Customer Service Foundations Training Course
$428 Per Person
(Volume Discounts Available!)
Do you have employees who work in customer service roles that need some extra help in delivering consistently great customer experiences for your customers?
Have you recognised the need to invest in customer service training but are not sure where to start?
When you start your search for customer service training courses, it can quickly be overwhelming. There are literally hundreds of courses, and just to add to the confusion, customer service can mean many things to different people!
Customer service skills, complaints handling, phone etiquette, resilience, empathy, taking ownership, improved efficiencies, creating first impressions and so on.
With decades of working in customer service, we’ve designed this Customer Service Foundations course to deliver what we consider the core fundamentals skills required for anyone who works in a role that deals with customers – customer service employees, receptionists, retail workers, customer support, admin/office assistants etc.
And we would know! This course is aligned with the Australian Customer Experience Professionals Association (ACXPA) Quality Standards, teaching skills that are proven to improve customer outcomes, and it’s delivered live by genuine industry experts so your employees learn from the best.
The Customer Service Foundations course is an extended version of the 3-hour Customer Service Essentials course, with 2 x 3-hour sessions (total of six hours of training) that will equip your employees with the essential skills for handling customers either over the phone or in person, as well as skills on how to handle complaints and difficult customers.
So if you’re looking for a great all-round course that will transform the psychology and performance of your employees to positively impact your customers and business like never before, this is the course for you!
Learn more about the course by scrolling below or jump straight to a section:
Customer Service Foundations Training Course Fast Facts
Optimised for online learning (virtual training)
This course has been specifically adapted to be delivered live online/virtual via Zoom, with employee engagement and learning outcomes enhanced by the short bursts of interactive and engaging development methods.
And being online, the course can be accessed by anyone with an internet connection, whether they are in the office, working from home or at a remote location.
The Customer Service Foundations training course will introduce and progress each of your employees through the essential behaviours needed for superior customer service that triggers positive emotions and high levels of customer and employee engagement.
Two short, 3-hour modules enable you the flexibility to schedule the training with minimal disruption for your business and deliver improved learning outcomes
Course Suitability
The Customer Service Foundations training course has been designed to help any employee who is working in a role that interacts with customers.
The 2 x 3-hour sessions have been designed to be delivered in a structured manner enabling your employees to learn and apply their new skills in between the different modules.
The skills we teach are applicable to all industries, products and services!
Typical roles include:
- Admin/office staff who handle customer enquiries
- Customer service staff
- Call centre agents
- Receptionists/Front of house roles
- Retail staff
- Telephone account management
- Technical support
- Complaints teams
- Frontline staff who interact with customers
What your employees will learn:
The Customer Service Foundations course is designed to equip employees with the essential skills they need to work in a role that involves working with customers on a consistent basis.
How to have better conversations with customers, how to handle tough situations and how to ensure they can consistently perform at their best are all covered in this course that pulls content from some of our most popular courses and rolls them into one!
There’s plenty of role-playing, interaction and practice included to ensure your employees can put their new skills to work with the training conducted in a safe, fun and welcoming online environment.
At the end of the course, your employees will be provided with a certificate of achievement and most importantly, they’ll be empowered with new skills that will help them succeed in their role, and deliver improved outcomes for your business.
Key course outcomes include:
6 hours of training delivered over 2 x 3-hour Sessions
The public version of the Customer Service Foundations training course is a six-hour training course spaced out over 2 x 3-hour sessions to minimise the impact on your operations and enable employees time to learn and apply their new skills in between each session.
This course can also be conducted privately, which provides greater flexibility with the dates, times and duration of the course (e.g. we could deliver one 3-hour session per week for two weeks, complete both sessions on consecutive days, run the sessions only in the mornings or afternoons during your quieter periods etc.) and the content can be customised to suit your exact requirements.
Session 1 (3 hours)
We will teach your employees the critical skills and behaviours for enhanced interactions that the most successful customer service employees in the world use to deliver superior customer experiences and efficient first-contact resolution.
The skills taught align with the Australian Customer Experience Professionals Association Quality Standards required to deliver great customer service either over the phone or in person.
1. The Psychology of Customers
Includes an exploration of what customers want and need from any customer service interaction and why customer service is so critical for business success.
We’re often told this module can be quite inspiring and it sets up the training so people understand the ‘why’.
2. How to Engage
How to create a strong first impression and have impact at the start of any interaction by showing strong ownership and intent, managing expectations and building trust and confidence.
3. Better Needs Discovery
Learn and apply techniques used by the FBI for enhanced customer conversations that identify and confirm the root cause of issues and customer needs in an efficient manner.
4. How to Educate
Participants learn how to proactively educate customers through consistent checks of understanding, comfort and suitability with key information and solutions provided.
5. How to Close any Call or Conversation
Your employees will learn how to avoid those often awkward, clunky finishes through a simple method of strong final checks, expressions of gratitude and thanks in a warm farewell.
Session 2 (3 hours)
Having to deal with frustrated customers is inevitable in any customer service job so equipping your employees with the skills and confidence to handle difficult situations is paramount.
This module will teach employees how to handle difficult customers over the phone and in person, as well as tips to handle complaints via email and online chat channels.
The training goes well beyond traditional customer service training tropes such as ‘always have a smile in your voice’ or using trite statements such as ‘I can tell that you’re frustrated’.
Your employees will gain practical insights, techniques and methods across five modules to better listen, diffuse, empathise and control conversations and responses to address customer concerns with newfound confidence.
1. The Psychology of Complaints
We’ll teach your employees how to identify and understand the different types of difficult customers and what they need from their service experiences when they voice concerns.
This module also includes an exploration into the science behind emotions, and how they can impact our brain chemistry and functions that will help your employees better understand and manage challenging situations.
2. Empathy and Intent
Your employees will learn how to validate with empathy to diffuse emotion and take ownership to satisfy both a customer’s emotional and transactional needs with a powerful 2-step response method for responding to customer concerns.
3. Handling the Most Difficult Customers
Exploration of various vocal and body language techniques used to diffuse heightened customer emotions and how to respond to more inappropriate customer behaviours.
4. Group Practice
Putting the learning into practice with fun, engaging group role-play activities that enable participants to apply the key customer service and complaint handling skills learnt in a range of contexts and scenarios.
5. Online Communication
Tips, techniques and examples of how to write effective responses to complaints and concerns raised by customers via both email and online chat channels.
About CX Skills
CX Skills is a specialist training business that only delivers customer service, customer experience (CX), contact centre, workforce optimisation (WFM/WFO) and workplace wellness courses designed and facilitated exclusively by industry professionals.
We're the official training provider of the Australian Customer Experience Professionals Association (ACXPA), and we are proudly Australian-owned and operated.
We’re grateful to have been trusted by hundreds of customers, and we’re proud of the amazing customer testimonials we’ve received, so you can rest assured that when you book a training course with CX Skills, your training is in good hands.
Recent Customer Reviews & Testimonials
Some of the CX Skills Customers we've provided training for recently:
Pricing and Payment Options
The price for this course is $428 AUD per person ex GST for the entire six hours of online facilitated learning (2 x 3-hour sessions); however, discounts are available depending on the number of employees you would like to train.
Select the preferred date at the bottom of this page to purchase tickets to that course or speak to us about a private booking just for your employees.
Each employee who attends the training will receive:
- Six hours of live, facilitated training from a highly engaging industry expert.
- Course workbook containing key action points and prompters.
Payment for the course can be made by credit card, or you can request an invoice (payment must be received before the course commences).
Available Discounts
- Save 15% when booking for three or more staff in the same transaction (note: the discount will be applied on the final checkout page, and no other discounts apply).
- ACXPA Members save 25% off all CX Skills courses (including this one), plus membership includes 15 self-paced training courses and a host of other benefits. Learn More >
- Do you want to train your whole team or multiple employees? Contact us for customised pricing and availability.
Purchase a ticket to a public Customer Service Foundations Course
All the publicly available Customer Service Foundations courses are listed below – click on your preferred date to purchase tickets.
Tickets can be purchased instantly with a credit card or, you can request an invoice on the checkout page.
If you have larger numbers (more than 6) and would like more flexibility with dates and times, contact us for pricing and availability on a private course.
New public course dates are published on a regular basis!
January 2025 Customer Service Foundations
Online via Zoom Price: $428.00 AUD ex GSTThe January 2025 Customer Service Foundations training course teaches premium customer service skills delivered via 2 x 3-hour sessions.
March 2025 Customer Service Foundations
Online via Zoom Price: $428.00 AUD ex GSTThe March 2025 Customer Service Foundations training course teaches premium customer service skills delivered via 2 x 3-hour sessions.
This course is available for private bookings!
The course is also available to be delivered privately just for your employees, either onsite or online/virtually, with dates and times to suit you.