This course teaches students how to provide exemplary customer service over the phone. Students will learn about listening techniques, when to use open- and close- ended questions, how to resolve problems, and how to effectively and successfully handle irate customers.

Audience

Customer service professionals

Prerequisites

None.

Duration

Half Day

Course outline

1. Telephone Etiquette

• Skills Inventory
• 5 Points of a Customer Service Star
• Definition of Customer Service
• Good Customer Service vs. Bad Customer Service
• Can You Believe These Statistics?
• Requested Telephone Standards
• Greetings When Answering the Telephone in Person
• Greeting When Your Voice Mail Answers the Telephone
• Other Telephone Standards
• Asking Questions
• Why Questions are Important
• What Kinds of Questions
• Why Listening is Important
• How We Demonstrate Listening
• Why Confirming is Important
• How We Demonstrate Confirming
• Open-Ended Questions
• Close-Ended Questions
• Echo Questions
• Rhetorical Questions
• Resolving Problems
• By-the-Book Betty
• Resourceful Regina
• Handling Irate Customers
• Reliance on Voice Mail