customer care for IT professionals

Aim of this course

To equip delegates with the behaviours and skills required to provide a customer focused service.

Delegates will learn
  • What values & behaviours underpin good customer service
  • What customers want from a support service
  • How to make each customer feel like they are your only customer
  • How to manage themselves in order to provide better customer care
  • How to deal with customers assertively: the difference between service and servitude
Style

This is a 3-day highly interactive workshop with a mix of discussion and practical work that will allow delegates to identify the barriers to customer service / customer satisfaction and to develop personal strategies for improving customer service. 

Target Audience

Anyone from an IT department who is interested in increasing levels of customer service.

Topics

SETTING THE SCENE

  • Introduction
  • What is customer service?
  • Business drivers for excellent customer service
  • Lifetime value of a customer
  • Customer retention
  • Service recovery
  • The difference between service and servitude
  • Values & behaviours required to give excellent customer service
  • Profile of an excellent IT Support Technician
  • Personal assessment (preliminary)
  • The customer service lifecycle

COMPONENTS OF CUSTOMER SERVICE

  • Internal versus external customers
  • What makes a customer tick?
  • Different 'types' of customer with different needs
  • What customers need
  • What customers want
  • How we meet those needs & wants
  • Managing customer expectations
  • Definitions of quality & professionalism
  • The advantages of having satisfied customers
  • Practice session I

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS

  • The importance of the first impression
  • The difference between impact and behaviour
  • Identifying your own impact on others
  • Highlighting areas for improvement
  • Practical session II

MAKING TIME TO GIVE GOOD SERVICE

  • Barriers to effective time management in a support environment
  • Managing personal frustration
  • Time management quadrants
  • Dealing with what is important
  • “In time” and “Through time” people
  • Strategies for effective time management
  • Crisis management
  • Practice session III

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS

  • Types of relationship
  • What makes an effective relationship
  • Building relationships
  • Maintaining relationships
  • Recognition of individuals
  • Meeting & anticipating individual needs
  • Respecting cultural differences
  • Generating rapport
  • Showing that you 'own the problem'
  • Flexibility
  • Offering choices / finding solutions
  • Demonstrating 'can-do, will-do' attitude
  • Practice session IV

ASSERTIVENESS & INFLUENCING

  • Assertiveness defined
  • Assertive, aggressive and passive behaviour
  • Using "I" statements
  • The 6 types of assertiveness
  • The 5-stage model for assertiveness
  • The 3-stage model for giving & receiving feedback
  • The 3 influencing styles
  • Practice session V

BEING PROACTIVE

  • Taking responsibility
  • Starting with the end in mind
  • Personal mission & vision
  • Personal goals
  • Turning goals into SMART objectives
  • Following up customer contact
  • Closing support calls cleanly
  • Practice session VI

DEALING WITH DIFFICULT PEOPLE

  • What makes a person difficult
  • Understanding the rationale for complaints
  • Proven customer handling techniques
  • Recognising personal strengths and weaknesses
  • Using words that inspire
  • Turning complaints into opportunities
  • Avoiding conflict
  • Managing conflict that can’t be avoided
  • Practice session VII

STRESS AWARENESS

  • What makes an IT support role stressful
  • Perspectives of stress
  • Symptoms of stress
  • Causes of stress
  • Long term effects of stress
  • Strategies for managing stress
  • Practice session VIII

SUMMARY & CLOSE

  • Key learning points
  • Action planning

Note: All practical sessions will be designed and constructed to represent the nature of issues faced by the delegates in their day-to-day business operations.