Recommended Customer Skills Lear

Recommended Customer Skills Learning Agenda for

Customer Service & Account Specialists

Each of the following topics is an independent seminar and it can be used in a sequence as shown or taught in a single 1.5 - 2.5 hrs. session.

Sequence	Topics
1	Listening & Communicating Principles
2	Customer Sensitivity
3	Telephone Professionalism, Part I
4	Telephone Professionalism, Part II
5	Successful People Relationships Principles
5	Controlling Destructive Emotions
6	Dealing with Customer Problems, Complaints & Conflict
7	Principles of Persuasion
8	Negotiating With Customers
9	Selling As We Serve
10	The Powerful Process of Tactical Probing
11	Ethics & Excellence At Work
12	Success & Stress, Your Job & You
13	Personal Appearance Disciplines

Topical details:

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Topic	Overview & Content	Objective
Listening & Communicating Principles Back up	How about a fun-filled interactive learning exercise to improve listening efficiency & reduce costly communicating errors. Class Topics - Self-Analysis of your listening efficiency - Consequences of poor listening - Benefits of good listening disciplines - Listening barriers & overcoming them - 3 active listening skills & their use - How to listen for substance - How to encourage your audience to listen	To enjoy life & occupation via learning to listen selectively, empathetically & responsively and to increase personal communicating effectiveness via utilization of active listening skills in daily interactions. Reduce misunderstandings, enhance your professional image & communicate accurately & impressively.
Topic	Overview & Content	Objective
Customer Sensitivity Back up	An interactive research-based classroom experience designed to aid understanding customers with diverse needs & predispositions and to respond & serve each in an unconditionally professional manner. Class Topics - Business environment - customer wants - How to manage customer perceptions - Customer predispositions, emotions & attitudes - The discipline of courtesy - tough customers - Roles customers play & how to respond - Personal self-esteem & assertiveness - How to handle feelings of rejection - How to develop sensitive customer interactions	To better position participants to recognize & properly respond to the customer's need for emotional support while working to respond to their business needs.
Topic	Overview & Content	Objective
Telephone Professionalism, Part I Back up	An involved learning classroom exercise to discuss & experience practical basics for effectively dealing with the stresses & routines inherent in customer-sensitive volume intensive call-service operations. Class Topics - Phone professionalism 101-avoid conflict - Predispositions of callers (research) - Personal maturity & discipline of courtesy - High-impact telephone greetings - How callers judge you-managing perception - Origin of conflict & complaints - Transactional analysis P-A-C Theory - Mirroring customer attitudes - Preparation for Part II	To enhance company image, improve telephone efficiency & communicating productivity while exceeding caller-customer expectations & lowering tension & stress levels.
Topic	Overview & Content	Objective
Telephone Professionalism, Part II Back up	A participant intensive classroom learning experience which focuses on proficient basic skills and learning a plan for dealing with stress-inducing call situations involving emotional & irate callers. Class Topics - Placing, answering & transferring calls - 3 stage stress reducing guide for emotional calls - How to stabilize interactions & diffuse anger - How to define & evaluate problems - When is escalation required for resolution - Using tact when the caller is wrong - Positive reinforcement & gracious conclusions - How to have a good day - every day	To neutralize stress, build confidence & competence, elevate caller's perception of company character, exceed expectations & build customer loyalty.
Topic	Overview & Content	Objective
Successful People Relationship Principles Back up	Participants will profile their own personal styles and will explore why customers & associates act and react the way we do, and how to understand ourselves and others better. Class Topics - The power of focused thought - Advantages of working together - Defining & refreshing relationship skills - Positive relationship building phrases - Individual perspectives & how others see you - Understanding ourselves & others - Personal profiles (class exercise) - Personal style summary & evaluations - Accentuate your strengths - Personal achievement guidelines - Guiding principles of personal power - What motivates you & others - Dealing with and learning from rejection - Self-esteem and its impact on productivity - Sources of adult self-esteem - Suggestions enhancing self-esteem - Benefits of proactive assertiveness - Thoughts on being a considerate working partner	Learning is focused on the importance of being professional, patient, tolerant & sensitive to customers and associates, and how to work more effectively together.
Topic	Overview & Content	Objective
Controlling Destructive Emotions Stress, depression, fear, anger Back up	Participants will review and discuss practical ways to effectively deal with tension, stress, fear, anger and negative behavior. Class Topics - Stress indicators – stress perspectives - Examining and defining stress – signs of harmful stress - How stress affects you - Stressful job ranking (top 10) - Personality factors that increase stress - Stress & productivity - Personal stress evaluation (exercise) - Ten causes of stress - Negative responses to stress - Positive ways to manage & cope with stress - Workplace breaks and relaxation methods - Depression, the common cold of mental stress - Dealing with logical, emotional & irrational fears - The upside of failure & pessimism - Suggestions for controlling anger & hostility - Behavior control for a healthier life - The effects of alcohol abuse - Personal behavior action plan	Learning will focus on ways to reduce stress, defeat irrational fears and be more relaxed, effective and productive.
Topic	Overview & Content	Objective
Dealing With Customer Problems, Complaints & Conflicts Back up	Participants review and practice professional techniques for preserving customer relationships in problematic situations Class Topics - Self-inflicted wounds – most common customer complaints - How to reduce or avoid complaints - guidelines - Winning ways with others – our behavioral responsibility - How to give and take criticism - Dealing with complaints via phone - admonitions - Recognize opportunity and pan gold from complaints - Understand roles customers play – transactional analysis - The tough customer – exercise to diffuse customer hostility - Tactical problem solving – key to conflict resolution - What you can do when you don’t know what to do	To preserve customer relationships by way of disciplined behavior when dealing with tough customers. To review the importance of self-control and positive behavior in stressful interactions.
Topic	Overview & Content	Objective
Principles Of Persuasion Back up	We will study persuasion techniques necessary for supporting profit principles in pursuit of “Win/Win” outcomes in daily business discussions. Class Topics - “Win/Win” interactions – ethical guideline- - Relationship strategies – positive or destructive? - Never take your own side in a dispute – why & how - Persuasion vs. logic – what’s the difference - Modern methods of mass persuasion - Pre requisites of personal persuasion - Process for persuading others - Forms of persuasion - Application model for persuasion	To learn and practice the application of psychological relationship principles for use in resolving customer disputes and disagreements and to prevent arguments.
Topic	Overview & Content	Objective
Negotiating With Customers Protecting profits, commissions & sales policies Back up	An interactive review of practical skills & principles of negotiating for use in daily business & interpersonal interactions. Class Topics - 3 stages of any negotiation - 7 principles for negotiating - 3 crucible negotiating variables - 7 rules for making concessions - 7 do’s & dont’s of equitable negotiating - Negotiating tactics	To prepare sales professionals systematically & equitably to deal with customer negotiating issues while protecting priorities, policies, principles & profits.
Topic	Overview & Content	Objective
Selling As We Serve Professional sales skills for service employees who interact with customers Back up	For employees who have passive sales opportunities inherent in their job function. Class Topics - 4 stages of professional development - From service to selling - the paradigm shift - Need satisfaction service/sales - what is it? - How to uncover caller needs - The focus & use of your benefits - Dealing with attitudes of indifference & objection - 3 types of recommendations - Asking for customer action - act now reasons	To promote an added dimension of serving customer needs while being alert to opportunities for add-on sales and to practice customer skills.
Topic	Overview & Content	Objective
The Powerful Process of Tactical Probing Back up	An involved learning classroom experience for formulating & using questions to understand needs, diagnose problems & determine the best solutions. Know the foundation, source & impact of using probes in interactions with customers, associates & friends to diagnose & solve problems and uncover needs. Class Topics - A question is more powerful than a statement! - Various probes with specific tactical purposes - Types of probles & purposes - How to formulate questions - What questions to ask and when	To improve understanding of the principles & techniques of using questions tactically to communicate clearly and improve efficiency in all interactions, solve problems & build better personal relationships while reducing costly communicating errors.
Topic	Overview & Content	Objective
Ethics & Excellence At Work Excellence, profitability & job security Back up	Establishes clear ethical guidelines for the contemporary workplace and marketplace. You will learn absolute standards of ethical conduct in pursuit of your mission. Class Topics - The lost sense of ethical direction - The high & low roads of ethical behavior - Personal principles & code of ethical conduct - Business survival - ethical motivation - 10 principles of ethical decisions & actions - Case studies - typical & generic	To equip each individual with an awareness of the critical importance of ethical workplace actions & how absolute ethics enhance quality productivity, profitability & job security.
Topic	Overview & Content	Objective
Success & Stress, Your Job & You! Back up	An interactive exploration of ways to improve job satisfaction & productivity. To lower stress and enjoy the work environment more. Class Topics - Personal stress indicators (self-evaluation) - Personal characteristics & attitudes - Negative responses to stress - Positive responses to stress - Ways to manage stress-countermeasures - Control anger, fear, worry & depression - Relaxation techniques - affirmations - Personal action plan	To identify & examine life-impacting & productivity-inhibiting stressors. To learn & apply specific behavior-modifying stress remedies.
Topic	Overview & Content	Objective
Personal Appearance Disciplines Back up	Class Topics - Head to toe grooming - self rating - First impressions can kill! - Professional presence for women - Professional presence for men - Power look tips for professional attire - Clothing care - colors, style, fabrics, fit - Hedge words & power robbers - Eye contact-greeting-handshake-gestures	To demonstrate visible competence, confidence & credibility; to optimize your image as an asset for your continuing success.