Customer Focus

Day 1

The golden rules of customer focus

What is going on inside a person’s head (their state of mind) is crucial to good performance and we consider the beliefs, values and attitudes of people who are outstanding at building great customer relationships.

• Examine your current beliefs
• Reviewing expert thinking
• Making changes that you feel are appropriate for you

Exercise: identifying changes you can make

Making a positive first impression on customers

Learning how to grab attention and ‘command the space’ when you talk to a group of people through the use of non-verbal signals.

• Using credible body language
• Using powerful language
• Using engaging vocal patterns

Pairs exercise: demonstrating pride and power

Day 1 (cont)

Rapport building

People respond well to people they like and trust, so rapport building is central to the ability to have and show empathy with customers; here we look at generating positive relationships by;

• Matching body language
• Matching and leading vocal patterns
• Matching language
• Collaborating
• Understanding the power of ME

Pairs exercise: matching vocal patterns and matching language

Reading people

Part of making a positive impression on customers is reading their body language to be able to judge, (a) are you getting your message through to them and (b) are they being completely honest in what they are telling you. Being able to understand what people are really saying means:

• Understanding how people really communicate
• Watching for vocal ‘tells’ (indications of untruth or doubt)
• Listening for vocal ‘tells’
• Spotting inconsistency in communication

Pairs exercise: learning to spot "tells"

Day 1 (cont)

Understanding customer needs

This set of tools is concerned with asking high quality questions that map out precisely the customers needs and requirements. Based on the NLP idea known as the ‘logical levels concept’ it allows us to really understand what the client needs to happen in order to feel that their concerns have been fully understood and their expectations satisfied.

• The logical levels concept
• Moving up logical levels
• Moving down logical levels

Pairs exercise: conducting logical levels interviews

Persuasive language

Persuasive language is about being able to put your ideas across to customers powerfully by using:

• Other people’s psychological patterns
• Other peoples language patterns
• The persuasion pattern
• IFAB sequence and IFAB scripts

Pairs exercise: the persuasion pattern

Day 2

Planning a well structured customer meeting

This set of tools involves learning how to plan for a customer meeting so that all of the company’s employees have a common understanding of the issues and have an agreed strategy for taking things forward. The planning process, involves gathering some facts (what we call building a database) and setting out the goals for the meeting. Once this has been done, specific targets can be set and the plan for the face to face meeting developed.

• Collecting the evidence (organising the facts)
• Stakeholder analysis (identifying the key decision makers)
• Position perception (learning how to identify your own goals and how to step into customers’ shoes so you can anticipate their requirements)
• Agree the strategy for the meeting (align your internal team with the meeting goals and the customers’ requirements)

Case study: planning a customer meeting

Day 2 (cont)

Running a collaborative customer meeting

Appreciating how to run a customer meeting in a way that demonstrates that you have listened to them fully and completely, while putting your suggestions in a positive and purposeful manner. To do this we cover a seven-step process (known as the Boulden Prosper System™) for running powerful and effective review meetings with clients and customers.

Setting the scene

Looking in-depth at the first three stages in the Boulden Prosper System™. This involves setting clear goals for the meeting, establishing a relaxed atmosphere and confirming the topics that are to be discussed.

• Prepare the agenda
• Rapport building
• Outline the topics to be discussed

Pairs exercise: the persuasion pattern

Understanding the customers point of view

Working with logical levels diagrams to identify customer needs, opinions and thoughts regarding each agenda item so we know precisely why they hold a particular point of view and how specifically they would like to move forward.

• Seek the customers’ views
• Probe the customers’ views
• Identify opportunities for ‘win/win’ agreements & to exceed expectations
  

Pairs exercise: probing to develop needs

Day 2 (cont)

Agreeing the way forward

Explaining how we think each issue should be dealt with and (if appropriate) challenging the customers’ views and suggesting alternatives before formally noting down what has been agreed.

• Express your views
• Record outcomes

Pairs exercise: putting an alternative point of view

Case study and role play

Practise in moving through the whole planning process and meeting process in one session.

Group exercise: role-plays

Action Learning projects

Each workshop is followed by an Action Learning phase, which involves the participants meeting in a ‘self help group’ once every two weeks, for about thirty minutes and discussing how they are using the tools in action.
This project phase, which lasts around three months, allows the delegates to support and coach each other as they try out their new skills for improved Customer Focus in the work environment.

Review day

During this fast paced session participants take turns to present the results they achieved when trying out their skills in action to their colleagues and their Line Managers. They then take part in a series of refresher exercises before going on to explore additional topics that will help them to be more customer focused in a range of media. Specifically the new material will involve participants covering:

• The key elements of writing effective customer emails
• Core elements of high impact telephone meetings
• How to analyse the outcome of a meeting using the “After Action Review” process

Group exercises: case study and role-plays