Stage 1: Praise Letter Ask each group to write a letter to their organisation or department acting as a customer who has

as purchased a product or service recently. Ask the delegates to consider the following: What would the customer thank you for? What would impress the customer the most? How would the customer express his gratitude? What specific aspects of your product or service appeals to the customer? What did the customer think of your customer service and sales personnel? Allocate 10 minutes for this exercise. Bring everyone together and ask the group to read through their letters of praise. Encourage a discussion and record a series of statements on a flipchart or whiteboard to summarise the important areas that are praise worthy and were suggested by various groups. Highlight those areas that were suggested by many groups to emphasise what everyone thinks are the strengths of the organisation or department. Follow with a short discussion.

Stage 2: Criticism Letter Now ask the same groups to write a letter of criticism from an imaginary customers point of view. This can include areas of weakness or short comings in customers eyes. As before, allocate 10 minutes for this part. Bring everyone back together and ask them to read through their criticism letters for each other. As in stage 1, record the summary on a flipchart. Encourage a discussion on why these areas are considered weak. Are there areas that most people think the customer will complain about? If so, highlight these and then move on to a discussion on how to address these.

Customer care is critical to all companies and all companies have both internal and external customers. Customers are much more demanding these days just think, when you are a customer, how high are your expectations? So equally, it is our responsibility to make sure our customers expectations are exceeded. List of Activities: 1. What is customer care? What exactly is customer care? Who makes it happen? How can we ensure its a positive experience? This opening exercise requires participants to come up with a working definition of customer care and discuss the whole concept of this key area of business. 2. Great service Participants discuss how it is possible to recognise good service and the positive feeling this creates for the customer. They use a worksheet to record their own recent examples of good customer service, then exchange ideas about how good service can be enhanced and bad service eliminated.

3. Not so good service Individuals recall instances of poor customer care. They discuss what causes this to happen, and how it makes customers feel and behave. The group reaches consensus on what those offering service can do to improve their care. 4. Making an impression This exercise allows participants to think about how others make a good impression on them, what they do and how they act. They then take whats most positive from these impressions and work on them in creating their own impression. 5. First impression In groups, participants discuss what they currently do to make a good first impression. They recount their approach to the whole group, which then offers feedback on the first impressions they give. Improvements are discussed, along with a commitment to make personal changes where needed. 6. Whos responsible? You might not think you are responsible for providing any kind of customer care or service, but this exercise may well prove you wrong. Participants establish areas of responsibility, then look at who their customers are both internal and external. 7. Seize every opportunity Participants are encouraged to list some occasions when they feel they gave good customer care at work. They consider the consequences of this care even down to the fact that customers provide the funding for their wages! 8. Showing you care Customers like to feel cared for. Theres a variety of ways in which this can be achieved, but are we aware of them? This exercise reveals any shortfall in participants knowledge and provides plenty of ideas for future use in the workplace. 9. Why withhold good service? Salespeople and customer care providers have the power to withhold good service. But why might they do this? Participants complete a worksheet to give their own examples, which are then further explored by the whole group. This feedback and group discussion will help to establish a positive action plan for the future. 10. What competition? This is a group or individual exercise in which participants plan a review of their competitors. They visit these organisations to establish service and customer care first-hand. The information they gain and the comparison with their own organisation helps to identify areas of personal improvement. 11. Mystery telephoning Participants telephone a number of organisations to assess the response they get from those answering their calls. They use this information to establish good and poor practice, then agree best practice for answering the telephone in their workplace. 12. The visitors view Groups of participants arrange visits to non-competitor organisations to evaluate customer care. A review of these visits allows them to consider their own approach and what they can do to improve it. 13. Returning goods In pairs (one active and one observing), participants visit a number of stores to see what happens when they try to exchange goods without a receipt. This invaluable first-hand experience allows them to consider both the role of the customer and the salesperson/customer care employee. 14. Real improvements This exercise encourages participants to reflect on areas of customer care in which they know they can make improvements. A worksheet allows them to identify these areas and gentle feedback encourages them to compile an action plan to help with these improvements.

15. Come to us Groups complete a worksheet to identify three ways in which they can attract new customers to their business. These ideas are assessed for viability. 16. Whos the customer? Who are our customers? Have we thought that many of them might be internal? This exercise, suitable for groups or individuals, allows participants to think more laterally about whom they supply services to, why they should review this list and how they can avoid taking their customers for granted. 17. Service diary A diary extract is shown to participants for them to highlight in it all contact with others and the points at which customer service could be affected. The group discusses how these examples relate to their own working days. 18. My event diary Groups or individuals consider a typical diary extract written on a typical working day. They try to ascertain all points of human interface and why these are important. 19. Tell a story This role-play exercise allows participants to experiment in a safe environment with a customer/employee relationship in which conflict could occur. A feedback session establishes actions that help and hinder, plus good and bad body language. 20. Face to face with the abusive customer A fairly typical situation, in which a customer is totally frustrated by a sequence of events by the time they come face to face with a customer care employee, is role-played to allow participants to think about good and bad practice. 21. The abusive caller Telephone role-plays give participants the opportunity to practise dealing with abusive callers. A whole-group discussion allows participants to think about positive ways of dealing with this kind of call and establishing best practice. 22. Taking down call details This exercise, in which telephone calls are role-played, underlines the importance to receivers of noting down facts accurately and quickly. A whole-group feedback establishes what went well during these role-plays and how improvements can be made. 23. Return with interest Working in groups, participants role-play a face-to-face scenario that is sensitive and could potentially become difficult. They learn from their own and each others role-play, and discuss the issues that arise which include developing customer loyalty, building rapport and reaching a satisfactory outcome. 24. Is this clear? This role-play will show participants the importance of seeking clarification in customer/salesperson interfaces. One pair is recorded, with others later offering advice on what helped and hindered their interface. 25. The unsure customer Participants learn the importance of continual summary during a customer/salesperson interface and the benefits of ending an interface on a positive note. They role-play a fairly typical scenario, which then receives feedback from the whole group. An option to video this role-play adds a further dimension to assessing the do's and donts. 26. The teapot dilemma A face-to-face role-play gives participants experience in dealing with a customer who has a problem and a fixed solution in mind. A whole-group discussion identifies positive behaviours. 27. What do you want?

Do we ask the right questions when trying to establish what customers want? This quick role-play will reveal any gaps, and a whole-group discussion will provide an action plan for similar situations in the workplace. 28. The silent customer Participants take part in a role-play in which a customer is overwhelmed by choice and simply cant make up their mind. After the role-play, the whole group establishes improvement areas, positive actions and best practice for this kind of interface. 29. The meal What happens when, as a customer, you are not happy about something but have no real reason for that reaction? This role-play allows participants to enact in a safe environment how customer service employees deal with this kind of scenario. 30. The angry customer In groups of three (two role-playing and one observing), participants consider the scenario of a justifiably angry customer. They discuss ways to manage this situation and transfer useful learning to the workplace.