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The Customer Service Series

Designed to build superior customer service, the Customer Service Series is a set of practical team discussion exercises focused on building awareness of, and commitment, to service quality.

Incorporating the best principles of adult learning, these exercises encourage discussion around critical aspects of service quality. Team members learn through the process of enquiry and discovery in a way that builds achievement thinking related to quality service delivery.

By having team members complete the exercise individually and then as a team, participants have the opportunity to build on their own experiences, 'teach' each other and relate the content to their own personal experience.

This makes the learning activity a particularly effective one, where individuals and teams learn through shared experience.

The Customer Service exercises are designed to be facilitated by Team Leaders, not professional trainers, providing a vehicle for having actual Team Leaders in the leadership roles rather than trainers. The result of this is quicker implementation of the discussion outcomes and more commitment to implement the team's conclusion.

It also turns training into a work related activity, not something separate from the job.

There are Leader's Notes for each exercise, able to be easily understood by non-trainers.

Each exercise takes between 1 to 2 hours to complete and can be undertaken in two steps of 45 minutes each (eg over 2 team meetings).

The Customer Service Series includes:

Identifying Specific Areas for Improvement

Barriers to Service Quality
Identify and agree on the key barriers (within the team) to achieving quality service. Set goals and develop actions to overcome these.

Improving our Customer Service
A broad analysis of customer service, what we personally experience and how it affects our feelings about the experience. Turns participants own exeriences of poor service into learning opportunities for the team.

Developing Commitment

Why Am I A Customer?
Uses' participants own experiences and feelings about common purchases to build thinking about customers' needs.

What Do We Sell?
Have your staff think about just what you sell. Shift thinking from simply supplying a commodity to actually meeting someone's needs.

Market Dynamics
Reviews some of the research on customer service by posing questions, to which participants answer true or false. The discussion is fascinating!

Keeping Our Customer Loyal
What are the factors that impact on customer loyalty in your business? Identify and action plan improvements.

Building Skills and Action Plans

Messages to our Customers
Identify the elements that represent effective task and people skills in your service context. Action plan improvements.

Meeting and Exceeding Customers' Expectations
What are your customers' expectations? What do you need to do to meet and then exceed them?

Handling Complaints

Service Recovery
Rank order the correct steps in handling a customer complaint. Critique current performance and action plan improvement ideas.

Complaints...A Quality Opportunity
From a list of common problems, identify the key issue in your organisation with the handling of customer complaints - turn these into opportunities for improvement.

Supervisor/Team Leadership Skills

How Do You Tell Someone?
For those in team leadership and supervisory roles - how do you handle individual staff when you observe them providing poor service? Sequence the steps to develop a sound process that results in learning, not defensiveness.