Phone Customer Service Foundations Course
$428 per person ex GST (Discounts Available)
Delivered via 2 x 3-Hour Sessions
ACXPA Certified: This course is officially certified by the Australian Customer Experience Professionals Association.
About the Phone Customer Service Foundations Course
Phone Customer Service Foundations is a comprehensive program delivered live online over 2 × 3-hour sessions (6 hours total). It equips your team with the structure, language and confidence to deliver consistently great service on every call.
It’s ideal for new hires, staff who’ve never had formal training, or experienced agents who need to refresh and deepen their skills beyond the basics.
Rather than surface-level tips, the course focuses on practical, proven techniques your team can apply immediately to real customer conversations.
Content is aligned to the ACXPA Phone CX Standards and informed by insights from 50,000+ evaluated calls, providing an evidence-based approach to empathy, clarity and call control.
Across two engaging sessions, participants learn how to open and close calls confidently, communicate with impact, de-escalate tension, manage difficult customers and use a simple, effective two-step complaint resolution method.
Delivered by industry experts, this training blends coaching, practice and feedback to drive immediate and lasting improvements in phone performance.
Phone Customer Service Foundations — Fast Facts
Level up phone capability with deeper training and more practice time.
Designed for reception, admin, call centres and any role handling customers by phone. Over two sessions, participants build confidence, strengthen communication and learn how to handle challenging calls professionally.
Online Phone Customer Service Foundations Training
The Phone Customer Service Foundations course is optimised for live virtual delivery via Zoom — combining interactive activities with structured coaching to maximise engagement and outcomes.
Participants can join from the office or remotely, making it ideal for hybrid teams. Why online training works →
The 2 × 3-hour format minimises disruption while spaced learning improves knowledge retention and on-the-job application.
Sessions include live coaching, scenarios and group interaction led by seasoned industry trainers (no “read-the-slides” facilitators here).
Prefer onsite training? We can deliver private programs at your location. Talk to us about private delivery.
Who Should Attend the Phone Customer Service Foundations Course?
Phone Customer Service Foundations suits any employee who speaks with customers by phone — across all industries, products and services.
It’s perfect for new hires, staff without formal training, or experienced team members who need extra structure, confidence and practice time.
Delivered over two engaging 3-hour sessions, the format allows concepts to sink in and skills to be applied between modules.
Typical roles that benefit include:
- Call centre agents: Inbound enquiries, complaints and support.
- Reception & office staff: Switchboard and service desks.
- Customer service teams: Phone support across any industry.
- Small businesses: Owners and staff taking customer calls.
- Healthcare & professional services: Clinics, law firms, real estate etc.
- Retail & eCommerce support: Product queries, complaints and orders.
Modules Covered in the Phone Customer Service Foundations Course
Two live 3-hour sessions give participants time to absorb new concepts, practise skills and apply them between modules.
The program blends the most impactful elements of our top-rated training — improving conversations, call control and de-escalation while keeping interactions empathetic and professional.
Content aligns to the Australian Contact Centre Phone Quality Standards (five core competencies, 18 behaviours) proven to drive excellent customer experiences.
Through role-plays, live demos, group work and expert feedback, your team builds confidence and capability — and returns with practical strategies they can use immediately.
Participants receive a Certificate of Achievement at completion.
We’ll equip your employees with the critical skills and behaviours used by the world's most successful customer service professionals to deliver exceptional experiences and achieve efficient first-contact resolution.
The training aligns with the Australian Customer Experience Professionals Association (ACXPA) Phone Quality Standards, ensuring your team is equipped to consistently provide outstanding service across all customer phone interactions.
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, setting the tone for the training by helping participants understand the ‘why’ behind great service.
2. How to Engage
Learn 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 a warm farewell.
Dealing with frustrated customers is an inevitable part of any customer service role — and knowing how to respond can make the difference between escalation and resolution.
This session builds your team’s capability to handle difficult phone interactions with confidence. It goes beyond outdated advice like “smile while you speak” or scripted empathy lines.
Instead, your employees will gain practical insights, proven techniques, and real-world strategies across four focused modules — enabling them to listen actively, defuse tension, show genuine empathy, and guide conversations toward positive outcomes.
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 impact brain chemistry and functions—empowering your employees to better 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 handling 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 while maintaining professionalism.
4. Group Practice
Putting the learning into practice with fun, engaging group role-play activities that enable participants to apply key customer service and complaint handling skills in a range of contexts and scenarios.
What Your Team Will Walk Away With:
Your Phone Customer Service Foundations Trainer
The Phone Customer Service Foundations course is designed and delivered by Simon Blair , one of Australia’s most respected customer service trainers.
Simon has decades of experience training frontline staff, team leaders and executives across industries. His facilitation style is energetic, practical and grounded in real-world scenarios — ensuring participants not only learn new techniques but can confidently apply them the very next day.
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’.
Trusted by Leading Organisations Across Australia
Hundreds of businesses — from local councils to national brands — have chosen CX Skills to upskill their teams with practical, real-world customer service training.
Recent Customer Service Phone Foundations Course Testimonials
What makes the CX Skills courses stand out from the pack is the quality of our trainers, who are all industry experts — not just trainers reading off a course template.
Our trainers live and breathe the industry, and it’s the reason behind our exceptional customer testimonials and ratings — a sample of which you can read below for this particular course.
Engaging and Fun
Simon demonstrated his vast experience with a very informative, engaging and entertaining program. Came away with immediate skills to manage consumers. I found it extremely helpful. Thank you, Simon. Hope the roast turned out ok!
Valuable Experience That Changed Our Mindset!
The CX Skills – Phone Customer Service Foundation training facilitated by Simon was engaging and highly relevant, using real scenarios from our workplace to reinforce key concepts. Simon provided practical strategies to improve communication and handle customer interactions more effectively.
It’s been a valuable experience that has already changed our mindset on the way we approach customer service.
Highly recommended!
Tailor-made Training!
I really enjoyed the energy Simon brought to the class. At the start he gave us the opportunity to express what we felt we needed refining in our service skills then proceeded to tailor our sessions to meet those needs.
It was engaging and eye-opening experience and there were a lot of “ah huh” moments for me.
Simon created a very comfortable learning space to be able to open up, express my experiences and guide me through situations without fear of judgement that I handled it wrong.
I enjoyed practicing the techniques we were taught and the challenges he set for us.
A great overall experience!
Customer Service at its Best!
Loved the real life situations, role plays, easy to understand and great examples to use in a real life situations.
This will also help with home life situations which I loved!
Public vs Private Phone Customer Service Foundations Training
You're currently viewing the Phone Customer Service Foundations course, but if you're looking for a more basic or advanced training option, you may be interested in our Essentials or PRO courses. Below is a quick comparison of the available options to help you choose the best fit.
Not quite the right fit? Explore training for frontline teams, reception staff, tech support, and inbound sales. Prefer a flexible and lower-cost option? Try our self-paced customer service pathway. See all live customer service courses →
Public vs Private — Phone Customer Service Foundations
Choose the delivery model that suits you: public intakes or private delivery.
Public courses are ideal for individuals or small teams who want a structured, interactive program with fixed dates — plus the benefit of learning alongside peers from other organisations. The Foundations format runs over 2 × 3-hour live sessions.
They’re also a convenient way to onboard new employees on a consistent schedule.
Private courses give you full flexibility on dates and the ability to tailor examples and scenarios to your environment, roles and KPIs — delivered live online or onsite.
Use the comparison below to decide. Still unsure? Contact us and we’ll help you choose the right fit.
| Feature | Public Phone Foundations Course | Private Phone Foundations Course |
|---|---|---|
| Who Attends | Open to individuals and small teams from any organisation | Your team only — exclusive to your business |
| Learning Environment | Gain fresh perspectives training alongside participants from other industries | Customised to your customers, systems and scenarios |
| Dates & Times | Set dates published in advance (2 × 3-hour live online sessions) | You choose the schedule that works best for your team |
| Content | Standard Foundations curriculum with deeper practice and application | Foundations curriculum tailored with your examples, policies and challenges |
| Delivery Method | Live online via Zoom | Live online or onsite at your workplace |
| Cost | $428 per person (discounts available) | More cost-effective for groups of 4 or more |
| Best For | Onboarding or upskilling staff who need deeper skills and practice | Teams needing a tailored, in-house program aligned to goals/KPIs |
| Minimum Numbers | No minimum — book one or more places | Minimum of 4 participants |
| View Upcoming Public Foundations Dates > | Learn More About Private Training > |
Pricing and Payment Options for the Foundations Course
The Phone Customer Service Foundations course is $428 AUD ex GST per person for six hours of expert-led training delivered over two sessions.
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Upcoming Public Phone Customer Service Foundations Course Dates
All upcoming public dates are listed below. Click your preferred session to purchase tickets instantly.
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Questions?
Want to train your whole team or explore a tailored option?
Call +61 3 9008 7287 (Mon–Fri, 8:30am–5:30pm AEST/AEDT) or send us a message.
November 2025 Phone Customer Service Foundations
Online via Zoom Price: $428.00 AUD ex GSTThe November 2025 Customer Service Foundations training course teaches premium phone customer service skills delivered via 2 x 3-hour sessions.
💡 Save 25% Instantly on This Course – and Every CX Skills Course!
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As a member of the Australian Customer Experience Professionals Association (ACXPA), you’ll unlock exclusive discounts, expert resources, and professional development opportunities to enhance customer interactions and service quality.
📢 Annual Memberships start from just $35 per employee – making it a smart investment whether you're upskilling yourself or training your team.
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