Leading a Customer-focused Team

Overview/Description
 The quality of your customer service is in the hands of the people who deliver it. As their leader it's your responsibility to give them the direction, resources, and support they need to succeed. This course shows you how to work with them to create a customer-focused environment that fulfills customers' expectations while still achieving corporate goals. The first lesson explains how to work together to set the parameters for what has to be accomplished by creating a Statement of Purpose and effective team goals. Once these have been established, your role as leader becomes that of enabler and the rest of the course is devoted to demonstrating how you can manage and support the team's performance. In the second lesson you'll learn how to measure the elements of performance that impact on customer service, after being shown how to differentiate between those that do and those that don't. You'll also learn how to coach for performance improvement, using the method that's the most appropriate for the situation. No prescribed service system, no matter how finely tuned, can legislate for every eventuality, and there will be occasions when customer satisfaction is dependent on an individual's ability to step outside the norm and use his or her own initiative. That's why the last lesson in the course covers how to empower and motivate team members. It shows how to give them the power and impetus to act on the customer's behalf when the occasion demands.

Target Audience
 Customer service managers, supervisors and team leaders, and anyone with responsibility for managing the delivery of quality customer service

Expected Duration
4.0 hours

Lesson Objectives:

Establishing Team Direction and Focus

  • recognize the advantages of establishing team direction.
  • label the three elements of a given statement of purpose.
  • create a statement of purpose that aligns with the team activities and corporate mission statement provided.
  • recognize the five factors that comprise a S.M.A.R.T. goal.
  • within a described scenario, ask questions to ensure that goals fulfill the S.M.A.R.T. criteria for effectiveness.

    • Managing Team Performance

  • recognize the benefits of managing team performance.
  • differentiate between performance measurement of process or outcome.
  • match the three approaches to support individual performance improvement to examples.
  • use appropriate individual performance improvement approaches within given situations.

    • Providing Performance Support

  • identify the benefits of motivating, rewarding, and empowering employees.
  • match the essential elements of supporting empowerment to examples of those elements.
  • take the appropriate actions to empower customer service providers within a given situation.
  • label examples of employee behavior or communication according to the motivators they indicate.
  • motivate employees as appropriate to their needs within a given scenario.
  • differentiate between examples of accomplishment and activity.

    • Course Number: CUST0174