Customer service training: Towards Awesome Service

"How Could Customer Service Training Help My Business?"

Derek Williams, in the blue shirt in this photo, can bring his customer service expertise to your business.

Many business people ask us how customer service training might help them. They're often prepared to invest in hard assets but something like customer service is more difficult to regard as an investment. Let me tell you about a couple of our customers and see what you think.

Case study #1

A branch of Barclays Bank came to us. You may know that the banks regularly measure their customer service. This branch of Barclays was consistently being judged 13th out of 14 banks in the region. One month after we started working with the Team at Barclays, that branch went from 13th to 2nd in the rankings. Imagine what that did for the branch?

Did their customers feel that they were getting better service? The customer's perception is everything.

Would some customers now be convinced about being with Barclays - remember a 5% improvement in customer retention can lead to an increase of profits between 25 and 125%!

Did their own Team members feel better motivated? You bet they did. At a time when many businesses are facing a skills shortage this is extremely important to Barclays.

Case study #2

I'll let Lloyds tell you their own story in this press release from their very own company magazine (FrontRunner, Issue number 22, February 1998)

Awesome customer services

Awesome, uplifting and inspirational. They're not usually words associated with branch banking. However, for staff at Lloyds Bank's Potters Bar branch, that was the reaction after a presentation on Awesome Customer Services given by business guru Derek Williams.

Branch manager Dave Greenall said: "My staff and 1 were concerned that the figures on our Customer Service Index were not reflecting our efforts and, as a result, I called on Derek to help. Derek is managing partner of Stephens and Co, an award-winning firm of business advisors.

Staff made the effort to come to work early to hear Derek's presentation, which was also attended by Fiona Racher, area service quality manager. "Personally, the presentation opened my eyes to the full potential that must be aimed for. Everybody in the team enjoyed the talk as well, and they are now asking for more. Derek's view is that customer service is delivered not just by processes but by the inner desire of each individual. This idea needs to be fostered and grown on a continual basis."

The presentation seems to have worked. In the following month the branch's Customer Service Index rose by four per cent.

In case you're wondering about the significance of a 4% increase in the Customer Service Index, this was the biggest increase in customer satisfaction the branch had ever experienced in one month!

Reading this might make you think that we only work with banks. That's not the case. We work with almost every type of business you can imagine. We simply use these examples because we know that the names will be familiar to you.

What we've discovered

Over the years we've discovered that Customer Service training can have some interesting side effects. See if any of these problems are relevant to your business:

Team Building

By focusing on the customer we have proven that the result is a stronger Team. We never set out with this objective - it just happens that way.

Personal motivation and self esteem

Customers don't deal with "a company" as such.

They deal with People. People like you and me.

When we begin to dazzle and delight the customer we start to feel so much better ourselves. The willingness to please becomes contagious. It improves our family lives and friendships. It even effects the way that we drive!

Personal skills

As Tom Peters says in his book "Circle of Innovation" -

"The nerds have won! Bill Gates is the richest man in the world! It is the Age of Brainware."

Many businesses are now finding that to get the technical skills they need means recruiting young and highly specialist people.

Unfortunately these young people don't always have the inter-personal skills that your customers would like to receive.

We can put that right.

We work on 1st impressions, oral and written communication, body language and buttons for persuasion.

Difficult to recruit

We work with the objective of making your business a place that people are queuing up to join.

At Stephens & Co we never have a difficulty recruiting the people we want. We have a waiting list of people who want to come and work with us.

Here's what our "Towards Awesome Service" Programme might include for your business

Please note that all training is carefully tailored to your precise requirements.

Developing Truly Awesome Service
- Understanding the benefits of customer service.
- Why customers change supplier.
- Customer perceptions.
- Understanding key frustrations.
- Internal and external customers.
- The true power of individuals.
- The benefits of being a team.
- Creating a team commitment.
- Creating raving fans and generating referrals.
Enhanced communication
- Dynamic listening skills.
- Exploring the power of both written and oral communication.
- Developing extraordinary telephone technique.
- Caring communication.
Staying Positive
- Building personal esteem and a winning attitude.
- The value of making mistakes.
Image
- You are the competitive edge.
- Understanding first impressions.
- Identifying the image for your business and setting standards.
Making the Invisible Visible

How to dazzle customers when everything appears to go so smoothly?

Quotations

Developing the systems and the skills to write quotations that really work.

Recruiting for results
- How to attract the right people to your business.

How do we work?

We will always agree a fixed price with you for our work.

Our price includes:

A "Fly on the Wall" day. This is time spent working in your business so that we can tailor a programme to your precise needs.
Preparation of all course materials.
Supplying a participant pack for every member of the Team. This is going to be their working document to use and take away.
Delivering the programme in a very lively and interactive environment. I believe, absolutely, that people have to enjoy participating in this type of exercise.
Delivering the programme at times and locations to suit you.
All computer, video, audio and projection equipment. All that I ask your people to bring is an open mind.
Follow up. We have our own unique programme of follow up and will be looking for regular feedback from your Team.
All of our work comes with Our Unique Money Back Guarantee: We ask you to pay in advance but, if on completion of the programme, you are not completely satisfied that you have had value for money, we will immediately refund your investment in full.

Contact Us

For more information on these and other services, please contact Derek Williams at derek@thewowgroup.co.uk