One person starts with one sentence of a story, and the next person builds on that, either bouncing back and forth between two people or circling around in a larger group. what the service rep could have done differently to minimize the damage. Yet it's terribly challenging to maintain after an encounter with an angry customer . Customer Service Improvement Training Sessions - Need help with customer service improvement training … The customer and representative act out various scenarios. To help your customer service team practice this principle, divide them into groups to come up with different ways to say “no” without actually using the word “no.” When done, ask the teams to come back together to comp… Share Flipboard Email Print Hero Images / Getty Images English as a Second Language. Begin this exercise with a list of personas typically targeted and encountered. They’re trying to bully you into giving them their money back for no real cause. A customer has come to speak to a member of staff to make a complaint. For more exercises like this, which are great for remote contact centres, read our article: 10 Fun Customer Service … A thief broke into your office last night and stole most of the electronics. Role-Play Example In an effort to improve customer support, John, Customer Service Manager for Mythco Technologies, sets up a team role-playing session. Hundreds of PDF lesson plans. This improvisation game is tailored towards customer service. Instead of finding people who possess all of these skills, it’s easier to hire talented people with a good basis and train them towards perfection. The following customer service training activities offer hands-on and engaging learning opportunities for customer service teams. Improving employee engagement is another way to make sure customers have a great experience. Courses MS Office Suite Programs (optional) Telephone Customer Service Soft Skills Contact Flow Role Playing ... Keep Reading The second? A Harvard Business School study showed that customers spent an average of 40% more money on their sixth purchase than their first, and an average of 80% more on their eighth. “the water was too wet”). Here are some customer service role plays tips to get the most out of the exercise. You can have the best customer service skills and the best training in the world, but if your reps are checked out, it won’t matter at all. Customer Service Role Play Examples - Customer service role playing is a critical component of an effective customer service training program. Several short five to ten minute role plays are better than one long role play as more customer scenarios can be … According to a growing body of research , comedy has the power of improving student performance by reducing anxiety, raising motivation, and stimulating participation. Join our list of 15,756 subscribers and get the best of our content in your inbox. 21st century customer service is tougher and more demanding than ever. Build your legacy one relationship at a time. E: Empathize – Having empathy in business pays off in all relationships—practice understanding and compassion when listening to your customer’s grievances. What You’ll Need: Pen and index cards, a timer. This resource manual is extremely flexible to your needs and the programs you present. Customer service role playing exercises are essential for improving your team’s skill-set, as well as for onboarding new hires. Communication techniques you can use today – whether you're writing an email, making a sale, or trying to win an argument with your spouse. Because of this, we’ve developed a strong fear reaction against rejection. … Who or what really caused this to happen? We All Have a Role to Play . Customers are not happy and refuse to give you their information again. Remembering names and other key items about a person are absolutely crucial in the customer service world. At the end of the day, think about what it’s like when you’re the upset customer. The exercises that come out of acting class aren't just good for aspiring performers. After the role play, the rest of the group can give feedback – e.g. Ask how you can help. Remembering names is a powerful social skill. Welcome to the section devoted to all the training activities, games, exercises and icebreakers you can use to strengthen your customer service training.. What makes a good customer service representative? Consider these three reasons to role-play in the customer service training classroom. This is a useful exercise for both groups. Remind new employees of these tactics during onboarding, and hopefully, you won’t run into this problem too often. Now, just wait until you see the results of happier customers. Set the role play up well. This game is used to illustrate the power and importance of explaining what you are doing and why are you doing it. Below are some examples of customer service role-play scenarios, just fill them in with scenarios that can or have happened at your business to make them relevant to your team. They can’t be learned from books; you need to live them. You want to make sure your customers feel satisfied and cared for and like their questions and concerns matter. Your objective is to resolve the issue with minimum reputation and financial damage to the company. If you really want to excel at customer service, we recommend role-playing a few common customer service scenarios with your team. The assessment centre is a great way to assess how you deal with difficult situations and awkward encounters. Too quickly?) A training facilitator can engage customer service trainees with an ice breaker exercise that builds effective communication skills. Customer Service Role Play Examples. Too slowly? Welcome to ESL Printables , the website where English Language teachers exchange resources: worksheets, lesson plans, activities, etc. As you write the script, include the appropriate non-verbal communication for the situation as well. This activity is adapted from The Big Book of Customer Service Training Games. Participants will develop abilities in telephone-based work, active listening, and communication. Our guidelines for using role-play in customer service skills training situations are: 1. The second exercise … Your employee accidentally deleted your entire database, including personal customer information. What do you say to him/her? Role-Playing. The role of the customer/employee is played by actual actors, or sometime by assessors. Welcome to the section devoted to all the training activities, games, exercises and icebreakers you can use to strengthen your customer service training.. Note: No amount of pre-made scenarios will help you respond the best to every situation. Here are some customer service role plays tips to get the most out of the exercise. 7. You receive a telephone call from an angry customer who bought a home security system from your … On the other hand, though, customer service … There are also various online games to practice your name recalling skills, such as Lumosity’s Familiar Faces or the Remember Names Game . The drive to increase the efficiency of your staff, paired with the need for them to continuously improve their skills, means that fitting in truly effective training can be difficult. Nobody likes being inconvenienced; you should understand that. There are customers all around and curse words are being said. The first exercise covers the most obvious objections that everybody already knows how to handle. Studies on neuroimaging and brain chemical transmitter measurements showed that the transfer and storage of information in the brain is the highest when students are engaged, motivated and feel minimal stress. a manager) and asked to deal with an unhappy customer or an employee who is underperforming. If so, how? Rachel and John show you how to handle an irate customer if you are in the telephone customer service business. what the service rep could have done differently to minimize the damage. ” By asking this simple question in your role playing scenario, you are asking your new hire to show you how convincing they can be. I have recently become a trainer and need ideas of role plays, games, exercises that I can use in customer service training.claire Halstead. Note: No amount of pre-made scenarios will help you respond the best to every situation. Having the opportunity to role-play and practise how to deal with certain scenarios is great for induction training, as it gives new recruits a real taster of what being an advisor is really like. Welcome to ESL Printables , the website where English Language … In our case, it’s about making the customer look good. When the role playing exercises are completed by the customer service representatives, the trainers should set up a question and answer session and perhaps have someone volunteer to do a role play … This trains your brain to focus on the positive. The mobile app Psych Me Up builds on this research. They, too, have a goal – to calm down the customer and minimize the damage as much as possible. Having a happy customer who knows exactly what they want and intends to buy it is great, but you need to be ready for any customer … It’s really about the infrastructure of communication and connecting. You can convert customer service scenarios into dialog simulations by using a course authoring tool such as iSpring Suite. It’s not the responsibility of John to make sense of that activity. Customer Service Training Tips Roleplays #1 Timing. Two employees are having a disagreement. It’s for a very large purchase. Five Cs of Role Playing (AOM, 3) Control: Role plays often take on a life of their own that moves them in directions other than those intended. Here’s how most sales role-play exercises go: The manager gathers the team and exclaims (with just a bit too much excitement) the plan to do some role-playing. Are you ready to become amazing at customer service? It’s the job of the partner – let’s call her Anne – to fix this by stepping in and making sense of the scene, that way making John seem fully justified for performing his activity. Although each specific company is looking for something specific in their employees, keep these general competencies in mind when answering interview questions or completing a test as they are common to all customer service jobs. Combine that with an improv mindset and an elephant memory for names, and you've got yourself one heck of a service rep. Pascal is Mr. Marketing at Userlike. Training your new customer service reps quickly and easily, as they can get the answer right from the saved replies. It works better to build on what’s been said. Want to improve your business’s customer responsiveness? In extreme cases a customer might ask a female agent to forward him to a male colleague whose name he looked up on your site. Role-play Different Scenarios With an Observer. Also, they are given a certain goal – to get a big refund, for example. John then, in return, builds on that. Excellence in Customer Service Exercise #5 - Role Playing Get into groups and write a script (no more than two pages) for an interaction between a customer and a customer service representative. What is the wrong thing to do in this situation? Grammar, reading, vocabulary, speaking. English as a Second Language (ESL) Expert. Customer service is a necessary component of almost every business - and it's definitely a big component of Low Hanging System. Here are some customer service tips to keep in your back pocket when you’re having a hard time with a customer. What was the quality of the representative’s tone of voice? You can address the specifics after this role playing experience and study just how well they perform when the customer is all but satisfied. This 10-week program (approx. Here are a few activities that can help you get started: 1. The roles are rotated. The training activity called Speed Conversations was adapted from the popular singles trend of speed dating. The Dale Carnegie Training Institute shares their method for memorizing names on their website : impression, repetition, association. ... customer service training, lesson 1 Level: elementary Age: 14-17 Downloads: 13 Customer Service ESL Worksheet Level: intermediate Age: 18-100 Downloads: 12 customer service Level: intermediate Age: 14-17 Downloads: 9 Customer Service Level: intermediate Age: 18-100 Downloads: … For instance, if you're playing the role of a customer service representative who's dealing with an angry customer, people could suggest what you should do to make things right. This trains your listening skills even more, since you have to pay full attention till the end of the last sentence to be able to make the correct follow-up sentence. But understanding how important customer service and training employees on correct customer service procedures can greatly help your reputation in the community. TESOL Diploma, Trinity … You could incorporate these practices in the above-mentioned role game, with the customer group adopting imaginary names for the service reps to memorize. D: Diagnose. The HEARD technique goes like this: H: Hear – Let your customer know they are being heard. One person – let’s call him John – takes the stage and does any repetitive motion that comes to mind, over and over again. What if you commonly face this objection? The service reps in Group B are given the task to resolve the situation. A nasty conversation habit is to be overly focused on what you want to say. At first, this will make John look… like a weirdo. Like in all improvisation, the participants should build on what their partners say or do. Take time to master the most important customer service … Customer Service Training Game 1: Don’t tell me, let me guess. Instead of going against what’s been said, your aim is to build on top of it. The power from improvisation training derives from the fact that performers don’t know what will happen before they’re on stage. What’s the first thing you do? However, if you and your staff are equipped to handle a crisis when it comes your way, you will be much better off. Today, if you’re rejected in one group, you can easily go out and find a new one. The service rep gets a thorough exercise in conflict resolution, while the ones playing the customers get a training in empathy – filling the shoes of the customers they engage with on a daily basis. For a successful performance, actors need to be present, listen carefully, and contribute freely. In this article, we will not only give some examples of these customer service scenarios, plus solutions and tips, but we will also give you some scenarios your team can practice dong role-play. Good customer service makes a client or customer feel special and unique, and this comes down to efforts made and behavior exhibited by you and your staff. In this ESL learning exercise, students collaborate with classmates to role play going to a cafe to order coffee. Ensuring that everyone who deals with customers on a daily basis follows this checklist can greatly improve your reputation. Even if you call roleplays practice opportunities people will still feel it's a roleplay, and worry about being judged. Mon - Fri 9.00 - 17.00 +44 (0) 1635 890450 The researchers found, however, that test subjects trained to look for “positive social feedback” were less susceptible to social stress. This role-play exercise helps a rep sharpen many tools at once –– in particular, the ability to interact successfully with the many personas they’ll work with within your target organizations. Once they are engaged in role playing, the trainers should visit each group individually and monitor the progress of each. Was the representative’s choice of words effective in dealing with the problem? The right thing? Business English Pronunciation & Conversation Vocabulary Writing Skills Reading Comprehension Grammar Resources for Teachers By. Each individual activity demonstrates a significant area of concern regarding customer service and may be presented independently or as part of a larger program. The word “no” is a trigger word that is known to evoke negative emotions in customers. As the manager, how do you resolve the issue without scaring off customers? This stress reaction however doesn’t do us much good in our current society. A dialog simulation is an interactive exercise that imitates a real conversation with a customer and helps people master communication skills without any risk of damaging the relationship with a client. There’s a way, though, to let your service reps live and learn these skills in a time compressed manner: training games. They are threatening to get you to shut down. What do you do? This is a useful exercise for both groups. Typically, a sales role-play activity is designed with one person playing the customer, the other playing the leasing professional, and the remaining group observing the process. If the role play involved heated interaction, the debriefing must reconcile any harsh feelings that may otherwise persist due to the exercise. Remember not everyone loves games, so choose them carefully and don't overdo them, but there's no better way to bring energy and fun to your training … For example, two people might simulate a meeting between an employee and an angry customer. So, come up with appropriate role-play customer service scripts for greeting your guests aka sales prospects. Students use the dialogue provided. How to Integrate These Techniques in Customer Service Training (Beyond Role Play!) Customer service role playing is a critical component of an effective customer service training program. For example, you can create a mind map online by using Coggle. Basic role-play means one person will act as the customer and the other will act as the employee handling the situation. If this happens, even if you don’t know the answer, you should try to find it. Role Play, or Role Playing, allows a learner to assume the role or tasks of a job by practicing or simulating real working conditions. It’s like replying to a negative review IRL. In most role-playing exercises, each student takes the role of a person affected by an issue and studies the impacts of the issues on human life and/or the effects of human activities on the world around us from the perspective of that person. Keeping customers happy and coming back is crucial to creating loyalists and staying profitable. Too loudly? Set the role play up well. This way, both you and the customer benefit from new information that can help it from happening again. After the conversation, the group can provide feedback on best strategies to deal with the scenario. Identification and creation of memorable experiences for your customer service … When the role playing exercises are completed by the customer service representatives, the trainers should set up a question and answer session and perhaps have someone volunteer to do a role play with the trainer. You can take the story in any direction, as long as it builds on top of the previous sentence with a “yes, and…” take off. Spoke too softly? The people who have invested in you will be upset. You don’t enjoy it either, do you? Since most small businesses don’t typically have dedicated customer service reps, the person needing to know these customer management skills should also participate in the role-playing scenarios we’ll cover later. You divide the team in couples, with group A playing the customers and group B playing the service reps. Here are the best games for training customer service skills and/or for getting in the right customer service mindset . Don’t feel intimidated by the word ‘role-play’, as it simply designates a training situation where an experienced member of a team plays the role of an angry (or otherwise disappointed) customer… These are some of the most common situations that can happen, plus how to fix them. But it can easily move to the level of more obvious condescending remarks. Your kind support is really highly appreciated. Traditionally interviewers would have to rely on asking the candidate how they would respond in fictional situations, but now with assessment centres, the employer can actually see how you perform for real (well, simulated reality). Customer Service Role Play Scenarios. Customer Service Competencies. Humans are social creatures, and in prehistoric times being rejected from the group meant certain death. A series of customer service situations for students to role play and practice their workplace English fluency. Are you impatient, holding a finger up for quiet so you can answer the phone or address someone else's question? The observer offers feedback in terms of how well the representative communicated with his/her customer. Crises are never simple, cut-and-dry experiences, but they can be handled well if you stay honest and stick to these tips. Activities that are sensitive to the new revolution taking place in customer service and meeting customer demands. This isn’t about cleverness training or joke training. Lesson – Engaging advisors with great customer service from their own life experience helps get the team thinking about the subject matter. You can usually use problem-solving skills to answer the question. 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