Internal customer service

During the training, participants will revisit the fundamentals of high-quality customer service, from discussing needs and agreeing on actions to assertive refusal. Using the proprietary Bridge over the Sava River and Black Ines games, participants will be able to practice viewing situations from the client’s perspective, as well as techniques for influencing and building cooperation with clients.

In situations involving cooperation between departments within a single organization, the key challenge is effective internal customer service.

It should be based on the highest business standards while also ensuring the effective achievement of all parties’ objectives. That is why we invite you to a training course in which participants will have the opportunity to take part in two training games dedicated to this topic. While playing, they will face the challenge of handling situations involving differing positions, dilemmas related to trust and distrust among other members of the organization, and building relationships based on trust.

Module 1

The first module will introduce participants to the topic of customer service. Through gameplay in a training game, participants will, in a sense, “step into the customer’s shoes” and face challenges that arise during cooperation. These will include a multitude of specific, often conflicting needs, a lack of sufficient authority in the eyes of customers, and gaps in customers’ subject-matter knowledge.
The group will become aware of different types of customer needs: substantive, psychological, and procedural. Participants will also identify behaviours that may hinder communication with customers. They will complete the module with a better understanding of the customer service process.

Goals

• An awareness of different types of customer needs: substantive, psychological, and procedural.
• A better understanding of the internal customer service process.
• A better understanding of how “difficult” customer behaviours arise.

Topics

• Bridge over the Sava River training game
• Substantive, psychological, and procedural customer needs
• Customer expectations and concerns, as well as a catalogue of demanding behaviours.
• Trigger factors – how to prevent the emergence of difficult behaviours.
• Communication barriers in customer service.

Module 2

In the second module, participants will identify pitfalls and barriers that hinder communication and learn practices that support effective interaction. They will explore and practice specific tools for diagnosing needs and defining requirements. With the trainer’s support, they will develop best practices for summarising agreements and setting clear commitments with interlocutors at the end of a meeting. This will enable them to better respond to the needs of internal customers, both in day-to-day operational service and during project planning, while reducing the risk of misunderstandings.

Goals

• Developing customer communication skills focused on their needs and requirements.
• Practice in tools for gathering and prioritising requirements, as well as agreeing on and formalising commitments.
• Developing the ability to apply selected communication tools and models in practice.

Topics

• Customer needs analysis.
• Defining requirements.
• Use of questions and active listening
• Clarifications, paraphrases, summaries
• Errors and causes of misunderstandings
• Case studies and best practices.
• Tool application practice.

Module 3

Participants will start the day with the Black Inez training game, during which they will experience a conflict of interests and situations of interdependence based on decisions made by other players. By competing and cooperating with other teams, they will experience the natural fluctuation of trust and mistrust during negotiations. This experience will help them develop approaches for rebuilding trust and overcoming deadlocks in discussions.
The game debrief will provide an opportunity to reflect on which behaviours support building mutual trust, constructive relationships with internal customers, and applying a win-win approach in business relations.

Goals

• Understanding the impact of personal and professional trust on the quality of business cooperation.
• Experiencing situations in which the key to success is effectively managing trust and distrust.
• Learning tools for building trust-based relationships, rebuilding trust, and breaking deadlocks in difficult situations.

Topics

• Gameplay in the Black Ines training game.
• Trust vs. distrust bidding process.
• When to compete and when to cooperate.
• Ways to break deadlocks.
• Methods for rebuilding trust between individuals and teams.
• Building trust-based relationships.
• A win-win approach in business.

Module 4

The final module focuses on developing the ability to apply an assertive communication model in so-called difficult service situations. Participants will become familiar with alternative communication styles (assertive, passive, aggressive, and manipulative), and each style will be linked to specific types of difficult customer behaviours. They will then use a test to identify their preferred communication style.
Participants will learn communication techniques that support responding to manipulation, personal attacks, and threats (including refusal, responding to unwanted behaviour, expressing expectations, and reframing judgments into opinions). By the end of the day, participants will be equipped with techniques for assertive responses in challenging situations.

Goals

• Improved understanding of an assertive attitude and identification of one’s preferred communication style.
• Practice in applying communication techniques in difficult situations (manipulation, personal attacks, and customer threats).

Topics

• Fundamentals of assertiveness
• Assessment of one’s personal communication style in difficult situations.
• Assertive responses to difficult customer behaviours.
• Case studies and best practices.
• Training in handling difficult situations.