Customer focused organisations know that delivering excellence in service does not happen by accident. It requires careful integration of key factors that together set the company apart from competitors, win and retain profitable customers and attract, motivate and keep best staff. In this five-day programme delegates will learn the core practices and skills that successful businesses employ to consistently deliver world-class customer service experiences.

• Improve service delivery standards, reflected in higher levels of customer satisfaction and bottom line profits
• Build a customer focused culture
• Lead customer service performance and professionalism in their organisation
• Improve business performance and the customer’s experience
• Recruit, train and motivate staff
• Develop and improve internal service standards
• Assess internal and external skills based development programmes

This programme is designed to be highly interactive, challenging and stimulating. Delegates will learn by a combination of active participation using programme materials, case study review, discussion, syndicate group work, skills practice exercises, training videos and exploration of relevant organizational issues. This programme synthesizes use of relevant organizational theory and customer service best practice with core communication strategies and skills.

• How delivering excellence in customer service is a way of driving greater return on investment
• Why business must be aligned around the customer to succeed
• The role of strong leadership as an aid to decision making on customer service issues
• How to encourage a philosophy and culture of ‘living and breathing customer service excellence’ in your organisation
• How to ensure you are attracting, motivating and retaining the best people
• Why skills training and development in staff is essential to excellence in customer service
• How to use high performance coaching techniques
• How to encourage positivity in the workplace

The business case for customer service excellence

• Why excellence in customer service is a hot business boardroom issue
• Understanding what your customers expect
• Benchmarking for competitive success
• Meeting and exceeding changing customer expectations
• Assessing your organisational culture for customer service focus
• Core foundations for building a customer centric culture
• Overcoming obstacles to customer service excellence

Improving customer service standards

• Showing your customers you are serious about providing customer service excellence
• Resolving customer service challenges positively
  • The six hats problem solving approach
  • Shifting perceptual positions
  • Resolving complaints, disputes and conflict
  • Role modelling top performers in customer service.

• Moving closer to the customer – rapport skills to build better relationships

Creating a culture of service excellence through continuous learning

• What is a learning organisation?
• Creating a vision for customer service excellence and continuous learning in your organisation
• Applying continuous learning strategies to customer service excellence
• Planning for change – using the Neurological levels model
• Leading by example – teaching others through behavioural excellence
• There is no failure only feedback – moving forward for personal and business growth
• Building team work, cooperation and collaboration with colleagues

Hiring for attitude – training for skills

• The importance of a strong value set in customer service delivery excellence
• Core customer service qualities and competencies
• The transferability of customer service skills
• Retaining and motivating your best people
• Developing staff engagement in the business
• Understanding the psychological contract and its impact on staff
• Using rewards and incentives to motivate performance
• The importance of the team leader/supervisor in frontline staff employment
• Addressing ‘real life’ work challenges in customer service excellence

Assessing customer service training and development programmes

• Why skills training is on the boardroom agenda of successful organisations
• How to develop customer service excellence to compete in a global marketplace
• What to look for when choosing a skills development or training programme
• Addressing attitudinal issues in learning
• Assessing the impact of customer service training in the workplace on the customer, the team and the business
• High performance coaching methods for customer service excellence and staff retention
• Maintaining positivity in the workplace
• Action planning to take the learning back and develop it further