2013

Customer Service Training Seminar

Nasrin Doudman Katherine Murphy Vinh Nguyen Mark Hukill Century Link 11/22/2013

Table Of Contents
Day One & Two Detailed Agenda Icebreaker Description & Game Sheet Notes: Customer Turnoffs Pet-Peeves Game Day One Notes: Customer Feedback End of Day One Quiz Questions & Key Notes: Proper Telephone Use Notes: Insight Into Emerging Trends In Customer Service End of Day Two Quiz Questions & Key Flyer Recognition/Award Bibliography P.2 P.3 P.4 P.6 P.7 P.9 P.10 P.11 P.12 P.13 P.14 P.15

Day One & Two Detailed Agenda Day One: 10:00 10:05 10:30 11:00 11:20 11:40 12:30 12:50 1:00 Introduction of Presenters & Welcome Icebreaker Game Vinh Customer Turnoffs Presentation Pet Peeves Game Break & Refreshments Nasrin Customer Feedback Presentation Day One Quiz Summarize/Conclude End of Day One Day Two: 10:00 10:05 10:30 11:00 11:20 12:00 12:30 12:50 1:00 Welcome Back Review Day One Kathy Proper Telephone Use Break & Refreshments Mark Trends in Customer Service Day Two Quiz Recap Day 1 & 2 Recognition & Awards End of Day Two

How to play: Go around the room and find a person to sign each box. When you are finished, bring your sheet of paper with your name on it to a presenter to receive a piece of candy and to have your name entered for a gift card drawing. NOTE: Each person may sign your sheet ONLY ONCE!

I have never broken a bone.

I have been Employee of The Month more than twice.

Someone who went to the same High School as you.

I have never been outside of the United States.

Day One: Customer Turnoffs

Recognize Pet Peeves about Customer Service o Being ignored or receiving rude or indifferent service o Having to wait too long o Repair work that did not fix the problem o Products with defective parts or parts missing o Advertised sale items that are not in stock o Merchandise prices not marked, forcing a price check at the cashier o Dirty facilities (especially restaurants or rest rooms) o Bad acoustics, noisy environment o Phone calls put on hold or forcing you to select from a long menu of choices o Employees lacking product knowledge (and who may try to bluff the customer) o High-pressure sales tactics o Employees talking down to you or using confusing jargon o Inflexibility when you make a request What Turns Customers Off? o Value Turnoffs Poor guarantee or failure to back up products Quality not as good as expected Price too high for value received Overly complicated or difficult-to-use products o System Turnoffs Slow service or help not available Business place dirty, messy, or cluttered Low selection or poor availability of product Inconvenient location, layout, parking, or access o People Turnoffs Lack of courtesy, friendliness, or attention Employees who lack knowledge or are not helpful Sloppy appearance, poor grooming, or annoying mannerisms Distracting clothing, piercing, or tattoos Create Customer Loyalty o Thinking about customer turnoffs is particularly important when we consider that the correlation between mere customer satisfaction and loyalty is rather tenuous. Even satisfied customers may be neutral toward their relationship with a business. They may feel little or no sense of engagement and the littlest thing can push them over the edge toward dissatisfaction. Zone of Indifference o Actually, customers who are satisfied may be inert, not motivated to buy more or strengthen their business dealings with a company. o The challenge is to get them involved in the company. Service Recovery o Problems will eventually arise

o Recovering lost customers to create loyalty Loyalty Grows When Service is Your Goal o Every employee should make service their priority o Customers will notice and will become more loyal Loyalty 3 Steps o 1. Continuously sharpen insights into areas where you may be falling short. o 2. Reduce or eliminate value, systems, and people turnoffs. o 3. Exceed customer expectations to create a positive awareness.

From the following list of Customer Pet-Peeves, one will be assigned to each player, your task will be to address these issues and to write down and share with everyone how you would solve the problem to make your customer happy!

The winners of the game will be all who give valid and efficient answers the panel of judges for this will be your four presenters. Prizes will be chosen by your manager and awarded after the game is over.

(Customer Pet-Peeves to Recognize)

o o o o o o o o o o o o o Being ignored or receiving rude or indifferent service Having to wait too long Repair work that did not fix the problem Products with defective parts or parts missing Advertised sale items that are not in stock Merchandise prices not marked, forcing a price check at the cashier Dirty facilities (especially restaurants or rest rooms) Bad acoustics, noisy environment Phone calls put on hold or forcing you to select from a long menu of choices Employees lacking product knowledge (and who may try to bluff the customer) High-pressure sales tactics Employees talking down to you or using confusing jargon Inflexibility when you make a request

Day One: Customer Feedback

Always welcome feedback. Take note of it; take steps to address the issue. Feedback is a Customer Service Coach: o -Negative comments show us what we need to change o -Helps us improve our business Be committed to Feedback: o -Where we are: - Reluctant-Compliant: we do not encourage customer feedback nor do we enthusiastically act on the information received. o -Where we are headed: - -Active Listening: genuinely open to receiving customer complaints, we will make it easy for the customer and we will respond, thus reinforcing the customers willingness to share perceptions with us. - -Metrics-Conscious: we will take customer comments and measure and track them, from there we will use the data that we have collected to make organizational decisions to improve our company. Why should we care about customer feedback?: o -On average, one in four customers is unhappy with some part of a typical transaction. They may not be extremely angry, but some part of the interaction with the company was not 100 percent excellent. o -Only about 5 percent of unhappy customers will complain to the company, the silent majority would rather find a new company than to fight their current one. o -An unhappy customer will tell about on average - 12 other people about the poor service they received from a company. This is information from a time before social networking. Now, a dissatisfied customer can tell hundreds of people about poor service they received from a company with a simple Tweet, status update, or blog post. -Example: A company serves 100 customers per day, of those, 25 of them receive poor service or are unhappy with the company. Only two of them will bother to voice a complaint to the company, the other 23 will each tell at least a dozen people about their experience; that is a total of 274 other people hearing about the bad customer service. o -The above is known as the RIPPLE EFFECT and can be devastating to a company.

Receiving Feedback: -Make it easy for people to voice their complaints as well as compliments, suggestions, and questions o -Act on input quickly and efficiently o -Do not act defensively and do not make unnecessary demands for details o -Listen to customers until they are finished with their story, then react. o -During face-to-face situations, maintain eye contact and avoid facial expressions that send a message of skepticism, boredom, or disinterest. Over the phone, avoid dead air, and always watch your tone of voice!

Acting on Complaints: o -Act on complaints in productive ways to make the company successful o -Feel the customers pain: Empathize -Be respectful and empathetic -Listen to their problems and take them seriously -Compensate them or provide restitution for the bad product/service -Share their sense of urgency and get the problem handled quickly -Avoid further inconveniences -Punish someone for the problem for example if an employee made a mistake -Assure them that the problem will not occur again

o -Do everything you can to fix the problem! Other ways to get Feedback: o -Open-ended questions focus groups, explorer groups, customer service surveys, and mystery shoppers.

End of Day One Quiz Questions & Key

1. If the price of a product is too high for its value received, it is an example of what kind of turnoff? a. Value Turnoff 2. A problem with any process, procedure, or policy is considered a Value Turnoff, true or false? a. False; System Turnoff 3. Value can be simply defined as ______ relative to price paid. Fill in the blank. a. Quality 4. If there is a lack of consistency, is it considered a turnoff? If yes, what kind of turnoff? a. Yes; System Turnoff 5. People turnoffs almost always arise from what kind of problem? a. Communication problems 6. What level of feedback commitment are we moving towards? a. Active Listening and/or Metrics-Conscious 7. What percent of dissatisfied customers will bother to voice a complaint to a company? a. Five percent 8. Name one example of the other ways to get feedback that we discussed. a. Open-ended questions focus groups, explorer groups, customer surveys, and/or mystery shoppers. 9. What is it called when one unhappy customer tells others of the bad service they received? a. The ripple effect 10. When dealing with a customer complaint, one should feel the customers pain, this is known as what? a. Empathizing

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Day Two: Proper Telephone Use Use the telephone correctly for Good Service
22 Tips for Telephone Use Professionalism:
12. Speak Clearly and Distinctly 13. Speak Naturally and Comfortably 14. Do Not Let Dead Air Happen 15. Keep Callers on Track 16. When Making Outgoing Calls Ask, Is This a Convenient Time to Talk? 17. Take Messages Cheerfully and Accurately 18. Make Your Greeting Message Efficient 19. Learn to Use Your Phones Features 20. Use the Hold Button and Call Transfer Correctly 21. Plan Your outgoing Calls for Efficiency 22. Dont Let the Telephone Interrupt and important Live Conversation

1. Check Your Phone Use Attitudes 2. Contact and Compare Your Company 3. Avoid Unnecessary Call Screening 4. Answer with Professionalism 5. Answer Promptly and Be Prepared to Handle Calls 6. Use Courtesy Titles 7. Thank People for Calling 8. Smile 9. Be Sure The Conversation is Finished before You Hang Up 10. Handle the Upset Caller with Tact and Skill 11. Keep Your Conversation Tactful and Businesslike

Century Link has a support site as follows: Questions & Answers Billing Support Find a CenturyLink Store Moving Resources Product Help & Guides Contact Us Call us at 1.877.290.5458 Feedback

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Day Two: Insight Into Emerging Trends In Customer Service

Insight: the key to staying aware of ever-changing customer service realities. It is important to gain insight from these emerging trends in customer service because companies can better adjust for customer wants, needs, and expectations. Three particular areas of change that have significant impact on customer service: o Personalization Customers do not like being treated like a demographic category. ii. Customers demand individually specified products and services. iii. Only way to thrive as a business is to adapt to these customer demands o Technology Change in marketplace is driven by technology ii. A very useful tool to help us adjust to the customer demands. iii. Reshaped expectations. o An example of this is very often, customers expect to have an online inventory of what is in stock. o How it pertains to us a company, customers now expect the option to pay the bill online available to them. o Globalization Adjusting demographics to generation age and culture. ii. With a new generation of consumers, we must adapt to their needs and wants. iii. We must be aware of the variety of cultures and expectations of these consumers. One-to-one customer service o One-to-one marketing builds relationships that allow us to earn a larger share of the customers business. o The more we know about our message receiver, the better we can personalize a message to their wants and interests. o One-to-one internal interaction. As managers, it is important to interact with employees to better learn their needs and wants, just as we do with our customers. ii. By doing this, we will build healthy internal relationships and have a more enjoyable time at work. o Managers will also know about employees strengths and weaknesses for promotion opportunities.

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End of Day Two Quiz Questions & Key

1. What are awkward gaps when listeners hear nothing called? a. Dead air 2. A smile can be seen through the phone via the voice tones you use, true or false? a. True 3. When you have someone who picks up your phone for you, acting as a gatekeeper, you are doing something you should avoid doing, what is that something you are doing? a. Call Screening 4. In order to handle an upset caller with tact and skill, you must first do what? a. Understand why they are upset or difficult 5. The key to holding interest during a phone call is to use variation, name one of the three things a speaker can vary. a. Pitch, loudness, and/or rate 6. Staying up-to-date with ever-changing customer service realities is known as what? a. Insight 7. What are the three areas of change that have significant impact on customer service? a. Personalization, technology, and globalization 8. The art of treating each customer as an individual with special needs and wants is known as what? a. Personalization 9. Due to increased technology, customers now expect to have an online inventory of what is in stock; this is an example of what? a. Reshaped expectations 10. What allows us as a company to earn a larger share of the customers business? a. One-to-one marketing

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Bibliography
-Cover Page Comic: http://skiphenk.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/bad-customer-service-2.gif -PowerPoint Pictures: Refer to PowerPoint -CenturyLink Logo (Flyer): http://2.bp.blogspot.com/2hbt4CNHOO8/UidHQ17x3LI/AAAAAAAABAc/Um_sfC8mjCQ/s1600/CenturyLink.jpg -CenturyLink Logo (Cover Page): http://www.vendiadvertising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/L2-980-centurylink.jpg -CenturyLink Logo (Table of Contents): http://www.bensontowerconnect.com/Century_Link_logo.jpg -CenturyLink Van (Agenda Page): http://isanticountynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/bus_Century.jpg -Turned-Off Customer: http://www.theharteofmarketing.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/PRconfused.jpg -Feedback Illustration: Clip Art -Critical Thinking Image (Day One Quiz): http://netdna.copyblogger.com/images/critical-thinking.jpg -Telephone Illustration: Clip Art -Light bulb (Same image used twice): https://www.youeye.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/lightbulb.gif -Thinking Boy Illustration: http://www.drsunil.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/thinking-web-pic.jpg -CenturyLink Flower (Pet-Peeves Game): http://readwrite.com/files/files/files/enterprise/centurylink.jpg