Dr. SOEURN Visal
UP considers that students are at the heart of everything we do so on Saturday, 7th November 2020, 20 UP staff members from a variety of departments, who frequently answer questions and queries from students, parents and UP stakeholders, took part in a session of customer service training and facilitation. The training was provided by Ms. Tuy Manina and Ms. Nichola Heaton from the Department of English Excellence & Employability in association with the Human Resources (HR) Department.
The purpose of the training was for attendees from the different teams within UP to identify ways to enhance their customer skills and become even more effective across all of our customer facing departments. The attendees explored some of the following areas through discussions, as well as sharing their own personal experiences, for example, when they had received customer service that was unhelpful.
Questions and themes that were discussed and worked on, included:
- What makes good customer service?
- What barriers do we encounter when it comes to offering great customer service?
- What would help in terms of improving things and making these areas of the job easier?
- What are the consequences of bad customer service?
- How to work successfully with difficult or demanding customers.
An important part of the training centered on managing customer expectations, following up on queries and requests for help, and developing communication skills so that colleagues are better equipped when a customer is feeling confused, angry or upset about something. We have got some great feedback from the participants and this can really help us to improve on collaboration across departments and ensure our overall customer service skills are high quality. Manina and Nichola from the English department wish to thank all those who attended. They really appreciate colleagues taking the time to join them a Saturday afternoon. They are looking forward to providing this training and facilitation again in 2021!
