Customer Service Training

Course audience

This customer service training program is designed for people who deal with internal or external customers, either in person or over the phone.

Course outcomes

In this customer service course, participants will learn how to:

• Make great impressions
• Understand what outstanding customer service is
• Use advanced listening and responding techniques
• Develop customer relationships
• Manage difficult situations and tough customers
• Take client service skills to a whole new level.

Delivered in-house at your premises or in a virtual environment

We provide our training programs either through:

• Face-to-face workshops at your offices – An ICML facilitator will lead participants in learning practical skills and techniques to build and maintain professional customer interactions.
• Impactful live online workshops Our online virtual workshops replicate face-to-face experiences through conferencing technology for highly impactful learning.

Tailored customer service training options

We offer flexible solutions to make sure we train your teams while your customers keep receiving service.

• Flexible schedule: Whether it’s a full-day, half-day, or a series of two-hour sessions, we understand the logistics of running a successful, customer-focused business and can fit in whenever it works best for your team
• One-on-one customer service training: We can take customer service staff to a higher level quickly with individual coaching. A coaching approach is also highly effective to remedy areas of low performance
• Wide selection of locations: We deliver our customer service training program in-house in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth and Darwin and in country areas. We also offer online customer service training in our virtual classrooms, so you and your team can learn from anywhere!
• Mix and match: We can combine customer service training material with other themes; for instance, time management, assertiveness skills, sales skills, conflict management, business writing, and creative problem solving. Just let us know and we can tailor our training to your specific needs.
• Custom pricing: We’re used to working with businesses of all sizes and can create a program that caters to your budget requirements.

Our tailored programs can also include the following focus areas:

• Verbal and written customer service training: Customer service is seldom delivered just verbally. Often, providing customer service by email is a core component of impressing clients. We often include business writing skills in our customer service training workshops
• Dealing with difficult clients: Not all customer interactions go to plan. We help customer service teams deal with complaints, as well as difficult, demanding, emotional, and unreasonable customers
• Managing customer service teams: Learn how to create and nurture a high-performing customer service team. The happier your team is, the happier your customers are, which is why it’s so important to create a vibrant and positive team atmosphere
• Telephone etiquette for customer service representatives: In a short customer service training session, we are able to improve telephone etiquette knowledge and skills of your customer service team
• Creating a customer-oriented mindset: At ICML we relish in assisting our clients with creating a culture of customer service in their team or entire organisation. We advise on how to achieve a culture shift, or we can actively collaborate with you to create positive change.
• Internal customer service: Sometimes, the “customer” is a fellow colleague. If you’re an organisation with multiple departments serving employees within the business, we can tailor an internal customer service training for you..

Contact us to discuss how we can tailor a program to build customer service skills in your organisation within your budget.

More about customer service training

Still not certain about the value of customer service training? We’ve put together some of our best information to help you decide. Read on for our top insights and a better understanding of why customer service training is worth the investment.

How do you lead a customer service team?

First and foremost, you will need to decide from the top down what your idea of elite customer service looks like, and then build much of your operations around it in some way.

In general, the idea is for every customer who interacts with someone from your company to walk away with a positive feeling. The standard is simple: Excellent customer service means not only meeting customers’ needs but also striving to always go above and beyond customer expectations.

That may mean giving your employees more power to sort out an issue without consulting with other people, and focusing on ways to keep those interactions as positive as possible, even when dealing with difficult customers.

Why invest in customer service training?

A great way to look at this issue is this: The employees who do any kind of customer service for you will shape any given person’s perception of your business. That person may then tell their friends about their experience, good or bad, to inform the friends’ future purchasing decisions, and so on down the line.

In short, word of mouth is a powerful driver of business success and if you’re not investing in the soft skills that go into good customer service (and overall customer service management that sets the culture) then you may be leaving yourself in a tough position.

Who is customer service training for?

When considering which people may need this kind of training, it’s not just a customer service representative who will have to answer the call. In fact, the better answer is “anyone who you count on to communicate with customers.”

Even if that’s someone who emails back and forth with a client very occasionally, one poorly chosen word or phrase can do more damage than you might realise. As such, any team members involved in customer support, B2B communication, outreach and any other public-facing aspect of your business should be included in such a training session.

That way, you can be more certain that what “customer satisfaction” means for your business is clearly defined and that everyone under your roof is adhering to company standards.

Whether that service comes in person (sales associates), over the phone (receptionists), via email (general staff) or even on social media (dedicated posters), everyone should be operating from the same basic level of knowledge when dealing with unhappy customers.

This kind of training can also be a benefit when it comes to what is known as “internal customer service,” which is when employees provide a service to their colleagues. For example, departments such as IT, HR, and Payroll provide a service internally within the business and not to external customers.

What should be included in customer service training?

To truly help customers with whatever concerns they may have, it’s not just about being courteous, patient, and willing to do whatever it takes to provide a great customer experience. It also means employees must have a deep knowledge of your products and services, as well as the guidelines they should follow to provide outstanding customer service. 

In many ways, that begins with communication skills so that there’s always a level of understanding and clarity on both sides of the conversation, as well as the ability to set realistic expectations for how problems might be resolved.

Showing both what’s right and what’s wrong in such interactions can help inform the best possible behaviour.

How do you teach a customer service skills course?

While you can define what you are looking for when it comes to meeting and exceeding expectations with outstanding customer service, ICML can give your employees — from the front desk to the boardroom — the communication skills they need to create an army of happy customers who will keep your business going strong for years to come.

We offer both in-person training and online courses. Contact us to learn more about what we can do for you.