Research and Markets: Excelling at Customer Service Training Courses

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/617205/excelling_at_custo) has announced the addition of the "Excelling at Customer Service" training to their offering.

“Based on our experience to date there is no doubt that e-learning will have an increasingly vital role to play as the company continues to evolve to meet the changing needs of its customers.”

The Excelling at Customer Service training bundle consists of the following ten courses:

(1) Corporate Culture: Building the Service Foundation

As the saying goes, "You can't create the cathedral before you build the foundation." That's why the first course in this Customer Service series focuses on building the foundation of good service. The buzz term is "Corporate Culture." It's not some rare disease, but your workplace "culture" can be positively or negatively infectious as it relates to customer service. In this course, you'll get the basics about corporate culture, and how it impacts service.

You'll be able to identify on-the-job issues that are barriers to service excellence. Simple, but effective, exercises will enable you to differentiate between a healthy corporate culture, and an unhealthy one. At the completion of this course, you'll be able to develop a step-by-step action plan that sets the tone for an organization that prides itself on quality service.

Finally, you'll gain the know-how to be a dynamic force within your own division, team, or group culture. By learning to strengthen the internal environment, you'll increase commitment to service, boosting performance, productivity, and ultimately, success.

(2) The Fundamentals of Exceptional Customer Service

You've seen the ad campaigns that boast, "Customer satisfaction guaranteed." But in today's marketplace, satisfaction isn't enough. This course is designed to take your goals beyond merely satisfying the customer to creating customer loyalty. The training takes aim at outdated modes of thinking, and establishes the building blocks for a service mentality that increases customer commitment, not to mention profits.

Learn how to develop service standards and track their effectiveness. Gain new insights and strategies from the corporate masters of customer service. Explore the value of building relationships with customers. Most importantly, by the end of the course you'll be able create your own customer-focused philosophy.

(3) The Customer's Voice

Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, "Make yourself necessary to somebody." In today's competitive marketplace, it's important to make yourself and your company necessary to a lot of "somebody's". Those somebody's are your customers. This course provides the tools to learn all that you can about your customers. The focus is on recognizing and ultimately anticipating customer expectations.

There are any number of ways to hear "The Customer's Voice", but you have to know how to listen. Learn about the dynamics of client expectations, and the inconsistent, ever-changing nature of today's customer. How do customers judge our success? You'll explore the five key expectations dimensions, and you'll be able to assess your workplace in terms of meeting client needs. And you don't have to be James Bond to "gather intelligence" on your customers.

By completing this course, you'll be able to master methods of compiling customer data and input. The final step in "hearing" your customer is creating compatibility. Explore how to align your services with each of your clients, and gain customers for life.

(4) Advancing Service Expertise

It's obviously a treat to have a sumptuous meal at a five-star restaurant, or be doted on at a five star resort. But five star service extends beyond our personal entertainment. A certain degree of pampering is key to achieving customer loyalty, and this course shows us how to make "five star attitude" an integral part of our service commitment.

These lessons are designed to foster awareness and new skills that deepen our customer service expertise. Gain techniques for personalizing customer interaction. Enhance your approach to customer assistance by giving it form in a structured plan. Understand the critical differences in specialized service when you are dealing with customers over the phone.

And since technology now has an increasingly important place in daily business, you'll integrate tips for service-friendly e-mail into your customer assistance practices. With interactive examples, simulated dialogues, and game-like exercises, this skill-building course takes your customer service proficiency up a notch toward excellence.

(5) Customers, Confrontation and Conflict

Is there anything that can torpedo your work day more than an arrogant, obnoxious, rude customer? YES! Not knowing how to handle one! It's challenging to stay service-minded when the person you are dealing with is being "difficult." This course will give you the perspective to effectively cope with customer conflict, and sound methods to deal with all types of potentially confrontational situations.

You'll be able to identify elements of emotional response that interfere with good customer service. Staying cool, calm, and customer-connected is a critical learning objective for this course. Develop communication skills that defuse customer complaints. Learn and differentiate the best methods to handle difficult customers in person and over the phone.

By the end of this highly interactive course, you'll have the strategies necessary to restore customer confidence and move beyond the thorny issue to an even stronger relationship.

(6) Overcoming Difficult Service Situations

Your customer's face is more contorted than anything you've ever seen...eyes bulging, fists clenched, and a scowl that makes Scrooge look like a nice guy. It's tempting to cut and run, but coping with even the most challenging situations is part of customer service. This course is designed to give you the means to hang in there when the going gets especially tough. Recognition of the warning signals is an important first step.

Then you'll practice strategies that de-escalate confrontational clients. Admitting mistakes is an easy concept, but for most people, it's not so easy to do. This training adds just enough sugar to make the medicine go down, helps us let go of our egos or our fear of being wrong, and accept responsibility for errors. Though it's not appropriate to tell a customer to "chill out", there are some easy to use tactics to cool down the angry client.

You'll explore the steps to guiding customers toward a solution to a problem or issue. Finally, tackle the exercise that tests your tolerance, and take a preemptive strike at conflict by learning to plan for challenging situations before they ever occur.

(7) The EXCEL Acronym: Instilling Service Excellence

In advancing to new levels of customer service commitment, it's helpful to have an easy way to remember additional concepts that can make you a service superstar. Since the goal is customer service excellence, this course uses the word E-X-C-E-L as an acronym for five important behaviors that impact the service mindset. It might surprise you, but seeking help and knowing where to find it can improve your service abilities.

That's why E, for "Enlist Help", is the first concept in the EXCEL acronym. X is for X-Ray questions, developing the skills to "read" your customers by asking the right questions in the right way. It's a great relief to be able to say, "Case Closed" when there's a problem area with a customer. But it takes planning and proactive thinking to stay ahead of trouble-spots, and in the "C" topic, this course gives you the steps to close off problematic customer issues by anticipating them. The next letter is "E" for EMPOWER YOURSELF, one of the most crucial concepts to being a great service provider. This lesson establishes the steps to taking ownership of your own personal service philosophy.

That brings us to the last letter, "L", which issues a challenge. In "Learn to be Flexible", you must come up with a plan to increase your flexibility one day at a time. These guidelines will instill a customer service mentality, and instill a spirit of commitment to service far beyond the workplace norm.

(8) Service Teams and Service Stars

The Olympic athlete, the Nobel Prize winner, and the Oscar-nominated actor all have something in common. They are all stars in their areas of expertise. This course will move you to the level of stardom in the area of customer service. In profiling the highest achievers, you will grasp the meaning of leadership, the importance of long-term focus, and the secrets to making your customers more memorable.

In this course you will also explore the importance of being a little "self-serving." You are much better caretakers if you practice taking care of yourself. After looking at individual excellence, you will look inside the workings of a championship team, a group that has the know-how to deliver knock-your-socks-off service.

But beware of team issues that can destroy your levels of service. You will examine the pitfalls of attitudes that can put cracks in the smoothest service armor. This is the course that will help you to be the best service provider you can be.

(9) Excel at Customer Service Simulation

You're a new customer service representative at Azimuth, a growing company specializing in global positioning systems (GPS) technology. You were hired to replace Jared, who left the company abruptly. As Jared's customers don't know that he left, be prepared for some surprised reactions when you start talking to his former accounts. This simulation is based on the SkillSoft series "Excelling at Customer Service" and includes links to the other courses.

(10) Providing Customer Service Simulation

The art of effective customer service requires anticipating your customers' needs and expectations in addition to working with them to handle and solve any and all of their present issues or requests. How well you can successfully practice effective customer service techniques will make the difference between building long-term customer relationships or losing patronage forever.

Your role: As a Customer Service representative for Bizjet Airlines, you will be challenged to deal with various customer service scenarios during the course of your workdays. Whether it's in person, on the phone, or through e-mail, you'll either be working toward building a clientele of new and repeat customers, or encouraging these customers to fly with a competitor.

This simulation is based on the SkillSoft series "Excelling at Customer Service" and includes links to other courses. This is one of two simulations developed for this series.

E-learning course feedback:

"e-learning has dramatically increased the scope, range and availability of training & development to all Equant employees. No other solution could possibly have achieved this in such a short timescale, particularly given the geographical dispersement of our workforce and the commercial realities of our business." - Peter Mansell, Head of Training Centre of Excellence, Equant

"Where e-learning is concerned, I used to be a complete agnostic. But, twelve months on, I'm totally converted. Now that we have experienced such measurable benefits, I would have no hesitation in giving e-learning a 100% recommendation to any organisation." - John Guthrie, Head of International Management Development, Hilton International

"Based on our experience to date there is no doubt that e-learning will have an increasingly vital role to play as the company continues to evolve to meet the changing needs of its customers." - Karl Gunner, Aspire Support Consultant, Intelligent Finance

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/617205/excelling_at_custo