The 50 activities in the Ten-Minute Customer Service activity pack cover all types of customer contact, including face-to-face, telephone, letter and e-mail. These useful exercises have been specially designed to ensure that your customer service training sessions and briefings are full of life and with great learning. And as a part of the Ten-Minute Series, this resource is packed with short, punchy training activities that can be completed (with an action plan from delegates) in just 10 minutes! Fast and effective customer-service training – whenever you want it!
Topics covered include:
Defining customer service
Customer service skills
Benefiting from customer service
Managing customer service
List of Activities: SECTION ONE: DEFINING CUSTOMER SERVICE 1. What is ‘good’ customer service? Participants ‘rank’ typical comments made by customer to produce a definition of good service. 2. Who are our customers? Participants define different groups of ‘customers’ (external and internal) and describe the value of those customers.
3. Experiencing excellent service Using personal experience as a customer, participants differentiate ‘excellent’ service from service which is merely ‘adequate’.
4. Experiencing poor customer service Groups of participants think about the advice they would like to give to organisations that have delivered poor service.
5. Customer pathways – inwards Participants review the various ways in which customers have contact with the organisation – and the personal responsibility of staff to keep that pathway ‘clear’. 6. Customer pathways – the routes out Groups of participants ‘map’ the different ways in which they have contact with customers and then consider the ways in which they influence the success of these contacts. 7. Leaders in the field Participants look at organisations that get customer service right and ask ‘What can we learn from them?’ 8. Setting the standard – letters Participants consider and practise the ‘best practice’ of writing to customers. 9. Setting the standard – telephone Groups of participants define and then demonstrate the ‘best practice’ of dealing with incoming telephone calls. 10. Setting the standard – face to face Participants discuss and define the standards to be met when dealing ‘face to face’ with customers. 11. Setting the standard – e-mail Participants demonstrate the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ ways of communicating with customers electronically. 12. Mystery shopping Groups of participants consider the measurable standards of customer service within the organisation. 13. Mystery shopping results Participants look critically at the service offered within the organisation through the eyes of a ‘mystery shopper’. SECTION TWO: CUSTOMER SERVICE SKILLS 14. Customer service skills Participants define the personal skills and competencies of good customer service. 15. Developing the skills Pairs of participants work to discuss how to develop the individual skills needed to deliver customer service. 16. Discovering customers’ expectations – learning to ask Participants discover and share the power of good questions. 17. Managing customer expectations Participants learn how to gain agreement with the customer on realistic expectations of the service on offer. 18. Exceeding customer expectations Participants learn to delight customers with unexpectedly good service, and understand that it’s often the little things that make a big difference. 19. Educating customers Participants look for opportunities to let customers know how to get the best service from the organisation. 20. Obstacles to customer service Groups of participants learn the importance of understanding the things that can get in the way of excellent service.
21. Removing the obstacles Participants consider how to take personal responsibility for removing some of the common barriers to excellent service.
22. Customers with special needs Putting themselves in the place of a customer with a disability, participants consider what they want and what they do not want from the organisation.
23. Taking ownership Participants accept personal responsibility for the delivery of good service.
24. First impressions In two groups, participants consider how to create positive (and avoid negative) first impressions. 25. Meeting and greeting Participants work in a ‘greeting circle’ – and gain confidence in making customers feel welcome. 26. Remembering names Participants learn and practise a simple technique for remembering a customer’s name.
27. Radio alphabet Participants learn and practise spelling names and addresses using the internationally accepted phonetic alphabet.
28. Smile! Participants experience the difference a smile can make. 29. Make it fun In groups, participants consider ways to enjoy themselves whilst delivering excellent customer service. 30. Challenging preconceptions Participants consider ways of making sure that they do not let preconceptions about customers (name, appearance, and so on) get in the way of the service they give. 31. Difficult situations Participants give themselves the right to handle situations that they find ‘difficult’. 32. Giving bad news Groups of participants consider what to take into account when having to tell customers something that they do not want to hear. 33. Saying ‘No’ Participants offer customers an alternative to the ‘brick wall’ of refusal. 34. Angry customers Participants think about how to handle angry customers to make the situation better rather that worse. 35. Handling complaints Participants discover the ‘recipe’ for successful complaint handling.
36. Saying sorry Groups of participants recognise that customers often react well to an apology, and practise the skill.
37. Goodbye for now Participants find ways of ending an interaction with a customer on a ‘high note’.
SECTION THREE: BENEFITING FROM CUSTOMER SERVICE
38. Effects of good and bad service Participants examine the long-term effects of delivering good service.
39. Cost versus Benefit In two groups, participants weigh up the cost of delivering good service against the value of the benefits it brings.
40. Welcoming complaints Participants see complaints as an opportunity rather than a threat. 41. Learning from complaints Participants see opportunities to do things even better. 42. Creating leads Participants spot the opportunities they can use to recommend other products and services.
43. Creating referrals Participants use existing customers to recommend new customers. 44. Creating loyalty Participants find ways to make customers feel loyal towards their organisation. SECTION FOUR: MANAGING CUSTOMER SERVICE
45. Measuring customer service Participants discover ways of measuring the levels and effects of the service being delivered.
46. Role modelling customer service Participants think about ways in which a manager can be a living role model of customer service skills.
47. Getting ownership Participants consider how to get staff to buy into the concept of customer care. 48. Observation Participants consider how to write the ‘rule book’ on how to observe staff delivering customer service. 49. Giving feedback Participants consider the dos and don’ts of giving useful feedback to staff and colleagues.
50. Coaching for improvement Participants use a simple model to coach customer service staff.
