Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Overview:
A Customer Care Executive is the voice ambassador of the company. An understanding
and demonstration of the required customer skills will enable him to reinforce mutually
beneficial relationships with Airtel customers.
Key Deliverables:
By the end of this module the participants will be able to:
Duration: 24 hours
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Introduction (1.5 Hours)
Instructions to Before beginning the session, conduct the following
Facilitator icebreaker.
Discussion Points 1. Illustrate two different situations, one where you were
satisfied with the service provided by a company and
another where you were highly dissatisfied with the
service.
Instructions to Discuss the answers to the above questions and then show
Facilitator participants the following slide. Allot a time of ten minutes for
discussion.
Instructions to Divide the class into two groups. Ask the groups to discuss
Facilitator the reasons for growing importance of customer service
today. Ask them to compare the state of customer service in
various industries and also compare it with the state a few
3
years go. They can use examples form their own experiences
as a customer to substantiate their arguments.
Instructions to Conduct the following exercise with the batch. Ask the
Facilitator participants to think of the various things that would delight a
customer in a customer service scenario. Give the
participants 5 minutes to think about these and then enlist
their inputs on the white board discussing each one of them.
Individual Exercise Take the telecom industry and discuss the reasons for growth
(10 mins.) of the importance of customer service over the past few
years. You can also refer to various industries and your own
experiences to substantiate your arguments.
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fruit placed for him on the table next to the bed. He takes a
bath and dresses up. Just then he gets a call from the hotel
reception enquiring as to if he would like for a vehicle to be
arranged for him to see the city. He agrees to the same and
finds a taxi waiting for him when he reaches the lobby.
Discussion Points 1. What is the difference between the three hotels that
Ashton has visited in India?
2. How would you divide the various levels of customer
service that Ashton got?
Instructions to Discuss the answers to these questions and then share the
Facilitator following slide with participants. Allot a time of ten minutes for
discussion.
Customer States
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Slide Delighted Customers
Satisfied Delighted
Served up to expectation Served beyond
Stay loyal as long as expectation.
they do not discover a Do not look for a better
better alternative. alternative.
Example 2:
BMW gives all its cars numbers, not names. So, you buy a
BMW. It also ensures that the garages which sell and service
BMWs are state of art. It sells expensive leather jackets and
briefcases to the owners. The BMW car sales person keeps in
regular touch with the buyer to find out if the car is doing all
right. And the company also sends regular mailers to proud
owners inviting them to BMW owners meet outings and
hiking. At the end of the day, owners are left with the feeling
that they have joined some sort of elite group.
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Example 3:
A woman visited a hotel in Thailand. She saw all the
hostesses in the hotel wearing a beautiful orchid brooch over
their traditional Thai outfits. She was mesmerised by the
beautiful brooches. On being seated, she asked one of the
hostesses if she could buy one of the brooches from the
hotel. The hostess said that the brooches were not for sale.
However, soon the hostess returned with a similar orchid
brooch for the lady and pinned it onto her shirt. This delighted
the lady no end and she kept on praising the hotel even after
returning from her trip.
Example 4:
In a hotel in the US one of the guests stood in the lobby
admiring a beautiful bouquet of flowers. The flowers were
really unique, something that she had never ever seen before.
She asked the lobby clerk the name of the flower and other
details regarding them. The lobby clerk, after providing her
with the details about the flower, politely asked the guest
regarding where she resided. Barely ten days after the
woman returned from her trip, she received a small pouch
with some seeds in it. Attached to the pouch was a detailed
instruction guide telling her about how to plant the seeds and
when the flowering of the plant would take place. She was
ecstatic on receiving such a wonderful gift from the hotel.
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Caselet (5 mins.) At an MNC bank an employee made a fifteen-minute effort to
get a crisp new Rs. 1000 note for an unknown customer who
walked in off the street. The customer wanted the crisp note,
as he had to present it at an award function that afternoon.
This is what the employee now has to say I made two phone
calls, got the note, and put it in a little box with a thanks for
thinking of us note on my card. The chance visitor soon came
back and opened an account; in nine months his major law
firm had deposited Rs. 2, 50,000 in our banks coffers.
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Slide Todays Scenario
Slide
Customer Service is the only Differentiator.
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Slide Importance of Customer Care
Instruction to Derive that the true value of a customer is much more than
Facilitator his monthly bill.
Instructions to Say: Thus you can see that the satisfaction levels of the
Facilitator customers clearly reflect in the lifetime value of the
customers. Therefore, customer service becomes a crucial
element to enhance the lifetime value of the customer.
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Slide
Outstanding Customer Service
Customer Delight
Instruction to Ask participants to look at the next slide and tell what they
Facilitator see. Tell them that just as in a bull fight the toro and the
toreador are face to face and that moment is the defining
moment of their encounter. Either of one can succeed.
Slide
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Caselet In 1981, Jan Carlzon took over as chairman of one of
Europe's most poorly rated airlines, Scandinavian Airline
Systems (SAS). Carlzon quickly implemented many changes,
the most important of which was to manage the interactions
that SAS employees had with its customers.
Instruction to Ask participants to discuss the caselet. Say that Carlzon hit
Facilitator upon a concept that is simple yet profound. Every single
contact between any employee and a customer is an
important contact, regardless of its length or content.
Moments of truth,
Instructions to Tell participants that M.O.T. cannot be undone & they are
Facilitator permanent in nature. We could enjoy a 10-year relationship
with a customer however it takes only one M.O.T. gone wrong
for that to change. E.g. Youve been going to the same
restaurant for the last 5 years however on one occasion when
you were visiting with your better half, you had to wait for 45
min before you got a table & even after that the staff
pretended like nothing happened & there was no service
recovery.How will you feel? What will you do?.customers
universally are sensitive & have all the rights.
Explain that even though there are several theories & models
on customer service & thousands of people have spent
thousands of hours writing thousands of books on this,
customer service is no rocket science or a business school
major, all it takes to satisfy a customer is:
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An honest belief in the fact that customer is the be all end all
of our professional existence.
Slide
Involvement is Commitment.
Discussion Points What are the various moments of truth for Airtel customers?
Instructions to Discuss the answers. Say that a moment of truth is not just
Facilitator when a customer calls the Airtel customer care. It can be
when he visits the FSO. It can be when another subscriber
tells him about his good or bad experience with Airtel. It can
also be when he sees an advertisement or reads something
about the company.
Discussion Points Refer to Ashtons story and answer the question below:
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Instructions to Discuss the answers to this question and provide them with
Facilitator the correct answer. Allow five minutes for discussion. The
correct answer is:
Slide
As Voice Ambassadors of Airtel,
YOU
Exercise (10 Write down five major events or accomplishments in your life,
minutes) such as getting your first job, earning a degree from school,
getting married, running a marathon, or career
advancements.
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Slide You could not have achieved all that you did without people.
Instructions to Say: People need people is true in every aspect of life. This
Facilitator is true for you also. However, you also have a significant
amount to gain from your association with Airtel as its
Customer Care Executive. Let us see how you can benefit
from this association.
Manager
Team Leader
Transcript (Convert Customer Care Executive: Good Morning Sir. How may I help
to Audio) you?
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Customer: I cannot make any outgoing calls. Why have you
barred my outgoing calls?
Customer: No
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arisen.
Discussion Point What are the key attributes an effective Customer Care
Executive should possess?
1. Knowledge
2. Skills
3. Attitudes and
4. Habits
Discussion Point You saw the key attributes of a customer care executive. It is
important for you to possess these attributes in order to be a
successful Customer Care Executive.
But what is the one thing without which you cannot perform
successfully even if you have all these attributes?
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life in general.
Discussion Points What are the key learnings from this video? Share your
observations.
Derive that the video gives an insightful view of how our work
life should be.
1. Play
2. Make their day
3. Be there
4. Attitude
Instructions to Play: work made fun gets done, especially when we choose
Facilitator to do serious tasks in a light-hearted, spontaneous way. It is
not just an activity; it is a state of mind that brings new energy
to the tasks at hand and sparks creative solutions.
Choose your attitude: when you look for the worst you will
find it everywhere. When you learn you have the power to
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choose your response to what life brings, you can look for the
best and find opportunities you never imagined possible. If
you find yourself with an attitude that is not what you want it to
be, you can choose a new one.
Instructions to Tell participants that all the skills they will develop as part of
Facilitator this training are an important part of their job performance.
Tell them that their calls are regularly monitored. First to help
them do self analysis and secondly to help them perform
better.
Components include
Prompt and enthusiastic opening
Verifying the details
Proper Closing
Listening Skills
Paraphrasing and probing
Empathy
Rapport building/ personalization
Language (jargons and verbal cues)
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Rate of speech and tone
Use of proper hold script
Hold Time
Upselling
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Communication (4 Hours)
Instructions to Ask participants to read the following scenario and respond to
Facilitator the questions.
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Slide Communication
Instructions to While explaining these slides refer to the scenario above and
Facilitator say that even though there was exchange of information and
meaning taking place but the communication was not
effective because a shared understanding was not
established.
Instructions to Have a discussion for about ten minutes. From this discussion
Facilitator derive that Communication skills are very important for a
successful career in customer service. This is especially true
in a call center environment. Call centers can be high
pressure, fast-paced environments where you may have to
deal with hundreds of people in one day. Hence, it is so
important to fine-tune your communication skills.
Job Performance
Success in interpersonal relationships
Creating delighted customers
Personal Effectiveness
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Instructions to Ask participants that while handling an angry customer it is
Facilitator easy to lose patience. Also the situation might lead to
aggressive behavior by some of them. On the other hand
some people might react to the situation very passively. Both
these are ineffective forms of communication.
Aggressive (Rude)
Passive (Submissive or Non Assertive)
Assertive
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Individual Exercise Think of any situation that makes you feel stressful and write
(5 mins.) down an assertiveness response.
Instructions to Ask for two volunteers for the role play. Ask remaining
Facilitator participants to note their observations.
Role Play Customer: You are an Airtel prepaid customer. Your friend
who is an Airtel postpaid customer recently flashed his
privilege passes sent to him by Airtel. You are angry, as you
have not been given the passes. You feel that as your
monthly bill is almost the same and that you have been a
customer of Airtel even before your friend took a cell phone,
you also have a right to receive the privilege. You call up Airtel
Customer Care to claim the same.
Sends message to
SENDER RECEIVER
Gives Feedback
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drawn on it. Ask him to give directions to the other participants
who will follow them to draw that figure.
Individual Follow the instructions of the person and draw out the figure
Exercise: in your workbooks. You are not allowed to ask any questions
Blind Mans Buff- I from the speaker or to take help from other participants.
(10 mins.)
Look at the figure below and compare it with the figure drawn
by you.
Individual Follow the instructions of the person and draw out the figure
Exercise: in your workbooks. This time you are allowed to ask questions
Blind Mans Buff- II fro the speaker.
(15 mins.)
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Slide Blind Mans Buff- I
Look at the figure below and compare it with the figure drawn
by you.
Instructions to Ask participants which figure drawn by them was closer to the
Facilitator original one. The second figure will be closer because you
were allowed to ask questions and get responses.
Slide Feedback
Discussion Points How can you use the learnings from the previous exercise to
increase your effectiveness as a Customer Care Executive?
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Slide Components of Effective Communication
Verbal Communication
Non-verbal Communication
Discussion Points Which of the two statements do you find more effective?
Instructions to Derive:
Facilitator
The second statement is more effective as it sounds more
confident and strong. It sounds like the person making this
statement believes in what he/she is saying.
1. Myself
2. Ms. Alka Never use the title with the first name. Either
use the title with the entire name or simply use the title and
the last name.
3. Basically speaking
4. Actually speaking
1. You know..
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2. Okay
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Transcript (Convert Customer Care Executive: Good Morning Sir. How may I help
to Audio) you?
Instructions to Facilitate a discussion for about ten minutes. Derive that the
Facilitator words a person uses can have a great impact on the other
person. In this case the Customer Care Executive should
have talked about the solution to the problem rather than
undermining it by saying that it happens all the time. He could
have told the customer about EFR and told him how to do it
so that his problem could have been easily resolved.
Be clear
Be concise
o Must say
o Should say
o Might say
Be simple
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prior event or by giving a brief preview. You could then
proceed to bring out the actual content of the message,
and finish with a fitting conclusion.
Must Say
The core of what you have to say
Should Say
Important but secondary
Might Say
More peripheral matter
Be Simple Avoid giving your listeners undue difficulties. Take
care that you refer to matters that are not very intricate or
complicated. You should be able to relay your message in
such a way that the listener grasps it with ease.
Genuine Interest
Respect
Helpfulness
Understanding
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Slide Respect
Slide Helpfulness
Slide Understanding
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I can understand call drops must be really annoying
sometimes.
I understand the urgency of the situation.
I will be handling this issue personally dont you worry
Sir.
I understand this must have caused lot of
inconvenience to you.
I will surely assist you to the best of my efforts.
Its perfectly alright sir, it is a very common problem.
Instructions to Show participants the following slide and ask them the
Facilitator meaning of the sentence written on the slide.
Individual Exercise Read the following sentence. Write it down in your own
(5 mins.) words.
Instructions to Discuss the responses. Ask them how many meanings they
Facilitator could think of for the given sentence. Derive that the same
sentence can be interpreted in so many ways by different
people.
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I didnt say he stole that money!
(Inference: Well then who said it?)
Discussion Points When you converse, you use a combination of verbal and
nonverbal signals. You usually supplement the words you
speak with nonverbal signs such as gestures and facial
expressions.
Group Exercise (5 Ask for a volunteer. Tell him that he has to say a few
mins.) sentences. He should speak out some sentences with a smile
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on his face and a few with a frown on his face. While he does
this the other participants should not be able to see him.
Slide
Can the Customers see your Smile?
Individual Exercise Draw simple faces, depicting eyebrows, eyes and mouth.
(15 mins.)
Illustrate the following emotions:
Happiness
Sadness
Anger
Surprise
Instructions to Tell participants that the objective of this exercise was to show
Facilitator how your face mirrors your soul and with your facial
expressions alone you can communicate a variety of
emotions.
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Slide Facial Expressions
Mouth upturned
Watery Eyes
Sadness
Mouth Turned Down
Heavily Frowning
Anger brow
Scowling Mouth
Rounded Eyes
Surprise
Open, O-shaped
Mouth
Group Exercise (15 Read the following sentences to first communicate praise and
mins.) then criticism.
You really know yourself.
You are an expert.
You are so observant. Im really astonished.
Your friends are really great.
Are you ready? Already?
You are really photogenic.
You seem to have lost weight.
You look much younger than that.
Youre going to do a good job.
That was some meal.
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Ask them what they felt while doing the exercise.
Slide Paralanguage
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affect his performance.
Slide Kinesics
Slide Mirroring
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Slide Mirroring
Excited Happy
Sad Compassionate
Hurried Understanding
Confident Approving
Happy Happy
Upset/Worried Reassuring
Angry Calming
Helps to:
Emphasize
Complement
Substitute
Slide Join all the dots with a straight line without picking up
the pen.
. . .
. . .
. . .
Instructions to Ask if participants were able to do it. Show them the following
Facilitator slide to reveal the correct answer. Then show the next slide.
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Slide Check Your Understanding
. . .
. . .
. . .
5 + 5 + 5 = 550
Instructions to Show them the following slide to reveal the correct answer.
Facilitator Then show the next slide.
5 + 5 + 5 = 550
Slide Change the following to six by drawing a single line
IX
Instructions to Show them the next slide to reveal the correct answer.
Facilitator
SIX
Instructions to If participants are unable to do it they might come up with
Facilitator questions like whether the line has to be straight. Some might
even say that it cannot be done with a straight line. Tell them
that you never said that you have to use a straight line.
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minutes and they can themselves see that how it hampered
their understanding. Now think about the conditioning of the
entire lifetime. How it can affect your performance as a
customer care executive. You will talk to different customers.
For example, you might attend a call from a customer who
cannot speak English and may lose your patience with him
but just think for a moment. Does a customer have to be good
enough for you? No, you have to be good enough for the
customer and fulfill his expectations.
Slide Perception
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When you receive a message, you make your own
assumptions about the details that are missing. If you do not
seek clarification on these assumptions, you are likely to
misunderstand the message.
Discussion Points How can a Customer Care Executive have lack of attention?
Paying attention to the customer is his job. Isnt it?
Time pressures
Communication overload
Excessive information
Instructions to Ask for two volunteers. Ask them to do the following role-play.
Facilitator One will act like a customer and the other as a Customer
Care Executive.
Role-play (10 Customer: You are an Airtel customer. You are having
mins.) difficulties with your connection. Everyday when you go to
office, which is in a sub-urban area, the signal goes off and
you are unable to make or receive any calls. Since you spend
your entire day in the office you are fed up with this
connection as it is of no use to you. You have called
Customer Care before but have not received any solution
from their side. You decide to call up again.
Discussion Points 1. Did the Customer Care Executive handle the call
appropriately?
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2. Did he use appropriate communication skills to
convince the customer that his problem will be resolved?
3. Identify the verbal and non-verbal techniques used by
the Customer Care Executive.
4. Can you identify any barriers to communication that
hindered the successful handling of the call?
Semantic
Perception
Non-clarified assumptions
Lack of attention
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Listening (4 Hours)
Instructions to Tell participants that you will begin the session on listening by
Facilitator doing an exercise.
Tell them when the Bs come inside the As will tell them a
story for 3 minutes. After 3 minutes are over the Bs will tell
them a story for another 3 minutes. They have to pay
attention to the story of the Bs for 1 minute and after that they
have to appear distracted and bored. They have to stop
listening to their partners. But at this point in time they will not
tell them why they are doing this.
Get the Bs in. Tell them As will tell you a story for 3 minutes.
They have to listen to it carefully and make notes if
necessary.
Tell them after the As finish their story they will have to tell the
As another story for 3 minutes.
After that derive what happened. On the flip chart capture the
feelings of As and Bs.
Exercise (15 mins.) Follow the instructions of the facilitator to complete the
exercise. After the exercise is over answer the following
questions.
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Instructions to Derive that the As would have felt good, important, great,
Facilitator wanted, on top of the world because somebody was listening
to them etc. The Bs would have felt ignored, dejected,
insulted, and cheated because they had listened. Derive all
this by asking them individually.
Slide Listening
Slide
The customer on the other side of the phone is a person.
The Story:
Jack, a computer wizard came to the Pink City two days
back. He was staying at S R Hotel. Yesterday evening -
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around 6 oclock - a group of people invited him to the hotel
car park to show him a new computer. When he got there,
they forced him into a Ford car. He was blindfolded and
gagged.
They took him into a heavily guarded building and forced him
to open a protected file in a computer. He was scared; he
managed to open the file for them. It was a document on the
defense installations on the Indo - Pak border.
After a while, the car took a sharp turn to the right. About ten
minutes later, there was a horrible stink. We traveled for
another three or four minutes, turned right again and stopped.
We got off and walked for a minute. Then I was inside this
building that appeared to be heavily guarded.
Give five minutes for solving. Show the correct answer on the
slide.
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Instructions to After discussing the correct answer, say that If you were not
Facilitator able to trace the route you were not listening actively. Lets
identify the importance of listening actively through this graph.
Slide Listening
9%
16% Writing
45% Reading
Speaking
Listening
30%
Ask them why does a customer take out his time to call you?
If you are not a good listener can you be successful in your
job?
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Slide Why does a customer call you?
Queries
Complaint
Service Request
Facing some inconvenience
Also point out his rude behavior to the participants and how
he got even more rude after the backend guy was rude to
him.
And
Instructions to Ask for 2 volunteers. Seat them back to back. Ask them to do
Facilitator the following role play. One will act as the customer and the
other will act as a Customer Care Executive. Ask remaining
participants to note down their observations.
Role Play (10 Customer: You are a customer of Airtel. You want to know the
mins.) various ways to receive information services on your cell
phone. You would like to receive news and cricket updates on
your cell phone. But at the same time you dont wish to spend
too much on it. You call up Airtel Customer Care.
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Discussion Points Did the Customer care executive interpret the query properly?
Did he respond to it well?
Instructions to Show the following slide to show the steps in the listening
Facilitator process.
Receiving
Tip: Tune out distractions and focus on registering the message.
Interpreting
Tip: Be open to the possibility that the speaker's frame of reference
could be different from yours.
Remembering
Tip: Identify central ideas and create a mental outline of key points.
Evaluating
Tip: Resist evaluation till you comprehend the message.
Tip: Distinguish facts from inferences or opinions.
Tip: Identify biases or prejudices.
Responding
When the speaker is talking
Tip: Use back-channeling cues.
When the speaker has finished talking
Tip: Use more elaborate responses.
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Instructions to Ask participants to read the following caselet.
Facilitator
Instructions to Ask participants to recall the graph showed earlier. Tell them
Facilitator that if we spend so much of our time listening we must listen
effectively. To understand how to be an effective listener we
first need to understand various types of listening that people
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practice.
Tell them that they were literally ignoring the speaker. Now
say that normally we do not ignore people who speak to us.
We do something even more dangerous by pretending to
listen or by listening selectively. This can give a wrong signal
to the speaker that we have understood his message while in
reality we have not. Such a situation can only ruin
relationships.
Passive styles
Ignoring
Pretending
Selective
Active Styles
Attentive
Empathic
Passive styles
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Instructions to Say that as a Customer Care Executive they cannot afford to
Facilitator practice the passive styles of listening. An active listening
style is more effective as it enables you to understand the
other person better. Thus it leads to a meaningful dialogue.
Verify a message
Express acceptance
Prompt the speaker
Express acceptance
When you listen actively, you identify and accept the
speakers feelings without challenging them. By not
denying or dismissing these feelings, you provide the
support and empathy that the speaker needs.
Reflecting
Encouraging
Summarizing
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Clarifying
Validating
Individual Exercise Read the statements below and identify what the Call center
(15 mins.) Executive is trying to do.
1. Sir, You seem very upset.
2. Can you tell me more?
3. When did this problem start happening?
4. This seems to be the problem you have expressed.
5. I truly appreciate your willingness to resolve this
matter.
Slide Reflecting
Purpose
To show that you understand how the person feels.
Action
Reflects the speakers basic feelings.
Slide Encouraging
Purpose
To convey interest.
To encourage the other person to keep talking.
Action
Dont agree or disagree.
Use neutral words.
Use varying voice intonations.
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Slide Summarizing
Purpose
To review progress.
To pull together important ideas and facts.
To establish a basis for further discussion.
Action
Restate major ideas expressed, including feelings.
Slide Clarifying
Purpose
To help you clarify what is said.
To get more information.
To help the speaker see other points of view.
Action
Ask questions.
Restate wrong interpretation to force the speaker to explain
further.
Take ownership to solve the problem.
Slide Validating
Purpose
To acknowledge the worthiness of the other person.
Action
Acknowledge the value of their issues and feelings.
Show appreciation for their efforts and actions.
Instructions to Tell participants that they are going to practice these active
Facilitator listening styles through the role-play. Ask for two volunteers.
One will act as a customer and the other will act as a
Customer Care Executive. Ask other participants to note
down their observations.
Role-play (10 Customer: You have been a customer of Airtel for a long time.
mins.) You used a prepaid connection earlier but for the past two
years you have been using a postpaid connection. For the
last month, you did not receive your bill due to which you
could not pay the bill. You called up Airtel Customer Care but
nothing happened. Now your connection has been
discontinued because of non-payment of bill. You call up
again.
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Customer Care Executive: You have received a call from a
customer. Handle the call.
Discussion Points 1. Did the Customer Care Executive use any active
listening techniques to understand the situation of the
customer?
Instructions to Tell participants that active listening techniques are useful but
Facilitator they cannot help you if you dont really want to understand the
person. This brings us to the highest level of listening that is
empathic listening.
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Slide Empathic Responses
Instructions to Divide participants into 4 groups and ask each group to write
Facilitator at least 5 characteristics of a Good Listener. Give them about
15 minutes for this activity. Remind them that you want only
characteristics that can be displayed over the phone. For e.g
If they say patience it is a quality that is desired and a good
listener has but how will it be displayed. It will be displayed
by not interrupting the customer. So instead of writing
Patience in their workbooks they should write Not interrupt
the customer.
Once they have written ask each group to share with the
class what they have written. If any group has missed any
point ask them to write it in their individual workbooks.
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Exercise (15 mins.) Write down at least five characteristics of a good listener.
These characteristics have to be in the form of a displayed
behavior.
Instructions to Tell them that our active listening style has to translate into
Facilitator displayed behavior. If you are listening to help the customer
he needs to perceive it as such.
Caselets (10 mins.) Shweta is a housewife. She visits the neighborhood grocery
shop regularly to buy her household requirements. She likes
to go to the same grocery shop because the owner
recognizes her and she also gets good discounts on her
purchase.
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she has a material need of getting a good bargain. But she
also has an emotional need, which is recognition of being a
regular customer and hence getting special treatment.
In the case of Nancy there is more of a material need of
getting her work done on time. But if one digs deeper she also
has an emotional need, which is being independent.
Exercise (15 mins.) You have to take your girlfriend/boyfriend on a date. You take
him/her to a restaurant. You have been visiting this restaurant
but today is special. What are your needs? Classify your
needs into material and emotional needs.
Emotional Needs
Material Needs
Accurate Information
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Commitment to solve problems
Quick resolution of problem
Performance as per claim
Occasional Concessions
Discussion Points There is no doubt that to keep a customer satisfied you have
to meet both their material and emotional needs. However to
do that you first need to correctly identify these needs.
Slide Probing
Slide Probing
Discussion Points Probing involves asking questions. Is asking questions all that
it takes to discover the needs of the customer?
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How, When, Where to ask questions?
Exercise: Build the There is a room. In the room is a bed. On the bed is a man
Story (his name is John). Under the bed is a small pile of sawdust.
On the floor by the side of the bed is a piece of wood, ninety-
nine and a half centimeters long. The door opens and another
man (his name is Mack) comes in. He looks around the room,
smiles to himself and walks out.
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shortest man in the world. He was exactly one meter tall. He
had a meter long stick (not a graduated meter rule) in his
room against which he measured himself on ceremonial
occasions.
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Customer Care (7 Hours)
Instructions to Tell participants that they have understood that you have to
Facilitator satisfy the needs of the customers. This can be done by using
open and closed probing effectively. These facts also
establish the fact that all customers are different.
Slide
Customers are not difficultjust different
Caselet (10 mins.) Raj got a cell phone as a gift on his 17th birthday. He knew the
basic operations of a cell phone. He has also heard of GPRS
but doesnt know how he can avail of this service. He is
enthusiastic about his new possession and calls up Airtel
Customer Care to find out more about their offerings.
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Slide
New Customer
Slide
Existing Customer
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Discussion Points Think of your own experience as a customer.
Once both the calls are played, ask participants the difference
they noted in the two customers.
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Slide How to handle New customers?
Provide Support
Provide guidance
Build Trust
Deal with patience
Instructions to Ask for two volunteers. Seat them back to back. Ask them to
Facilitator do the following role play. One will act as a customer and the
other will act as a customer care executive. Ask remaining
participants to note down their observations.
Role Play (10 Customer: You are Ravi. You are a 15 years old boy who is a
mins.) customer of Airtel. You are very enthusiastic about your
possession and call up the Customer Care often to find out
about new offers. Whenever you call you start talking about
how other operators are offering this scheme or that plan.
Basically you want to know if Airtel is also offering any such
schemes and if not then why.
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Slide Dealing with Talkative Customers
Discussion Points Customers are better informed and better educated today
than they were before. Also mobile telephony is a rage and
many customers would like to know more about it. As a result
many customers are well aware of the uses, benefits and
limitations of the products and services offered by the mobile
industry.
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Om Puri: Hello, I want to talk to someone who can help me
out.
Om Puri (tries to follow the steps for a while, then gives up): I
think I should ask my son to do this for me when he comes
back from the office. I am unable to do it myself.
Sanjeev: Good Mr. Om. That was a very good job done by
you. Incase you have any other problems please feel free to
contact us.
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customer was not very confident that he would be able to
do it himself.
Dont be cynical.
Show concern.
Be patient.
Use clear and precise words.
Dont use one-upmanship.
Help him genuinely.
Note: These questions are not for discussion with the group.
Instructions to Say:
Facilitator
You must have had various facilitators for your achievements
such as your parents, teachers, our personal qualities etc. At
the same time you would have faced various barriers within
you and in the environment.
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appropriately.
Slide
Angry Customer
Caselet (5 mins.) This is perhaps one way to deal with an angry customer!
The agent replied, "I'm sorry sir. I'll be happy to try to help
you, but I've got to help the passengers in front of you first,
and but if you are patient I'm sure will be able to help you".
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bellowing through the terminal. "We have a passenger here at
the gate WHO DOES NOT KNOW WHO HE IS. If anyone can
help him find his identity, please come to the gate."
Without flinching, she smiled and said, "I'm sorry, sir, but you'll
have to stand in line for that, too."
Instructions to Tell participants that this was perhaps not the best way of
Facilitator dealing with an angry customer, but it illustrates a quickness
of thought often essential in dealing with angry customers.
Instructions to Ask the participants to note down their learnings from the
Facilitator video. Then ask them the following questions.
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Slide Handling of Customers
Individual Exercise Think of a situation when someone was really angry with you.
(10 mins.)
How do you respond to anger?
Angry Defensive Reaction
Avoidance Reaction
Note: These questions are not for discussion with the group.
Instructions to Tell participants that they must be having their own way of
Facilitator responding to anger. This could be effective or ineffective.
The key thing to change your ineffective behavior is to
understand your emotional position behind it.
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Dictate how you react to any situation.
EP # 1
I will act the way I feel!
EP # 2
Youre going to act the way I feel
EP # 3
I cant help the way I feel, but I can help the way I think and
act.
So now that you have grown up you scold the dog, yell at the
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customers, criticize your spouse, scold your children and
bang the door to make people do what you want them to do.
3. I cant help the way I feel, but I can help the way I
think and act. (Emotional PositionEP #3)
You cant help it that they appear from time to time. But you
tell yourself that your emotions will not control your thoughts
and actions. You will control them.
Individual Circle the emotional position you would adopt in the following
Exercise: Taking situations. Then, discuss how you would turn the situation into
Charge of Your EP #3.
Emotions
(15 mins.) You have brought some work home to do in the evening.
Instead of starting it right after dinner, you decide to watch TV
for 1/2 hour. After you do that, theres another program that
you want to see so you say to yourself, Oh, ho. I think Ill
watch TV tonight and do that work tomorrow night.
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Using EP #3 we can reduce our circle of concern by
increasing our circle of influence.
Circle of Concern
Circle of
Influence
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Slide Proactive Focus
Circle of Concern
Circle of
Influence
Slide
Integrate yourself with the workplace
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enlarging and magnifying. It will also help you to expand the
Circle of Influence.
Instructions to Tell the participants: The three emotional positions can also
Facilitator be classified as the three ego states. These are shown in the
following slides.
EGO STATES
TA recognizes that people operate from different
Psychological positions or EGO STATES.
At any point in time, one particular ego state dominates an
individual and his actions are dependent on that ego state.
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Slide Parent Ego State
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Slide Transactions
I want all P
S
the P
Yes
reports
A A Ron.
today
R
C
C
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Slide Types of Transactions
This is P
S I will
most P do it
importa
when I
nt. Do it A A think
now!!
R its
import
C ant.
C
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How would you respond to this customer?
Slide
Lets look at
the
alternatives.
Slide
I control
my own
feelings.
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Slide
I can
choose a
different
approach.
When the flight landed the passenger got off the plane and
was moving towards the exit cursing the Airline and its staff
and swearing never to fly on this Airline again.
Caselet (5 mins.) Gaurav bought a video camera from a major high street
retailer a couple of months ago. Now the camera bag is
splitting and he wants to return it. The manager says he cant
help it because the bag is not covered under the guarantee.
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1. Was the manger right in telling the customer that he
cannot replace the bag?
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Slide Customers Complaints: Problem or Opportunity
Discussion Points What if the customer does not want to listen? I can only give
an apology and provide service recovery. What if the
customer refuses to accept it?
Instructions to Tell participants that service recovery is the basic thing you
Facilitator have to provide to the customer in case the customer has
suffered because of the company.
Now show the following video to the participants.
Discussion Point What is the one major learning that you have derived from the
video?
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Slide How Airtel Empowers you?
Make it Right
WOW Factor.
Step 1
Apology & accountability
Apologize and take accountability
I apologize sincerely for not meeting your
needs and I will do anything I need to to
make it right to your complete satisfaction
Step 2
Make it right
Probe and explore to find what making it right
means for him.
The attitude is -
Online waiver- no problem
Online VAS activation no problem
Online resolution to be provided to Customer.
Step 3
WOW factor
After apologizing & taking full accountability for
customers problem, the only thing left to do is
WOW THE CUSTOMER
Use effective service recovery intervention to
convert a negative experience into a wonderful
very positive and unexpected WOW
experience, if necessary, by offering free
goodies/Services to the customer.
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Instructions to Ask for two volunteers from the participants. Seat them back
Facilitator to back. Ask them to do the following role play. Discuss the
observations on the basis of the above three steps.
Role Play (10 Customer Care Executive: You have received this call form a
mins.) customer who seems to be very angry. You know the three
steps of customer service. Use them to handle this customer.
Instructions to Waivers will not correct the situation, as not all the customers
Facilitator will value them equally.
Derive that the customer care executive needs to use his soft
skills first to please the customer and only use waivers or
goodies when there is no other option.
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Be pleasant
A warm smile can win a customer.
Be courteous
Show respect to the customer and he will respect
you.
Be helpful
The customer should feel you are there to help him
and not an obstacle.
Show your genuine care for the customer.
Small gestures which give large gains
-e.g. greetings.
Extending small favors, if needed.
Mind Binders
Our behavior is largely determined by the words we use. If
our thoughts about our abilities and ourselves are negative,
we tend to overlook the positives and the potential that we
have. We actually hypnotize ourselves to behave as we think.
Every word we repeat and believe tends to take a shape of
what we become.
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into behaviors. Some examples are:
Instructions to Tell participants that our beliefs are responsible for making us
Facilitator who we are. Thus it is really in our hands what we want to
become.
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Slide
Instructions to Ask for two volunteers from the participants for each role-
Facilitator play. Seat them back-to-back. One will act as a customer
and the other will act as a customer care executive. Ask
remaining participants to note down their observations.
Role Play 1
You are an Airtel postpaid customer. You received your bill
this month and discovered that the monthly rental for GPRS
has been charged multiple times amounting to an extra
charge of Rs. 1500. You are furious as it is your due date
and if you dont pay up the bill your calls will be barred. You
call up Airtel Customer Care.
Role Play 2
You are Atul. You are an Airtel postpaid customer. You had
applied for roaming two months back. You were on a
business tour and had gone to various cities. However you
did not use your cell phone for more than a few calls. When
you received your bill, you saw that your roaming bill
amounts to Rs. 5000, which is beyond your imagination.
You are extremely angry and shocked at the same time.
You call up Airtel Customer Care.
Role Play 3
You are an Airtel postpaid customer. You have recently
shifted your home to another locality. You had requested
Airtel to change your billing address well in time. They had
also promised that it would get changed. Yet you did not
receive your bill last month due to which you could not pay.
Your calls were barred because of non-payment. You are
very upset about this and call up Airtel Customer Care. You
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are even thinking about disconnection.
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Telephone Skills (2 Hours)
Instructions to Tell participants that the peculiarity of their interaction with the
Facilitator customer is that this interaction happens over the phone. To
make this interaction successful it is important for you to learn
telephone-handling skills.
Slide
Effective telephone handling skill presents us with an
opportunity to demonstrate our willingness to help make life
easier for the caller/customer
90
Slide Challenges over the Phone
Customer: I was out of town for the past week due to which I
have not received my bill. Can you tell me my bill amount so
that I can make the payment?
Customer: Thanks.
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Instructions to Ask participants to write their responses in the workbook. And
Facilitator show them the following slides.
Slide
Opening a call
Collecting information
Call processing
Discussion Points 1. What is the first thing you should say when a
customer calls you?
2. Why should you greet the caller properly?
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Slide Opening the call
You should:
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Slide Collecting Information-Dos
You should:
Clarify understanding.
Use Jargons.
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addressed.
This time he again waited for three minutes, only to have the
first person telling him that the person who takes orders for
fax machines is out and can be contacted tomorrow.
95
Facilitator him by the company on the phone. Due to this he decided to
buy from another supplier even though this company was a
famous one and probably sold the best product.
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Use fillers to manage dead air while on hold.
I am looking up your account now.
I am updating your record. Give me 30 seconds more.
Thank you for your patience.
Tell him what you are going to do while you put him on
hold.
Instructions to Ask for two volunteers for the following role play. Ask
Facilitator remaining participants to note their observations.
Role Play Customer: You have been facing a problem with your bill for
the last three months. Every month you have to call to get
your bill and the call center executive tells you that your bill
has been sent. Last month also you accessed your e-bill and
made the payment. This is the fourth time and you feel that no
action has been taken to resolve your problem. You call the
customer care again but this time you will only speak to the
supervisor.
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Before transferring ensure that the details of your
conversation with the customer are accurately passed
onto your supervisor along with the customers name.
This ensures that the supervisor does not again ask for
that information and irritate the customer.
Also inform your supervisor about the language the
language the customer is using.
Use statements such as, Thank you for waiting Mr.
Sharma. I will have you connected to my supervisor
Raman Kapoor. Have a nice day.
Never disconnect till the call transfer has taken place.
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Arrive at a mutually acceptable solution to the concern.
You should:
Suggest alternatives.
Offer a solution
Sound Bored.
Discussion Points The solution to the problem has been reached. Is there
anything more left to be done?
Instructions to Yes, the last step of a telephone call is closing the call. It is
Facilitator very crucial as it helps to clarify the details of the agreement.
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Wrapping up the call as other customers are
waiting for you.
Speak Clearly
Take Ownership
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I would be happy to get you a supervisor but I
would like an opportunity to assist you first. If
you would help me with some information I will
try and ensure that I resolve your concern.
NO
I dont know..
Youll have to
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Just a second
We cant do that
Dont say an upfront No. This might make the customer feel
insulted and unimportant. Instead say something such
as, To answer your question I can do X, Y and Z for
you today.
Instructions to Once the participants have seen the video, ask them the
Facilitator following question.
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Use the word and in place of but. This is because
but negates everything that was said before it.
103
Slide Golden Rules to Handle Customers
Be patient.
Speak slowly.
Be enthusiastic.
104
Slide 7Ps of Telephone Handling
105
In case of longer hold periods inform the customer on
the time that will be taken.
Instructions to Ask for two volunteers from the participants for each role-
Facilitator play. Seat them back-to-back. One will act as a customer
and the other will act as a customer care executive. Ask
remaining participants to note down their observations.
Role Plays (3 mins Customer Care Executive: You are a customer care
each) executive working with Airtel. You receive the following calls
during the day. Respond to the customer queries.
Role Play 1
You are Puja. You received your bill this month and saw that
you have been charged as per the wrong bill plan. You call
up Airtel Customer Care to get the error corrected and also
to request for the correct bill.
Role Play 2
You are a busy executive of a multinational company. When
you received your bill you saw that you have been charged
for GPRS rental but you had never applied for the service.
Instead you had requested for MMS activation, which you
have not even used in the past month. You are a bit angry
as this is causing unnecessary obligation on you to get it
corrected. You call up Airtel Customer Care.
Role Play 3
You are Savita. You have recently shifted your home to
another locality. You are an Airtel postpaid customer. You
call up Airtel Customer Care to request them to change your
billing address.
Role Play 4
You are Seema. You have recently purchased a GPRS
phone and want to get the service activated. You call up
Airtel Customer Care.
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Stress Management (1 Hour)
Instructions to Ask all participants to come forward and stand in the centre of
Facilitator the room, in the form of a semi circle. Now give them the
instructions for the game. Tell participants that they are
supposed to follow the instructions given to them. But the
instructions are to be followed only when preceded by the
words Simon Says.
Statements:
1. Lift your right hand up.
2. Pinch the person standing to your left.
3. Laugh out aloud.
4. Hold your ears and pull your tongue out.
5. Say Hi aloud.
6. Wrinkle up your nose.
7. Squeeze your eyes shut.
8. Make your fists as tight as you can.
9. Say your name out aloud.
10. Bring a sad expression on your face.
11. Pull up your socks.
12. Lift your shoulders and try to touch your ears.
Instructions to Ask participants, How did you feel during this exercise?
Facilitator
Discuss their responses.
Then say: This fun exercise might have brought down the
anxiety levels amongst some of you who probably were
feeling fatigued after undergoing so many training sessions.
Stress can be effectively combated in multiple ways. This
would result in your feeling more relaxed.
Instructions to Give each participant a balloon. Ask them to blow into the
Facilitator balloon to the maximum extent possible.
Say: Keep blowing air into the balloon till I ask you to stop.
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Instructions to Ask participants to stop blowing air when a few of the
Facilitator balloons burst.
Now say: Why do you think the balloon burst?
Instructions to Say: Some of the balloons did not burst because they could
Facilitator handle the amount of air filled into them.
Now draw an analogy between the air filled into a balloon and
stress.
Say: It is the same case between stress and human beings.
Some levels of stress can be good for individuals but beyond
that it can prove to be harmful. There exists an acceptable
level of stress, at which the individual performance is at its
peak. We can see this from the following slide.
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Instructions to Facilitate a discussion for about ten minutes. Ask participants
Facilitator to think of a typical day in a call center. A Customer Care
Executive gets so many calls in a day from different kinds of
customers. Some customers may be angry or rude. Dealing
with such customers can be one of the sources of stress for
him. He needs to mange stress because as a customer care
representative it is his duty to treat the customer well and
resolve his problem.
Difficult/Angry Customers
Lack of cooperation from backend.
Instructions to Say: Some of the balloons did not burst because they could
Facilitator handle the amount of air filled into them.
Now draw an analogy between the air filled into a balloon and
stress.
Say: It is the same case between stress and human beings.
Some levels of stress can be good for individuals but beyond
that it can prove to be harmful. There exists an acceptable
level of stress, at which the individual performance is at its
peak. We can see this from the following slide.
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Slide
HR.Comic
Instructions to Say that we need to work out our own ways of coping with
Facilitator stress. Have a discussion for about ten minutes on how they
can cope with stress both at work and after work.
Positive Attitude
Prioritize What you need to accomplish during the
day. Manage your time well.
Stress Basket keep a basket handy and throw a
paper in it each time you feel stressful. Empty the
contents everyday before leaving.
Music
Laugh It boosts the immune system and reduces
stress.
Design your workstation put nice pictures around.
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Instructions to Ask for two volunteers from the participants. Seat them
Facilitator back-to-back. One will act as a customer and the other will
act as a Customer Care Executive. Ask other participants to
note down their observations.
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Role Plays (3 mins. Role Play 1
each) You are an Airtel postpaid customer. You have taken your
connection a few months back. Your phone is working fine
but the Caller ID (CLIP) is not being displayed when you
receive calls. You have enrolled for this service while taking
the connection. You have also paid the monthly charge for
this as well. Earlier you had called up Airtel Customer Care
Center and told them about this problem. However, no
action was taken. Today you are calling up once again. Tell
them that you are thinking of taking another (competitors)
connection if Airtel does not rectify the error. You are very
annoyed about the carelessness of the company.
Role Play 2
You are an Airtel customer who had a prepaid connection
earlier. You have just changed to a postpaid connection.
You were promised that your new connection will get
activated in two hours, but even after 24 hours, the
connection is yet to be activated. You are angry with this.
You call Airtel Customer Care Center and express your
annoyance.
Role Play 3
You are an Airtel postpaid customer, and you travel a lot.
While traveling, you are able to be in touch with your friends
through SMS. However, you also want to keep in touch with
the friends who do not own a mobile phone, but use e-mail
and Messenger. You want to find out if Airtel can help you
keep in touch with all your friends, including the ones who
do not own a mobile phone. You call up Airtel Customer
Care Center.
Role Play 4
You have a lot of friends and all of you communicate with
each other through SMS. More often than not you find
yourself sending the same message to a lot of people,
especially when you want to convey a plan to meet or a
sudden change of plan. You find it very inconvenient to keep
sending the same message to many people. You feel it is
painstaking and also wastes time. You call up Airtel
Customer Care Center to tell them about your problem.
Role Play 5
You are an Airtel customer and hold a bank account with
ICICI Bank. You are very busy and hardly get the time to go
to the bank to carry out transactions with the bank. You
have heard something about mobile banking but you do not
know anything about it. You decide to call up Airtel
Customer Care Center and find out.
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Role Play 6
You are an Airtel customer. You want to activate Airtel Live
on your cell phone. You call up Airtel Customer Care.
Role Play 7
You have an Airtel post paid connection. In the past few
months you have had a lot of problems related to your bill.
You are not very happy with the service provided by the
company. You have considered switching but decided not to
as you are happy with the performance of the network. You
have now decided to switch to a pre paid connection so that
at least you are free from the hassle of bills. You call up
Airtel Customer Care.
Role Play 8
You are an Airtel post paid customer. You had activated your
roaming service last month when you went to South Africa
for a business trip. You used it primarily to receive
emergency calls from your family, which was only twice.
However when you received your bill, you discovered that
multiple international calls have been charged to your
account. You call up Airtel Customer Care.
Role Play 9
You are an Airtel post paid customer. You had activated your
roaming service last month when you went to South Africa
for a business trip. You used it primarily to receive
emergency calls from your family, which was only twice.
However when you received your bill, you discovered that
multiple international calls have been charged to your
account. You called up Airtel Customer Care and were told
that your problem will be rectified and a new bill will be sent
to you. However you only received an unpleasant call from
a collection agency on behalf of Airtel that your connection
will be withdrawn if you dont pay immediately. You were
surprised at this call. The next day your connection was cut.
You are enraged and call up Airtel Customer Care to
express your anger.
Role Play 10
You are an Airtel post paid customer. Last month you had
placed a request for a change in your bill plan and you were
told that it would be done with effect from the requested
date. However your bill for this month reflects your previous
bill plan. You are annoyed, as your bill plan has not been
changed. You call up Airtel Customer Care.
Role Play 11
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You are an Airtel post paid customer. You recently put a
request for change in your billing address. You were told
that it would be done. You did not receive your next month
bill at the new address. You enquired at your earlier address
and got the bill. However, the delay led to an imposition of a
late payment fee. You are not ready to pay the late fee and
call up Airtel Customer Care.
Role Play 12
You are an Airtel post paid customer. You recently put a
request for change in your billing address. You were told
that it would be done. You did not receive your next month
bill at the new address. You enquired at your earlier address
and got the bill. However, the delay led to an imposition of a
late payment fee. You are not ready to pay the late fee and
call up Airtel Customer Care.
Role Play 13
You are an Airtel customer. As soon as you reach your
workplace the cell phone network goes off and you are
unable to make or receive calls. You have repeatedly called
Customer Care to get your problem resolved but havent
met with any luck so far. You have decided to leave the
network as it is of no use to you. You make your final call to
the Customer Care.
Role Play 14
You are an Airtel Post paid customer. You are currently
facing a financial crunch and want to cut down your cell
phone bill. It is mid-month and you are worried about your
bill. You call up Airtel Customer Care to know the amount
already spent for this month.
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