Customer Service Excellence for the Public Sector

Introduction

The voice of the organization to the public, customer service representatives and public relations staff face an arduous task-from dealing with difficult customers, customers with peculiar interests, customers seeking information unrelated to the services the office offers, abusive customers, customers who use threats, overwork among others and organizations need to adopt a practice of continuous improvement of systems, processes and skills of this caliber of staff to ensure that all customers and stakeholders have the right public relations and customer care skills set. 
The Customer Service and Public Relations Masterclass Training course will equip participants with specific tools, skills and techniques that are specific and proven to be effective in generating corporate or institutional success, tools which, when applied, yield improved individual performance, skills to generate real and high-value leads, skills to navigate public relations and customer care dynamics to maximize opportunities for organization’s products and services. 

Course Objectives

• Develop a strategy to build a more proactive, customer-centric public sector organization
• Create and shape the public sectors’ brand promise
• Define customer service excellence – identifying your customers’ values
• Understand how to measure and monitor the customer service experience to support improvements in line with public sector strategy
• Understand the barriers to delivering superior customer service at all public service customer ‘touchpoints’
• Effective responses to complaints in the public sector
• Understand how to measure customer service culture
• Develop internal processes that support the public sector service commitment to the customer using diagnostic tools

Course Outlines

Day 1: What do We Want Our Customers to Experience?

• The importance of customer care.
• Understand why superior service is critical.
• Why good service isn’t good enough.
• Identifying how excellence in public sector customer service is delivered and managed.
• Understand the need for customer service skills and what they look like at each customer ‘touchpoint.

Day 2: Measuring Customer Service Success

• Identify strengths and weaknesses in your current customer service approach.
• Identify and correct service barriers.
• Solve priority customer service problems.
• Service quality tools and techniques – cause and effect analysis, Pareto Analysis, etc.
• Approaches used by the public sector internationally to deliver customer service excellence.

Day 3: Demonstrate Customer Service Professionalism

• Maintain and sustain a positive mental attitude.
• Build and monitor the service team to exceeding customer expectations every time.
• Identify ‘best practice’ in managing different customer situations, including complaints.
• Mastering the ways to develop & maintain a positive, customer service focused, attitude.

Day 4: Handling Complaints

• Mastering the techniques for dealing with difficult customers.
• Stopping complaints from recurring.
• What satisfies customers who complain?
• The six satisfaction elements to embrace when handling complaints.
• Handling difficult customers.

Day 5: Customer Service Management Strategy

• Quality Service Statement.
• Cultural analysis/measurement.
• Support values & beliefs by creating and sharing success stories.
• Update customer service systems/procedures.
• Re-recruit’ customer service employees using a toolkit.