EXCERPT FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH DAWN RICHARDS
In this excerpt, Dawn Richards answers the question: “What are some of the benefits of DRA Consulting`s one day Customer Service Workshop – Introduction to Customer Care?”
Interviewer: Can you tell us about the Introduction to Customer Care Workshop. Who is it for? What will the participants of that one-day program come away with and return to their organisation with?
Dawn Richards: The Introduction to Customer Care Program is for Frontline staff and Line Staff. When persons come to us we don`t start talking about Customer Care. We start talking about the person because people bring who they are to the encounter with the customer. Therefore, if for example you are impatient ,you will think that customers should be clear on what they want when they come in front of you, and they should be pleasant. We have to get people to disconnect from that because it is a misunderstanding about the customer.
One of the things we get people to understand is: put yourself under the microscope. What are some of the attitudes and the habits and the qualities that you bring to the job? We help people to understand the components of the “Service Personality”. They can then compare themselves to that standard. So for line staff they start realising: “Oh I need to be very empathetic. If an elderly customer is in front of me, and fumbling and they don`t know what they want, my role or my mission at that point is to help that person to make a decision. “
We have to help persons de-link from “Oh my gosh, these people are keeping up my line, why can`t they come and know what they want?” and so on. We help them to de-link from that and understand that they are “solution whisperers” in that moment. At that point, their role is to help the person make a decision so that person can move along and then you can go to your next customer. So one will not be able to do that unless they put themselves under the microscope.
In this process of putting themselves under the microscope, they discover a little bit about themselves and find out their development areas. For the rest of the day we help persons to develop some of those key skills that are required to become the “Ideal Service Personality” and some of the ideal customer contact skills. Now it is a one-day program, so one will not come away with mastery but participants are going to come away with a different attitude to the customer who they are serving. They will also come away with the understanding that their colleagues and teammates in the company are their first customers.
INTRODUCTION TO CUSTOMER CARE- 1 DAY LINE STAFF WORKSHOP
This article is an excerpt of an interview done by Dawn Richards where she discusses DRA Consulting`s Customer Service Workshop for Line Staff : Introduction to Customer Care. To see when the next cycle of this program will be held click here.