Customer Service Representative Journey

The ability to support a customer is keenly enhanced by a greater understanding of the customer's mood, communication style, and knowledge of the product or service in question. From the first moments of interaction, the customer will be giving cues in each of these areas. Interaction with customers requires planning, active listening, and a conscious effort to adjust your communication and support approach based on your customer's cues. In this course, you'll learn how to recognize and read customer cues, and how to use them to adapt your support strategy to each individual customer. You'll also explore how to overcome common pitfalls customer service agents face in assessing their customer's cues. This course was developed with subject matter provided by NueBridge (www.nuebridge.com) which has extensive expertise in customer experience and management across multiple industries around the world.

CSRs who can identify their customers' priorities are able to make the best decisions on how to serve the customer. A customer's priorities may be both explicit (stated clearly or obvious) and implicit (unsaid or unexpected). Understanding the scope and interdependence of these priorities allows you to better address each customer's implicit needs and help you deliver a higher level of service. In this course, you'll learn to distinguish customer priorities as either explicit or implicit, and to describe how speed influences customer perception. You'll also learn strategies to decrease the amount of effort the customer has to expend in getting issues resolved, methods to demonstrate your presence for customers in service interactions, and strategies to help you balance priorities during a customer service interaction. This course was developed with subject matter provided by NueBridge (www.nuebridge.com) which has extensive expertise in customer experience and management across multiple industries around the world.

Customer needs lie at the heart of every service interaction. In order to fully support the customer, we must be able to identify both their stated and unstated needs. Customer support professionals use a combination of skills to analyze beyond the stated requirements to uncover the full spectrum of customer needs. In this course, you'll learn the service advantages of being able to identify your customers' needs. You'll learn best practices for discerning both stated and unstated needs in a service interaction and how to avoid problems and pitfalls in needs exploration. You'll also learn techniques to help you exceed your customers' needs and you'll explore scenarios that put these practices into action. This course was developed with subject matter provided by NueBridge (www.nuebridge.com) which has extensive expertise in customer experience and management across multiple industries around the world.

Success is both an outcome and a mindset. Professionals who wish to provide a truly exceptional level of customer service approach each interaction with the right mindset and attitude. Without understanding how mindset impacts service ability, you compromise your potential and that of the organization, which ultimately results in a poor customer service experience. Focusing on your service mindset and attitude will ensure your professional values will manifest in each service interaction. In this course, you'll learn how moving to a different mindset can help you deliver outstanding customer service, and what key practices can help establish a good personal mindset for any service situation. You'll also learn to recognize how professional values manifest during customer service interactions, how to develop an attitude of a customer service professional, and what strategies demonstrate a customer-centric service mindset. This course was developed with subject matter provided by NueBridge (www.nuebridge.com) which has extensive expertise in customer experience and management across multiple industries around the world.

Customer service is customer engagement. And as a customer service representative, you don't often get to see happy, smiling customers, excited by their new service, new device, new outfit, or new opportunity. You get to see them when the new thing isn't working. Or isn't the right color. Or may not be billed correctly. And then you get to try to make them happy again. In this course, you'll learn proven techniques customer service professionals can use to boost their self-confidence, better engage with their customers, and demonstrate flexibility and efficiency in the problem-solving process. This course was developed with subject matter provided by NueBridge (www.nuebridge.com) which has extensive expertise in customer experience and management across multiple industries around the world.

Customer service is all about finding the right solution for every client. CSRs who can quickly determine the underlying causes and issues associated with a customer's problem are more likely to generate fast and effective solutions. In this course, you'll examine proven techniques to find the root cause of a problem, align a right-fit solution, and deliver a final resolution. You'll recognize how to arm yourself with the information you need before and during an interaction, and learn the solution steps in a process-based approach to customer service. You'll also learn approaches for addressing common obstacles encountered during customer service interactions, indications when a call should be escalated to a higher tier of service, and explore strategies to take customer service solutions to the next level. This course was developed with subject matter provided by NueBridge (www.nuebridge.com) which has extensive expertise in customer experience and management across multiple industries around the world.

Failing to realize the importance of customer service and effective complaint handling leads to increasingly dissatisfied customers. Organizations must be able to address the needs of customers in an effective manner to succeed. This course is intended to show the proper procedures and processes needed to provide an efficient client service (CS). It covers how to improve customer relationships to reduce conflict and enable service excellence. You'll also learn how to provide accurate documentation for incident reporting.

As a customer service representative (CSR), creating a support culture that focuses on your customers' needs is key. In this course, you'll learn how to enhance your interactions with customers to project service excellence. You'll explore how to establish effective customer relationships that involve customers in problem solving. Finally, you'll discover how to improve communication for a better client service (CS) in a cross-cultural customer support center or help desk environment.

Strong customer relationships are key to projecting service excellence. Building rapport is essential and requires knowing your customers, understanding their situations, and providing an empathetic ear for them to voice their concerns. In this course, you'll learn how to improve client service (CS) by building rapport with customers. It covers paying close attention to customer needs, connecting with the customer, and being positive. You'll also learn how to empathize with customers by relating your own experiences, reflecting their emotions back to them, and normalizing their difficulties.

When you do things to help other people within your company do their jobs better, you are providing internal customer service. The quality of that service often has a huge impact on the overall quality of client service (CS) delivered to external customers. In this course, you'll learn about types of internal customers and how to identify internal customer relationships. You'll also learn about the importance of getting to know your internal customers, identifying their expectations of you, and taking action on those expectations. Finally, you'll learn guidelines for providing internal customer service excellence.

Achieving service excellence is very challenging when dealing with angry customers. By following a few simple techniques to avoid confrontation, you can manage difficult customer relationships and project a high-quality client service (CS). In this course, you'll learn about typical trouble spots in dealing with angry customers and guidelines for avoiding conflict. You'll also learn how to handle a customer complaint by defusing the tension, investigating the problem, and coming to an agreement on a solution.

There are several defining moments, or moments of truth, that can make or break every service transaction. To successfully navigate these moments of truth in customer relationships, it's important for service organizations to add value to a customer's experience by creating and implementing strong, clearly defined client service (CS) standards. In this course, you'll learn about techniques used to shape the direction of customer service in an organization, including mapping, researching, taking action on, and evaluating moments of truth. You'll also learn how to develop and implement a customer service strategy to achieve service excellence.

Today in the Age of the Customer, competitive advantage has been redefined. Customers are in control. They have more choices than ever before resulting in sky-high expectations. The only source of competitive advantage is the obsession with understanding, delighting, connecting with and serving customers. Organizations need people who are customer obsessed. People who are so interested and committed to the people they are creating and designing for that they are willing to spend time, take risks and admit that they personally might be wrong. People who are so customer obsessed that they never settle but are continually trying to understand what else they can do for their customers.

Effectively communicating with customers increases customer satisfaction and projects service excellence. This course provides valuable advice on how to improve client service (CS) by building customer relationships with better customer conversations. It covers how to improve conversations with customers by speaking effectively, using vocal cues, listening actively, and using paraphrasing to convey your understanding of the customer's needs.

Effectively communicating with customers is essential to the success of any customer-oriented business. Adapting to the different communication styles and emotions of customers will help you build customer relationships through better customer conversations. Improving conversations with customers enables an efficient, high quality client service (CS). This course explains how to adapt to the different communication types and identify the common emotions that customers experience when contacting a support center. It also explains how to adapt your writing skills to communicate through e-mail and to document incidents.

When you're providing customer service over the phone, without face-to-face interaction, it can be challenging to establish the right customer relationships. There are many techniques that can help you consistently deliver service excellence over the telephone. In this course, you'll learn basic etiquette tips for answering, managing, and ending client service (CS) calls. You'll also learn how to make a good impression by listening, using questions to probe for more information, minding your tone, and empathizing with the customer. Finally, you'll learn ways of reflecting or adapting to your customer's style.

There is a science behind communication, including how we react neuro-physiologically to others - through verbal communication such as their words and tone, as well as the non-verbal communication of their actions and body language. There's also an art to communication, allowing your authentic self to shine through and allowing the exchange with another person to unfold naturally. In this course, you'll learn about the art and science of communication. You'll explore techniques for connecting with your audience and building trust with them so that your communication intention is clear and understood. You'll also learn the basic principles of assertive communication that is positive and not aggressive.

There are many parts of the brain that have not changed much since the time of our earliest ancestors. We are still wired to respond automatically when we're afraid, threatened, disgusted, surprised, or happy. But we've come a long way in our development and understanding of non-verbal communication mechanisms. In this course, you'll learn how our attitude and tone, as well as body language such as posture, gestures, and facial expressions, can have significant impact on the way we communicate. You'll explore techniques to help you project a positive attitude and presence. You'll also discover how to read other people's body language.

Building relationships with the people you want to communicate with is key to making communication effective. And building trust is essential to forging meaningful working relationships. In this course, you'll explore the necessity of clearly presenting your information and intentions as the basis of effective communication. You'll see how understanding your audience ensures that your message is delivered in such a way so to maximize its impact and how managing your emotions allows you to adapt to the emotional needs of others to build trust. Finally, you'll learn how verbal communication combines with body language and vocal tone to better convey your message effectively.

Do you ever feel that a lack of email productivity is frustrating the effectiveness of your written communication? Are poor verbal communication skills holding you back? Choosing the right communication method for the situation has a huge impact on how your message is received. This course explores the importance of choosing the right communication method to best convey your message. You'll learn how to select the proper methods for building trust, conveying your ideas, and targeting your method to your intended audience. The right communication method improves the odds of getting your point across and communicating effectively, leaving your audience informed, enlightened, and engaged.

Communication is a two-way process - while one person provides information, another must not only understand what is meant, but also show that they're being receptive to that information. This requires strong listening skills - a vital asset in any business environment. In this course, you'll work on sharpening your listening skills and getting yourself in the right receptive mindset for communicating. You'll learn how to recognize the behaviors that indicate receptivity, as well as to identify the different types of listener. You'll also learn how to ask the right questions to ensure that you understand what is being communicated.

Communicating effectively can be challenging when having difficult conversations. Because these challenges typically involve emotions such as hurt, anger, or confusion, it's not uncommon for people to avoid one another or shut down, preventing what could be a productive exchange at many levels. In this course, you'll examine some common communication challenges and how you can successfully navigate them. By showing patience, perseverance, and accountability, you can effectively deal with tough conversations, communicate your message, and reach mutual understanding and agreement.

Successful people are generally excellent listeners. They're able to give others their full attention so that they can understand their needs and ask the right questions, even in difficult or stressful situations. They can also use their listening skills effectively to communicate their own goals and to build strong relationships with others. In this course, you'll learn common misconceptions about listening, how to hone your listening skills, and what to do when you encounter roadblocks to actively listening. You'll also learn how being receptive to what others are saying can go a long way to breaking down the barriers to clear communication.

Active listening skills are used by professionals in a wide range of occupations and industries to enhance their work. By being receptive and open to others, they're able to elicit and understand other people's thoughts, needs, or emotions, and then steer the conversation in an appropriate manner to a successful conclusion. In this course, you'll learn listening skills that can help in the workplace, and techniques for becoming an effective active listener. You'll also discover techniques for dealing with emotionally-charged situations, and explore how to use listening skills to your benefit during common workplace situations such as sales pitches and negotiations.

Solving problems requires strategic thinking. You need to ask the right people the right questions to get to the source of the issue and find the solution. In this course, you'll learn about identifying stakeholders, gaining their input and trust, and using analysis techniques to get to the root cause of a problem.

Before you start looking for solutions to a problem, it's helpful to know what people want in an ideal world. This will give you some direction and aid in the strategic thinking needed to create alternative solutions. In this course, you'll learn how to define ideal states and generate and evaluate problem solutions. You'll also learn how to recognize and avoid common pitfalls when solving problems.

When the time comes to make a final, critical decision, you need to be able to understand the reasons for making that decision, as well as its possible consequences. You must also assess the effectiveness of your decisive action in solving a particular organizational problem. In this course, you'll learn techniques for making decisions based on key criteria, such as costs, time constraints, and organizational goals. You'll explore different decision-making styles, and how each can help in problem solving. You'll also learn how to plan, manage, evaluate, and celebrate solution implementation.

Systems thinking allows you to understand how systems work, as well as your role in them. Systems thinking affords you the ability to see the interrelationships among all events, putting you in a better position to address problems.

Computational thinking is a structured way to understand and solve the kind of complex problems facing most organizations today. First developed in conjunction with developing computer systems, it can be applied to many situations, both computerized and not. And it can help determine the right types of computer and human actions to apply in order to solve a problem. In this course, you'll learn the characteristics of computational thinking, including problem expression, as well as of its core techniques, such as decompositions and pattern recognition. You'll also learn how abstraction is used in logical problem solving to build algorithms that create and evaluate business solutions.

In order to make the best business decisions, you need to confront - and overcome - your cognitive biases. In this course, you will learn techniques for identifying cognitive bias, as well as strategies for overcoming specific biases.

When struggling with a difficult problem, it's easy to become hemmed in by traditional habitual thinking. Learning to leverage the power of analogical thinking allows you to think creatively and gain fresh insights through the exploration of unexpected similarities. In this course, you'll learn what analogical thinking is, when it's best used, and how to use it. You'll also learn under what situations it can fail, and how to avoid superficial analogies so you can make better strategic choices.

Big-picture thinking stretches beyond the short term and considers how an organization can succeed in the long term. By thinking strategically about a problem using the bigger picture, you can elevate your perspective and get a better idea of the forces at play within your organization. This course describes how systems thinking can help you become skillful at making sense out of opposites and contradictions and better understand cause and effect while managing your department according to the business strategy. It explains actions you can take to encourage creative thinking and come up with solutions that take into account the bigger picture. You'll also learn how understanding your organizational value chain can help you connect to the organization's strategy and implement it more effectively.

Risk is an inevitable aspect of any business. As a manager, it's important that you mitigate or avoid the potential impact of a risk if it comes to pass, to ensure the long-term survival of your organization. This course focuses on the first step in managing risk, identifying risks to your organization. You'll explore the difference between internal and external risks, and how some risks may actually present a strategic opportunity. You'll also learn how to use some techniques that can help you identify risks and calculate the probability that they will occur, including root cause identification, the Delphi technique, and brainstorming sessions.

Risk is a fact of life for businesses and one that will never just go away. But before you can start managing risk, you need to be able to assess a risk - as well as its probability - in order to create a strategic plan that will enable you to avoid or mitigate its potential negative impact. In this course, you'll learn some common techniques for assessing risk, including opportunity assessment, and threat assessment using FMEA - failure mode and effects analysis.

The third step to take when managing risk, once you've identified and assessed risks to your organization, is to deal with them appropriately. Some risks may have a higher probability of becoming a reality than others, while others may have more of a negative impact. You'll need to treat each of these types of risks differently. This course covers how to create an effective strategy for responding to risk, such as risk exposure adjustment and contingency planning. It also outlines specific strategic plans for dealing with a risk that may be a threat or an opportunity.

Spelling errors are all too common, and are one of the main culprits behind poor business writing. A wrong letter here, an extra letter there, and your reader may lose confidence in your communication skills and overall competence as a professional. That's why writing well doesn't just mean writing persuasively - it also means knowing the rules, as well as the exceptions, of spelling. In this course, you'll learn how to spell words with prefixes and suffixes, and how to form the plural and possessive forms of words. You'll also learn general rules on how to spell correctly, as well as some handy tips for better writing in general.

Even if you know what's important to do, losing focus can stop your progress. No matter who you are or what job you do, focusing at work can be hard. Even with great schedule management and organizing skills, it's easy to get off track if you're not careful. In this course, you'll learn how to stay focused and stay on top of your schedule. You'll learn strategies for dealing with focus challenges and distractions at work. You'll also find out how to beat fatigue, manage your time, and decline work-related requests. And you'll explore how to adjust your focus to deal with change, and how to regain focus when you've lost it.

Even when you know your priorities and have an organized time management routine, you'll still be challenged every day by distractions, temptations, interruptions, and procrastination. To avoid causing internal time management detours, you have to develop ways to stay focused, and this often means using personal and interpersonal skills in very specific ways. In this course, you'll learn strategies to manage challenges to your personal focus, techniques to help you shut out distractions and manage time conflicts, and ways to regain focus and develop mental resilience when faced with change.

Too much to do and too little time? Everything is urgent? Modern technology means our employers can reach us 24/7, so schedule management and goal setting are more important than ever. When you're under pressure to deliver, you need to know your priorities. Meeting targets and achieving goals consistently regardless of the business situation isn't easy. And this means managing your time effectively. In this course, you'll learn about aligning each goal with your employer's expectations, clarifying your goals, and prioritizing your most important work. You'll also learn how to ask questions to clarify goals, and how to establish and schedule priorities based on these goals.

If you want to manage your schedule and make your time count, you have to be organized. But to stay organized, you need to check your progress. This mean developing schedule management skills. The stress and potential for mistakes grows when you don't spend time organizing your time. In this course, you'll discover how schedule management can help you regain control of your time. You'll learn how to leverage your personality to boost your productivity and explore techniques for dealing with time stealers. And you'll learn how to create practical to-do lists and keep them relevant and realistic.

When goals and targets seem to shift daily and there's never enough time to get everything done, it's hard to achieve goals consistently. Good time management will help you work smarter - not harder - so that you get more of the important things done in less time. The first step in working smarter is making sure you're going in the right direction. In this course, you'll learn how to accomplish more through effective time management. You'll learn why it's important to align your goals with your company's goals, and how to do it. You'll also learn how to differentiate between urgent and important tasks, how to pivot between conflicting priorities, and how taking the time to make improvements can save you time in the long run.

No one can add an extra hour to the day to get more done. But anyone can make better use of the 24 hours you do have by becoming more effective at time management. All it takes is deciding to seize control of your own time, and then taking small steps in the right direction. In this course, you'll consider how you're spending your time now and what techniques you can use to spend it more wisely and productively. You'll learn to block the time stealers that interfere with your productivity, use to-do lists and schedules to organize your time and tasks, and develop a regular habit of checking in with your plans to make sure you're getting them done.

Organizing your physical and digital workspaces is a great way to be more productive. When you declutter your workspace, you can improve many aspects of your work day, including your ability to concentrate, achieve targets, and become more efficient. This course will help you increase your productivity by showing you how to organize and maintain both your physical and digital workspaces. You'll learn the rewards of organizing your workspace and find out what a productive workspace looks like. You'll learn how to use your organization skills to manage your digital workspace. And finally, you'll find out how to make your new clutter-free life last by making organization a habit.

Procrastination reduces your productivity while causing you stress at the same time. Procrastinating is a habit that causes urgent and difficult tasks to pile up as you studiously avoid them. Developing and applying organization skills, you can declutter your schedule and avoid putting off work that demands your attention. In this course, you'll learn about the reasons people procrastinate, and the benefits of organizing your time. You'll learn how to build self-discipline and combat time wasters, as well as how to bring more organization to your day. And finally, you'll explore how to set priorities and how to say no when you need to.

The amount of time available to you is constant - you can't buy more and you can't save it for later. However, by managing your time, you can increase your productivity. And the better you understand your own personal productivity, the easier it will be to manage your time effectively. In this course, you'll learn about how you can use task management to maximize your productivity. You'll discover the benefits of using time management and assessing the value of your tasks. You'll learn about benefits of setting goals and how productivity is tied to your ability to assess time and set priorities. And you'll also learn about the process of "chunking" your time and how to use different types of to-do lists effectively.

A busy personal life has a direct correlation to your productivity level at your job. By getting control of your productivity at home, you can improve your productivity work too, making you better able to stick to schedules and meet deadlines by reducing the stress and distractions that come from trying to juggle home and work at the same time. In this course, you'll learn how to prepare for trips, plan personal and household tasks, and become more organized as a parent. You'll also explore tips for achieving an effective work/life balance and taking care of your personal health and well-being.

Skilled note taking can make you more productive in business situations. Writing notes and engaging in written communication also provide an effective record to review when necessary. In this course, you'll learn tools, techniques, and grammar strategies for effective note taking in interviews and meetings. You'll also learn ways to write notes that help you learn and recall information, to make it easier to communicate to others.

When you're serious about advancing your career, you need to build strong professional relationships and maintain an effective network of contacts. Whether it's for executive networking or general business networking, this course covers the essential communication and professional networking skills needed to establish a solid network. It includes strategies for building rapport with new contacts during networking opportunities and covers best practices for maintaining your network so that business contacts can help you achieve your career goals.

Unless you're the sole owner and proprietor, everyone in a business answers to someone else. From the CEO to the temp in accounting, every employee has someone they're accountable to. But the judgment and approval of the boss isn't enough, by itself, to make a job rewarding. Everyone must also answer to an inner boss, a personal, internal voice that provides guidance on whether the job is done as well as you can do it. Accepting personal accountability means your setting demanding standards and committing to meeting them. Further, personal accountability is also key to successful business networking. It's a necessary part of building trust and relationships. In this course, you'll learn how to listen to your inner boss, focus on meeting your internal standards, and apply them to your work, your goals, and your future.

Have you ever tried managing yourself? Perhaps you could be the best boss you've ever had. Through self-development techniques and continuous learning, you can develop attitudes and skills that empower you. You can manage from within and become your own best boss. Self-empowerment is the process of taking responsibility for your attitudes, behaviors, and actions at work to maximize your effectiveness. This course focuses on learning attitudes and behaviors that promote personal development. You'll learn to recognize and overcome negative self-talk, to develop your initiative and become self-empowered, and to take control of your own personal self development by honing in on your strengths and opportunities for improvement.

Discover ways to project a professional image, both in your appearance and in your workspace décor. Learn to ensure your personal activities, including your social media presence, don't negatively impact your work reputation.

You are juggling a lot of competing tasks. Meeting deadlines, production targets, and business objectives are serious responsibilities. It's tempting, at times, to find easy ways out of fulfilling them, or to use excuses as to why you can't. But to be accountable is part of being a professional. Demonstrating your personal and professional accountability is key to your ongoing success. Building accountability is a process of showing that you're a reliable, organized, and dedicated person, and further, ensuring accountability means taking ownership of your responsibilities. In this course you'll learn how to show leadership accountability, implementing strategies for setting goals, developing an action plan, and seeing all those competing tasks through to completion.

Everyone makes mistakes, but knowing how to handle them well can turn potential failure into a success. The secret is to learn to view errors and opportunities to learn, developing a growth mindset, and applying what you've learned in order to mitigate against future mistakes. In this course, you'll learn to identify when mistakes can be opportunities for personal improvement and how mistakes can be avoided. You'll also learn how mistakes can drive improvements, as well as techniques to mitigate and learn from mistakes.

Who can I trust around here? This is a more common workplace question than most of us might like to admit. Building relationships and trust within professional networks is done like a mason building a wall - one stone at a time. Trust is a core ingredient in positive relationships. Without it, the mason's wall takes on a whole new analogy - a barrier, with no gate for entry. This course explores trust, what makes you and others trustworthy, and how to demonstrate trustworthiness through your own professional accountability.

It's not always easy to decide between right and wrong at work. Making ethical decisions can help you to discern the right thing to do in difficult situations. You might think that business ethics are only an issue for upper management, but in fact, every employee should understand the importance of ethical decision making. In this course, you'll learn some common myths about business ethics. You'll learn about different approaches to ethics, the values and standards in a typical code of conduct, and how to develop your own code. You'll also learn ways to overcome obstacles to ethical behavior and steps for making ethical decisions.