Customer service training enhances customer relationship management, which is all about establishing, maintaining and developing relationships — ultimately boosting an organisation’s profitability.

Ideal for customer or client relationship managers or anyone keen to enhance their dealings with customers, our Introduction to Customer Relationship Management will give you insights into how to communicate effectively and build strategies for successful relationships. You will also learn how to maintain a customer database and build and enhance business networks to achieve organisational objectives.

In the world of customer service training, it’s a win-win for both parties!

Learning Outcomes

Outcomes achieved by undertaking customer service training include:

• Learning how to build client relationships and business networks
• Exploring how to initiate communication with clients and identify communication styles
• Studying how to establish client rapport
• Discovering verbal and non-verbal communication
• Gaining insights into investigating opportunities
• Examining positive and negative feedback
• Understanding communication processes and the barriers to effective communication
• Learning about client relationship strategies and loyalty objectives
• Exploring new clients versus repeat business
• Studying profiling and client profile information
• Gaining insights into loyalty strategies and maintaining customer relationships
• Understanding how to gain client feedback via interviews, assessments and focus groups
• Learning about feedback forms, problems with feedback and how to use feedback data
• Exploring business associations, how to build and maintain networks and business contacts
• Studying professional development activities and establishing network support
• Gaining insights into developing professional relationships
• Understanding how to conduct dealings with clients
• Learning about protocols and social, business and ethical standards
• Exploring confidentiality and disclosure
• Studying self-knowledge and the Johari window
• Examining how to build and use business networks
• Understanding how to expand and enhance the organisation
• Learning how to nurture relationships
• Exploring how to identify and build on referral business
• Studying complementary sales techniques, cross-selling and up-selling
• Gaining insights into SPACED benefits

… And more!

 

Dealing with Dissatisfied Customers

Those who have undertaken customer service training and work in service-related jobs or industries often encounter disgruntled or even rude customers. But it’s important you remain calm and resolve issues adequately in a way that doesn’t affect your job performance. So what’s the best way to deal with them?

Be polite and professional

No matter how belligerent a customer gets, it’s important to remain polite, professional and keep your attitude neutral. When dealing with a customer over the phone, amp up that friendly tone, and in person, keep that smile on your dial!

Let the customer talk

Customers who aren’t happy often feel mistreated or have had unsatisfactory service before. Ask leading questions to allow them to talk freely so you can gather the facts and get rid of some of their negative energy. Often all a customer needs is an opportunity to voice their complaints. Avoid interrupting them unless they become verbally abusive, as this can make them even angrier!

Validate their concerns

Never trivialise a customer’s concerns, even they seem minor. Instead, tell them you’re sorry they had a bad experience and are upset. This will diffuse the situation so you can get to the real problem. It also lets a customer know you are listening and that you’re sympathetic, without necessarily admitting any wrongdoing on your or your company’s behalf.

Understand the issue

Actively listen so that you understand their concerns and can direct the conversation towards the real issue. This will show the customer you are not affected by their condescension or rudeness. Then clarify their issue and decide what actions you will take. However, don’t promise a resolution until you have discussed it with a manager.

Keep your voice calm

Raising your voice in anger will potentially escalate the situation and make it harder to resolve issues. Keep your voice composed and maintain even breathing. To help keep control of your voice, speak in small sentences, pause between each one and talk slowly to maintain a sense of calm.

Control your emotions

You should never raise your voice or cry due to a customer’s words or behaviour — although it can be difficult sometimes! If you feel as though you can’t handle the situation, put them on hold while you obtain assistance from a colleague or manager. Expressing too much emotion will just cause you to lose control of the situation.

Counteract their behaviour

Try not to respond to a customer’s rudeness with anger or negative comments. Let them know you appreciate their honesty and that you would like to resolve the situation. Positive wording can help steer the conversation away from angry comments, keep the situation in check and ensure you are focused on a solution.

Remember it’s not personal

Challenging situations are part and parcel of a customer service role, so it’s worth looking at the bigger picture and realising that customers that are upset or rude are doing so in the context of your job. Try not to take their comments personally, and instead, frame their behaviour in terms of how you can solve their issue and ensure they keep being a customer!

 

The Different Types of Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

The goal of CRM is essentially to improve business relationships, including how to best interact with current and prospective customers. It can help with customer ‘connections’, streamline processes and improve profitability. Offering customer service training to staff is an integral part of enhancing these relationships, and knowledge of CRM can help enhance your CV even further! Here are some of the different types of CRM.

Strategic CRM

Strategic CRM focuses on the development of customer-centric business culture. This involves enhancing an organisation’s knowledge about customers and using it to improve and customise interactions to maintain long-term relationships.

Operational CRM

This type of CRM is comprised of three main components when it comes to CRM systems – marketing, sales force and service automation. These systems integrate and automate marketing, sales and customer support. They can provide information on clients, previous marketing efforts and past sales. They can also summarise the relationship between a customer and an organisation.

• Marketing automation – this focuses on leveraging the marketing process to make it more efficient and effective. CRM tools can automate tasks like sending out marketing emails to customers at certain times or posting marketing communications on social media. The ultimate goal is to turn a sales lead into a customer.
• Salesforce automation – this covers all stages of a sales cycle, from entering contact information to converting a ‘prospect’ into an actual client. It automates the tracking of a client’s account history and implements sales promotion analysis. It can also coordinate the marketing and sales teams, and retail outlets and call centres.
• Service automation – this focuses on direct customer service technology through multiple channels like emails, phone calls, FAQ’s, live chats and more!

Analytical CRM

The role of analytical CRM systems is to analyse customer data that is collected through multiple sources, and present it so that management teams can make more informed decisions. It uses techniques like correlation, data mining and pattern recognition to improve customer service. For example, by analysing a customer’s buying behaviour, organisations can better understand what products a customer is (or is not) buying, and target their market efforts accordingly.

Collaborative CRM

Collaborative CRM aims to share information across departments, organisations and external stakeholders like vendors, distributors and suppliers. For example, feedback collected from technical support calls could provide direction for the marketing of services and products via the sales funnel to enhance the customer experience.

 

Enhance business relationships, learn how to effectively communicate, and help your organisation achieve customer-centric success with our Introduction to Customer Relationship Management