A practical approach to customer service means learning skills you can use on your next call or at your next counter conversation: how to greet a customer, listen, ask the right questions, respond clearly and turn a complaint into a fair resolution. BOTI’s two-day course is built around these everyday skills. It sits within our sales, marketing and customer care training courses.
The current course runs at your offices anywhere in South Africa, live online or at a BOTI venue. The course page has the up-to-date outline and group prices.
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Introduction: Excellent Customer Service – A Practical Approach Training Course
The Excellent Customer Service course is for delegates who work with customers and want a better understanding of how customers behave and what they expect. Through discussion and practical exercises, delegates cover three areas: why an organisation needs a service culture, the core skills of customer service, and clear communication with customers.
Outline: Excellent Customer Service – A Practical Approach Training Course
Key outcomes of the course include:
- Basics of customer service
- Acquiring skills for customer service
- How to greet customers
- How to listen, question and respond
What a practical approach to customer service looks like
Many customer service problems are not caused by bad intentions. They are caused by small habits: a rushed greeting, an interruption, a promise nobody checks, or a reply that answers a different question from the one the customer asked. A practical approach deals with these habits directly. Delegates practise each skill, see how it changes the conversation, and leave with techniques they can apply on the job.
Greeting customers
The first few seconds set the tone for the whole interaction. A good greeting is prompt, uses the customer’s name where you know it, and tells the customer who they are dealing with. On the telephone this means answering with the organisation’s name and your own name. Face to face it means eye contact and full attention, not finishing a task on the screen first. Teams that greet consistently find that customers relax sooner and give clearer information.
Listening, questioning and responding
Listening well is the skill most often overlooked in customer service. In practice it means:
- letting the customer finish before you reply;
- summarising what you heard (“So the order arrived, but two items were missing?”) so the customer can confirm or correct you;
- using open questions (what, how, when) to understand the problem, and closed questions (yes or no) to confirm details;
- responding with what you can do, a realistic time frame and the next step, rather than only what you cannot do.
These habits shorten calls, reduce repeat contacts and leave customers feeling heard, even when the answer is not the one they hoped for.
Handling complaints
A complaint is information about where a process or a promise has failed. Handled well, it can keep a customer who was about to leave. A simple sequence works in most situations: acknowledge the problem, apologise for the experience without blaming colleagues, establish the facts, agree on a solution and a time frame, then follow up to confirm the matter is closed. Recording complaints also shows managers where the same problem keeps recurring.
Building a service culture
Good service cannot rest on one or two enthusiastic staff members. A service culture means everyone, including people in back-office roles, understands who their customers are, internal or external, and what good service looks like for them. Clear service standards, managers who model the behaviour and regular feedback from customers all help to keep the standard consistent.
Course duration and fees: Excellent Customer Service – A Practical Approach Training Course
This is a two-day course, designed so that delegates apply what they learn in practical exercises and take those skills straight back to the workplace.
Please consult the schedule for course costs, or request a quote from BOTI.
Recommended Prior Experience and Knowledge: Excellent Customer Service – A Practical Approach Training Course
The course is designed for:
- Delegates currently working in customer service who want to improve their skills, including front-line, counter, reception and call centre staff, and team members who deal with internal customers.
Recommended prior experience or knowledge:
- None
Related customer service training at BOTI
Depending on your team’s needs, these BOTI courses complement this one:
- Handling a Difficult Customer Course (1 day), for staff who regularly deal with angry or demanding customers.
- Slick and Confident Telephone Management Techniques (2 days), for teams that serve customers mainly by phone.
- Call Centre and Customer Service Training (2 days), for contact centre agents.
- Customer Service Excellence: Turning Complaints into Loyalty, a 3-hour online masterclass for a short refresher.
For more ideas you can use with your team, read our guide to customer service skills.
Book or Obtain Instant Quote
In addition to the public courses, we run this course in-house at your premises, at our venue in Sunningdale, Johannesburg, or live online. Click the link below to request a proposal or book the course:
Or browse all our courses, run at your offices, online or at a BOTI venue:
Frequently asked questions
What does customer service: a practical approach mean?
It means training that focuses on skills staff use every day, such as greeting customers, listening, asking questions, responding clearly and handling complaints. Delegates practise these skills during the course and apply them at work straight away.
How long is the customer service course?
BOTI’s Customer Service Excellence and Complaint Handling Course runs over two days.
Do delegates need prior experience to attend the customer care course?
No prior experience or knowledge is required. The course suits people who already work with customers and want to improve their skills, as well as staff who are new to a customer-facing role.
Can the customer service training be run online or at our offices?
Yes. BOTI runs the course in-house at your premises, at its venue in Sunningdale, Johannesburg, or live online.
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To build these skills in your team, book the Customer Service Excellence and Complaint Handling Course. Call BOTI on 011 882 8853 or email [email protected]. Training runs in-house at your premises, at BOTI’s venue in Sunningdale, Johannesburg, or live online. This course is not accredited. It is delivered as a professional skills programme, and delegates receive a BOTI certificate of attendance.
