Customer Service - Putting the customer into focus
Featured in the Creative Customer Contact training manual
By Carole Williams
Category: Customer Service
Credit price: 3 download credits (Single user)
Have you ever been at the back (or front) of an agitated queue? Have you ever seen a service provider looking harassed and unable to cope with the mood of the people waiting? Have you ever seen a person who didn’t care about the people waiting? If you’ve had any or all of these experiences, you will identify with helping your group to focus on their customers. Focusing on the customer has never been more important than it is today. But how should it be done? In a world of educated customers who are not prepared to be kept waiting or ignored, the service provider can become stressed. When the person attending the customers becomes flustered, agitated or irritated, this mood will usually be transferred to the customers.
This training activity begins by encouraging participants to reflect on their experience of frustrated customer. This is followed with participants exploring the advantages and disadvantages of their own vulnerability in those situations. The training activity goes on to encourage participants to begin taking responsibility for their own thinking pattern (positive or negative) and how they can begin to control it. The concept of peripheral vision is introduced. This is followed by a breathing exercise which explores the importance of breathing correctly in a difficult situation. The rest of the training activity is broken into three separate exercises which provide participants with a new and fresh way to focus on their customers. The exercises are a range of individual, paired and team events.
Who is it for: This training activity is intended for use by trainers to help participants control their own ‘state’ and therefore the ‘state’ of their customers with the use of peripheral vision.
- Themes:
- Customer service,
- Difficult people,
- Stress,
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 4 |
| Max Group Size: | 20 |
| Typical Duration: | 02:50:00 |
| No of Pages: | 20 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Additional resources: 1 x 5ft bamboo cane for each person.
Purpose: This training activity can be used as part of a formal training course. It can also be used in conjunction with other ‘Creative Customer Contact’ activities. It will work well with participants who have some experience of difficult customers and help them to take a different approach with those customers in the future. It is ideal as a subtle way of beginning to change the state of experienced customer service personnel. It is also excellent after a high-energy session to bring the mood of the group back to one of calm. It is also a way of encouraging participants to reflect on how they may have handled difficult or agitated customers in the past.
Download the training activity, Customer Service - Putting the customer into focus as featured in the Fenman training manual; Creative Customer Contact