Customer Service
Training Manual
Corporate Training Materials
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Module One: Getting Started .............................................................................................................4
Pre-Assignment Review ............................................................................................................................ 4
Workshop Objectives ................................................................................................................................ 5
Module Two: Who We Are and What We Do ......................................................................................6
External Customers ............................................................................................................................... 8
Internal Customers................................................................................................................................ 8
What Is Customer Service? ....................................................................................................................... 9
Who Are Customer Service Providers?.................................................................................................... 10
Module Three: Establishing Your Attitude......................................................................................... 12
Appearance Counts! (even if not in person) ........................................................................................... 13
The Power of a Smile .............................................................................................................................. 14
Staying Energized ................................................................................................................................... 15
Staying Positive ....................................................................................................................................... 17
Module Four: Identifying and Addressing Customer Needs ............................................................... 19
Understanding the Customers Situation................................................................................................ 20
Staying Outside the Box (not jumping to conclusions) ........................................................................... 21
Meeting Basic Needs .............................................................................................................................. 22
Going the Extra Mile ............................................................................................................................... 24
Module Five: Generating Return Business ......................................................................................... 26
Following Up ........................................................................................................................................... 27
Addressing Complaints ........................................................................................................................... 28
Turning Difficult Customers Around ....................................................................................................... 29
Module Six: In-Person Customer Service ........................................................................................... 31
Dealing with At-Your-Desk Requests ...................................................................................................... 32
The Advantages and Disadvantages of In-Person Customer Service...................................................... 33
Using Body Language to Your Advantage .............................................................................................. 34
Module Seven: Giving Customer Service over the Phone ................................................................... 36
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Telephone Communication ...................................................... 37
Telephone Etiquette................................................................................................................................ 38
Tips and Tricks for Providing Customer Service over the Phone ............................................................. 40
Module Eight: Providing Electronic Customer Service ........................................................................ 42
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Electronic Communication ....................................................... 43
Understanding Netiquette ...................................................................................................................... 44
Email Etiquette: The Dos and Donts of Email ....................................................................................... 44
Tips and Tricks ........................................................................................................................................ 45
Examples: Eliminate Electronic Ping Pong .............................................................................................. 46
Module Nine: Recovering Difficult Customers ................................................................................... 48
De-Escalating Anger ............................................................................................................................... 49
Establishing Common Ground ................................................................................................................ 50
Setting Your Limits .................................................................................................................................. 51
Managing Your Own Emotions ............................................................................................................... 52
Module Ten: Understanding When to Escalate.................................................................................. 53
Dealing with Vulgarity ............................................................................................................................ 54
Coping with Insults ................................................................................................................................. 55
Dealing with Legal and Physical Threats ................................................................................................ 56
Module Eleven: Ten Things You Can Do to WOW Customers Every Time............................................ 58
Ten Things You Can Do to WOW Customers Every Time ........................................................................ 59
Module Twelve: Wrapping Up .......................................................................................................... 61
Words from the Wise .............................................................................................................................. 61
The single most important thing to realize
about any enterprise is that there are no
results inside its walls. The result of a
business is a satisfied customer.
Peter Drucker
Module One: Getting Started
Each and every one of us serves customers, whether we realize it or not. Maybe youre on the frontlines
of a company, serving the people who buy your products. Perhaps youre an accountant, serving the
employees by producing their pay checks and keeping the company running. Or maybe youre a
company owner, serving your staff and your customers.
This workshop will look at all types of customers and how we can serve them better and improve
ourselves in the process.
Pre-Assignment Review
The purpose of the Pre-Assignment is to get thinking about what you are doing now to provide customer
service and what you can do to improve your performance in the future. Ask yourself:
What contribution do you make to customer service?
What would you like to change so that you could provide better
customer service?
What are your customer service strengths?
Notes
What are your customer service weaknesses?
Please list three things that you would like to get out of this workshop.
Workshop Objectives
Research has consistently demonstrated that when clear goals are associated with learning, the learning
occurs more easily and rapidly. With that in mind, lets review our goals.
By the end of this workshop, you should be able to:
State what customer service means in relation to all your customers, both internal and external
Recognize how your attitude affects customer service
Identify your customers needs
Use outstanding customer service to generate return
business
Build good will through in-person customer service
Provide outstanding customer service over the phone
Connect with customers through online tools
Deal with difficult customers
Notes
If you get everybody in the company involved
in customer service, not only are they
feeling the customer but theyre also
getting a feeling for whats not working.
Alice MacDougall
Module Two: Who We Are and What We Do
Before we get started, we need to think about whom our customers are and what customer service is all
about. We also need to think about whom in our organization provides customer service. The simple
answer to that question is: everyone.
Notes
Who Are Customers?
A customer is, in this day and age, anyone who uses a service. Although this
has its logical extremes you will find few people who are overjoyed by the
idea of being a customer to a doctor, or their children a customer of their
school, that description is as complete as you are likely to find for the term.
Therefore everyone who relies on you to do a job to make their own job,
their life or their use of a product easier is technically one of your
customers. Above and beyond that there are, naturally, different echelons
of customers internal and external, corporate and personal, regular and occasional. These are always
people that you will be well-advised to keep happy, so customer service is an important indispensable,
one might say element of any job in which you have customers.
If, for example, you work in one branch of a department store, and receive a call from someone working
in a sister branch of the same store wondering if you have in stock a particular item one which their
branch has run out of, for example, then that individual technically, and temporarily, becomes a
customer to you. They want something and are hoping that you can deliver it. To do your job the way
one would hope, you will go to whatever lengths are possible in order to provide the best service
possible to whoever needs it from you.
Of course, the most regular customers tend to be the external customers who provide the bread and
butter of any business, the regular day-to-day custom that drives the profits and income of a company.
It is also these customers who will, by word of mouth and other means bring your business to the
attention of other potential customers. Their role in a businesss success is essential, and these
customers should be the immediate concern of any business. Ensuring that these customers are
satisfied will make the difference between success and failure for any company.
Notes
External Customers
External customers are anyone outside your company that you interact
with not just the people who buy goods or services from you.
External customers are what can be considered traditional customers:
They take our products and services and pay for them
They exist outside the confines of our own organization
They are open to approach from our competitors
They may not always be dependent upon us for products and services and may switch away to
our competitors
Internal Customers
Internal customers include anyone in your organization who relies on you for services, resources, or
information.
Providing excellent customer service to internal customers sets a positive tone for all personal
interactions. If internal customers receive excellent customer service every day, they will consider this
the norm. If they interact with external customers, they are likely to treat those customers the way they
have been treated. Excellent customer service, like most types of human behavior, is contagious.
The quality of service you provide to internal customers ultimately affects the quality of service your
company provides to external customers. Even if you never interact with someone outside your
company, you are still engaged in customer service.
Internal customers are the people in our own organization who are dependent on us for
Notes
Materials
Information
Instruction
Participation
Assistance
Without which they cannot perform their tasks to maximum efficiency, and this has either a direct or an
indirect effect on the external customer.
What Is Customer Service?
Customer service is one of the true business essentials. Everyone remembers the bad customer service
they have had, and most will also remember instances of good customer service. The importance of
customer service is recognized by all successful businesses, because it is possibly the number one
element in customer retention. If you want to ensure that you get repeat business, looking out for the
wishes and needs of your customer base is simple essential. How you go about providing it is up to you,
but there are certain elements which remain the same whatever the nature of your business. These are
the principles of good customer service.
Whenever a customer makes a purchase, they will have
priorities as to what makes their experience a positive or
negative one. Obviously the first priority is that they get
whatever they have purchased from the point of purchase
to their home. If it is a small item that they can take with
them, the businesss responsibility is to see to it that the
item is packaged and presented in a manageable, portable
fashion with a minimum of waiting. However, customer service begins before this. When a customer
Notes
