TELEPHONE SKILLS

An intensive one-day inter-active workshop in Telephone Skills

OVERVIEW

When a customer needs help, they pick up the telephone: and thereafter the efficiency of the organisation is judged by the effectiveness, efficiency, courtesy and responsiveness shown in handling that single call. Badly handled, that could be the last call the customer ever makes to you. Properly handled, the call could consolidate and strengthen the customer relationship, lead to enhanced customer satisfaction - and further business.

It sounds simple.... but poor quality systems, inadequate resource, stress, internal politics, insufficient training, lack of inter-personal and communications skills can conspire to thwart the best of intentions.

This course shows how to avoid the pitfalls, improve customer satisfaction and create a service-oriented telephone service.

OBJECTIVES

By the end of this workshop, participants will have the confidence and skills to represent their organisation to the outside world as professional, effective and capable

Why you should attend

You only get one chance to make a first impression: and, on the telephone, there is only your voice and your telephone manner to judge your company by. In these competitive days, good telephone manner has never been more important.

Who should attend

Receptionists, telesales, help desk and service desk personnel and all those having telephone contact with the public.

How you and your organisation will benefit

Good telephone technique can boost the image of your company - and win sales. You will learn those techniques on this workshop.

Programme

  • Creating Telephone Excellence

    towards Total Quality
    who are your customers; what do they want
    targets, motivation and appraisal
    key metrics to measure success

  • Crucial Techniques in Customer Care

    neuro-linguistic programming: a new tool
    advanced telephone techniques: power words
    active listening
    vital questioning techniques
    negotiating skills for Help Desk staff

  • Assertiveness for Telephonists

    assertiveness - what it is; what it isn't
    benefits of assertive behaviour
    identifying assertive, aggressive and passive behaviour
    coping with criticism; asking and refusing; feedback; handling put-downs.

  • Making Stress Work for You

    stress and the telephone: nature, cause and cost in performance
    stress indicators, levels and types
    identifying and combatting stress symptoms
    how to avoid stress and use energy

Workshop Leader

Andrew Hiles or Yvonne Gunn

 

Books by Kingswell Consultants

Books on Service Management

Hiles, A. N. The Complete Guide to IT Service Level Agreements, Matching Service Quality to Business Needs.. ISBN 0-9641648-2-5 published by Rothstein Associates Inc.  The standard work on IT Service Level Agreements.

Hiles, A. N. E-Business Service Level Agreements: Strategies for ISPs, ASPs, *SPs and CLECS.  Published by Rothstein Associates Inc.  The first book to deal specifically with e-commerce Service Level Agreements.

Hiles, A. N. Service Level Agreements, Winning a Competitive Edge for Supply and Support Services.  ISBN 0-9641648-4-1published by Rothstein Associates Inc. This book applies Service Level Agreements to services other than IT. Real case studies and example SLAs are provided ranging from Human Resources, Logistics, through Training, Livestock Handling, Logistics and Field Service Engineering.

Hiles A.N. and Gunn, Dr. Y. Creating a Customer-Focused Help Desk: How to Win and Keep Your Customers. Published by Rothstein Associates Inc. ISBN 0-9641648-6-8 This book has the support of the Help Desk Institute www.helpdeskinst.com

Books on Business Continuity

Hiles A.N. Business Continuity Management: Best Practice. Published by Rothstein Associates Inc. ISBN 0-9641648-3-3.  This book explicitly covers all the ten areas of business continuity competence required for membership of the Disaster Recovery Institute International (DRII) and the Business Continuity Institute (BCI).

Hiles A.N. Enterprise Risk Assessment & Business Impact Analysis – Best Practices ISBN 1-931332-12-6 Published by Rothstein Associates Inc. Covers many techniques and methods of risk and impact assessment with detailed examples and checklists.

e-Publication. Kingswell books on Business Continuity, Service Level Agreements and  Help Desk Management will shortly be available by page download in conjunction with Rothstein Associates Inc and Books24x7.com.

New and updated books. Existing  books Business Continuity Management – Best Practice and IT Service Level Agreements have been extensively updated. See our products page or visit www.rothstein.com .

All the above books can be obtained from:

Rothstein Associates Inc.
4 Arapaho Road
Brookfield
Connecticut
0608-3104 USA

www.rothstein.com

e-mail pjr@rothstein.com

Telephone: USA: 1-888-ROTHSTEIN
Worldwide: +1 203 740 7400

Hiles A.N. Guide to Risk Management. Published by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales.

Hiles A.N. and Barnes, P. (Editor and main contributor) The Definitive Handbook of Business Continuity Management, John Wiley & Sons, 1999, ISBN 0 471 98622 4.

Hiles, A.N. (contributor), Croner’s Purchasing and Supply Guide to I.T., 1994, ISBN 1 85524 271 0

Hiles, A.N. (contributor), Guide to Business Continuity Management, 1999, for the Confederation of British Industry by Caspian Publishing

Hiles A.N. (contributor) Business Continuity Management, 2000, Institute of Directors / Department of Trade & Industry.

 

Kingswell © 2005