- Develop rapport and empathy when talking with customers
- Understand customer’s needs and issues
- Present your arguments in a highly persuasive manner
Overview
This programme is designed to give Customer Service professionals who are working in a b2b environment the key skills needed to engage customers via the phone and through emails. The training covers how to build rapport with clients from different cultural backgrounds, understand customers’ requirements and reach agreements on action plans. It also discusses tools for handling difficult situations, such as giving bad news, or handling complaints. There is extensive use of role-plays and case studies to practise handling in-bound calls, facilitating telephone conferences and structuring emails.
Learning objectives
By attending this highly interactive two-day course you will:
- Understand the psychology of being effective in a customer service role
- Be able to use your voice energy to make a connection with the customer
- Acquire methods for establishing rapport via email and on the phone
- Master techniques for giving ‘bad news’
- Become adept at handling complaints
- Learn a four-step process for handling in-bound phone calls
Who should attend?
All staff for whom an important part of their role is supporting business customers through emails, phone calls and teleconferences.
Course structure
The programme runs in three parts starting with a two-day Customer Service Excellence workshop, which is followed by a three month long Action Learning phase where participants try out their skills in ‘real life’ situations. Stage three is a Review Day, where participants share how they have got on applying the tools in the work place, engage in refresher exercises and are trained in additional material related to sending effective customer emails and running high impact teleconferences.
Day 1
The psychology of customer service excellence
What is going on inside a person’s head (their state of mind) is crucial to good performance, and here 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
Day 1 (cont)
Voice Work
Learning how to grab attention and connect emotionally with customers when talking on the phone through the use of your voice energy.
- Five Keys to a strong voice
- The power of ‘projection’
Pairs exercise: practising voice development exercises
Day 1 (cont)
Building Rapport
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 and leading vocal patterns
- Matching language
- Summarising
- Collaborating
- Understanding the power of ME
Pairs exercise: matching vocal patterns and matching language
Day 1 (cont)
Understanding customer needs (logical levels diagrams)
This set of tools is concerned with asking high quality questions that map out precisely the customer’s 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
Day 1 (cont)
Persuasive Techniques
Understand tools for putting your ideas across to customers, giving bad news and dealing with complaints.
- Behaviour Labelling
- Fogging
- Three Step Assertive Technique
- The Persuasion Pattern
Pairs exercise: Three Step Assertive Technique for giving bad news
Pairs exercise: Using the Fogging technique for dealing with a complaint
Day 1 (cont)
Understanding Cultural Differences
Appreciating how people from a variety of different cultural backgrounds need to be approached in order for them to feel that they are valued and understood.
- What is culture
- Understanding Cultural Dimensions
Pairs exercise: how to adapt to different cultures
Day 2
Dealing with incoming calls
How to deal with in-bound customer calls, which often come ‘out of the blue’ and typically involve tense or stressed customers who are calling because they have a ‘problem’ of some kind.
- The four stages for handling an in-bound call
- The importance of note taking and summarising
Case study: role-playing handling in-bound customer calls
Day 2 (cont)
Structuring phone calls and emails
This set of tools involves learning how to structure an out-going call, teleconference or email.
- Position Perception (learning how to... identify your own goals, step into the customer‘s shoes and view the situation objectively)
- Agree the strategy for the call or email
- Identify what ‘support documentation’ is required
Case study: planning a teleconference or out-going call
Day 2 (cont)
Facilitating an out-going call or teleconference
Appreciating how to run a teleconference, or out-going call, in a professional way that makes the customer feel respected and valued.
- Setting up the call
- Tag Questions and Rounds to get engagement
- Closing the call effectively
Group exercise: role-plays on facilitating an out-bound call
Day 2 (cont)
Using email
Reviewing the essential elements in writing effective and persuasive emails.
- Using the ‘subject line’ for impact
- Getting the ‘tone of voice’ right
- Avoiding ambiguity
Case study: writing an email
Group exercise: delegates analysing their actual emails
Feedback
Feedback is based upon peer review using a Boulden assessment checklist. Completing the assessment checklists is not only valuable to the people involved in a given case study, it also helps those completing them to gain an in-depth understanding of the building blocks that make up excellent customer focus.
Course structure
There is an option of following the workshop with a three month long Action Learning project to link the lessons from the training back into the workplace. If this option is selected there is a closure workshop at the end of the project phase where delegates present how they have applied the techniques learned on the course into their daily work routines.
Remote Training
All of our workshops can be delivered as Remote Training via e-learning modules plus Zoom based virtual workshops. Please see our Virtual Training page for more information.
