Live Chat – beyond the basics

A one-day workshop

You’ve nailed the basics – now it’s time to get the best out of your live Chat and create a great customer experience! You’ll be building on your skills so you can Chat with confidence and personality when responding to your customer’s enquiries.

Objectives

Objectives

This workshop will help participants to:

  • Engage in a conversational style during live Chat with your organisation’s ‘tone of voice’
  • Identify and channel key skills and techniques to Chat like a pro
  • Assess sample chats to raise the Chat experience to another level
  • Build confidence by demonstrating the Chat skills and techniques from the session
  • Take the learning back to the workplace

Audience

Who should attend?

This one-day programme is designed for live Chat agents / advisors who have completed technical skills training, have comprehensive product knowledge and experienced live Chat in either your or another workplace.

Format

Format

A very practical and interactive one-day session for a maximum group size of 12. There are lots of different activities throughout the day – group exercises, ‘table-top’ activities, critiquing of real-life chats, quizzes, practice activities and scenarios – as well as a number of formal inputs from the trainer.

The style is very facilitative and learner-centred, taking into account the needs and preferences of the group on the day whilst at the same time delivering the programme as agreed with the client in order to meet the specified learning objectives.

Classroom delivery recommended but virtual also possible.

And, if you prefer, a tailored or bespoke programme can provide an enhanced learner experience. This can be achieved with the sharing of sample live chats and insights into the organisation’s tone of voice, customer engagement and feedback (eg, ‘rant and rave’), and any limitations that are placed on agents / advisors (eg, escalation to calls) in advance of the training delivery.

Expert trainer

Expert trainer

Sandra has nearly 30 years’ experience as a customer service trainer, having spent seven years in the hospitality industry prior to setting up her own learning and development consultancy in 2002. She is a Master Trainer for Welcome to Excellence Customer Experience programmes in the North East of England, delivered on behalf of the Regional Tourist Board and Visit England. She works predominantly across the service sector (including health care, tourism, leisure, hospitality, retail, local authority, higher education, transport and utility services), where she is involved with training design, development and delivery of customer experience-based initiatives, and management development. She is a highly motivated and passionate facilitator with a fun, engaging and energetic style, as the following examples of feedback show:

  • ‘Sandra is an inspiring facilitator who builds rapport instantly with delegates and has an intuitive ability to understand the challenges that individuals experience within their workplace.’
  • ‘Sandra did a brilliant job; she was well prepared and had lots of knowledge and energy. It was a relaxed and fun environment in which to learn.’
  • ‘A thought provoking, informative and relevant programme, well delivered by an engaging trainer.’

1 Chat has landed

This session uses examples from a variety of well-known brands to provide a discussion around the impact of the interaction on the customer experience. It explores the group’s own customer experience when they have used chat and determining the organisation’s boundaries.

  • Exploring the rise of chat and the demand for responsive digital communication
  • Impact of chat on the customer experience
  • Protecting the brand

2 Chat skills kitbag

This session explores the importance of strong communication skills, including written and tonal, and the impact of not having the visual clues. Activities are used to demonstrate levels of response ranging from transactional through to building brand loyalty and engagement. This links back to the company’s tone of voice and associated communication expectations. 

  • It’s all in the communication
  • Chat-bot v Human
  • Finding the right tone of voice

3 Chat techniques

This session uses practical activities to explore techniques the agent / advisor can deploy including organisation, planning, mindset, distractions, dealing with multiple chats, prioritising and utilising the tech (eg, knowledge banks, template inserts, spelling/grammar aids, escalating to calls).

  • Setting yourself up for success
  • Getting it right first time
  • Challenges of chat and how to handle them

4 Taking chat to the next level

This session uses practical activities to emphasise the impact of tailored, personalised, conversational chat and the brand loyalty that can be built. Using their own chats from the pre-work they can demonstrate how the conversation could be replayed using the learning from the session and peer support. 

  • Chat customisation in practice
  • Raising my game
  • Peer support and feedback

5 Action planning

This session allows for personal action planning which can be shared with participants’ line managers back in the workplace.

  • Taking learning back to the workplace

To check that this is the right programme for you, just give us a call on 01582 463464 and we’ll be happy to talk it through with you – we’re here to help!