If you’ve ever had the bad fortune of having to report a faulty mobile phone connection then you may empathise with my frustration. For years now, many organisations – and mobile phone companies, in particular – put you on hold sighting the reason that they are experiencing unusually high level of call traffic. Recently, and with [...]
Category: "Customer Service Training"
Interview with Radio 5 Live
I was very pleased to be interviewed on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Drive Time show on Wednesday of last week. The interview was on the subject of OFGEM’s fine for British Gas of £2.5m for failing to re-open complaints. Readers of this blog will know that we at GA Training give credit where credit is [...]
De-humanising Customer Service
Regular readers of this blog will know that here at GA Training we are big advocates of using technology to better serve customers. There are a number of ways that organisations can interact with their customers in a fun way using technology an example of which would be through the use of smart phone apps. [...]
Cutting Customer Service Training – a recipe for disaster!
In a recent article by Jo Causon, Chief Executive of the Institute of Customer Service, she points to the fact that many organisations have made a decision to reduce the amount of customer service training that they are planning to undertake this year. ICS research points to the fact that 30% of organisations have already [...]
Customer Service? There’s an App for that
According to Apple there is an app for just about anything and everything you could possibly want or need (and many that I personally still struggle to see the point of). You can use apps for everything from working out your share of a bill, checking something is level using the spirit level app and much more.
Passing the buck!
All too often these days, I keep coming up against inertia. What I mean by this is that in my day-to-day business dealings I all too frequently hear the phrase – “the simplest thing I could do is….. As a major part of my business is all about delivering training, in how best to provide [...]
Customer Service and Industrial Action
For a large number of companies the current economic situation is already having a detrimental impact and there is a lot of political rhetoric about the current wave of Industrial Action when the financial environment is already bleak. There is always a knock on effect, it is not just the customers of the company affected [...]
When you’re stressed, how well behaved are you?
As cuts continue to be made in both the public and private sector, customer-facing staff will come under increasing pressure to deliver services in times of heightened emotions. In order to avoid confrontation, and to better manage relationships (business or personal), below are some insights into when or not to be assertive, aggressive or submissive. [...]
Six indispensable rules of customer service
During our customer service training courses we encourage our delegates to put into action 6 essential rules of customer care. These crucial rules are – Be ‘customer driven’, not ‘process-led’ or ‘task focused’ Be flexible where you can be Acknowledge the customer’s perspective Work hard to understand your customer’s need and situation See the bigger picture and not [...]
3 essential customer service questions
Have you ever been served by someone either over the phone or face-to-face and thought to yourself “how an earth did you get through an interview for this job?” and “why did you apply for this job in the first place when you are clearly not suited to it?” You know the type of person [...]
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