Course Description
In practical, easy to follow steps, participants learn trusted techniques and positive approaches that will inspire them to believe in the value of customer care, giving them the skills and style to deliver it. This program takes these winning concepts to a new level with interactive features that enable participants to turn the Knock-Your-Socks-Off Service advantage to a competitive advantage in their own workplace.

Course Outline
1. Serving Customers
Knock Your Socks Off Service
The Service Advantage
Customers Are Demanding
Customers Are Everywhere-–Inside and Out

• External Customers
• Internal Customers
• Relationship between Quality of Internal and External Customer Service

Moments of Truth

• Managing Moments of Truth
• Mastering Moments of Truth

To the Customer, You Are the Company
Keeping Pace with Changing Customer Needs
Delivering Exceptional Service

• The Power to Keep Customers Coming Back

2. Principles of Knock Your Socks Off Service
RATER Factors
Reliability: Keeping the Service Promise

• Organizational Commitments
• Common Expectations
• Person Promises
• Managing Promises
• Fixing Broken Promises

Assurance: Building Customer Trust

• Extra Points for Style

Tangibles: Taking Pride in Appearances

• Demonstrating Value

Empathy: Seeing things from the Customer’s Point of View

• Empathy vs. Sympathy
• Avoiding the Temptation to Commiserate
• Treating Customer as Individuals

Responsiveness: Helping the Customer Promptly

• Setting—and Meeting—Deadlines
• When Customer Must Wait

Quality Customer Service Self-Assessment and Action Plan
The Ten Deadly Sins of Customer Service

3. The Rules of Knock Your Socks Off Service
Honesty Is the Only Policy

• Tall Tales Catch Up with You
• Customers Respect Honesty
• Do It for Yourself, Too

All Rules Were Meant to Be Broken (Including This One)

• Rules vs. Assumptions
• Red Rules vs. Blue Rules
• Breaking vs. Bending the Rules
• Making Exceptions
• Responding to Warranty Issues
• Make the System Work

Do the Right Think…Regardless

• Is the Right Thing Ever Wrong?

Exceptional Service Is in the Details

• Everything Counts
• Moments of Truth

Good Selling Is Good Service—Good Service Is Good Selling

• When Lines Overlap
• When Selling Is Not Good Service
• When Selling Is Good Service
• Explaining Products and Services

Never Underestimate the Value of a Sincere Thank-You

• Nine Times When You Should Thank Customers
• Three Ways to Say Thank You
• Five Often Forgotten Thank-You’s

4. Communicating with the Customer
Listening Is a Skill—Use It

• Good Listeners Are Made, Not Born
• Barriers to Effective Listening
• Listening between the Lines

Ask Effective Questions

• Background Questions
• Probing Questions
• Confirmation Questions
• When Questions Go Wrong

Winning Words and Soothing Phrases

• Forbidden Phrases
• The Message Behind the Words

Facts for Face-to-Face

• Proximity
• Physical Contact
• Gestures
• Posture
• Eye Contact
• Facial Expression
• Vocal Characteristics
• Silence
• Smell
• Overall appearance
•  Nonverbal Cues

Tips for Telephone talk

• Telephone Etiquette: A Quick Review
• Voice Mail

Putting Pen to Paper or Fingers to Keyboard

• Your Message
• Your Reader
• Using E-mail for Knock Your Socks Off Service
• The Outcome

5. Smart Answers to Tough Customer Questions
Interpreting Needs and Anxieties Implicit in customer Questions

• Resistance to Change
• Sensitivity to Price
• Lack of Trust in the Service Provider
• Sensitivity to Wasting Time
• Fears—Well-Founded and Not-So-Well Founded

Diplomatic Answers to Peevish Questions

• Maintaining an Individual’s Privacy
• Protecting Sensitive Business Information
• Directing Customer to Suitable Products or Services
• Keeping Database Information Current without Irritating the Customer
• Steering Clear of Politics and Religion

Three Helpful Phrases for All Occasions

• Helpful Phrase #1: “As Your Might Expect”
• Helpful Phrase #2: “…For You”
• Helpful Phrase #3: “This Account Shows” or “Our Records Indicate”

Twenty Things Your Should Never Say to a Customer

6. Educating the Customer
Right and Wrong 

• Why We’re There
• Three Ways to Make Customer Right
• Unfair Advantage

Educating Customers about Your Services
Educating Customers about Your Products

• Technomysticism
• Filling Knowledge Gaps

Educate about Completing Paperwork
Educate about Information Sources
Educate through Personal Discovery

• Building Customer Understanding

Building Customer Relationships through Education

7. The Problem Solving Side of Knock Your Socks Off Service
Be a Fantastic Fixer

• The Art of Service Recovery
• The Recovery Process
• Asking for Trouble

Use the Well-Placed “I’m Sorry”

• Legal Jeopardy
• Customer Jeopardy
• Scapegoating
• Do It Right

Fix the Person

• Color-coding Your Response
• Tip of the Iceberg

Fair-Fix the Problem

• Step 1: LISTEN to Find the Problem
• Step 2: PROBE for Understanding and Confirmation
• Step 3: SOLVE—Find and Implement Solutions
• One Extra Step

Customers from Hell Are Customers, Too

• Approaches to Obnoxious Customers
• Dealing with Disruptive Behavior
• Doing the Impossible
• Meeting Unreasonable Demands
• When to Fire a Customer

8. Knock Your Socks Off Service Fitness: Taking Care of You
Master the Art of Calm

• Ten Stress Reducers

Keep It Professional

• Taking Care of Business
• Involvement Varies
• Office Friendships
• Office Parties
• Office Romances
• Professional Appearance
• Who You Are vs. What You Do

The Competence Principle: Always Be Learning

• Put Yourself in Training

Celebrate Successes

• Learning to Celebrate
• Five Ways to Celebrate

Customization
Outlines for each program can be tailored to suit your specific training needs.

Suggested Length
24 hours

Delivery Options
We will deliver training to suit your schedule.
All programs can be conducted in increments as little as two hours a session or as long as six hours a session.

Cost
$100 per instructor hour plus a one-time $100 administrative fee per program.
Participant materials are extra.