Course Summary:

Leaders are role models in planning, communication, and coaching and employee recognition. Their efforts result in increased employee loyalty, greater innovation and improved customer satisfaction. The course covers customer service management responsibilities, from the most fundamental tasks of hiring, training, coaching and teambuilding to quality assurance and leadership skills. This challenging and highly participative programme will focus on creating and managing effective teams, dealing with difficult customers, understanding behavioral styles and proven leadership strategies as well as creating a competitive outlook of the organization.

A customer-focused organization is grounded in the belief that long-term success depends on a commitment to customer satisfaction throughout the entire organization. This programme focuses on what it takes to build the culture, the processes and the relationships that will lead to long-term growth and financial sustainability. In an environment of media scrutiny and greater public demands for freedom of information, an organization’s essential asset (its brand value) is its reputation

Course Objectives:

• Describe the importance of the leader as a role model for customer service excellence.
• Establish the importance of setting and reviewing customer service standards.
• Describe techniques to motivate teams and individuals for peak performance.
• Bolster your organisation’s reputation through an effective public relations programme and strategy.
• Prepare a PR crisis manual and train others in PR crisis handling.
• Understand the fast-shifting digital environment, and how it can work for you.
• Develop effective communication strategies to promote team building.

Course Outline

Creating a Customer-Focused Organization

• Vision and mission of a customer focused organization
• Case study: Benchmarking world-class customer service companies
• The roles and responsibilities of a customer-focused manager
• Breakout session: Are you a leader or manager?
• The importance of presenting a professional business image
• Breakout session: Customer service from the heart
• Case study: Best practices - Xerox’ Five Pillars of Customer-focused Strategy
• Mastering nonverbal communication

Enhancing Leadership and Interpersonal Communication Skills

• Supervising the four personality styles
• Practical exercise: Determining your management style
• Overcoming communication barriers in the workplace
• Practical exercise: Listening Awareness Inventory
• Practical exercise: The most admired character traits of leaders
•  The supervisor’s role in conflict resolution and service recovery
• Facilitation Skills: Managing group dynamics
• How to Give and receive constructive feedback
• Setting Customer Service Policies and Performance Standards
• Dr. Deming’s Fourteen Points of Total Quality Management
• Traditional manager versus TQM manager
• Setting SMART objectives to improve customer satisfaction
• Breakout session: Developing a call centre checklist
• Best practices: Methods of measuring and monitoring customer satisfaction
• Empowering frontline employees to better serve their customers
• Breakout session: Developing a customer service complaint checklist
• Role-play exercise: Working with difficult or demanding customers

Building High-Performance Teams and Motivating Individuals

• The building blocks of a high-performance team
• Your customer service is only as good as your worst employee
• Team building exercise: The paper tower
• The power of mutual support and cooperation
• Building teamwork with support and recognition
• Coaching and mentoring techniques
• The impact of stress on individual and team performance
• The benefits of teamwork and mutual cooperation

Leading the Way to Superior Customer Service 

• Recruiting, interviewing and hiring quality personnel
• Developing and implementing effective training
• The importance of attitude and teamwork
• Professional development and continuous improvement
• Setting performance goals and expectations
• Employee recognition and performance review
• Empowering, motivating and retaining frontline personnel

Course Wrap Up 

• Public relations (PR) as a core function in your organizational structure and how it links toan overall marketing and communications strategy .
• How to develop and manage a PR strategy and programme, with buy-in across the organization reputation as an asset.
• What builds good public relations and what undermines good public relations.
• Best practice in PR crisis management
• The impact of the digital revolution on PR, and how to master social media
• The latest thinking on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ethical issues in PR
• The role and function of political lobbying and public affairs