Customer Service Foundations Training Plan

This training plan is for customer service managers and trainers.

It helps you use the Customer Service Foundations course on LinkedIn Learning with your team. Make sure everyone has access to LinkedIn Learning before you begin.

Customer Service Foundations focuses on the three essential skills:

• Rapport

• Understanding (includes listening)

• Solving (includes serving upset customers)

The course is ideal for people new to customer service. It also helps experienced customer service pros refresh their skills.

This training plan uses a micro-learning approach. Micro-learning divides the lessons into short segments. It makes training easier to schedule and improves retention.

Here's what this guide covers:

1. Resources Required

2. Preparation

3. Pre-work

4. Week 1: Kick-off

5. Week 2: Building Rapport

6. Week 3: Exceeding Expectations

7. Week 4: Solving Problems

Resources Required

You'll need these resources to use this training plan.

1. Access to Customer Service Foundations for all participants.

2. The exercise files from the course.

3. Jeff's workshop planning tool (free download).

Contact LinkedIn Learning for pricing and subscription options if you don't already have access.

Estimated time needed: 1 hour per week

• Group activities: 30 minutes per week

• Individual learning: 30 minutes per week

Preparation

Get ready for the training by preparing yourself and your team.

Step 1: Create a training plan. Use the Workshop Planner to create an action plan.

• Identify a goal for the training

• Decide how to prepare your team

• Create a plan to help the team use their new skills

Here's a how-to video:

Step 2: Announce the training. Tell your team about the training and what to expect. Address three questions for participants:

1. What is the training about?

2. Why is it important?

3. How are employees expected to use what they learn?

Keep your announcement simple. Consider sharing it in a team meeting. Follow-it up with a short email that contains the pre-assignments.

Step 3: Schedule team meetings. You'll be meeting with your team once per week for four weeks. Each meeting should take 30 minutes.

Step 4: Share pre-work. Share the pre-work with your team. I've included that in the next section.

Pre-Work

Ask participants to watch the videos listed below before the first meeting.

Some videos have an activity at the end (marked with an "A"). Those activities should also be completed. Many of the videos have downloadable exercise files that go with them.

1. Keeping your customers happy

2. Creating your customer service learning plan (A)

3. Defining customer service

4. Identifying your customers (A)

5. Making a difference for customers (A)

6. Avoiding burnout by staying focused (A)

Suggestion: It's a better experience to watch just one or two videos at a time. That also makes it easier for employees to fit the videos into their busy schedules.

Week 1: Kickoff

The initial meeting should review the pre-work. The focus is on the value of outstanding service.

Discussion questions:

1. What does outstanding service look like?

2. Who are our customers?

3. Why should we try to provide outstanding service?

4. How will you earn a thank you letter from a customer?

Assignments for next week: Ask your team to watch the following videos and complete the related activities.

1. Connecting rapport to outstanding service

2. Implementing techniques that build rapport (A)

3. Starting a conversation (A)

4. Enhancing your likability (A)

Week 2: Building Rapport

This week's theme is building rapport with customers. Rapport is a process of getting customers to know, like, and trust you. Start by reviewing the week one assignments.

Discussion questions:

1. When can we build rapport with customers?

2. How can we build rapport with customers?

3. What questions can we use to break the ice?

4. How can we make it easier for customers to like us?

5. Have you earned feedback that matches your thank you letter?

Assignments for next week: Ask your team to watch the following videos and complete the related activities.

1. Uncovering customer needs

2. Actively listening to customers (A)

3. Identifying emotional needs (A)

4. Managing expectations (A)

5. Going the extra mile (A)

Week 3: Exceeding Expectations

The focus is understanding customer needs so you can consistently meet or exceed their expectations. Start by reviewing the week two assignments.

Discussion questions:

1. How can we actively listen to our customers?

2. How can we uncover our customers' emotional needs?

3. What can we do to manage customer expectations?

4. How can we go the extra mile?

5. What skills have you used to build rapport in the past week?

6. Have you earned feedback that matches your thank you letter?

Assignments for next week: Ask your team to watch the following videos and complete the related activities.

1. Taking ownership of problems (A)

2. Empathizing with customers (A)

3. Preventing negative emotions (A)

4. Defusing angry customers (A)

5. Anchoring your own attitude (A)

6. Expanding your influence (A)

7. Becoming a customer advocate (A)

Week 4: Solving Problems

The final week is focused on service recovery. Start by reviewing the week three assignments.

Discussion questions:

1. What was a problem you solved for a customer? (How did you do it?)

2. How did you help an upset customer feel better?

3. What are ways you can help customers avoid getting upset?

4. How did you build rapport with a customer in the past week?

5. What did you do to understand your customers in the past week?

6. Have you earned feedback that matches your thank you letter?

Conclusion

Ask participants to watch the final course video and complete an action plan to implement new skills from the course.

Participants can earn a certificate for their LinkedIn profile by doing the following:

1. Watch all the videos

2. Complete the chapter quizzes

3. Pass the exam

Here’s a how-to guide if you need help accessing certificates.

Four Customer Service Skills You Need to Have

LinkedIn Learning has just released a new edition of my Customer Service Foundations course. It's a training video designed to help people learn the fundamentals of service.

Creating a course like this requires some tough decisions:

• Which skills are most important and must be covered?

• How in-depth should each skill be addressed?

• Which skills are useful, but best saved for a separate course?

These decisions are critical. Include too much content and learners can get overwhelmed. Include too little, and learners won't get enough value. It has to be just right.

I based my choices on extensive research, interaction with thousands of customer service professionals, and a bit of trial and error.

Here's a list of the top four skills I think every service professional needs.

On the set filming Customer Service Foundations. From left to right: Jeff (Director), Jeff (me), Sam (Producer), and Rob (Production Lead).

Vision

If I had to pick just one customer service skill, this one would be it.

Having a vision means understanding and articulating a desired positive outcome for the customers you serve. An IT service desk professional I worked with once described his vision by saying, "I used to say I fixed computers; now I realize what I really do is help people get back to work."

That change of perspective from transactional (fix computers) to a positive vision (help people get back to work) can dramatically alter how you approach service.

I've noticed that people who have a strong customer service vision tend to figure out the other skills they need pretty quickly. Those who don't often find themselves stuck.

It's great if your company already has a customer service vision statement to follow. If not, you can create one by taking the Thank You Letter Challenge.

Rapport

Service gets easier when we can build rapport with the people we serve.

It helps us create a connection and develop a sort of shared kinship where we both take responsibility for making the experience a great one. 

In one study, I discovered customers who mentioned an employee by name in a survey were 1.5 to 4 times more likely to give a top score (5 stars, etc.) than a negative one.

Introducing ourselves and sharing our name is a skill you already have. You can add to your rapport toolkit by learning the five question technique. Here's a video explainer:

Start a conversation from Customer Service Foundations by Jeff Toister

Listening

Most people are pretty good at listening—when they put their mind to it.

The challenge is we often face unseen obstacles that discourage us from using our listening skills. Here are just a few examples:

• Being in a hurry makes us instinctively want to listen less.

• Multitasking makes it more difficult to listen.

• Judging the other person makes harder to truly understand them.

Elite customer service professional prioritize listening to customers. And they don't just listen for the customer's rational needs, they try to uncover the emotions behind it.

One study surveyed airline passengers who experienced a flight delay or cancellation. The single issue that drove the most customer frustration was not the service failure itself, but the way it was handled.

Here's a short video that shows you how to identify emotional needs.

Identify emotional needs from Customer Service Foundations by Jeff Toister

Problem Solving

Must of customer service comes down to our ability to solve problems. This gets easier if we've already mastered the first three skills:

• Vision focuses our desire on a positive outcome for the customer.

• Rapport makes customers more open to our ideas.

• Listening helps us better understand what customers really need.

Of course, we've all been frustrated as customers by nagging problems that just can't seem to get solved. Often the missing element is ownership.

Many people confuse ownership for blame. They worry about being responsible for causing the problem, so they try to avoid it.

What ownership really means is taking responsibility for solving the problem. Here's a short video from the course that explains it.

Take ownership of problems from Customer Service Foundations by Jeff Toister

Take Action!

Here are a few action items you can implement right now!

1. Try implementing each of these four skills.

2. Share which skills are on your Top Four list.

3. Take the full Customer Service Foundations course.

You can find the course on LinkedIn Learning. You'll need a subscription, but a free 30-day trial is available.