Level 1 Award in Customer Service

Course Overview
This qualification provides candidates with the skills required to deliver efficient and reliable customer service. They will gain an understanding of customer expectations and needs and will be able to deal effectively with customer queries and complaints.

Learning Outcomes
• how to deliver good customer service
• different communication methods
• how to provide good customer service in line with organizational procedures
• how to effectively deal with customer queries, problems and complaints

International Curriculum

City & Guilds Delegate Workbooks

Endorsement

This unit is endorsed by the Institute of Customer Service.

This unit is linked to the Level 1 N/SVQ in Customer Service.

Qualification Exam

All learners who successfully complete the exam 8992-011 will be awarded the City & Guilds Level 1 Award in Customer Service.
The question paper (1 hour, plus 5 minutes reading time) will take the form of a series of short answer questions and scenario based tasks in which it is assumed that the candidate is dealing with customer queries and problems.

Additional Qualifications Covered

This course includes all topics, delegate workbooks, and preparation required to effectively prepare for the following City & Guilds Exams:

Customer Service - Intro Award

Conflict Handling - Intro Award

About City & Guilds

Established 125 years ago, City & Guilds is the leading vocational awarding body in the UK, awarding almost 50% of all National Vocational Qualifications, and awards over 1,000,000 certificates every year. As the only major awarding body solely dedicated to vocational learning, City & Guilds offers companies worldwide a recognized skills benchmark.

Course Outline

Section 1 : Deliver Good Customer Service
 

1.1 Different types of customers.

At the end of this section candidates should be able to:
• Identify internal and external customers
• Identify that customers may have special needs and be able to state what these special needs might be.

• Identify that customer satisfaction occurs when a customer is happy with the service provided. This will provoke different feelings in different people.
• Identify that customer expectations are what customers think should happen and how they believe they should be treated when asking for or receiving customer service.

Section 2 : Communication Methods

2.1 Effective methods of communication to use when dealing with different customers.

2.2 Use questions when dealing with different customers.

2.3 Positive and negative body language and facial expression.

2.4 Customers’ body language impacts on customer service.

2.5 Own body language impacts on customer service.

At the end of this section candidates should be able to:
• Identify that different customers will have different needs
and expectations.
• Judge customers’ expectation by identifying and
understanding their needs through the use of well-developed inter-personal skills, such as
questioning.
• Explain that body language is about interpreting facial
expressions, gestures and posture together with the words a customer uses.
• Describe the potential impact of a range of body language variations displayed by the customer.
• Be aware a service deliverer also conveys messages through their own body language.

Section 3 : Provide Good Customer Service in Line
with Organizational Procedures
 

3.1 Importance of providing products and services which are ‘fit for purpose’.

3.2 Importance of customer and organization confidentiality.

3.3 Limits of own authority.

At the end of this section candidates should be able to:
• Understand that customer expectations are what customers think should happen and how they believe they should be treated when asking for or receiving customer
service. Understand how customer expectations are formed.

• Be aware of the need to protect customers and their organization's interests when working with customer service records. Understand any loyalty and goodwill which exists between customers and the organization will be lost if confidentiality is breached.
• Be aware that many organizations have recognized systems and procedures for solving and dealing with customer problems and complaints. Be aware of the limit of their own authority to make decisions.

Section 4 : Effectively Deal with Customer
Queries, Problems and Complaints
 

4.1 How to deal with customer queries.

4.2 Common customer problems and complaints.

4.3 How to deal with problems and complaints.

At the end of this section candidates should be able to:

• Understand it is always vital to communicate in a clear, polite and confident way.
• Identify a variety of common customer problems and
complaints.
• By judging a customer’s expectations through identifying and understanding their needs, candidates should be able to explain this may often mean they have to adapt their own behavior and adapt how they communicate with the customer.

ADVANCED ACTIVITIES

Your Customer’s Requirements

Know your external customers

Think and Apply