Course Description

This one day interactive session is designed to give delegates the opportunity to consider how best to deal with the challenging situations they may experience when dealing with customers by email.

The session will can be delivered face to face, or virtually using Microsoft Teams, and will include discussion, theories and principles, exploring scenarios, personal reflection time, and practical application.

Attendees will leave with a list of personal actions based on all that has been covered in the day.

During the session we will use discussion, breakout groups and other methods of learning, plus case studies and scenarios (provided by the organisation where possible)

Target Student

This course is designed for:

• Customer service professionals who regularly communicate with customers via email
• Front-line staff handling customer inquiries, complaints, and requests through written communication
• Team members responsible for maintaining positive customer relationships through digital channels
• Employees seeking to enhance their email communication skills in a customer-centric environment
• New hires or those transitioning into roles that involve significant customer email interaction
• Professionals looking to improve their ability to handle challenging customer situations in writing
• Staff members who want to develop a more professional and effective email communication style
• Individuals aiming to better understand customer needs and behaviours in digital interactions

This course is particularly beneficial for those working in customer service, support, sales, or any role that requires frequent email communication with external customers or clients.

Prerequisites

Certainly. Here's a Prerequisites section that acknowledges there are no formal prerequisites while suggesting how participants can best prepare for the course:

Prerequisites

There are no formal prerequisites for this course. However, to get the most benefit from the training:

• Participants should have some experience in or exposure to customer-facing roles
• Basic familiarity with email communication in a professional context is helpful
• Attendees should come prepared to discuss real-world customer interaction scenarios they have encountered
• A willingness to engage in open discussions, share experiences, and participate in interactive exercises is essential

Learning Objectives

By the end of this session, delegates will be able to:

• Identify organisational strengths and challenges in customer service
• Recognise and analyse difficult customer situations, particularly in email communication
• Define customer groups, their needs, and the emotions driving their behaviour
• Articulate their role and responsibilities in relation to the organisation, team, manager, and customers
• Distinguish between different types of customer behaviour (assertive, aggressive, passive, passive-aggressive) and develop appropriate response strategies
• Demonstrate effective email communication skills, including proper structure, tone, and language use
• Apply best practices in handling customer complaints via email, including empathy, clarity, and problem-solving
• Construct professional emails that effectively address customer needs and maintain a positive organisational reputation
• Develop a personal action plan for implementing learned skills in their daily customer interactions

Course Content

Welcome and objectives

• Welcome, objectives & agenda.

Introductions

• Introductions & sharing.

What's good about our Organisation, and what are some of the challenges we face?

• Breakout groups and discussions.
• Identifying the challenges and calls that are difficult to deal with.

Who are our customers and what are their needs?

Exploring and identifying:

• Who are our customers and what are their needs?
• What emotions might they be experiencing and why?
• What drives their behaviours?
• How are we perceived by them?
• What's important when we interact with them?
• What is our role?
• What's important about our reputation?
• How do we want to come across to customers?

Behaviour types and dealing with these.

Different types of behaviour:

• Assertive
• Aggressive
• Passive (Submissive)
• Passive-Aggressive

How people behave when they're in each state, which we find easiest/hardest to deal with, and how we react when we find ourselves in these positions.

Communicating effectively via email

Exploring:

• The importance of emails and the part they play in effective communication
• What should a professional email look like and contain
• The process and structure required to compile an email
• Identifying the effectiveness of using positive language, powerful words and phrases
• Grammar, punctuation and layout of emails
• Using simple language and Plain English - avoiding jargon, cliches and redundant expressions
• Using language and content to set the tone of an email, avoiding emotional responses

Dealing With Complaints via email

Discussions and exercises to explore and include:

• Responding promptly
• Tone and message – demonstrating empathy, and apologising where appropriate
• Clear communication – the importance of clarity and unambiguous message
• Avoiding jargon
• Ensuring the customer understands
• Problem solving – taking ownership and finding a solution to the problem
• Guidelines on handling common complaints
• Next steps and follow-up to ensure the issue has been resolved
• Maintaining a professional tone throughout the mail – remaining calm and respectful

Scenarios

• Group work to review, discuss and share best practice using scenarios and case studies.

Personal action planning

• Individuals capture personal actions.

Close and next steps

• Next steps and close.