Writing Skills for Customer Service

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WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION

Dear John: Your email is important to us …Really? Maybe it is; maybe it isn’t. But you wouldn’t know it based on this opening line. This interactive workshop focuses on emails and how to use them as a tool to strengthen relationships with residents, vendors, and colleagues.

The session explores both the psychology behind customer service writing and a writing style that ensures clear understanding of our message. It will also address the importance of understanding our readers – our customers – and the feelings the organization wants customers to have about it.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:

• Any office professional who communicates with clients in writing either internally or externally

YOU WILL LEARN TO:

• Define the image the organization wants to project of itself
• Identify the words that fit the voice of the organization
• Write customer-centric emails
• Express empathy for a problem or concern
• Deal with angry customers
• Drop clichés that don’t help your message or your image
• Follow the rules of good email etiquette

COURSE OUTLINE

Introduction

• Defining customer service
• Identifying our customers
• Ascertaining the organization’s brand

Understanding Today’s Readers

• What readers want
• Customer-centric emails

Formatting Emails

• Set up
• Subject lines
• Legal concerns

Increasing Readability

• Formal Vs. Informal Vs Casual
• Sentence length
• Visual appeal
• Connecting words
• Clichés to avoid

Choosing the Right Words

• Verbs Over Nouns
• Words That Bless/Words That Burn
• Words That Show Empathy

Writing to an Angry or Potentially Angry Customer

• 5-Step (HEARD) Process
• Where to place negative news

Organizing Resources

• Reviewing the pros and cons of templates
• Building a language library

Summary

METHODS TO BE USED:

This is an interactive session with discussions and individual and group exercises. The client will be asked to work with us in designing case studies for the exercises.