Customer Service Essentials by Operational Excellence Consulting

Customer Service
Essentials
© Operational Excellence Consulting. All rights reserved.

Program Objectives
1. To instil in customer service professionals the
importance of providing excellent customer
service
2. To equip customer service professionals with
effective techniques and skills to provide
excellent service
3. To manage and handle customer interactions
and relationships
Copyrights of all the pictures used in this presentation are held by their respective owners.
© Operational Excellence Consulting. All rights reserved. 2

NOTE: This is a PARTIAL PREVIEW. To
download the complete presentation, please
visit: http://www.oeconsulting.com.sg
Contents
1. Introduction to Customer Service
2. Key Elements of Customer Service
3. Effective Techniques and Skills
4. Dealing with Different Types of Customers

Facts about Customer Service
• Repeat customers spend 33% more than new
customers.
• It costs 6 times more to acquire a new customer
than it does to keep an existing one.
• As little as a 5% increase in customer retention
can increase profits by 25 to 95%.

What is Customer Service?
• How a company deals with its consumers
before, during and after a purchase or use of a
service.
• A series of activities designed to enhance the
level of customer satisfaction – that is, the
feeling that a product or service has met the
customer expectation.
• A proactive attitude that can be summed up as:
I care and I can do.

Why Does Customer Service Matters?
• Customers are the reason for our existence
• Rising customer expectations
• Sets the organization apart from competition
• Increases customer satisfaction and loyalty
• Improves employee engagement

Two Parts to Customer Service
Content part – What
we do
 Knowing our job (rules,
policies, regulations)
 Making good decisions
(seeing the “big picture”)
 Following through
 Paying attention to
details
People part – How we
do it
 Caring about our
customer
 Listening to their needs
and expectations
 Dealing with feelings

“Attitude is a little
thing that makes a
big difference.”
- Sir Winston Churchill

Displaying Customer Service Attitude
• Projecting confidence
• Thinking positive
• Using positive language
• Being enthusiastic
• Conveying speed or urgency
• Taking ownership or accountability
• Being courteous

Who Are Customers?
• A Customer is a recipient of a product or service
• Customers are people who need your
assistance
• People who phone, people who walk-in, people
who write/email
• Customers are not an interruption to your job,
they are the reason you have a job

Why Customers Get Angry
• Didn’t get what was
promised
• Got something and it didn’t
work correctly
• Service was slow or sloppy
• Were treated rudely or with
indifference

What is Good Customer Service?
• Philosophy of excellence in customer service
must be incorporated into day to day operations.
• Processes and systems must be built to provide
structure to both the customer and the
employees who serve them.
• Staff should be given the right tools, training and
consistent support.
• This is NOT an overnight program!

Skills for Customer Service
• Know about your organization, products and
services
• Learn the technical parts of the job
• Communicate well
• Be consistent
• Be organized
• Know your place in the team and be a team
player

RATER Model Defines Five Key
Elements of Customer Service
Responsiveness
Assurance
Reliability
Empathy Tangibles
Source: “SERVQUAL” by Valarie A. Zeithaml, A. Parasuraman, and Leonard L. Berry

Five Key Elements of Customer Service
Reliability – Acting / completing as promised
• Providing the service that you’ve promised to
your customers
• Systems and processes are robust and reliable
• Service delivery is consistent and timely
• Being accurate and efficient
• Improving the quality of service

Five Key Elements of Customer Service
Empathy – Acting with care and
understanding
• Treating customers as individuals, not as a
number
• Seeing things from a customer point of view
• Genuinely caring about customer needs
• Building good relationships with customers
• Empathy is NOT sympathy

Greeting Customers & Establishing
Rapport
• The purpose is to create and maintain a welcoming
environment
• Be attentive, acknowledge a person as soon as they
appear, even if you’re busy
• Smile
• Establish eye contact
• Tell them your name
• Ask how you can help
• Give the customer your full attention
• Be polite and courteous

Words & Phrases that Damage
Customer Relationship
• You don’t understand.
• I don’t know.
• I can’t…
• You don’t see my point.
• Hold on (or hang on) a
second.
• Our policy says (or
prohibits)…
• That’s not my
job/responsibility.
• You must/should…
• You’ll have to…
• What you need to do is…
• What’s your problem?
• Why don’t you…?
• I never said…

Understanding Customer’s Needs &
Expectation
• Needs
 What a customer has to have
 More focused on the contents or job dimension of
interaction
• Expectation
 What a customer likes to have
 More focused on the people dimension or how I get
what I need

“Said is not the same as
heard.
Heard is not the same as
understood.
Understood is not the
same as agreed.
Agreed is not the same as
applied.
Applied is not the same
as retained.”
- Konrad
Lorenz

Verbal & Non-verbal Communication
Verbal,
7%
Vocal,
38%
Body,
55%

Overcoming Communication Barriers
• Seek first to understand the message
• Listen actively
• Be sensitive to body language
• Use appropriate language
• Use the right communication channel
• Be honest and sincere
• Obtain feedback

Three Parts of Effective Listening
Focusing your full attention on
the other person
Hearing what is being said - both
the content and the feelings
Thinking about the meaning of
what is being said

Questioning Skills
• Open questions
• Closed questions
• Paraphrasing
• Check for understanding

Effective Telephone Techniques
• Smile before answering the phone
• Answer the phone in three rings or less
• Give your company name and your name when
answering the phone
• Use proper language and warm, friendly voice
tone
• Be courteous and pleasant
• Be helpful. Tell the customer the action you are
going to take.

Effective Face-to-Face Communication
Techniques
• Focused attention
• Eye contact
• Body language
• Check your physical appearance
• Clear, concise messages
• Active listening
• Respect cross-cultural preferences
• Feedback

Improving Customer Service
Professionalism
• Make excellence your goal
• Get your basics right
• Take your job seriously
• Switch off personal problems
• Focus on your work
• Be willing to learn
• Be a team player
• Enjoy what you do
Source: Pilgrim, Gray. Professionalism Tips. Buzzle.com, 2011.

Dealing with Difficult Customers
• Label the behavior, not the customer
• Listen
• Don’t get defensive
• Don’t take it personally
• Find out what the customer wants
• Discuss alternatives
• Take responsibility for what you CAN do
• Agree on action

Saying “No” Positively
Don’t Say Use Instead
• “Call back tomorrow.” • “I’ll call you back tomorrow.”
• “It’s not ready.” • “It will be ready on _______”
• “You should have called
sooner.”
• “I understand why you called.”
• “That’s not our fault.” • “Let’s see what we can do.”

5-Step Recovery Skills
1. ACKNOWLEDGE the situation and the
discomfort
2. APOLOGIZE for the discomfort
3. ACCEPT responsibility for helping the
customer
4. ADJUST to solve the problem
5. ASSURE the problem has been solved

About
Operational
Excellence Consulting

About Operational Excellence
Consulting
• Operational Excellence Consulting is a management
training and consulting firm that assists organizations in
improving business performance and effectiveness.
• The firm’s mission is to create business value for
organizations through innovative operational excellence
management training and consulting solutions.
• OEC takes a unique “beyond the tools” approach to enable
clients develop internal capabilities and cultural
transformation to achieve sustainable world-class excellence
and competitive advantage. For more information, please visit
www.oeconsulting.com.sg

END OF PARTIAL PREVIEW
To download this presentation,
please visit us at:
www.oeconsulting.com.sg

Customer Service Essentials by Operational Excellence Consulting

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