service excellence ISN'T for the PRIVILEGEd few

When an already fantastic customer service team said we need to do even more for our seldom heard customers, we instantly wanted to help.

This proactive customer service team had a vision to close the capability gap completely. For this to happen, we supported advisors in performing a verbal assessment, taking into consideration the neurodiversity of customers.

This solution needed to be designed to reinforce what the ‘right approach’ was for all customers! So a dedicated one day tailored customer experience master class with the following learning outcomes was implemented:

• Managing their own defensiveness

• Stopping making assumptions about a caller’s capability – dealing with diversity.

• Aggressive and abusive callers – managing theirs and the caller’s emotions.

• Controlling the call – keeping the calls on track.

• What the right thing to do is and when to escalate?

• Always be modelling good behaviour - all team members, from new to team leads.

The programme provided the customer advisors with opportunities to practise new and existing tools and techniques in a safe environment, exploring in depth seldom heard groups. Exploring and bringing out unconscious bias around differences in:

• Speech impediment

• Indicative traits

• Race

• Accent

• Fluency

Providing a more comprehensive and robust customer experience.

Much of the day was dedicated to simulating specially designed customer scenarios, role and case studies that delegates could recognise, as well as balancing the delicacy of remaining assertive and being accountable before escalating a customer complaint.

The learning supported customer advisors to not only be prepared for challenging conversations and conscious of stereotyping, but increase their emotional awareness, judgement, and use of language to deal with - every customer!