Speaking English

1. Customer Service

2. Beginner’s Guide: Customer Service
• It is very Personal. A Concept of delivering a PROMISE!
• As a customer, you have CHOICES!
• Customers are the reason you have a JOB
• A support you offer your Customers both before and
after they buy or use your product/service
• Customer should never have to feel grateful for being
treated well.
• Today’s customer service goes far beyond traditional
customer service.

3. Customer Service
• Customers are more likely to switch vendors due to
service problems than for price concerns or product
quality issues
• Inverse Relationship between
• Elements of service quality that matters to customers
• Elements that companies perform best
• If customer’s problems are resolved, they will return
to a business and be more loyal
• Customer’s lifetime with a business increases if
service is satisfied

4. Why it matters?
• We all look for a little comfort in-between our rushed lifestyles, fast-
paced work schedules, etc.
• We want other people to be nice to us – comfort might come in any
form.
• Employers have difficulty in finding good employees, if they find, it’s not
easy to keep them
• There is a fear – pointing out deficiencies may cause employee turnover
which can be costly to an organization

5. Why it matters?
• Research says -> Turnover is higher in organizations where
employees have a poor view of customer service
• (Employees are good predictors of customer’s perception)
• Increasing the Quality of Service can increase customer loyalty and
employee retention
• With proper training and support, and with customer-focused
environment – Fantastic Service can be given EVERY TIME!

6. Barriers
• Your Critics outweigh Your Biggest Fans!
• Clients with favorable impression give feedback far less than
unhappy customers who spread negative comments
• There is need to recognize the barriers and develop strategies
to solve them

7. Barriers – Common types
Barriers
Internal and
External
Logistical Operational

8. Barriers
Internal and External:
• Internal -> Issues that exist between employees
• Negatively affect the Quality of Customer Service
• External -> Issues that exist between customers and
organization.
• Increase in customer complaints is a good SIGN

9. Barriers
Logistical:
• Issues that center on the organization’s customer focus.
• Ex: Insufficient supply to meet demand, later deliveries,
overlooked tasks, etc
• All of the above damage customer relations and focus is taken
away from the customer & service

10. Barriers
Operational:
• This centers around Costs of running a Business
• Creation of operating costs – Labor and material
• Ex: unpaid bills, trade-offs between quality and production
costs, accounts that don’t balance.

11. Be Active and Pro-active
• First impressions matter! They are mental SNAPSHOTS
• Appearance is the first thing customers notice
• Wear Appropriate attire for the type of Work suiting the environment
• Ensure you are well Groomed
• Present Positive Body Language
• Includes demeanour, facial expressions, eye contact
• Hold your head high, stand or sit up Straight
• Smile as often as appropriate
• Other important factors
• Tone of voice, speaking skills, listening skills, writing skills

12. Be Active and Pro-active
• Courtesy COUNTS!
• Courtesies include the words you choose and the actions you take – both
• Conscious efforts will become natural part of your vocabulary and personality
• Say
• Please,
• Thank You,
• You’re Welcome
• Excuse Me
• I’m Sorry
• Use Sir and Madam or a Person’s Name when you know
• Use ‘Yes’ rather than ‘Yeah’ (Professional)
• Say it with a Smile 
• Avoid taking on personal calls, texting or staring at your phone, smoking, eating, chewing gum

13. Be Active and Pro-active
• ATTITUDE is Everything!
• Its Everything – Good or Bad!
• Believe in Yourself; Believe You can Make a Difference!
• Appreciate the Good in Others and in Yourself
• Have an Open mind; Avoid Stereotyping people
• Maintain Positive Attitude
• Do not carry emotional baggage to customers, Everyone has
Problems!
• When you are positive, you can uplift others

14. Be Active and Pro-active
• Doing the Right Thing!
• A important factor in Customer Service - Ethics
• Be Honest – at all Times
• Truth has a way of coming out, ALWAYS!
• Be Truthful about your Products, Services and Policies
• Do not make misleading claims or negative comment about your competitors
• Think through your course of action before you take
• Words must match Actions
• Do what you say you will when you say you will
• Be Accountable
• Humans make mistake but important factor is what you do after you make a Mistake
• Apologize if you are wrong

15. Active Listening
• Making an effort to hear something – paying ATTENTION!
• Skilled negotiators: They listen carefully, understand the needs
before they make a compromising offer
• Best ones – concentrate on Listening to avoid talking customers
out
• Develop ‘Can Do’ attitude.

16. Active Listening
• Listening requires thought and can be improved through
practice
• Its more challenging when you are facing a difficult situation
(upset or angry customer)
• Stay Calm, focused and avoid becoming Defensive or Offensive
• Every complaint is an opportunity to make things better

17. Active Listening
• Self-Listening: Listen to yourself, ensure you are presenting in a
positive manner
• Listening enables you to understand the other person’s needs –
whether it is with customers, coworkers, friends or family
• You can focus on information needed to handle service requests
quickly and correctly
• It conveys a caring attitude and build rapport with customers

18. Active Listening
Active Listener Passive Listener
Ask questions and respond to the
customer
Receive information without
questions
Verify understanding Accept information at face value
Pay attention to what is being
said and how it is being said
Show little regard for the feeling
with which the information is
being communicated

19. Attentiveness
• Without even being asked, offering to reconfigure the size, packaging
and delivery patterns – unanticipated benefits
• Revised billing and payment procedures may be advantageous to the
customer
• Developing product that can fortify customer’s competitive position
with better understanding of challenges faced by customer
• When customer has a problem, you have a problem – roll up your
sleeves and become part of the crisis team
• Need to be constantly ALERT! ‘Attentiveness Advantage’ – powerful
available tool of every emerging business.

20. Attentiveness
• Understand the Complaint
• Listen carefully to the details of the problem till customer gets all
out
• Ask clarifications, if you are unsure
• Apologize, let them know you care
• Assure that you are going to help
• Recap, make sure you have correct interpretation, clear
misunderstandings
• Re-Assure, display Empathy. Customer must know that you
understand

21. Attentiveness
• Identify the Cause
• Scrutinize the situation. Promise you get back to the customer
• Determine if the complaint made by the customer is Legitimate
• If the customer is chronic complainer, connect with your Manager
• Apologize again if necessary, take responsibility
• Keep emotions out, stick to the Facts while explaining
• Customer may not like to hear what you say, but honesty will be
appreciated
• Do not cover up, be evasive or lie – Never a Good Business Policy

22. Attentiveness
• Solve!
• Once the problem is found, next is to offer a Solution
• Best solution: Tell what you can do and explain why it is best solution
• Focus on what you can do rather than what you cannot do
• Do not fault the customer. To the customer, you are the Company!
• Compassion and understanding mends damaged relationship
• Best solution may not always appease the customer
• Offer Alternative solution
• Ask for customer’s inputs, work together to come up with a realistic solution

23. Body Language
• As per a research by University of California, 55% of
emotional message results from Body Language.
• One has to experience to know how true the expression is,
• A warm embrace
• A parent’s look of worry
• An cheerful smile
• A child’s pout
• Someone pointing finger at you

24. Body Language
• Transmitting messages unconsciously
• At times your body too sends out signals without your conscious
awareness
• Ex: dilated eye pupil, unconscious movements of hands & feet
• These micro gestures and expressions doesn’t mean that they are
not powerful
• Sometimes such gestures may reveal lack of security and
awkwardness in front of an audience
• Development of unconscious negative gestures must be eliminated

25. Body Language
• Substituting behaviour for Word
• Sometimes a gesture is more effective in conveying a message
rather than words but may require few words for clarification
• When words aren’t enough or must not be spoken loud, gestures
substitute
• Ex:
• Putting your hand up sharply with fingers held tightly together and facing
forward means ‘STOP’
• Winking at another person hints at a little secret between the two.
• Putting your index finger in front of your mouth while pursing your lips is a
common signal for ‘SILENCE’

26. Body Language
• Gesture for Illustration
• For illustration, we use gestures for describing a object so the
listener finds it easier to understand
• Gesturing is a useful means of conveying visual information.
• Ex:
• Describing a round object, describing a square building, cutting through
space like a knife, describing turbulent ride of plane or boat, etc
• Illustrating your message through gestures helps create a clear
picture for people
• For someone who can’t see, you can hold their hands in appropriate
position to experience what you are describing

27. Body Language
• Revealing thoughts, attitudes and beliefs
• You don’t have to tell people how you are feeling.
• Ex:
• People who feel threatened or unsure of themselves touch themselves as a means
of self-comfort or self-restraint.
• People who perform specific gestures reserved for religious rituals reveal their
beliefs and values.
• People in a state of elation often breathe in deeply and gesture outwards with
expanded arms.
• People in despair, and depressed, reveal their thoughts and attitudes by the
slouch in their step, their drooping heads, and their downward cast eyes.
• Positive people, reveal their thoughts and attitudes with an upright stance, a
bounce in their step, and eyes that appear lively and engaged.
• Not every bent head signals depression. Sometimes it just means that you’re
reflecting, thinking, or absorbing information.

28. Body Language
• Getting most out of it
• Successful people know how to use their bodies for greatest effect
and where to position themselves
• Becoming Spatially aware
• Anticipating movements
• Creating rapport via reflecting gestures
• Becoming who you want to be
• Reading the signs and responding appropriately

29. Persuasive Skills
• Key to effective persuasion is having powerful ideas and
delivering them well.
• Persuasion consists of three appeals
• Appealing to their reason
• Appealing to the audience’s sense of your character or reputation
• Appealing to their emotions
• One must have three qualities in them to persuade someone
• Character
• Reasoning
• Passion

30. Persuasive Skills
• The process of working on how to persuade consists of
• identifying the core idea
• arranging your ideas logically
• developing an appropriate style in the language you use
• remembering your ideas
• delivering your ideas with words, visual cues and non-verbal
behaviour
• A single governing idea is more likely to persuade your
listener than a group of ideas
• People will only be persuaded by ideas that interest them

31. Persuasive Skills
• A four-point structure that can make your listener accept
your message
Situation Problem
Question Response

32. Persuasive Skills
• Situation
• Make a statement that you know they will agree with
• Demonstrate that you understand their situation and can appreciate
their point of view
• It’s an Opener – prepare them for what’s to come
• Problem
• Identify a problem that has arisen within the situation
• It’s Important that the listener will recognize the problem you
identify
• Problems can be positive as well as negative, alert your listener

33. Persuasive Skills
• Question
• Problem causes listener to ask a Question
• If they ask, you are better positioned to answer it
• If not, carefully get them to agree that a Question is worth asking
• Response
• Your response or answer to the question is your message
• The message should naturally emerge as the logical answer to the
question raised

34. Persuasive Skills
• Expressing your Ideas
• Examples
• Stories
• Using metaphors – a technique of expressing one thing in terms of
another
• Delivering Effectively
• Effective Eye contact
• Using your voice
• Body language

35. Confidence
• It is the ability to take appropriate and effective action in any
situation
• Ways you can recognize confidence in yourself
• Breathing easily
• Feel poised and balanced
• Moving towards a goal with sense of purpose
• Being proactive rather than defensive
• Laugh at yourself
• Ability to deal with anything (even if you can’t control it)
• Know everything will be alright in the end

36. Confidence
• Indicators of confidence
• Direction and Values – You know what you want, where you want to
go and what’s important to you
• Emotional stability – Calm and focused approach
• Positive mind-set – stay Optimistic
• Motivation – motivated by and enjoy what you do
• Willingness to take risks – ability to face uncertainty
• Health and Energy – manage stressful situations without being ill
• Flexibility in behaviour – adapt your behaviour according to
circumstance
• Eagerness to develop – stretching yourself, take discoveries to new
experiences

37. Confidence
Managing your Fears
• Avoiding the trap of fear
• It is a trap you can stumble upon unexpectedly
• Sudden loss of confidence can show up
• Way out – first notice, acknowledge what is happening and find a way to
move on
• Transforming fears into Confidence
• Fears can trigger to action, experience may lead to a real benefit
• You need to take energy from fear, let go of emotion, feel empowered
• To let go of fear, strengthen your confidence, it is important to face what
worries you

38. Confidence
• Exercise to break down your sense of fear
• Once you know what you are scared of, you can find ways to face it
or manage it
What do you
fear?
How did this fear
begin?
What ideas have
you got to change
it?
What action will
you take and
when?
Taking on a huge
loan to buy a
house
My parents told
me I should not
ever owe anyone
money
Talk to friends,
colleagues who have
taken loans. Work out
a plan for repayments
with different banks
offering different
interest rates
Put efforts in
identifying a good
financial adviser to
understand and
get good
knowledge at the
earliest

39. Confidence
Appearing Confident
1. Go to a crowded place.
• Station or airport, shopping malls, playground, etc
2. Look around until you spot someone who appears confident to
you.
3. Analyse what it is that makes you think they’re confident.
• Determine, about the way they look, carry themselves and speak
• Write down 3 to 4 things
4. Consider how you can imitate or incorporate these qualities in
your own behaviour.
Now go out and try your new behaviors and notice the difference.

40. Dealing with Queries
• Customer complaints/queries are a part of every business you deal
with.
• When you have many clients at the same time, you will have at least
one client who is unsatisfied
• It is important to be professional, tackle issues quickly and
methodologically when dealing with queries
• Solving a query effectively can be a great opportunity for business
• A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all

41. Dealing with Queries
Steps to deal
1. Look past the fury or friction.
• Complaints, even the furious ones, can be insightful – its your job to seek out
• Execute Mindful Questioning – it helps you to get to the source of the issue
2. Record and process meaningful complaints
• Helping customers is always right, but haphazardly following their demands is
always wrong
• Key is to make it easy. If it is “Hard to do”, then this leads to never being done.
• Make note of meaningful complaints

42. Dealing with Queries
3. Identify the customer you are talking to
• Meek Customer:
• He doesn’t want to be a burden, or he doesn’t think you will care
• You need to inquire deeper to know exactly what is wrong
• Aggressive Customer:
• Outspoken and not shy about letting you know what’s on their mind.
• Avoid mirroring the customer’s behaviour, react with politeness but not submissive
• High Roller:
• Your “Enterprise” customer who likes to play well and demands premium support.
• Set up a “VIP” folder to cater to the high roller’s needs
• Chronic Complainer:
• They will contact you a lot, but this doesn’t mean their issues should be dismissed
• Patience is the key. Once the customer is satisfied, he/she will have no issues praising

43. Dealing with Queries
• The Barnacle:
• This is a “rip-off” customer. This customer is never happy.
• They try to get something they don’t deserve. Nothing is good enough unless they get handout.
4. Don’t be passive-aggressive
• Just say you are sorry. Any other attempt to apologize comes off as dismissive
(misuse of tone)
• Even when the customer is unreasonable, apologize outright and ask how you
might help to resolve the issue.
5. Transfer quickly, but explain why
• Never miss an opportunity to briefly explain to a customer about the benefits.
• Its nearly impossible to get anyone excited about being transferred
• Without briefing, customers won’t know that you are doing the best thing

44. Dealing with Queries
6. Use supportive questioning
• There is a fine line between following up and inadvertently swaying a customer to
dwell upon his bad mood.
• Asking a customer a negative question (“Is there anything else wrong?”) is asking
for a negative outcome.
• Conversely, inquiring to further assist shows your willingness to address customer
needs.
7. Time is of the essence
• In case of a unhappy customer, a speedy response is necessary
• Make responding to the customer a priority
• Be conscious if there is a situation where speed take a priority

45. Dealing with Queries
8. Verify the resolution
• You need to be absolutely sure that the customer is clear on the resolution that
occurred and that it met their needs.
• If you are not ending your responses with an inviting question, you may be
creating unnecessary trouble
9. Treat customers with genuine respect
• The day you stop talking to customers like regular people is the day you lose
touch and relevance and later lose customers
• Provide a comfortable behaviour to the customers you are serving, any situation
10. Don’t drag out a lost cause
• If a customer wants to cancel his account, do it right away
• Hassling upon exit, however, will assure they never return
• Winning customers back with exceptional service is fundamental

46. Customers and Adapting Styles
The Analytical
• These are precise, rational, self-controlled, business-like and serious kind
• They are motivated by details and facts, like rigid timetables, display reserved
behavior while interacting with people
• Disregard personal opinions when making decisions
Adapting Style
• Respect and support their principles, approach and way of thinking
• Be systematic, exact and logical, provide facts, data, history and financial details in
a structured and organized format
• Use guarantees or warrantees to reduce perceived tasks
• Do not challenge their knowledge on the product or their point of view

47. Customers and Adapting Styles
The Driver
• They make decisions quickly and have an urge to achieve
• They are assertive, impatient, determined, task oriented and need relevant
information
• They may not care about personal relationships, except as a means to reach a goal
Adapting Style
• Be professional and efficient, identify their objectives, support & assist if possible
• Don’t waste time in small talks, be to the point, establish rapport quickly
• Use facts and logic, provide options so that customers feel they are in control

48. Customers and Adapting Styles
The Amiable
• They are respectful, agreeable, willing, supportive, friendly and responsive
• They are team players who focus on innovation and long-term association
• They value relationships and engage with people they feel they can trust
Adapting Style
• Establish personal relationship and discuss personal issues (family, interests)
• Look for collaboration with customer, openly discuss the issues in a
conversational manner
• Use personal commitments and guarantees, demonstrate low risk solutions
and don’t take advantage of them

49. Customers and Adapting Styles
The Expressive
• They are charismatic, confident, nurturing and focused.
• They like to talk a lot, possess strong persuasive skills and also strive for
recognition
• While they are impatient with details but are happy to focus on big picture
Adapting Style
• Give them recognition and approval, get feedback about your service
• Focus on big picture of how your service will benefit them, discuss all aspects of
your product/service
• Be aware that such customers buy product or service based on recommendations
of known people, so keep best of testimonials while handling

50. Feedback

51. Feedback
• Customer want their voices to be heard and heard NOW!
• Feedback comes in many forms and from a variety of sources
• Feedbacks can be addictive
• Its important to know how you did when compared to yesterday;
compared to last month; in your department
• Its one thing to listen to and capture the voice of the customer.
• Its another thing to analyze and apply the feedback in ways that
enhance the customer experience
• But are the customers really listened to? about their voices? what they
are telling us across channels?

52. Reaching feedback?
Your
Customers
Your
Employees
Missed
Customers
Satisfied
Customers

53. Ways of listening to Customers
• Customer Surveys
• Face-to-face, via email, on websites, over telephone – ask customers to rate
• It measures how well you have done at creating “Passionate promoters”
• Toll-free hotlines
• A good service recovery system has a phone hotline with employees trained and
focused on resolving customer problems
• Customers who call-in to register a complaint, make a suggestion, ask a
question, offer extremely valuable inputs on your service
• E-mail
• Many customers rely on e-mail as a way to communicate their pleasure or
displeasure
• This offers an opportunity to respond to customer and resolve before they go
public to reach wider audience.

54. Ways of listening to Customers
• Your company website
• Managing customers on your turf is much preferred and controllable than having
customers go elsewhere to give feedback
• Strive to be active in soliciting customer feedback and reviews on your own website
• Give your customers a reason to come back to your site and leave their feedback
• Social Media
• More than half of world’s population (4.55 billion) use social media and among those
many could be your customer
• Probably a lot of customers like, follow, are fans of your business and check those
platforms on daily basis – multiple times a day
• It offers blog posts, distribute surveys, auto-response (chatbots), contests, stories,
polls, etc – a guaranteed valuable feedback who truly use your products & services

55. Evaluating Feedback
• Consider the source
• If you receive negative feedback on a website, it should be dealt immediately
• Call them, e-mail them, reach out to them, find out more information on how you
can earn back their trust
• You need them, by reaching out to them and resolve, might garner you a new loyal
customer
• Watch the tone
• If its an irate customer, it can be tempting to respond in a lashing way he/she never
forgets
• In such case, customer will never change his opinion and may influence his associates
to never try
• Try responding with kindness, apologize for bad experience, offer discounts if he
might try again

56. Evaluating Feedback
• Quality vs Quantity
• Its always great to have qualitative feedback – specific, detailed and constructive
• But customers inputs does not always come in gift wrapped
• Amazon has million customers worldwide – a large quantity of feedback on sellers
can be helpful
• Consistency of Feedback
• A pattern of similar feedback can either be encouraging or discouraging to
customers
• Retailers like Amazon provides potential customers with accurate look at products
• Amazon helps customers get balanced and credible information run side by side
while purchasing
• Most of the customers find such feedback believable and useful

57. Evaluating Feedback
• Is the feedback realistic and actionable?
• At times, customers have unrealistic expectations which needs to be taken with
pinch of salt
• Some feedbacks are clearly inaccurate and its an opportunity to step in to clarify
facts
• Focus on customer loyalty drivers
• Pleasing every is not possible and it doesn’t matter how hard one tries
• Its all about making choices and how you respond must be based on,
• Who are your most valuable customers?
• What service has biggest impact on customers repurchase intentions?
• Whom you are trying to appeal the most?

58. Pay Attention: Action Steps
• Consider your own history as a customer
• Build an awareness of your company’s online presence
• Make sure you have good control of your purpose, strategy and core
customer
• Go where your customers are
• Establish goals and metrics
• Expand to other channels when you are comfortable doing
• Reach out to customers through social networking
• When something goes wrong, recover quickly and thoughtfully

59. Customer Rewards & Appreciation
• Customer Appreciation
• Prioritize customer appreciation
• Feeling and expressing gratitude has
psychological benefits
• Uplifts work environment where people come
first.
• Why is it important for a business?
• Businesses reinforce the relationships
• Can translate to higher retention and referral
rates.

60. Managing Stress

61. Managing Stress
• Customer service is a stressful occupation
• Stress management skills are excellent life skills that will serve you well
regardless of any chosen profession
• Eustress
• healthy form of stress that helps keep you motivated, enables you to feel a sense of
accomplishment.
• It encourages you to work harder to accomplish your goals or make positive changes
• Distress – negative form of stress that causes strain, anxiety, or suffering
• According to one estimate, 75% to 90% of all visits to Physicians are for stress
related problems.

62. Causes of Stress
Causes of
Stress
Institutional
stressors
Situational
stressors
Personal
stressors

63. Institutional Stressors
• Stressors that accompany the type of business you are in or the state of the
organization where you work.
• They exist anywhere you work
• Nonprofit organizations lack financial resources
• Small companies lack redundancy in their workforce
• Start-up companies lacks infrastructure and discipline
• Challenge – figure out which institutional stressors you want to experience
• You will have little ability to influence institutional stressors as they come with
territory
• Work carefully!

64. Situational Stressors
• Stressors that accompany the type of work you do.
• Factors that cause such stressors
• Challenge – Do you have the attitude and skills needed to handle such
situations
• Have greater ability to influence such stressor than Institutional by
developing a positive attitude and skills
• You can control the amount of stress by choosing to deal positively
Conflict with
coworkers
Insufficient
training/time for
training
Insufficient tools, lack
of knowledge on
procedures
Difficult customer
situations
Heavy
workload
Lack of career
opportunity
Poor product
quality
Response time
restrictions
Understaffing Interruptions

65. Personal Stressors
• Stressors that accompany your life experiences.
• Factors that cause such stressors
• Here you have greatest ability to influence personal stressors compared to
other two stressors
• You can determine ways to either eliminate the stressor or minimize its effects
on your life.
Travel to and
from work
Decision making when
too many choices and
less time
Short or long-term
illness
Experiencing
emotions – sorrow,
fear, anxiety
Environmental
discomfort
Financial Physical
Social (interact
with other people)
Work pressure
Chemical
(drugs, alcohol,
caffeine)

66. Developing Coping Mechanisms
• One must either learn to live with stressors or find way to minimize their
effects by managing how you respond.
• Two factors that affect how people respond to stress
1. How much Control a Person has over a stressor?
• You may not be able to control what happens around you, but there is always
something you can do (get focused, work effectively when busy)
2. Whether a person chooses to be exposed to a stressor?
• You have two choices – Change the situation or Control the way you respond
• Once you choose to accept a stressor, stop complaining.
• Next, determine what you can do to minimize the effect the stressor is having on you
• Continuously remind yourself that you are accepting a particular stressor

67. Mastering the Change
• Technology changes quickly and soon become obsolete.
• Take the time to continuously update and improve your technical skills along with
business, soft and self-management skills
• Develop Flexibility
• Do not wait for your responsibilities to be described in perfect detail
• Develop the ability to quickly figure out what needs to be done and do it
• Prove your worth by being willing to do what needs to be done to achieve its goals
• Speed Up
• Approach work with sense of urgency
• Try not to involve in endless discussion, planning in an effort to ensure the outcome is
perfect
• High quality is important, but need not be perfect. Stive for excellence and do it Fast!

68. Sense of Humor
• Humor offers an effective communication tool to connect with customers
• Humor helps to ease out tensions and relax the person you are interacting
with
• Challenge – what constitutes appropriate humor in different contexts
• Making a customer laugh does not guarantee a SALE
• Any attempt of humorous interaction must be based on careful
management and strategic approach
• It can prove extremely helpful in dispersing tensions and building
relationship with the customer based on trust and liking

69. Sense of Humor – Why?
• World of Business and Competition
• It is highly stressed environment, causing unwanted and unnecessary friction in interactions
• A touch of humor in customer service can relieve these tensions and frictions
• As relationships build, more customers would be drawn and would want to forge
relationships
• Keeping Human touch intact
• With advancements of technology, interactions are becoming more distant
• Humor adds a smile and a personal touch to make customers feel special
• Brings more productivity
• Humor creates cheerful atmosphere, encourages interaction, creation of new ideas, feel of
little risk, seeing this positively – leading to higher productivity!

70. Sense of Humor – Why?
• Positive health effects
• The service agents must put an effort to make customers smile apart from regular job
• By going an extra mile, it ensures customers are happy and remain stress free during
interactions
• Well-being (scientifically)
• Scientifically humor and laughter are known to increase the feel-good hormones and
chemicals in the body
• In turn this relieves pain and make the person have a sense of being well
• Humor is also great for heart as it keeps blood pressure normal keeping body and
mind stable and healthy

71. Sense of Humor – Why?
• You Stand Out
• A touch of humor in your interactions with customer will make you stand out and
remembered.
• Your advices and assurances will be received in a much better way by the customer
• Entertaining the Customer
• While Interacting with a confused and irritated customer, indulge in a nice, casual, and
funny way
• You make them feel relax and make the interaction enjoyable, entertaining and happy
experience
• Uplifts employee’s morale
• Being humor, receiving an encouraging comment, appreciating remark, funny
response will surely motivate and uplift the morale

72. Team Building

73. Team Building
• “A group of people organized to work together toward the achievement of
a goal”
• Reasons for Team Setting
• Good number of available products:
• No one can master all of the available products
• Need for business knowledge:
• It is practically not possible to acquire every business and technical skills (like accounting
skills, banking knowledge)
• Need to use resources effectively and efficiently:
• There is need of high productivity and high quality.
• Service requests must be handled correctly the first time, no time for doing thins over

74. Reasons for Team Setting (contd)
• Reasons for Team setting
• Integration of Products and Systems:
• Ex: Customer management, order management, knowledge management, etc
• Challenges faced is compounded by many products and systems that must be supported by
different levels or external sources
• Growing complexity of the business world:
• There is a need of collaboration with varying skill levels, education levels, generational and
cultural backgrounds
• It is very difficult for a service personnel to manage these diverse relationships and handle
related communications that are associated
• Ubiquitous rate of technological transformations:
• It is impossible for an individual to be aware and understand the changes occurring within a
market segment (hardware, software, application, network related products, service verticals, etc)

75. Why Teams don’t work?
• Few research says, teams underperform, despite all the resources they have
• Problems with coordination, motivation and competition badly damage the
team and chip away the benefits of collaboration
• As per HBR research, most of the team had been set unambiguous
boundaries, may be due to fear of being exclusionary or political reasons,
there is fuzziness in team boundaries
• Managers often guide and correct individual behaviors (rather than team)
in a team which results in failure of reaping benefits

76. Why Teams don’t work?
• Dismantling existing organizational structures
• So team are capable enough to accomplish the work.
• Assumption – removing structures will power up groups to work together creatively
and effectively.
• Tasks are defined vaguely, generic terms, no clarity
• A vital act - Setting a persuasive direction to team, is emotionally
demanding as it involves exercising authority and arousing anxiety &
uncertainty for both a lead and the team.
• Assuming that the members have all the skills needed to work as a Team.
Taking focus completely out can limit a team’s effectiveness

77. Actions for Team work
• Set right conditions –
• Build teams of no more than 9 – Too many and number of links between members become
unmanageable
• Keep the team together – Team whose composition changes constantly don’t work effectively
• Be ruthless, make hard decisions
• Not all who wants to be on a team should be included, some individuals should be let off
• Set compelling directions
• Make sure team members know & agree on what they are supposed to be doing together.
• Embrace your own Style
• Bring your own strengths and weaknesses, exploit what you are great at, and get help in the areas
where you are not competent

78. Actions for Team work
• Focus Coaching on Group rather than guiding individual behavior –
• Run meeting, so members become oriented to and get engaged with their tasks
• Help team to fine-tune performance strategy by conducting midpoint reviews on what’s going well
and what is not.
• After task is finished, spend time to reflect on what went well, what went bad; identify how team can
make best use of their knowledge and experience the next time
• Enable a structure for the Team
• A well-designed team task – that engages and sustains team members motivation
• A well composed group – as small as possible, have clear boundaries, members have adequate tasks
and skills with good mix of people
• Clear and explicit specification of norms of conduct for team behavior – things that “must do” and
“must never do”

79. Best Team Attributes
• A great team leader/manager who cares about the team and works across
departments to get what the team needs
• Right people on the team
• Enjoyment of the work the team is in charge of
• Clearly defined goals, clear directions and specific time frames
• Availability of resources needed for success
• Strategies for handling challenging members of the team
• Open & honest communication among members and between manager & team and
ability to make decisions freely
• Ways to measure successes or results
• Rewards and recognitions when goals are met or exceeded
• Performance accountability

80. Team Building Goals
• A better understanding of each member’s role in the team
• A better understanding of the team’s purpose and role in the organization
• Effective communication among the members about issues that affect the efficiency
of the team
• A clear understanding of the behavior & dynamics of any group that works closely
together
• Ability to use conflict in a positive manner rather than a destructive way
• Better collaboration among team members and reduction of competition which may
cost the individual, team and organization
• Greater ability to work with other work groups within the organization
• Respect individual differences in values, personalities, skills, distinctive behavior in a
work group

81. Three factors to be considered while deciding team’s communication and
decision making
1. Subject-matter expertise of team members
• How skilled they are? – highly or moderately or not technically skilled
• To what degree can they learn and develop?
• Can they work on their own or need direction and training?
• Able to communicate with each others, listen to different opinions, motivate, come up
with consensus decision?
• Can they deal with team members who challenge the process or do not do their job?
Three Important Factors of a Team

82. 2. Nature of team’s work
• Team member may have a specific job to work on independently
• Each member may have to make their own decisions without consulting others
(Or the opposite)
• Team member needs to work with others or needs their assistance to reach a goal
• This is situation of Interdependence
Three Important Factors of a Team

83. 3. Culture of the organization or respective department
• Some organizations may
• Encourage two-way communications between managers and team members
• Want managers asking team members for their thoughts, opinions, and value those
• View team members as integral part in order for team to succeed
• Other organizations may
• Communicate in a top-down approach, Managers make the decisions
• Expect team members to do their work well and not get involved in decision making
• Want managers to run the show
Three Important Factors of a Team

84. Team Models
Autonomous
Team
Work
Group
Participative
Team
Developing
Team

85. • Work Group
• First-time Manager,
• Assigns each member with specific responsibilities
• Meets separately with each member to monitor the progress, hold meetings to share any new
information and answers queries
• Takes all the decisions, team members have to accept
• Members have little conflict among them, limited interaction, have their own work products
and communicates only with manager
Team Models

86. • Developing Team
• A team member promoted as Manager role,
• Has team members who were once his/her peers
• Takes several months to get over the change and the team accepts him/her as Manager
• Communicates 2-3 times a day with team members to solve problems, give advice &
suggestions
• Always listens to the team’s concerns and ideas
• Helps team members acquire skills and knowledge to work independently and confidently
• Team members help each other out in handling issues or problems without involvement of the
Manager
• Attends training sessions on how to lead a team and understand dynamics of teamwork
Team Models

87. • Participative Team
• First-time Manager,
• Manages a team of highly skilled and motivated members with prior team experience
• Has team meetings on regular basis to discuss and decide on things they are responsible for
• Most of the times, the team members disagree with one another and Manager too
• Manager and the team member listens to each other’s arguments and finally reach consensus
• Manager has no weightage apart from view points
• Trusts the team members expertise and enjoys the role as Manager
Team Models

88. • Autonomous Team
• An experienced Manager in a big firm moves to a small firm as Manager,
• Manager handles a small team
• Manager is asked to give some overall direction, timelines and be available to the team in case
they need any help
• Manager takes time to adjust and feels extremely comfortable as it is structured and it enables
the manager to work on his/her own projects, spend more time to plan and organize
• Manager trusts the team member’s expertise and decision making
• Manager has time to help other teams if needed, take up special projects, improvise technical
expertise
Team Models

89. • Work Group
• Characteristics:
• One-way communication, top-down
• Manager makes decisions
• Little interactions among team members
• This model works best when
• Manager is most knowledgeable of the group and when team members are new,
inexperienced and not skilled
• Team members do not have to communicate with each other in order to get work done
• Organizations prefer the manager to be in charge and make all decisions
Team Models - Summary

90. • Developing Team
• Characteristics:
• Moderate interactions among team members
• Manager makes decision with input from team members
• This model works best when
• Manager needs input to make decisions
• Manager wants to develop team members so they will be able to communicate more
effectively with one another and involve in decision making process
Team Models - Summary

91. • Participative Team
• Characteristics:
• Manager has completely developed team-leadership skills, technical skills, interpersonal skills
• Manager has no more power in decision making than any team member
• Team members and manager need constant communication to get work done (Time-
consuming)
• Team members own the product or service and concerned about the quality (Highly
motivated)
• At this level, its apparent that they are TEAM
Team Models - Summary

92. • Autonomous Team
• Characteristics:
• Team member’s expertise and motivation is very high
• Team members have consistent communications with one another and are interdependent
• Manager need not involve in day-to-day activities or take part in most of the meetings
• To reach this level of Autonomy, it takes great efforts & time, and the benefits are enormous.
• Team members need to be strong in technicality than their managers as they need to make
decisions that affect the work and the team (Manager can still set boundaries & guidelines)
• Team members share the leadership or rotate among themselves during daily activities and
meetings
• Manager has more scope to involve in developing other teams, work on own projects, take up more
assignments
• This model functions very well on its own with occasional involvement of managers in giving
directions and guidance to the team
Team Models - Summary

93. Groups :: Teams
Group Team
Strong, clearly focused leader Shared leadership roles
Individual accountability Individual and team accountability
The group’s purpose is the same as the broader
organizational mission
Specific team purpose that the team itself delivers
Individual work products Collective work products
Runs efficient meetings
Encourages open-ended discussion and active
problem-solving meetings
Measures its effectiveness indirectly by its
influence on others
Measures performance directly by assessing
collective work products
Leader or manager makes decisions, top-down
communication, one-way
Consensus decision making, two-way
communication
Leader or Manager gives feedback on how team
members performance
Leader or Manager and team members give
feedback

94. Your Role in Customer Service
Challenger
Collaborator
Communicator
Contributor

95. • Each of these role contributes to the team’s goals in different ways
• Challenger
• Acts as team’s advocate, questions the team’s goals, methods and procedures
• Collaborator
• Goal oriented and does what is needed to get the job done
• Communicator
• A good listener, encourages other team members to participate in team meetings,
discussions and decisions
• Contributor
• Is task oriented, does everything possible to provide the team with skills, knowledge and
information required to achieve its goals
Your Role in Customer Service

96. Team members
• Express team’s goals and help in clarifying the goal’s when needed
• Encourage growth among the team members by highlighting the benefits
they can gain
• Express issues faced in a positive way and seek others opinion of their
understanding
• Make every effort to resolve conflicts in a positive way as conflicts are normal
in a team’s growth
• Encourage members to participate in all activities and assure everyone has a
right to be heard
• Take responsibility in guiding one another when their expertise is needed
Effective Communication in a Team