- This course has passed.
This course has an average rating of 5.0 out of 5 stars based on the latest 18 reviews!
October 2024 Customer Service Phone Professionals Course Introduction
Are you looking for a training course that is going to help your business improve its customer service?
Have your existing employees ever been taught call-handling skills by professional customer service experts?
Do you need a course that is going to deliver immediate results and deliver a great return on your investment?
Most people working in customer service have just ‘learnt on the job’ so the Customer Service Phone Professionals training course is designed to provide your employees with advanced customer service skills to deliver superior phone experiences day after day, call after call.
Delivered over 3 x 3-hour sessions (total of 9 hours), we’ll teach a structured, yet natural approach (no scripts!) that encourages staff to be themselves and engage with empathy.
Your staff will be coached to progressively learn, build and apply new habits and skills that will transform their psychology and performance that will positively impact your customers and business like never before.
First Contact Resolution, Customer Satisfaction, Net Promoter Score, Call Quality, Employee Engagement or just happier customers – no matter how you measure it, are all positively impacted through learning how to be both more efficient and more effective on each customer interaction.
This October 2024 Customer Service Phone Professionals course has been three decades in the making and is based on the Australian Customer Experience Professionals Association (ACXPA) Contact Centre Quality Standards, leveraging the insights and assessment of more than 50,000 phone calls to identify the five core competencies and 18 behaviours directly linked to positively impacting the customer experience.
Empower your employees with premium, call-handling customer service skills that will assist them in dealing with any inbound enquiry or customer type for any industry, product or service and deliver an improved customer service experience for your customers.
October 2024 Customer Service Phone Professionals Training Course Fast Facts
Best Customer Service/Sales training!
Simon was one of the best trainers I met. He was keen on details, positive and right scripting, understanding, patient, and clear in explaining topics.
He doesn’t just spoon-feed, he really explains the scientific and logical how things work for you to become the best out of many customer service/sales representatives.
He can really tell what you need and will help you overcome the challenges. Also, he has an amazing sense of humor.
Overall he covers everything that you need and the training was fun! Kudos!
Office Manager
S & J Plumbing and Gasfitting
Course Overview (Video)
Watch a short video of the course designer and facilitator, Simon Blair, providing a brief overview of the course.
Optimised for Online/Virtual Learning
Whilst we understand there is often a preference for onsite/in-person training (and this is still an option!), there are a lot of benefits to online training and our customer review scores have been consistent whether this course has been delivered onsite or online.
The online/virtual course enables us to keep the costs low, with the added benefits of trainee engagement and learning outcomes enhanced by the short bursts of interactive and engaging development sessions.
The October 2024 Customer Service Phone Professionals training course will introduce and coach your employees through the premium behaviours needed for superior customer service that triggers positive emotions, improved call outcomes and high levels of customer and employee engagement.
Onsite and private training options are available for this course (more information towards the bottom of this page).
Course Suitability
The October 2024 Customer Service Phone Professionals course has been designed to help employees of all ages who work in a role that interacts with customers over the phone.
Whether it’s working in small business, large corporate or public sector (Councils, Government Departments etc.), this course is suitable when dealing with customers from all walks of life, regardless of the business setting.
The 3 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 a progressive manner between the different modules.
Typical roles that attend this course include:
- Call centre agents
- Customer service staff
- Admin/office staff who handle phone calls
- Telephone account managers
- Frontline staff who interact with customers over the phone
We’ve had attendees from small and large businesses across a wide range of industry sectors attend this course (view all our customers here), including manufacturing, retailers, healthcare, banking and finance, insurance, superannuation, councils, government departments and lots more!
The fundamentals of good customer service, and the premium phone customer service skills we teach, are truly applicable, to all industries, products and services.
What Your Employees Will Learn:
The October 2024 Customer Service Phone Professionals course is designed to first influence the psychology of participants to start viewing service from a customer perspective rather than their own internal, operational mindset.
The skills taught are aligned to the Australian Contact Centre Quality Standards, consisting of five core competencies and 18 behaviours that are required to deliver great customer service over the phone, whether it’s in an office, contact centre or working from home.
It’s the same framework used in the monthly Australian Contact Centre Rankings reports, designed to assess and recognise the best contact centres in Australia.
As the online/virtual course is delivered over 3 x 3-hour sessions, the skills are introduced in a sequenced manner that builds competency and new habits in a staged approach.
We’ve also included a module to master the skills of handling difficult customers that will not only reduce anxiety in your staff in how to handle those tough situations, but will help your business by reducing the number of frustrated customers.
There’s plenty of role-playing and practice included to ensure your employees can put their new skills to work with the practice 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.
Informative and enjoyable!
I highly recommend this training for anyone interested in a Customer Service role or wanting to improve their skills.
Simon has a great understanding of what is required to achieve a high standard of Customer Service. I really enjoyed this training which was also delivered with a great sense of humour!
Customer Service Support Officer
Premium Health
9 hours of training delivered over 3 x 3-Hour Sessions
The October 2024 Customer Service Phone Professionals course is a public 9-hour training course spaced out over 3 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 either onsite or online which provides greater flexibility with the dates, times and duration of the course (e.g. we could deliver it over 2 x 4.5 hour sessions or a one-day onsite course).
Session 1
1. The Psychology of Customer Service
This module sets the scene about what customers want and need based on decades of research, WHY the customer experience is so important and how crucial your employees’ role is in representing your business and brand with every single customer interaction.
2. The ACXPA Quality Standards
Introduction & exploration of the five core competencies of the Australian Customer Experience Professionals Association’s Contact Centre Quality Standards.
We reveal how the standards enable more effective call handling and premium service delivery through positively impacting the psychology of the customer as explored in the first module.
3. How to Engage
Your employees will learn how to create a strong first impression and customer focus by showing strong ownership, intent and how to manage expectations to build trust and confidence that the customer’s service issues and needs will be resolved.
A range of customer call type simulations will be run for both group demonstration and lots of individual practice in the use of the key skills and behaviours learnt to better engage customers.
Session 2
4. How to Discover Needs
We’ll teach your employees the three critical discovery techniques (as used by the FBI) to more effectively converse, mirror and confirm their needs from the customer and what is needed to resolve their enquiries in a more efficient and effective manner.
The trainer will demonstrate the techniques required across a range of scenarios to highlight their effectiveness in driving better conversations for improved insights and problem solving.
Individuals will then practice extensively with each other to develop some new habits and capability within the session.
5. How to Educate
Participants will learn how to proactively educate and inform customers with product, service & process information in a manner that maximises first contact resolution.
Clarity, Pacing, Pausing and consistent checks for questions, understanding, comfort and suitability are the key skills and behaviours covered.
6. How to Close
Employees will learn how to better control and transform the end of their calls to avoid those often awkward, clunky finishes through a simple method of strong final checks, expressions of gratitude and thanks in a warm farewell.
The three techniques for closing calls will be extensively practiced in rapid-fire simulations of the end of various call types in a range of contexts and situations to build greater confidence and expertise in call closing within the session.
Session 3
7. Energy & Empathy
Most businesses put a lot of time and effort into teaching staff WHAT to say but few have the internal expertise to teach staff the best manner in HOW to say it.
In this fun and engaging module, we will help participants practice proven methods to enhance their vocal delivery with better tone, stronger voice projection and improved clarity.
They will learn how to consistently sound fresh, engaging and empathetic (even when tired or worn down!) whilst projecting more confidence and clarity with each customer interaction.
8. Dealing with Difficult Customers
This module includes an exploration into the science behind emotions, and how they can impact customer brain chemistry and functions when things go wrong and also when they go right!
We will help your staff to better understand what is happening with emotional customers in real-time and what is needed as a response to validate and diffuse their emotions effectively in order to focus on what is needed to resolve.
Participants will learn (and practice!) a powerful two-step method for dealing with more challenging customer types and situations and how to use the most appropriate language, empathy techniques and actions to enable better call outcomes.
9. Bringing it all together
Your employees will have a chance to extensively practice all of their newly learnt customer service and call handling skills through the role-playing with each other and the trainer, complete end-to-end customer service calls they typically deal with.
This will enable them to build greater confidence in applying their new call habits so they are ready to ‘hit the ground running’ and make an immediate impact in their roles and on your business post training completion.
About Your Trainer, Simon Blair
The October 2024 Customer Service Phone Professionals course is facilitated by Simon Blair, who has decades of experience in identifying, teaching and building habits in the most critical call-handling behaviours that have already been used to transform thousands of employees across diverse operations into Customer Service Superstars.
Simon is a father of 4 and lives in the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne. His twin girls keep him busy running around following their footy careers (one is an AFLW footballer with Collingwood) and he has a great love of music.
He does land the odd corporate or private gig around town as an acoustic guitarist and singer belting out rock and pop classics.
He has great adventures with his partner Ines, loves the North Melbourne Kangaroos footy team and every now and then escapes into other worlds when playing Dungeon & Dragons with his mates. He likes to call himself a ‘cool nerd’.
Recent Customer Testimonials for this course
View some of the recent testimonials for the Customer Service Phone Professionals course below. To read all our reviews, click here >
Impacting session with great takeaways and practical toolkits to lay the CX foundation in the company
Review of Customer Service Professionals (Private Class)
We took part in a private Inbound Sales Phone Professional course which was tailored specifically to our need.
The course was practical and well structured. The simulation sessions and tools discussed personally helped me and our team to further build confidence when dealing with customers.
I must mention that Simon Blair (the trainer) is well experienced, focused, and flexible. His liveness drew high attention and participation during the full day session. Among many valuable take aways, the five core competencies and specific behaviours taught to us were highly commendable.
Thanks to Simon, Justin and to everyone at CX skills for your professionalism and friendly manner. Best wishes!
Manager Finance & Operations
Fleximake Pty Ltd
Response from CX Skills
Thanks Udura, so glad to hear the full day onsite training course went well! You’ve got a great team and we look forward to hearing about your future successes!
Practical, efficient and relevant CX stategies
Review of January 2024 Customer Service Phone Professionals
The course (over 3 days) was brilliant! Very engaging workshop. Tailored content.
Efficient and practical strategies that can be implemented immediately in my role and personal situations.
Definitely recommended.
Customer Service Officer
Moonee Valley City Council
Response from CX Skills
Thanks Clarence, thanks for taking the time to leave a review and we’re thrilled you enjoyed the training with Simon!
Excellent Training Session that Exceeded Expectations!
Review of Customer Service Professionals (Private Class)
I appreciate Simon’s dedication to delivering a high-quality session, and it’s evident that he is passionate about what he does!
The content was presented clearly and understandably.
The training not only met but exceeded my expectations, and I left with valuable insights and knowledge.
I highly recommend Simon to anyone seeking a top-notch training experience. Thank you, Simon, for your excellent guidance and expertise!
Accounts/Quality Coordinator
Fleximake Pty Ltd
Response from CX Skills
Thanks Suzie for the kind review and we agree, Simon is very passionate about customer service so glad it shone through!
Enjoyable Day of Training!
Review of Customer Service Professionals (Private Class)
Enjoyed the training course conducted by Simon. He was engaging and made the day very enjoyable.
The course was well put together and beneficial to our team.
Sales Engineer
Fleximake Pty Ltd
Response from CX Skills
Thanks Shane, glad you enjoyed the day!
Best Customer Service/Sales training!
Review of September 2023 Customer Service Phone Professionals
Simon was one of the best trainers I met. He was keen on details, positive and right scripting, understanding, patient, and clear in explaining topics.
He doesn’t just spoon-feed, he really explains the scientific and logical how things work for you to become the best out of many customer service/sales representatives.
He can really tell what you need and will help you overcome the challenges. Also, he has an amazing sense of humor.
Overall he covers everything that you need and the training was fun! Kudos!
Office Manager
S & J Plumbing and Gasfitting
Informative and enjoyable!
Review of August 23 Customer Service Phone Professionals
I highly recommend this training for anyone interested in a Customer Service role or wanting to improve their skills.
Simon has a great understanding of what is required to achieve a high standard of Customer Service. I really enjoyed this training which was also delivered with a great sense of humour!
Customer Service Support Officer
Premium Health
Thoroughly enjoyable course. Very insightful.
Review of March 2023 Customer Service Phone Professionals
I enjoyed the course. I came away with some terrific customer service tools that I can use and will definitely put into practice.
I would recommend this course to anyone interested in doing a communication and customer service course.
Finance Officer
Lifelong Pathways
Exceptional CS and Sales training
Review of Customer Service Professionals (Private Class)
Simon is an exceptional customer service training mentor. During our sessions, he provided valuable feedback, identified areas for improvement, and helped me develop my skills and confidence.
Simon is an excellent communicator and a natural teacher who knows how to motivate and inspire his students. I highly recommend him as a mentor for anyone looking to improve their customer service skills.
Business Development Representative
Truis
Invaluable training/advice in customer service
Review of Customer Service Professionals (Private Class)
Simon was amazing. I was lucky enough to have one on one training with Simon and his wealth of knowledge was amazing and I’ve already applied my new skills with great results. I would recommend this course to everyone in customer service.
Office Manager
S & J Plumbing and Gasfitting
Informative, useful and refreshing
Review of Customer Service Professionals Training (September 2022 class)
With a lot of experience in a range of call centres, I went into this course with the expectation of finding a course right for our team. What was insightful about Simon’s course is that although our team was already doing some of these things, having the steps quantified and set out in such a way was enlightening. It illustrated why some agents can calm callers when others can not, and presented the skills in a replicable way to bring out the best in all agents that use these techniques.
Simon brings an approachable and understandable approach to learning what is essentially a human skill that helps build rapport, resilience and structure to a fluid environment of disconnected interactions to help agents and operators to get the most out of each and every connection.
CXC Training and Wellbeing Coordinator
7-Eleven Stores Pty Ltd
More Customer Feedback
“Thought I would let you know that it is the most outstanding Customer Service course I have ever done! From the videos to the role-plays and the general interaction with the guys. They were both professional and fun. Great work guys. Thanks! – Customer Service Training Participant, TAFE NSW
“It is difficult to come up with one part of the training that was my favourite. The whole thing I believe was one of the most inspiring training sessions that I have done in 11.5 years at Aurora. I’m excited at just how much the Five Degrees approach can improve our customer experience – Customer Service Team Leader Training Participant, Aurora Energy
“I would recommend this training as it was insightful and refreshing. Simon really made us step out of our own perspective and into the customer experience. There were things he covered that I was just wowed by. I’m so used to set scripts and pitches but Simon covered the words to say, voice volume, pauses and how to have conversations that makes the customer comfortable to build trust.” – Customer Service Training Participant, Philip Morris
“WOW OH WOW, I’ve just listened to recordings of three of the coaching sessions Simon did. I’m so excited about our upcoming Training with him. The way he delivers his feedback is awesome and he has some really powerful tips for the guys which simplify things.” – Customer Service Train-the-Trainer Participant, RACT
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 partner 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.
Our Recent Customers Include:
We're grateful to the following companies who have trusted CX Skills with their training. View our full customer list here >
Dates, Times & Tickets
The October 2024 Customer Service Phone Professionals course is delivered online/virtually over three separate sessions on the dates and times below.
Tickets can be purchased at the top of this page (just select how many tickets you’d like to purchase).
Specific Dates & Times for this Course*
- Session 1: Tuesday, 22nd October 2024, 13:30 to 16:30 AEDT (Melbourne)
- Session 2: Wednesday, 23rd October 2024, 13:30 to 16:30 AEDT (Melbourne)
- Session 3: Thursday, 24th October 2024, 13:30 to 16:30 AEDT (Melbourne)
Dates don’t suit? See what other sessions are available > or contact us about a private course that is more cost-effective for larger groups and provides flexibility over the dates and times.
Pricing and Payment Options
The October 2024 Customer Service Phone Professionals training course is $497 AUD per employee ex GST for the entire 9 hours of online facilitated learning (3 x 3-hour sessions).
Tickets can be purchased instantly using a credit card or you can request an invoice at checkout.
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 (like this one), plus membership includes 15 self-paced training courses. Learn More >
- Want to train all your phone-based employees? We offer volume discounts for training large teams. Contact us for customised pricing and availability.
Want to Save 25% off ALL CX Skills Courses and gain access to industry best practices?
Members of the Australian Customer Experience Professionals Association (ACXPA) save a massive 25% off ALL CX Skills courses for a full 12 months!
With annual memberships starting from just $35 per employee, it can be a great way to save money immediately on your training, plus, you'll gain access to a vast array of best-practice resources to improve your customer experience.
