This course is designed to provide tips and techniques in both telephone and face to face skills to
handle difficult customers (such as rude, angry or aggressive customers) as part of daily duties. It also
covers handling customer complaints; tips for retaining customers and how to diffuse customer conflict
quickly and efficiently

By the end of this course delegates will be able to:
• Learning how to answer and make telephone calls in a professional manner
• Acquiring the required information to accurately respond to the customer’s calls
• Building rapport and satisfied the customer’s needs quickly and efficiently
• Constructively responding to a customer’s concern or complaint

This workshop is designed specifically for those who are on the front line, those who are the main
interface between the organization and their clients or public. Those who have recently benefited
include: Switchboard Operators, Secretaries, Administration Assistants, 'Help Desk' Operators,
Receptionists, and Office Assistants & Sales Administrators.

This interactive Training will be highly interactive, with opportunities to advance your opinions and ideas and will include:
• Lectures
• Workshop & Work Presentation
• Case Studies and Exercise
• Videos and General Discussions

DAY 1:
• The importance of professional telephone skills
• Importance of professional telephone techniques to the business
• Benefits of professional telephone etiquette
• Small group exercise and facilitated group discussion

DAY 2:
• The challenges of telephone communication
• Role of nonverbal communication
• Building rapport and gathering information
• Telephone guidelines when handling a call
• The verbal handshake
• Putting callers on hold, transferring callers
DAY 3:
• Effective listening techniques
• Questioning techniques
• Recording information
• Using positive language and taking ownership of call
• Closing the call
DAY 4:
• Communicating with customers with different communication styles
• Recognizing different communication challenges
• Main characteristics of communication styles
• Recognizing your own communication preferences
• Adjusting to other styles of communication
DAY 5:
• Pre-empting customers’ most frequent concerns
• Responding to customer concerns and objections
• Handling customer complaints
• Handling emotional responses
• Responding to the complainant
• Escalating the complain

A RECTUS attendance certificate will be awarded to all participants who complete at least 80% of the total course duration.