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Customer Service Training
CUSTOMER SERVICE TRAINING
Between 1997 and 2001, customer service training was developed and given to over 9,000 Agency employees, then more than 60% of all employees. All customer service training was voluntary.
Over 50 trainers taught the EPA-specific introductory module, "Forging the Links", and narly 200 trainers were certified to teach the six follow up customer service skills courses. Training Videos on telephone service, conflict management and customer service awareness may be borrowed by request by e-mailing Group Stakeholders/DC/USEPA/US, and requests for training and course materials are still honored as possible.
Following are descriptions of Forging the Links and the skills courses.
Forging the Links
Introductory Workshop
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Forging the Links workshops encourage participants to unleash their creativity and leadership capabilities to enhance EPA customer service. The workshop uses exercises that are practical; they don't deal with "blue sky" theories. Instead, they help participants identify concrete skills that improve how well people work together, how sensibly work is done, and how satisfying work is for each individual and the people around them.
These skills transfer from situations at EPA to ones experienced with family, friends, and service providers. The workshop will help each participant to identify personal strengths they have in people skills as well as areas where a little improvement might go a long way.
Some skills no one can ever be "too good at" when it comes to delivering great service while fulfilling EPA's mission. It will also help in identifying skills that can work to overcome specific roadblocks to excellent customer service within programs and organizations.
Learning Outcomes
At the completion of the workshop, which is focused on improving real-life customer interaction, participants will be able to:
- Define customer service as it applies to EPA employees.
- Define EPA's customers.
- Assess personal ability to achieve EPA customer service standards
and world class service.
- Recognize ways to enhance or improve internal customer relations
to meet and exceed external customer needs.
- Encourage everyone to identify new ways to improve customer satisfaction.
- Link EPA's Six Principles of Customer Service to EPA's mission and
their individual
work.
Unit Summary
Changes in the work place are placing new emphasis on the importance
of effective
collaboration. Organizations are expecting employees at all levels to
work together, often across functions, to make decisions that were formerly
the exclusive responsibility of management Further, employees are called
upon to develop partnerships with co-regulators, states, tribes, local
governments and other federal agencies, as well as with the private sector
(regulated community). These types of collaboration can bring out new
potentials for conflict, thus creating a need for employees at every level
of an organization to have the skills to deal successfully with conflict.
This unit gives participants the skills they need to turn conflicts into
opportunities to achieve positive, productive results.
Learning Objectives
At the completion of this unit, participants will be able to:
- Explain influences that are contributing to conflict in today's organizations.
- Identify behavior patterns that undermine the ability to address
conflict constructively.
- Describe productive methods of dealing with these undermining behaviors.
- Distinguish between positions taken in a conflict and the underlying
issues.
- Use the Key Actions to address conflict facing them on the job.
Key Actions
- Establish mutual involvement.
- Seek to understand the other person's point of view.
- Present your perspective of the problem and its impact.
- Decide on an appropriate plan of action.
- Express your appreciation for the other person's efforts.
Unit Summary
In today's environment, intense competition and rapid change have dramatically
expanded the need for information. In the past, people had to know how
to do their jobs, but now people need a bigger picture view. That means
having information about external influences and about the work of other
functions.
Proactive listening helps meet this need. It is also a powerful tool
for building and maintaining strong relationships required to reach personal
and organizational goals including providing world class service to internal
and external customers.
In this unit, participants learn verbal and nonverbal techniques for moving from a reactive to a proactive approach to listening.
Learning Objectives
At the completion of this unit, participants will be able to:
- Identify situations in which good listening can make the difference
between success and failure.
- List typical barriers to effective listening.
- List specific techniques to deal with communication styles they find
challenging.
- Use the Key Actions to listen pro actively.
- Identify steps they can take to reinforce proactive listening.
Key Actions
- Show interest in what the person has to say.
- Ask questions to clarify, gather information, and focus the conversation.
- Let the person know what you understand.
3. Clarifying Customer Expectations
Unit Summary
Service improvement begins and ends with a focus on the customer. Support for EPA's mission is maintained through satisfied external customers, and work is done more efficiently when the internal customers are satisfied. For several reasons, however, it may be difficult to initiate a discussion about expectations with a customer.
In this unit, managers and employees learn the skill of realizing a customer's expectations as a preliminary step in the quality-improvement process. Participants learn how to create a partnership with their customers and how to devise a plan to meet the customers' needs without over-compromising. This kind of customer interaction provides the organization with valuable information about where and how to improve the quality of its products and services.
Learning Objectives
At the completion of this unit, participants will be able to:
- Identify the critical role of customer expectations in process improvement.
- Uncover short-and long-term customer expectations and identify the
customer's key expectations.
- Successfully demonstrate the Key Actions in a practice situation.
- Plan to use the Key Actions to improve the quality of work processes and partnerships.
Key Actions
- Identify the product or service and explain why you want to discuss
it.
- Ask questions to clarify what the customer expects from your product
or service.
- Summarize your understanding of the customer's expectations.
- Discuss what you will do to meet these expectations.
- Agree on next steps and set a follow-up date
4. Resolving Customer Dissatisfaction
Unit Summary
Dissatisfied customers are a "gold mine" of opportunity. Their grievances should be pursued actively because a customer complaint that is resolved effectively can turn a dissatisfied customer into an enthusiastic supporter. Furthermore, one customer's dissatisfaction often points to problems that could affect other customers. This information can be used to identify problems and find permanent solutions to ineffective processes.
This unit provides practical skills that employees and managers can use to work with a customer (either inside or outside the organization) who, for some reason, has not received the expected service or product. Participants learn to defuse the customer's annoyance and to refocus the customer on a successful resolution to the problem.
Learning Objectives
At the completion of this unit, participants will be able to:
- Understand the purpose and benefits of resolving customer dissatisfaction.
- Handle customer dissatisfaction and refocus efforts on ways to meet
expectations.
- Successfully demonstrate the Key Actions in a practice situation.
- Plan to use the Key Actions to improve the quality of work processes and partnerships.
Key Actions
- Acknowledge the customer's dissatisfaction.
- Find out why the customer is dissatisfied.
- Summarize to show your understanding of the situation.
- Jointly develop a plan to meet the customer's expectations.
- Gain agreement on next steps and set a follow-up date.
5. Influencing for Win-Win Outcomes
Unit Summary
Successful organizations thrive on new ideas because new ideas can lead to finding better ways to work. Putting peoples ideas to use is a great morale booster, and the resulting improvements please customers.
But in today's cross-functional work place, ideas often need support from a wide range of people in order to be successfully implemented. Unless people have the confidence and skills to win support for their ideas by influencing others, many good ideas will be lost.
In this unit, participants learn to analyze, develop, and present their ideas in a way that will help them win the necessary support.
Learning Objectives
At the completion of this unit, participants will be able to:
- Explain why influencing people for win-win outcomes is an important
skill in today's results-oriented organizations.
- Recognize situations where it is appropriate to use influencing skills.
- Identify a variety of factors that motivate people.
- Use the Key Actions to influence people in all areas and at all levels of the organization.
Key Actions
- Plan the best approach.
- Establish mutual involvement in the situation.
- Explain your recommendation and its benefits.
- Ask for reactions and address concerns.
- Ask for the specific support you need and explain what you will do
in return.
- Agree on an action plan.