—Zone of Lone Accountability)
- A business case is used to experience the link between beliefs, actions, results, and the culture.
This module is the why behind the what. Why it is important. Why it is powerful. Why it is personally empowering. This is what an accountability driven culture looks like and what it can accomplish.
Module II: A Culture of Accountability Begins with You
- This module introduces the behaviors that mark personal accountability.
- Participants assess themselves and isolate specific actions they can take to empower themselves through accountability.
- Rather than looking outside themselves to locate problems and barriers—this module asks them to start by looking within.
- Participants learn to clarify expectations and take away a powerful discussion tool to develop greater role clarity – ending the frustrating cycle of blaming and defending.
- Internal communications improve as co-workers demonstrate personal accountability. Trust and respect increase as people model the behaviors.
- A powerful feedback prescription is introduced that ties feedback to the core values—to constantly reinforce what is valued most. (This allows the culture to internalize values in a very real way.)
Module III: Communicating Accountability
- This module builds communication disciplines and processes that empower your culture.
- Participants learn to “ask the right questions” to “get the right answers”. They learn to ask accountable questions that empower the individual and the team.
- They will explore how organizations unwittingly rewarding low accountability.
- They will look at their own “hot situations” and apply the accountability concepts to diffuse.
- Participants return to the business case and overlay the skills they have learned to take ownership of problems and understand the importance of following-up on action steps.
- They will see the dramatic difference between the low-accountability behaviors, attitudes, and high-accountability choices.
- Participants will take away an accountability checklist for implementation.
- Personal action plans are developed to hold themselves accountable.
WORKSHOP THREE
Leverage the Opportunity
Adding Value to Every Customer Contact
Module I: e-writing finesse
- What has changed?
- Get your e-mail read.
- Determine when you should use e-mail and when you should pick up the telephone.
- Learn the do’s and don’ts.
- Service clients by e-mail with flair and make relationships stronger.
Module II: Telephone Etiquette
- Receive rules for returning calls.
- Add customer service excellence via telephone communication.
- Learn telephone listening techniques.
- Create the perfect voice mail recording.
Module III: Develop Your Brand
- Perceptions are everything. Make sure you are portraying the image you want to get across.
- Examine your eye contact.
- Polish your handshake.
- Practice proper introductions.
- Create the origin of career management.
Module IV: Customer Service Team Exercise
Put theory into practice with this meaningful experience designed solely for your team. Participants will engage in, develop and present scenarios. Tie all of your hard work and practice together. Students will visit stations in teams, and each team will be given assignments. As teams get closer to their goals, they are rewarded and when the goal is eluded, the team will lose ‘privileges’. This reinforces all that has been discussed within the last four sessions. This exercise is fun and rewarding.
