Companies and organizations are more and more conscious that offering good quality products or services is not enough to gain and keep satisfied customers. The service, support, and after sales that are offered are playing a more important role in this. Especially at the moment that the customers are faced with questions or problems related to the product or service they have purchased and want to be helped quickly and adequately. The telephone helpdesk or service desk offers a large number of possibilities in this area. Helpdesk staff form a contact point for both internal and external customers.

As a Help Desk agent, you are the contact for all internal and external customers. But giving the right answer to questions from customers is not sufficient.  It is equally important to analyse customers’ questions quickly and accurately, to respond appropriately to the customer’s attitude and reactions, and to provide an answer or a solution in a manner that is tailored to the individual needs.  You will frequently be required to deal with a range of different personal emotions:  bad tempered, irritated, uncertain, and hasty; but on occasion also interested and sympathetic.  A Help Desk agent must be able to respond to all of these different types of reactions.  After your training, you will be able to adapt your response to the client, to their problems and to their specific situation. It is exactly this Added Value that is all-important to you and to your customer’s perception and satisfaction.

Approach

During this two-day training (with an interval) various different working methods are used: explanation by the trainer, exchange of experience, written exercises, joint projects, discussion, role plays in front of the camera (Phone Coach) and in small groups, and finally the participants work on their own action plans with personal tips and points for attention.

Topics

What do customers expect from you as a help desk agent?

Standards for customer-oriented telephone conversations at the help desk

Structuring of the conversation

Techniques for asking questions, active listening and asking further questions

Presenting your answer/the solution

Using plain language

Communication: treating the caller as a human being

Dealing with difficult situations

Complaints are opportunities

Personal action plan

Training Objectives

At the end of this training you will be able to:

1. Ask probing questions
2. Listen actively
3. Formulate answers clearly
4. Work customer-oriented and be pro-active in your dealings with customers and users.

Duration: Two Days

Programme Schedule

Day One

Introduction & Welcome

Programme Objectives

Personal Objectives

Customer Expectations vs Expectations of your Organisation

Norms for a Successful Customer-Focused Call

Call Structure Results for an an Effective and Efficient Call

Analyse the customer’s question/problem

Pinpoint the customer’s question/problem

How to Present the Answer/Solution

Personal Action Planning

Day Two

Welcome Back

Dealing with Different Types of Customers

Dealing with Difficult Situations

Recognising and Dealing with a Customer Complaint

How to ensure that the customer understands and carries out the answer/instructions

How to speak the customer’s language

Personal Action Planning

In order to function successfully within a Call Center it is important that callers are assisted in a pleasant and effective manner and, where possible, are prompted to (maximum) action. Communicating with insight and customer service skills using a clear conversational structure with callers, will not only prevent mistakes, but will also get the best result from the call - for the caller, as well as for your company or organization.

What exactly is a Call Center? An image of a big hall in which dozens of agents with headsets sit, springs to mind. The agent, provided with all sorts of modern automated equipment, continuously carries on conversations with callers and people being called. Large screens are located in the background on which the number of waiting calls is listed. This image is, of course, the true picture. In addition, in the case where people have been ‘freed up’ in an organization to actively phone customers, for example, they have their phone lines open the whole day for callers, these people jointly, could also be referred to as a Call Center. It is true that in the latter case, no use is made of particularly advanced switchboards, automatic calling systems, or customer information within reach on-line, but the result has to be the same - a satisfied caller, and the maximum output from these calls.

The Call Center will certainly retain its current place as a selling or information conduit, and is likely to gain even more popularity in the future.

Approach

The participants learn from practical exercises, mostly with the aid of telephone equipment. By carrying out the activities, watching, listening, carrying out the activities again, and then discussing the practical situations, they can make the theory and the skills their own in a very short time. The practical exercises and phone calls are recorded on cassettes and/or videotapes.

Topics

What do callers expect from your organization? And from you?

How do you prepare yourself for a telephone conversation?

What is a customer-oriented greeting like?

How can you take over the initiative from the client?

Determining the caller’s requirements. What are the best types of questions you can ask?

How do you win the trust of the client?

What are the important motives for the client to make a purchase?

How do you translate your product into the client’s requirements?

How do you present the price?

How do you present a positive message- what does negative look like?

How do you deal with complaints?

How do you end the telephone conversation in a way that leads to results?

How can you best carry out a follow-up to close the deal?

Training Objectives

At the end of this training you will be able to:

1. Bring effective structure to the incoming calls
2. Receive and forward information quickly and efficiently
3. Present products, services and/or information in a client desired manner
4. End calls proactively and in a sales result-orientated manner

Duration: One Day

Programme Schedule

Day One

Introduction & Welcome

Programme Objectives

Personal Objectives

Introductory round by telephone

Structure in a telephone conversation

Irritations for callers

Introduction, Inventory

Explanation Opening the call

What should be part of the opening

Learning objectives of the opening

Customer-orientated greeting and introduction

Determining caller requirements - ask questions

Explanation - open/closed questions

Exercise The Opening

Explanation, Execution, Debriefing

Advantages/Disadvantages - Call Center

Explanation - Presentation

Learning Objectives - Presentation

Summary - Needs of the Customer

Explanation and Explanation Criteria

Follow-Through

Being Receptive to Signals

Exercise: Presentation

Explanation

Execution (observation)

OPC conversation: Explanation - Closing

When to Close and How?

Positive Goodbye

Personal Action Planning

The Call Center is the organized telephone hub where most inbound and outbound calls are made by different teams. It is the stage on which the outbound agent performs his or her daily work. Often the Outbound agents work with targets or a bonus system; sometimes as an individual and/or sometimes as an Outbound Team.

 Agents who make outbound telephone calls in a Call Center are armed with their headsets and their telephone call list, or the screens on their computers. They are active the whole day calling customers (for example to sell more to existing customers) or calling companies and organizations that cannot yet be considered as customers in order to make commercial contact. In both situations this really is TOP Sport. In every call, every contact, the Outbound agent must attack and go for results.

Approach

During the training the participants will work with the telephone script for making appointments with the customer or prospect. The participants will learn from best practice tips and experience learning through practical exercises. The exercise sessions will be recorded on sound cassettes and/or videotapes.

Topics

Making appointments over the telephone using a telephone script

Selling via the telephone: conversation structure

Greeting, introducing oneself, and the “hook” (reason for calling)

Qualifying the customer and the customer’s requirements

Overcoming initial resistance

Interest generators and how to address the customer (the “you”-approach)

The Perfect Price Presentation

Talking the “Same” Language

Overcoming Objections

How to Recognize Buying Signals and How to Take Advantage of Them

Ending the conversation

Training Objectives

At the end of this training you will be able to:

1. Conduct calls with greater self-confidence
2. Approach existing and prospective customers more actively
3. Conduct structured result-oriented calls
4. Overcome objections successfully
5. Make appointments over the phone

Duration: Two Days

Programme Schedule

Day One

Introduction & Welcome

Programme Objectives

Personal Objectives

Why do Customers Leave?

Making Appointments by Telephone

Tips for making appointments by telephone

The Steps in an (Outbound) Telephone

Sales Conversation

Be prepared when you call!

Working with Scripts

Objections from the receptionist/secretary

Opening the conversation (Steps 1 and 2)

Qualifying (Step 3)

Presentation (Step 4)

Providing customer-specific added value

From script to presentation

Overcoming objections

Closing (Step 6)

Handling Complaints

Personal Action Planning

Day Two

Welcome Back

Working with Scripts

Objections from the receptionist/secretary

Opening the conversation (Steps 1 and 2)

Qualifying (Step 3)

Presentation (Step 4)

Providing customer-specific added value

From script to presentation

Overcoming objections

Closing (Step 6)

Handling Complaints

Personal Action Planning