Excellence in Customer Service-Handout Slides - Excellence in Customer Service

Handout Slides - Excellence in Customer Service

Pdf Summary

The document is a comprehensive guide on delivering excellent customer service, tailored by the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials. It outlines various modules that focus on understanding customer dynamics, effective communication tools, and handling challenging situations.<br /><br />The document emphasizes the importance of defining customer service excellence and setting measurable expectations to ensure quality service delivery. It discusses the impact of cognitive and implicit biases, explaining how these unconscious shortcuts in the brain can influence service quality. The significance of customer retention over acquisition is highlighted, illustrating the cost benefits of maintaining current clients.<br /><br />Four distinctive communication styles (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance) are explored using the DISC framework. Each style is characterized, empowering participants to understand their own tendencies and adapt to others for effective interaction. Techniques for recognizing and accommodating these styles are provided to enhance customer relations.<br /><br />Practical scenarios are used to illustrate common challenges, such as returning a pet deposit and dealing with residential complaints. Strategies like active listening, understanding customer needs, and maintaining professionalism under stress are outlined to improve service interactions.<br /><br />The guide addresses the importance of balancing communication techniques, defusing anger, and handling undue expectations. It provides guidance on delivering bad news and emphasizes politeness, even when it seems insufficient.<br /><br />Furthermore, the importance of proper business writing, phone etiquette, and timely responses is discussed, encouraging an approach that consistently respects and fulfills customer expectations. The document concludes by discussing ongoing education on implicit biases, aiming to debias systems for more equitable service provision.<br /><br />Overall, the guide serves as a valuable resource for anyone looking to enhance their skills in customer service, particularly within the housing and redevelopment sector.

Keywords

customer service excellence

housing and redevelopment

effective communication

cognitive biases

customer retention

DISC framework

active listening

handling complaints

business writing

implicit biases