Support Professional Training and Certification Online self-study and certification exam, $599
For instructor-led classroom course, see: Contact Center Professional Certification For more information,

Overview

The combination of providing resolution to technical problems while maintaining excellent customer service skills creates a unique challenge for today's support professionals. Customer satisfaction is derived from effective communication as much as from obtaining a technical solution.

This course provides the customer skills necessary to deliver quality services in today's high expectation and complex support environment. Application of the skills and knowledge gained from this program can result is that market-valued distinction which sets individuals and companies apart as the best in the technology support industry. Topics covered include practical skills in effective communication, telephone and online professionalism, questioning techniques, teamwork, and support tools, among others.

Who Should Attend
This course is designed for new help desk and technical support professionals who need to provide excellent customer service in addition to technical solutions, and those who are seeking certification. The program is designed to impart soft skills, communication techniques, and strategies for effectively working with all types of customers to solve technical problems over the telephone or via the Internet.

Experienced support professionals who have not received the benefits of formal customer service skills training will gain new skills and knowledge for improving their current practices.

Benefits to the organization include:

• Improved customer satisfaction

• Improved morale amongst the professional staff

• Increased employee retention

• Standardized, consistent application of best practices in customer service delivery across the support organization

• Support professionals with a knowledge of proper customer service technique and a clear understanding of what's expected of them in the performance of their support duties

The Value of Certification

For the organization

Certification ensures that help desk professionals have received formalized training in the advanced skills necessary to deliver excellent support and customer care.

Advantages include:

• Quality assurance

• Wide-spread industry acceptance of certification credentials

• Savings of time, money, and effort by hiring and retaining certified employees

For the professional

Certification can provide established and highly marketable skills that are valued by management, and well as a career boost and credentials that customers, peers, and management will respect.

Advantages include:

• Recognized proof to your employer of professional achievement

• Credibility in a highly competitive market

• Career enhancement with increased job opportunities

Agenda

Module 1: Communication Fundamentals

1. Managing Customer Perceptions

• Factors that contribute to successful customer perceptions
• The value of gaining customer feedback, including complaints
• How to manage and modify customer expectations

2. Making Communications More Successful

• Engaging customers in ways that improve focus, involvement and positive interaction
• Indicators of successful communication
• Paraphrasing techniques
  • Achieving clarification
  • Demonstrating interest
• Barriers to communication and how to overcome them

3. Effective Listening Skills

• The impact effective listening can have on business communication and business success
• Reasons for selective listening
• How to keep the customer’s attention
• Five realities associated with effective communication
• Rules of cross-cultural communication
• Keys to better listening
• Techniques for increasing your attention span and staying tuned-in to the customer

4. Adapting Communication Styles to Customer Knowledge Levels

• The four levels of learning
• Matching communication strategies to learning levels in order to enhance problem resolution and optimize results
• Applying the cycle of learning to your own professional development and skill building

5. Recognizing Energy Profiles in Communications

• "Energy profiles" used for information input and processing
• How energy profiles effect the professional's ability to communicate with others
• How to manage the stressors associated  with each energy profile to increase communication success

Module 2: Information Gathering for Problem Resolution

Four types of questions that help to maintain call control

• Questions to overcome the customer’s or your own assumptions
• Types of information gathering approaches
  • Situations appropriate for each
• Structured problem statements
• Questions that clarify customer situations

Module 3: The Structured Call - Beyond Communication Basics

1. Telephone Communications

• Building rapport
  • Making the caller feel important
  • Increasing cooperation
• Call documentation
  • Each of the required elements
• How to conduct professional holds
• How to conduct professional transfers
• Strategies for dealing with persistent callers
• Effective disengagement techniques
• The well-structured conclusion process

2. Online Communication

• Three rules of protocol that ensure professionalism online
• The five elements of clear writing
• Objectives in writing a complete, professional online response
• Rules of grammar

Module 4: Dealing With Challenging Customers

1. Negotiating Strategy

• Rules of a good negotiating
• Methods for setting a positive tone
• How to gather information for clear negotiation
• Three negotiation points of leverage
• Commonly used tactics and styles used in negotiation
• Six phases of negotiating that result in a win/win problem resolution
• Techniques used to elicit a yes response

2. Difficult Customers

• How understanding the stages of conflict can help you to anticipate and avoid difficult situations
• Tactics for managing customer anger
• The types of difficult customers and how to manage each
• Positive and negative trigger phrases that prevent or create conflict

3. When and How to Say No

• Five objectives that enhance your ability to effectively and professionally say no to a customer
• Dealing with the customer who refuses to take no for an answer

4. Escalation Process

• Situations that merit escalation to the next level
• Developing a clear handoff procedure
• Factors that determine when to escalate

Module 5: Maintaining Confidence and Credibility

1. Objectives that must be met to achieve effective customer support

2. The meaning of transparency and how it relates to customer support

3. Confident approaches to answering questions, even when you don’t have the answers

4. The difference between lying and withholding company information from the customer

5. Telling the truth without being transparent

• Responses to customer questions that can "put you on the spot"

Module 6: Benefits and Challenges of Teamwork

1. Attributes of effective team decision-making

2. Keys to successful teamwork

3. Methods for handling the challenges of teamwork

4. Teamwork barriers and how to overcome them

5. Advantages and disadvantages of teamwork

Module 7: Personal Development

1. Basic Organization and Productivity

• Using the SMART format to ensure they goals are realistic and achievable
• Circumstances in which team synergy is effective
• Examples of a daily time management plan

2. Stress Management

• Factors leading to burnout
• Practical techniques to relieve job stress

The Support Professional Certification Exam
Certification consists of two parts: the course and an online certification exam.  The exam is administered over the Internet, may be taken following the course from the candidate's home or office, and consists of 100 exam questions which must be completed within a single 2-hour sitting.  The exam is pass/fail, and candidates must achieve at least a 75% score in order to obtain certification. If you do not pass the exam on your first attempt, a second administration can be scheduled for a $79 retake fee. You will receive more exam information on site during the class.

Successful candidates will receive a Certified Support Professional certificate from the internationally-recognized Service Capability & Performance (SCP) Standards board.  SCP Standard-certified career professionals are recognized and coveted throughout the world, serving in internal and external customer support operations of the world's leading software companies, technology organizations, internal IT departments, and consulting firms.

To learn more about Service Capability & Performance Standards-based professional certification,

Registration Fees

The per student registration fee for this option is $599. The course consists of a lecture through streaming video, lecture slides that can be viewed separately for review, exercises consisting of real-world scenarios, a graded assessment for each module, and links to related industry information. Attendees may take the assessments prior to the lecture and slides as a pre-test for each section as well.

Upon registration, students are allowed access to the online course for 60 consecutive days and must complete the course within that time.  The online course includes access to online instruction, a workbook, and one exam administration. If you do not pass the exam on your first attempt, a second administration can be scheduled for a $79 retake fee. Network connection or modem, Flash Player, and a sound card are required. A password will be provided for online access to the course. Please wait for this password before attempting to login to the course.

To register, use the "Book Now" button or please call (708) 246-0320

Seminar Schedule

Self Study

Online

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, dates & locations

Payment is due prior to the seminar. If payment is not received, a credit card hold will be required for participation. This card will only be processed if payment has not been received within two weeks following the conference.

Seminar agenda subject to change.

Contact Center Seminars
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Help Desk Books
Call Center Management
Tech Support Resources
Contact Center Technology
Online Support
Customer Satisfaction
Knock Your Socks Off
Help Desk Institute
Telecom Books
Communication Skills
Call Center Monitoring
Metrics & Benchmarking
CRM
Hiring, Training, & Retention
Outbound Telebusiness
Novelties, Gifts, & Humor
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