Course Description
You'll learn ...
- The secrets to keeping your cool when customers get hot
- Meeting the unique challenges of customer service management
- Hidden gold: How to turn complaints into profits
- What CSRs really need to stay motivated and productive
- And much more
What is it that customers really want? Quick response? Instant information? Friendly dialog? All the above, and more! When customers are pleased, they're likely to spend about 10% more on your product or service plus call again. But if they think they haven't been treated right, they'll tell everyone who'll listen about their bad experience. In this conference-for customer service reps and customer service managers and supervisors-you'll learn hundreds of techniques and tips for effectively and successfully dealing with customers.
Design your day to meet your unique needs. We've packed a lot of information into just one day ... so feel free to move in and out of these two tracks and 10 dynamic sessions. It's your conference-don't miss a thing!
Program hours: 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
TRACK ONE: Creating Great Service Experiences, One Customer at a Time
Effortlessly manage lions, tigers, bears and other difficult customers
It's easy to proclaim that "The customer is always right." But it can be extremely difficult to practice that concept when a customer's emotional outburst, unfair criticism or verbal abuse is directed at you. In this session, we'll arm you with unique and effective skills for managing heated and volatile interactions while maintaining your composure. Topics include ways to stay calm when an angry customer lashes out, how to choose the response option that best fits the situation, knowing when and how to apologize and innovative ways to bring the incident to a polite and positive close.
- What works-and doesn't work-for disarming an angry customer
- How to take the bite out of asking questions you must ask when the customer is "on edge"
- How to let customers feel they're right-without bending company policies and procedures (the two are not mutually exclusive!)
- The powerful "wrinkled face" technique for releasing your anger
Extreme motivation: Powerful ways to keep CSRs pumped and productive
Studies confirm that motivated workers are more productive, stay longer and provide better customer care. Are your employees motivated to perform at their best? Key points in this session include how to create a "fun" and more productive work environment, the hidden pitfalls in common reward systems, the power of no-cost "attaboys" in motivating reps and much more.
- The golden rule of managing customer service employees
- How to slow down turnover and keep employees more satisfied
- Recent research on the toll that some management styles take on customer-contact employees
- What job factors matter most to customer service reps
- Incentives update: Who and what to reward and how to get the best results
Breaking news: What today's customers really expect-and how to deliver it
A whopping 70% of lost customers can be traced to one factor: The perception that they're being poorly treated by company representatives. Consequently, when customers feel that they were abruptly interrupted ... contradicted ... or ignored, they'll take their business elsewhere. This presentation covers the major ways that customers are turned off-including some innocent but emotionally loaded phrases, words and actions-and provides "how-to" coaching in what to say and do instead.
- Customer service recovery tips that work wonders in bouncing back from blunders and mistakes
- Ways to identify and avoid the deadliest customer turnoffs
- How to use language that soothes-rather than alienates-customers
- The powerful golden rules for working with customers
- How to make sure that what you say is what the customer hears
How to teach employees to give 110%-and then some
Few employees instinctively know how to provide friendly, caring and helpful service, so these "tough-to-teach" qualities must be clearly spelled out and demonstrated in behavior, action and attitude. Roll up your sleeves in this session as you learn how to set, communicate and enforce meaningful performance standards in customer-critical areas and how to use this scorecard to monitor, measure and boost individual and team performance.
- How to measure smiles, voice tone, friendliness and other service intangibles
- A step-by-step system for spelling out your customer service expectations
- How to implement standardized customer service and make it work for your business
- 12 ways to measure the effectiveness of your efforts to deliver quality customer service
Mirror, mirror on the wall: Is your voice as friendly as your smile?
The familiar adage, "It's not what you say but how you say it," is certainly true in customer service. Customers become instantly ruffled when they hear a defensive tone in your voice, a word spoken curtly or a bored, monotone greeting. In this important session, learn how to develop your verbal power and maximize your role as the important "voice" of your firm's products and services.
- Don't sound like a recording ... how to vary the inflection of your voice using these 4 simple tips-and watch how customers respond
- Here's how to breathe your way to a calmer voice
- How to get irate customers to back down by simply changing how loudly or softly you speak
- The absolute single best tool for getting off to a good start with a customer
TRACK TWO: Remembering to Be Good to Yourself Too
Down with stress! Look and sound wonderful-even on your worst days
In customer service, stress management isn't just nice to know ... it's vital to your health, your longevity in your job and your effectiveness with customers. In this informative session, you'll learn how to cope with the unique stress of dealing with people day in and day out, find out how to take a "mental" break when you can't leave your area, discover how to deal with the stress of saying the same things over and over and much more.
- How to detect signs of stress before it gets out of hand
- How to lower your tolerance to stress ... and amazingly reduce the amount of stress you experience in your job
- Avoiding burnout: Secrets the highest-volume service centers swear by
- How to play the "time warp" game immediately after a nasty encounter with a customer-your stress will melt away!
Deflecting the sting of put-downs, criticism and attacks
Even if you tell yourself to not "take it personally," it still hurts when you're criticized or attacked by customers. But the wrong response or reaction can result in a lost customer and make you feel even worse. You'll discover in this session that there are many ways to respond to angry or unreasonable customers that will result in a positive outcome for everyone. You'll learn what it is customers really want (and how to provide it), how to respond without letting your professionalism down and more.
- How to stop feeling like you're "taking the blame" ... and build your own bulletproof shield
- How to find the grain of truth in most criticism and grow from it
- Become aware of and eliminate harmful passive-aggressive behaviors that mask your hurt feelings
- The 5 levels of reaction to personal criticism ... find out where you stand
- A surprising technique that takes a little self-control but is amazing in its ability to deflect the sting of criticism
How to build rapport-and win respect-in 10 seconds flat
Those first few moments with a customer can set the stage for a positive, successful interaction or a negative confrontation-and which way it will go is mostly up to you! In this session, you'll master the art of making a good first impression, including little-known tips for projecting credibility, getting others on your side, gaining equal footing with the customer and much more.
- How to master the art of making instant connections with customers
- 5 great ways to quickly get customers on your side
- Know how to tap into the little things that mean a lot to customers
- The critical difference between "you" and "I" messages and which to use to project honesty and sincerity
- "Style stepping" ... master this technique to make customers feel comfortable and taken care of
Help! I need an emergency attitude makeover!
So you don't really believe you can love your stressful, demanding and sometimes frustrating customer-contact job? We'd like the opportunity to change your mind! Join us in this inspiring journey into the minds and thoughts of those amazing service reps with the ability to come in-and leave-with a smile and a winning attitude every day, no matter what. Discover their secrets to job fulfillment and find out how you can start getting more enjoyment out of your job ... and satisfy customers at the same time.
- Do you sweat the little stuff? Here's help in putting things in perspective
- How you can dramatically alter your life by the way you think
- The "path of least resistance" can work magic in a service job
- How your moods can affect your job, your success and your happiness
When the answer must be "no"-how you say it is 99% of your success
In customer service, sometimes the answer must be "no" when what the customer wants simply isn't possible for any number of reasons. Delivering news that customers don't want to hear will become much easier and less stressful once you've attended this session and learned how to confidently and appropriately give customers "bad news," handle the situation when a customer won't take "no" for an answer, find the option most likely to satisfy the customer and more.
- You don't have to be a doormat ... learn how to stand up for your company and still win customers
- The difference between the hard "no" and the customer-friendly "no"
- The fundamentals of assertive-not aggressive-behavior and how they apply to your job
- How to fulfill customer needs without selling the store
Comments
Registrations for classes must originate from either the United States or Canada.Cancelation Policy: If you cannot attend an event, you may send someone else in your place. If that isn’t an option for you, cancellations received up to five working days before the event are refundable, minus a registration service charge ($10 for one-day events; $25 for multiple-day events). After that, cancellations are subject to the entire seminar fee, which you may apply toward a future seminar. Please note that if you don’t cancel and don’t attend, you are still responsible for payment.