Leadership Institute

Creating A Customer-Focused Workforce

Recommended Solution for: Creating A Customer-Focused Workforce

Front line service providers are an organization’s primary contact with customers.  What they say and do can build customer satisfaction and loyalty, which results in repeat business and increased success.  To achieve that success, employees need to:

  • Feel confident to handle every customer interaction.
  • Provide the kind of service that keeps customers coming back.
  • Respond quickly to customer requests with effective solutions.
  • Form effective partnerships with internal and external customers.
  • Evaluate work processes to look for ways to make them more efficient and customer focused.
  • Have their performance objectives aligned with the very critical organizational objective of being customer focused.

Course Recommendations

These courses help develop employees who focus on meeting and exceeding customer expectations and increasing customer loyalty.

  • Making Effective Decisions -- Teaches a practical five-step method for making clear decisions. (No prerequisite course required)
  • Partnerships for Improvement® -- Emphasizes why continuous improvement is critical for satisfying customers. (No prerequisite course required)
  • Personal Empowerment:  Taking Initiative -- Helps learners take charge of their success and recognize empowerment barriers. (No prerequisite course required)
  • Service Plus® -- Helps service providers build the skills and knowledge to provide truly exceptional customer service. (No prerequisite course required)
  • Choose from the following industry-specific skill practices:  banking and finance, communications, hospitality, insurance, internal partners, manufacturing, retail, transportation, and utilities.
  • Taking Action® to Solve Problems -- Helps people identify problems and their causes, evaluate potential solutions, and select the solution with the greatest chance of success. (No prerequisite course required)
  • Valuing Differences -- Helps individuals understand and appreciate the value of different skills, abilities, and motivations. (Prerequisite:  Interaction Skills for Success)

Supplemental Courses and Development Tools

  • Building Trust (Prerequisite:  Interaction Skills for Success)
  • Feedback Fundamentals (Prerequisite:  Interaction Skills for Success)
  • Impacting Your Work Processes (No prerequisite course required)
  • Working as a Team (Prerequisite:  Interaction Skills for Success)

Rationale

Service Plus® builds service providers’ confidence in handling customer interactions by giving them the skills and tools they need to meet and exceed customers’ personal and practical needs.  The program also helps learners provide the kind of service that keeps customers coming back.  Service providers learn how to Take the HEAT, a four-step process for handling dissatisfied, upset customers.  In order to be customer focused, it is important that service providers’ performance objectives are aligned with the organization’s objectives.  The employees also need to work effectively with internal partners and to examine their work processes to ensure nothing impedes their ability to meet and exceed customer expectations.  Because service providers often need to “do what it takes” to meet customer needs, initiative and skills in creative thinking help them offer reasonable solutions that strengthen customer relationships and increase customer loyalty.  To do so, service providers need to balance their level of empowerment with an understanding of how their decisions and actions can impact the business.  The application of a sound decision-making process helps ensure the best decisions are made.