Meeting Customer Service Challenges in the Public Sector

Training Skills to Meet the Unique Customer Service Demands in Government Agencies at All Levels

Specifically designed for public services and government agencies, this imaginative and interactive customer service training uses real-world examples to train public employees how to create satisfied customers at every customer contact. 

This seminar teaches service representatives the skills, tips and techniques to make quality customer service a reality in any public agency. Participants discover new ways to approach both internal and external customers with confidence and professionalism. Each training session is tailored to your agency and organization using cases and examples your service personnel can relate to. 

Participants learn how to shift the focus from what can’t be done to what can be done for the customer. They learn how to use facts to help customers vent frustrations instead of taking it out on the service representative. They discover how to ask questions, improve listening skills and use communication techniques that can turn hostile customers into appreciative advocates of the agency and the customer service representative themselves.  Plus more…(see the Overview of Concepts and Deliverables Provided section below).

Public agencies and public utilities are often viewed as environments where navigating the bureaucracy overshadows satisfying customer needs. This can mean customers bear the costs of reduced productivity, lesser quality services, poor agency and organizational image, and a host of other problems.

Now, Federal Performance Management Initiatives and other efforts within the public sector focus on business critical issues including customer service. These initiatives challenge public agencies to deliver solutions and services that are results-oriented and customer focused. This training is designed to help your agency take advantage of the benefits of providing quality customer service.

Great customer service delivery leads to:

• More efficient use of service resources
• Improved customer satisfaction
• Increased customer trust
• Reduced costs per customer
• Operational improvements
• Increased customer referrals and advocacy
• Reduced service employee stress
• Increased service employee satisfaction and reduced turnover
• Improved agency image and reputation

The use of customer service ideas in government continues to make good sense. Without service skill training, the benefits of quality public sector service and delivery are unrealized.

Who Should Attend

All employees. For service personnel at all levels of federal, state and local government agencies, education, utilities, public transportation and non-profit organizations.

Training Benefits of this Customer Service Course

• Improved Service
• Increased Employee Retention 
• Identify Customer Needs Effectively
• Better Problem Solving
• Improved efficiency
• Improved Morale
• Improved Agency Image

Overview of Concepts and Deliverables Provided

• How to develop proactive policies and procedures
• How to create an environment for public satisfaction even when things go wrong
• Develop positive communication skills
• Develop the appropriate nonverbal communication style – even over the phone
• Improve listening skills to better understand the customer’s real needs
• How to use winning words, phrases and questions to defuse an emotional situation
• Successfully handle different types of personalities
• Know what to do when a situation goes from bad to worse
• How to learn from negative experiences
• How to communicate that the rules or laws cannot be changed just for them
• Being prepared with professional responses to stupid questions
• How to recover if you do or say something inappropriate
• How to be sensitive to the situation without sympathizing
• How to calm upset people over the phone and in person
• How to listen completely, speak respectfully and focus on the positive
• How to avoid taking negative public comments about your organization personally
• How to deal with your stress in stressful situations
• Keep motivated to prevent burnout
• …and more

Bring this onsite seminar to your organization today! Your service personnel at all levels will gain a greater understanding of customer needs and expectations, and develop the confidence to deal with any service situation in a professional manner.

Defusing Difficult and Demanding Customers

Develop the skills and strategies to respond to angry and difficult customers by resolving issues confidently and appropriately.

Learn how to handle problem customers whose difficult and demanding ways challenge customer service representatives at all levels. This onsite customer service seminar develops skills and techniques to provide quality service to difficult customers of all types.

Service representatives learn to avert tenuous situations and take appropriate steps to rebuild customer relationships.

This interactive training session is tailored to call center or face-to-face service environments. Examples, exercises and case studies are designed around your products and services.    

Research indicates that customers who complain are more willing to continue doing business with you, if they feel that they are being treated properly. Angry and complaining customers typically do not decide to take their business to the competition – until they talk to you. That’s why we train service representatives on what to say (and what not to say), how to defuse hostility, how to control emotions, how to use coping strategies, how to use tact and diplomacy and much more in this one-day session.

Whether the customer is loud and abrasive or on the verge of exploding with anger, customer service representatives leave this seminar with new skills and tools to handle them with greater confidence. They will have a heightened awareness of what drives customer needs and know how to adjust their service style to better relate to the customer and implement a service solution.

Does this sound familiar?

• Customer complaints are increasing
• Service representatives avoid and try to transfer difficult customers to someone else
• There is a lack of creativity in solving customer problems
• Service representatives are sometimes curt or “short” with clients who have problems
• Service representatives wish demanding customers would “just go away"
• Service representatives are sometimes afraid to deal with certain customers
• When challenged, service reps give away too much to make the problem go away
• The stress level in the service department or call center is increasing
• Service representatives have not been trained or need a refresher course on handling difficult and demanding customers

If the answer to any of the above is “Yes,” then this training is for you.

Who Should Attend

For service personnel with high profile, high-pressure public contact who need to handle difficult people better, resolve complaints faster, and cope with job stress and frustration.

Training Benefits for this Customer Service Course

• Develop the techniques that can be adapted to your job, your personality and your customer
• Defuse difficult and demanding customers more successfully
• Increase customer loyalty by resolving complaints faster
• Transform customer conflict into customer cooperation 
• Decrease the number of lost customers due to the perception of poor service
• Improved confidence to handle any service situation
• Reduce the stress level of customer service employees 

Overview of Concepts and Deliverables Provided

• Understand the difference between a difficult customer versus an upset customer
• View your communication style from the eyes of the upset customer to minimize misperceptions or misunderstandings
• How a customer's service perceptions affect their emotions
• Develop the ability to have patience to stay calm and in control of your emotions
• Identify behaviors that may be contributing to customers becoming difficult or upset
• Effectively respond to unreasonable demands with phrases that calm people down
• Avoid turning a dissatisfied customer into an angry customer
• Project a professional image that expresses self-confidence
• Communicate with customers to avoid causing defensiveness
• Deliver bad news without overly upsetting the customer
• Listen for facts and not for feelings
• Eliminate your prejudices to be a better listener
• Use tact and diplomacy to handle the most difficult customers
• How to defuse emotional manipulators
• How to control loud and abrasive customers
• Use effective approaches to dealing with explosive and intimidating customers
• How to deal with the person who thinks they are “better” than you
• Deal with chronic complainer customers
• How to defuse hostility and anger
• How to respond to unreasonable demands
• Control customer emotions with phrases that calm people down
• Express empathy, not sympathy
• Make customers feel they have received quality service even when you can't give them everything they want
• Help customers who are “wrong” save face when their errors are found
• Enlist customer support and fix things that go wrong
• Practice the keys to exceeding customer expectations
• Avoid taking it personally when a customer is venting their frustration
• Implement stress busters that work

Dealing effectively with difficult customers will benefit your entire organization. The customer service skills developed in this session are often difficult to learn without specialized training.  

Delivering World Class Customer Service

Learn customer service tools and techniques to improve customer care and build stronger customer relationships.

This interactive and thought-provoking seminar teaches participants the customer service tips and techniques every service representative needs to handle even the most difficult service challenges. We are not talking rocket science, but we are talking about what it really takes to meet customer service expectations and then taking it one step further to thoroughly delight customers every time. 

Training uses real customer service situations – both good and bad.

From delivering bad news to customers to anticipating customer needs, this session makes handling even tough service challenges possible - if not easy. Cases and exercises used in this interactive, instructor-led training are tailored to your industry and your organization to make this a truly relevant and valuable learning experience. 

The skills developed in this session will enhance your organization’s customer centered process by developing the skills, credibility and consistency of your customer service representatives. 

Who Should Attend

The session is designed for new and experienced service representatives. All participants will discover new approaches, be reminded of tips and techniques too often overlooked, and develop a personal action plan to improve service throughout the customer contact process. 

Training Benefits of this Customer Service Course

• Improve the quality of customer service delivered
• Decrease the number of lost customers due to poor service
• Deliver service that earns the praise of customers and clients
• Increase customer loyalty by better meeting their expectations
• Develop the ability to transform customer conflict into customer cooperation
• Defuse the angry, cynical customer more successfully

Overview of Concepts and Deliverables Provided in this Seminar

• Anticipate customer needs and expectations more accurately
• Develop expert listening techniques that tell your customers they have your undivided attention
• Effectively respond to unreasonable demands
• Deliver bad news without overly upsetting the customer
• Make customers feel they are receiving top level service even when you can’t deliver everything they want
• Help customers realize when they’re wrong and come up with a face-saving solution
• Build and maintain telephone customer relationships
• Respond diplomatically to the most demanding customers
• Defuse customer emotions and create positive outcomes
• Tactfully handle the most difficult customers

Coaching and Mentoring Skills for Call Center Managers

Train Call Center Supervisors to Lead, Mentor and Coach Employees for Improved Sales and Service

Call Center Management Training - a workshop for call center managers and supervisors. This 1-day session is designed to enhance the skills of new and veteran call center managers and supervisors. This course re-energizes participants to use good coaching skills and develops their ability to mentor call center CSRs. The result is improved sales and better customer relations.

Through the use of our “What's My Coaching Style?” coaching assessment tool, call center managers develop an understanding of their own personal style and take a first step to developing successful coaching and mentoring relationships. Ultimately, call center managers learn how to modify their own styles to create better rapport with the people they mentor and coach.

Who Should Attend

Designed for all call center customer service supervisors and mangers. The course trains supervisors in the best practices for agent training and development, motivation and retention, team collaboration, and performance measurement. 

Overview of Training Topics and Learning Points

• Develop a basis of trust and confidence with employees
• Understanding the keys to successful motivation
• Evaluating your coaching style to recognize strengths and areas for improvement
• Identify preferences for one of four coaching styles: Direct, Spirited, Considerate or Systematic
• Develop an awareness of personal behavior patterns
• Understand how personal style reveals itself in coaching
• How to maximize the effectiveness of your coaching style
• Practice using good coaching and facilitation skills to develop as a mentor
• How to handle criticism without becoming defensive
• How to conduct a more receptive and responsive coaching session
• How to use “damage control” tactics to smooth over hard feelings and prevent grudges from being formed
• How to avoid words and phrases that rob your message of credibility

Note: 
The “What's My Coaching Style?” assessment tool is a stand-alone instrument that can be used as a skill-builder reference and can be a valuable asset in subsequent training.

This Call Center Manager Training goes beyond basic management training. The workshop develops coaching and mentoring skills for improved leadership, better employee relations and stronger customer relations that benefit your entire organization.