Providing good quality customer care

Great Material at these sites

Hi Sarah

You can find some great material in the following sites:

http://www.customerserviceskills.net/

http://www.callcentercafe.com/3/free-customer-service-training.html

http://www.beldingskills.com/free-material.htm

One exercise I used (but cannot find the website I got the material from) was to split the class into small groups and give them different 'difficult' customer types - Whiner, Hysteric, Big Shot, Foul Mouth etc. I would then get the groups to identify ways to deal with that particular type of difficult customer.

In part 2 of the exercise I would split groups into threes and ask them to take part in 3 rounds of role plays. Round 1, someone would be the difficult customer (Whiner, Hysteric, Big Shot), someone would be the customer service rep and somone would be notetaker and observer. Change roles for rounds 2 and 3. Thus each person got to play the customer service rep and deal with a difficult customer.

For example, one difficult customer type is referred to as "the Whiner".

Whiner Characteristics

- They complain about everything - the weather, the traffic, waiting in line, being put on hold

- They make excuses

- They blame others for everything that goes wrong

- They treat small problems as big problems

Ways to Deal with this Customer

- Listen but don't listen for too long. Focus the whiner on the business at hand

- Don't defend the system. They whiner is looking for dialogue.

- Reassure the whiner that you will do all that you can to help but explain the limits of your  role and responsibilities.

- Don't get trapped in the 'poor me' discussion the whiner wants to take you down

If I find the website I will ping you. Alternatively please give me your email and I will mail you my slides

Regards

Ranjit