The Customer Service and Public Relations Masterclass Course

Introduction

Our masterclass combines the disciplines of advanced customer service management and PR/communications in a powerful state-of-the-art programme to enable you to exploit this colossal opportunity. In a fast-paced, interactive programme you will work closely with other delegates to hone your relationship-building skills and strategies and to develop a planned approach to deal with the ‘new’ consumer. You will learn how to build lasting rapport and mutual respect with your customers while you uncover their needs, match them, build respect and maintain customer loyalty

This highly interactive and fun programme examines in depth how to. This programme will enable you to:

• Build lasting and meaningful relationships with your customers
• Use powerful behavioural tools to ensure you secure and maintain a competitive edge within any marketplace
• Gain a greater understanding of your customers’ needs and how to satisfy them
• Explore the basics of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Emotional intelligence and discover how they can help you to improve your customer services management
• Understand how media channels con be used successfully to develop and enhance relationships
• Understand the process of decision-making based on learning from neuroeconomics
• Develop your ability to draw stakeholder maps and to explore and exploit the relationships between stakeholders
• Influence with integrity and effective communication

Objectives

• Build lasting rapport and lasting relationships with colleagues, customers and friends
• Modify your own behaviour to match others
• Establishing good working relationships
• Learn to influence with integrity
• To use influencing skills and techniques to build ongoing and long term relationships with key customers and other stakeholders
• To be able to create and adapt crystal clear models for communication between your organisation and its customers
• Build co-operation and commitment
• Understand your customers’ needs and how to satisfy them
• An ability to tailor services to meet your stakeholders needs
• Plan communications activity to meet stakeholder needs
• Be more versatile in every customer or stakeholder-facing situation
• Explore the range of communications techniques and tools available
• Develop increased skill writing for print and the web and competency in the range of PR tools and techniques including editing
• Learn how to write clear brief and clear objectives
• Learn how to be an effective user of e-media
• Develop crisis management techniques
• Develop your interview technique
• Develop personal communications effectiveness
• Recognise behaviours that may cause conflict in the future, enabling you to defuse awkward, and sometimes critical, confrontations with colleagues and customers alike

Content

Day one

The world of customer service excellence

• Customer service and what it means
• Identifying excellence in front-line customer services
• What are the services and products that you offer?
• The role of NLP and Emotional Excellence in customer service
• What do your customers say about you and your organisation?
• What do you want your customers to say?
• Myths and legends about customer service

Day two

Gaining a greater understanding of your company

• From judgements to behavioural flexibility
• Behavioural traits and how to identify them
• Modifying your own behaviour to match others
• Building lasting rapport
• Sharpen your senses to the signals others are sending you
• Connect with colleagues and clients at a level that creates deeper trust and commitment
• Step into another person’s shoes to better appreciate their experiences and motivations
• Body language clues that show how others are thinking and responding to you
• Non verbal clues that show if someone is telling the truth

Day Three

Communication masterclass

• What is crystal clear communication?
• Communication excellence through powerful listening and questioning techniques
• Thinking patterns
• Filters to communication
• Metaphors and Models
• Using perceptual positions to understand your customers’ point of view
• Logical levels of change
• Building climates of trust
• Creating well formed outcomes
• Communication skills exercises

Day Four

Influencing with integrity

• The importance of value sets in modern day business
• Influencing the Influencers and high fliers
• The importance of matching others’ language patterns
• Mirroring and pacing – what do they mean?
• Internal and external references
• Coaching – a tool for self and others
• Influencing exercises

Day Five

Conflict, challenge and closure

• Assertiveness and what it means
• Dealing with difficult people in an assertive way
• Dealing with difficult customers
• Maintaining high standards of customer service
• Reviewing the service that you offer and reacting accordingly
• Embracing change for the good of all
• Personal planning session – dealing with your own customers

Day Six

The 21st Century Communicator

• Introduction and welcome
• Goal setting for the programme
• The role of Communications PR in the organisation
• The range of media and channels
• Neuroeconomics and the behaviour of our stakeholders
• A problem-solving approach
• Personal goal-setting for the programme

Day Seven

From theory to successful practise

• Communications models: implications for practise
• Psychological themes and construction in practise
• The art of influence and persuasion
• Ethics and communications
• Organisational transparency and communications
• Taking and interpreting communication briefs

Day eight

The Medium is the Message

• Managing stakeholder relations
• Choosing channels – matching media to tasks and stakeholders
• Writing and editing for print
• Writing for the web
• Organising face-to-face events

Day Nine

EManagement x Communication

• Improving the power of communications in the organisation and between the organisation and its stakeholders
• Measuring communications effectiveness
• Using measurement to improve performance
• Crisis communication
• Reputational management

Day Ten

• Planning your career and personal development
• Impacting positively on your managers
• Managing up and increasing your personal visibility
• Networking and effectiveness
• Team working and your personal effectiveness
• Time management and work planning
• Summary and Conclusion