Customer Service Skills – Video Training Course

[Music]
hi my name is Angela Keller and I'm
going to be the instructor for the
following course you may be wondering to
yourself what does she know about this
course well allow me to share with you
that I do have a PhD in organizational
development and I have several years
experience leading organizations so that
gives me the unique opportunity to share
with you that I have both the academic
experience having sat in your shoes in
classes watching instruction on the
content that you're about to learn on
the other hand I've also led
organizations which gives me the
practice or the practical experience of
seeing this firsthand in organizations
with that scholar practitioner
experience I'd like to deliver the
content to you so that you can take this
and turn it into something that you can
use in your workplace I hope you enjoy
the class and you learn a tremendous
amount happy learning we're gonna begin
with understanding customer service what
is customer service customer service
involves anticipating and satisfying the
needs of your clients and potential
clients in a consistent and dependable
manner when we talk about a consistent
and dependable manner that's really the
service level anticipating and
satisfying their needs means that a
customer comes to you and has a need
you're willing to serve it the
expectation of the SIRT of the customer
and then the service provided in a
consistent and dependable manner is what
customer service is let's look a little
further at what customer service really
means customer service is also about
customer care well what is customer care
providing customer service means caring
for your customers and ensuring that
every single contact within your
organization is a positive experience
customers expect that they're going to
have a positive experience when they do
business with you or your organization
so providing excellent customer care
requires that you consistently do the
following first you want to build
relationships with your customers
do you know your customers names do you
know them more than just the services or
the products that you provide to them do
you understand what their expectations
are do you know a little bit about them
when you know your product or service
and how it can benefit your customer
that's a foundation but do you
understand how your customer uses it so
that the benefit is even greater can you
advance on those benefits and share with
your customer various ways that they can
benefit from your products and services
even further do you communicate
effectively with your customers to learn
what's important to them not just the
basic expectations but what's truly
important to them and what they value
and why they come to you do you take
responsibility for handling their
complaints and see their complaints as
opportunities to interact with them
build a deeper relationship and serve
them better do you go the extra mile for
your customers customer care is about
going the extra mile going above and
beyond their expectations and delivering
service at a level that meets not just
their needs but warms their heart and
makes them want to come back even more
so who is the customer well a customer
is someone who purchases products or
services from you or your organization a
customer is also anyone who provides a
service to someone else within your
organization customers can be internal
or external internal customers are those
individuals who work within your
organization and may potentially provide
services to somebody else but they are
also looking to you for services the
services are a very little bit different
because services from an internal
customer would be the collaborative
efforts that you provide as a teammate
external customers are those customers
who are purchasing products and services
from you or your organization when we
talk about customer service
our mindset typically goes to the
external customer those outside our
organization but it's incredibly
important to not forget that we have
internal customers as well anybody in
everybody that we come in contact
throughout the workday our customers or
potential customers have you ever
thought about WoW service what does it
take to WoW somebody
well if we're going to look to wow
somebody we have to go above
expectations the customer perception is
one piece of the puzzle the expectation
level is really what we're trying to
meet think about it this way when a
customer comes to us they have a
perception of what you're able to do for
them we often try to determine what
their expectation is so that we can meet
their expectations through our products
and services as a customer service
professional our goal is to meet their
expectations however if we meet their
expectations as well as exceed their
perception we're now delivering WoW
service remember this is for both
internal and external customers it's
easy to put this into perspective when
we think about a customer from the
external coming to your organization to
buy a product or service and they have a
perception of what your product and
service may do have you ever purchased a
product thinking that it would do one
thing and then discovering that it does
something so much better were you wowed
well let's also consider that internal
customer they may come to you with a
perception of what you can do and how
awesome would it be if you can exceed
their perception and show your internal
customers that you can wow them because
you can provide even greater products
and services to your internal customers
as well that would make you not only
look like a customer service
professional but an outstanding
professional within the organization who
can do so much more than your internal
customers first initially thought
meeting expectations is one thing but
Wow and your customers by exceeding
their perceptions is something
completely different the key to
providing exceptional customer service
is in building relationships with your
customers so how do we build
relationships well first of all greeting
them in a warm friendly manner again
thinking about internal and external
customers when we're greeting external
customers we want to welcome them to our
our workplace we want to ensure that we
greet them we are warm we're friendly
we're smiling asking them about what you
can do for them and why they came to
your organization building your
relationship is about starting with
rapport opening up dialogue this could
be somebody that is brand new to you so
think of the opportunity to build a new
friend that's an internal customer do
not lose sight that if they approach you
you want to greet them as well with a
warm friendly manner think about your
own experience as a customer internal
and external when you've gone to an
organization to purchase products and
services have they greeted you think
about when you've been wild was it warm
and friendly did they feel like they
were your friend did they feel like they
wanted to get to know you what about
internal have you ever worked at an
organization where you worked with
somebody who greeted you each time that
you came to their desk or to their
office building relationships also
happens when you treat your customers
with respect respect is such an
important aspect of relationships and
building a relationship with your
customer our external customers we want
to ensure that we're treating them with
the utmost respect because they are
giving their hard-earned money to our
brought to our products and services
within our organization but we certainly
want to also respect our internal
customers understanding what our
internal customers expect from us what
does respect to look like to them having
dialogue with them and it's an okay
question to ask how can I show you
respect
imagine if you were in the workplace and
somebody contacted you and said I'd like
to show you respect what would it look
like to you
how would it feel what would you say
treating our customers with respect
means engaging in dialogue with them to
understand what respect feels like looks
like and sounds like to them building
relationships is also when we provide
them with information that they need
when we provide information not just the
product or service not just fulfilling
an expectation but going above and
beyond giving them the information they
need not only what they want but also
what they need imagine if it was an
external customer purchasing a product
and service and you were talking to them
about everything that your products and
your services did for them and they were
wowed now let's turn and think about the
internal customer they may come to you
with information or a request and if you
can share with them not just fulfilling
the request but going one step beyond or
even ten steps beyond and saying let me
help you with everything that you could
possibly need in regards to the what I'm
about to fulfill for you that would
build such a relationship with the
individual that they would want to come
back to you more and more building
relationships can make a buying
experience easy and satisfying now we
think of buying experiences with those
external customers when they're spending
their money on products and services
with your organization however that's
also true of our internal customers
because their buying experience is their
time with you their investment with you
in asking for your assistance whether
its internal or external we want to make
their engagement with us easy and
satisfying we want to ensure that they
see us as a professional and that we are
there to help them and build a
relationship with them and serve their
needs building relationships also comes
from thanking them for calling or coming
in when was the last time you were
thanked by an internal customer for just
stopping by and asking them for some
help
imagine the power and the respect that
they would feel if you were to thank
them for asking you for assistance our
external customers should be thanked
every with every interaction we should
thank them when they call us when they
visit us when they ask us questions
anytime they have a need we should be
thanking them for taking the time to
invest in your organization and most
importantly with any relationship when
you make a mistake you want to fix it so
when you are looking to provide
exceptional customer service and you
discover that you may have made a
mistake take responsibility and fix it
if you're not sure how to fix it find
out that can and show your customer that
you're willing to take respond
ability and that you appreciate the time
and energy that they've brought this
mistake to you and that you're willing
to ensure that things are done right for
them
there are several barriers to excellent
customer service
when I say barrier it's something that
an organization may or may not do that
does not get the customer to the full
potential of customer service where
they're not being wild where their
expectations are not being met let's
take a look at what some of them may be
customer service requires the commitment
of an entire organization at every level
and so if that excellent customer
service does not permeate every level
then it's going to fall down many things
that can interfere with an individual's
ability to deliver exceptional customer
service
things like organizational policies
think about organizational policies that
might prevent a frontline customer
service agent from dealing effectively
with customers when the customer calls
in and they have a challenge or a
problem but the customer service agent
is being held to maybe a standard to
terminate that call to solve the problem
and get off the call very quickly
sometimes policies from the organization
don't really meet the customers needs
there may also be poor communication
skills if you or your colleagues do not
have the skills to communicate
effectively with your customers then you
certainly can't expect to meet the needs
of their of your customers for yourself
you want to ensure that you are building
strong communication skills so that you
can have dialogue and engage with your
customer and know how to listen and ask
questions that will allow them to
communicate more effectively with you
and you to communicate more effectively
with them this can help you and
eliminate those barriers to excellent
customer service often a barrier can be
that there's insufficient resources
all too often organizations trying to
lower operating costs will cut staff in
an effort to maintain or increase
profits when lower levels of staff are
in an organization it's more challenging
to commit the time and energy to a
customer that they
need many organizations also have a lot
of bureaucracy they've built in so many
levels for approval that satisfying a
customer can be counterproductive for
frontline agents a customer may contact
an organization with a complaint or a
challenge or a need and that customer
service agent has to go through so many
different levels of red tape that they
can't make a decision that may have been
simple so that the customers
expectations were met or potentially
even wowed some organizations have
inadequate facilities or equipment and
using outdated or poorly functioning
equipment can certainly interfere with
an individual's ability to provide
exceptional service think of yourself
have you ever contacted an organization
and been told I'm sorry I need you to
hold on because the computer's not quite
working today or I'm going to ask you to
call back or may I call you back because
I can't access the resources that I need
to take care of you right now having
inadequate or poorly functioning
equipment can certainly damper a
customer's experience poor attitude can
also have a tremendous impact on how the
how a customer will perceive your
organization and whether or not they
will return when we say poor attitude
attitude is heard and seen through
behaviors and so when an individual a
customer service rep has an attitude or
is behaving in such a manner that they
don't seem to care about the customer
that can be a poor attitude attitude
starts with you each and every
individual has to choose to take the
mindset of having a positive attitude in
which they wish to serve the customer
and finally there's inadequate training
when employees are not trained on how to
provide excellent customer service then
there certainly can't be an expectation
that it would be delivered take the time
to learn customer service skills take
the time to learn skills about how to
build a rapport in a relationship with
your customers so that you can engage
with your customers in a way that you
have a strong relationship you
understand what their needs are you can
communicate effectively and meet their
needs and wow them now that we
understand the barriers to excellent
customer service let's talk
a little bit about overcoming these
barriers barriers to excellent customer
service can cost your organization
dearly in terms of lost customers so
removing the barriers is one of the
easiest things you can do to improve
your customer service levels so let's
talk a little bit about how to do that
first of all empowering your employees
well you might be saying wait a minute I
don't have employees that's okay
empowerment can be done through any
individual any employee at any level if
you were to go into work even without
your own employees and talk to your
teammates about what they can do instead
of what they can't you're going to
motivate and inspire your teammates to
become empowered and start to shift
their mindset from what they can't do to
what they can you can also empower
individuals by asking where are our
parameters in which direction can we
move without looking for approval so
that we can ensure that we're taking
care of our customers
you may also look at taking training
classes to improve your personal
communication skills communication
skills are the key to ensuring that you
are providing the best service possible
because of communication verbal and
nonverbal you can learn how to ask
questions listen more attentively engage
in dialogue with your customer to where
they're going to open up and share more
information with you the greater the
relationship you have with your customer
the better the service you can provide
because the more information you'll have
about them that you can respond to and
take steps to reduce red tape if your
organization has lots of bureaucracy
built in in the approach into the
approval process for taking care of your
customers then you'll want to talk to
somebody within your organization about
the impact of the service levels to your
organization because of the red tape
find a champion and the management team
that will help you to reduce red tape
and look for ways to provide better
customer service think about it this way
would any leader of an organization say
no we shouldn't serve our customers
better quantify and qualify where the
red tape is making an in
act and communicate it with your manager
or another manager who can champion the
process
[Music]