Thought for the day...

Dramatic customer service!

 

Overview

There are many hugely successful, long running West End shows which continue to impress their audiences for years and even decades. But where does the success start? The cast learn their lines and then rehearse their roles, receiving feedback from the director until every aspect of the production is perfect. In business the rules are the same. Learn, practise and perform! Give your staff the same opportunity and you’ll be amazed at the results they achieve on their first night and on every other performance. Drama-based learning brings theory to life and engages your people on an emotional level, which means that what goes in, stays in. Emotional engagement is one of the key components in achieving successful, long-term behavioural change. With a high level of interactivity, the training is delivered using visual, audio and kinaesthetic techniques, ensuring that the learning is absorbed, practised and committed to memory. This methodology is exciting, entertaining and very effective. Participants learn the theory and put it into practice, taking ownership over their own development. Every session is tailored to the needs of your organization, with participants gaining valuable insight and feedback from those around them. This is a highly practical, skills-based day, injected with humour and fun throughout the day.

Training objectives

This unique programme will help your people:

• Develop an increased awareness of the way in which they use their tone of voice, body language and message content to communicate with customers.
• Reveal and sharpen their sensory skills, enabling them to accurately read customers and adapt their behaviour accordingly.
• Discover how to read the signs of those customers who are likely to create conflict and deal with them effectively.
• Develop solution-based language which will help them to avoid deadlock and confrontation.
• Increase their confidence when delivering difficult messages and dealing with challenging customers.
• Put themselves in the customer’s shoes and understand what gold standard customer service looks, sounds and feels like.

Audience

Front-line customer service staff, whether they deal with internal or external customers, face-to-face or on the phone.

Format

The workshop combines a series of drama-based communication exercises, with powerful forum theatre technique and one-to-one skills practice sessions with every participant. With your organization’s own customer service standards injected into the day, participants will be challenged to perform and find a gold standard level of service.

The expert trainer

Stephen and his team of drama-based learning specialists have been delivering highly successful, hands-on, practical customer service training solutions for the past six years. With a combined experience of over 50 years’ in theatre-style training, Stephen and his team can help your people overcome the challenges of dealing with difficult customers through effective communication and find a gold standard level of customer service using drama-inspired techniques. Stephen’s clients include, among others, Boston Borough Council, Camden Council, Kent County Council, Westminster Council, British Telecom, Legoland Windsor, Nutricia, Sodexo and Vodafone.

‘Stephen listens to our needs and delivers professional and engaging work. He sees the opportunity to inject the learning with fun and humour. We feel Stephen gives us the edge when developing our people.’ Mary Tobin, Repairs Contact Centre Manager, Camden Council

Workshop outline

1. The warm-up
   • Discover how to read the signs of those customers who are likely to create conflict and deal with them effectively.
 
2. Your favourite actor
   • The first steps to ownership. Establishing participants’ own experience of excellent customer service and their expectations of how it should be done. This section of the day examines the practicalities of excellent customer service.
 
3. An award-winning show
   • The next step. Following on from personal experiences, we cross reference participants’ own standards with those of the organisation, comparing the similarities and identifying key themes.
 
4. Communicating with your audience
   • At the core of excellent customer service you will always find effective communication. This introduction to communication, through practical exercises and theory, gives a detailed breakdown of the three natural components which we use to communicate. Introduced through a traditional theatrical game, participants never fail to find the ‘light-bulb’ moment.
 
5. The second night blues
   • Entertaining Theatrical Forum Sketch depicting a typical example of poor customer service. Participants watch and then dissect the action, challenging the characters to remould the scene into a successful customer-focused outcome.
 
6. The dress rehearsal
   • With an experienced professional actor playing the role of a challenging customer, participants put their learning into practice with a one-to-one role-play. Every scenario is followed with emotional and technical feedback, relating to listening skills, the use of effective open questions, the use of silence, body language, vocal tone and solution-based content.
 
7. The curtain call
   • Group discussion reflecting on the key learning points from the day and committing to change.