You may have read my journal article on 'Why Senior Management Still Doesn't Seem to get it after all these Years'. If so, you understand how 'critical to success' service excellence really is to ensuring you achieve and maintain competitive advantage. This programme is the 'ultimate' and takes my 40 years of experience and distills it into a powerful learning experience. Get your trainers up to speed so they can deliver it effectively. Do it now while there is still time! The clock is ticking and the future is often here before we are ready for it!

1. The Ultimate “Train the Trainers”
Service Excellence Learning and
Development Programme
Purpose and Content
A Foundation Level Course
Module I: Laying a Foundation for Service Excellence
This introductory course is designed to introduce service excellence concepts to new employees and
others who interact with customers. The focus will be on establishing the common purpose of
service excellence in alignment with the vision, mission and goals of the organisation. This will be
followed by discussion of how each individual can contribute to helping the organisation achieve
the vision, mission, and goals.
 Morning Session – Establishing a Common Purpose
 Vision/Mission/Goals
 The Role of Service Excellence (Who does it best? – gather some
comparative data from the class)
 Identifying Our Customers (Who are we serving?)
 Customer Requirements (needs) and Expectations (wants) – A Group
Discovery and Reinforcement Activity (high level)
 Afternoon Session – How You Can Contribute
 Linking Yourself to Your Organisation’s Goals – Your Contribution
 Values and Behaviours (including ethics) – Being a role model
 Attitude Motivation Pride, Commitment & Accomplishment
(contribution/making a difference; feeling good about yourself)
 Trust – How do you create it and why is it important?
© 2014, Dr. Ted Marra All Rights Reserved 1

2.  Taking Ownership (empowerment as an attitude & practice; value-based
decision-making) – Being an Advocate for the Customer in Your
Organisation
Basic Knowledge & Skill-Building Courses
Module 2: Keys to Success, Part I – Interpersonal Skills
Keys to Success – Part I focuses on the interpersonal skills and behaviours that are so essential to
successful day-to-day interactions with customers and co-workers. These are fundamental to
maintaining and building excellent working relationships.
 Communication
 Active Listening
 Responsiveness – You want it when????
 Respect for others (note: this may be reinforcement and expansion if already
contained in Module I values & behaviours above)
 Conveying and Instilling Confidence (Can I count on You?)
Module 3: Keys to Success, Part II – Skills for Building and
Maintaining Relationships
Keys to Success – Part II. By observing some guiding principles and maintaining an attitude of
service, being professional and keeping your promises you successful in strengthening relationships
with customers and co-workers. In addition, approaches for dealing with stressful situations will
be discussed.
 Guiding Principles (e.g., Begin with the end in mind; first things first; seek first
to understand before being understood; win-win – other Covey “Habits”) and
How They Apply in Your Work Environment
 Attitude of Service (Do you care about me?) & Things to Avoid
 Professionalism (Do you believe in & practice excellence?)
 Keeping Your Promises (Can I trust you?)
 Managing stressful situations without getting “stressed out” yourself (e.g.,
dishonest customers, having to say no, abusive customers)
Module 4: Keys to Success, Part III – Understanding Your
Customers
© 2014, Dr. Ted Marra All Rights Reserved 2

3. Keys to Success – Part III reinforces the fact that maintaining and building relationships with
customers is predicated upon understanding their requirements and expectations. This module will
also challenge you to identify where the customer and you may be having the greatest difficulty and
success!
 Quick Refresher: Who are your customers?
 Interactions with Your Customers (What are they?)
 Requirements (needs) and Expectations (wants) – Note: Group discovery plus
actual research data if available related to the interactions
 Areas of Customer Dissatisfaction (areas of greatest unhappiness for customer)
& How do You Know?
 Where do you have the most difficulty and greatest success in dealing with
customers and why?
Module 5: Internal Organisational Relationships – A Key to
Cooperation and How to Better Align your Business Processes
with Your Customers
Internal Organisational Relationships provides participants with a rare opportunity to look within
their own organisation, identify key internal customers and assess what they do and how well they
do it. The module is completed with a focus on how their organisation might improve it services,
how it creates its services or delivers them to internal customers. We often find that when these
internal organisational relationships are not working, the external customer often goes away
dissatisfied about their interaction with your organisation.
 The fundamental concept of a process – suppliers and customers. Defining our
terms. How do they apply in your work context?
 How should you align what you do with your customers? Why is it important to
do so?
 Starting with the basics: Why does your department/function exist (i.e., its
mission)?
 What internal organisation depends upon your department/function the most?
What do you provide to them (e.g., product, service, support – be specific such as
financial reports)? We will consider this organisation to be your most important
internal customer!
 Describe the steps your department/function goes through to create and deliver
what your most important internal customer needs from you
 The four dimensions of an internal relationship. How good a job are you doing in
each of them – what do you think your customer would say? (Evaluate your
performance against sample key requirements and expectations)
 What can you do to improve? (Note: you can ask them to map out one of the
processes they use in their department to create a service or product which they
provide to their most important internal customer)
Module 6: Everyone’s Telephone Skills Course
© 2014, Dr. Ted Marra All Rights Reserved 3

4. This course is intended for people who have frequent responsibility for serving customers.
Everyone’s Telephone Skills Course covers both basic telephone skills and the advanced telephone
skills leading to increased effectiveness and efficiency, issue management, complaint handling,
building trust and professionalism.
 Basic telephone skills (voice, annunciation, clarity, speed, pace, listening, and all
of the rest)
 Hold, transfer, and call management techniques
 Handling information (including accuracy, quality, etc.)
 Use of goals, measures, and service standards
 Call management skills (listening, establishing rapport, controlling the call,
following up, closing, etc.)
 Special situations (and how they may be handled)
 Methods of assessing skills and promoting continuous improvement
 Developing procedures for greater success
 The psychology of interaction via telephone
 What works the best? (best voice, best response, best greeting, best response
techniques, best ways to control the call.
 Getting rid of not words, intimidating phrases, and other barriers
 Building trust with customers.
Courses to Develop the Process and Task Skills
That Ensure Success
Module 7: Delivering Service Excellence
Delivering Service Excellence provides an understanding of a basic relationship process and a 4-
step approach to ensuring fulfillment of the customer’s requirement(s) and expectation(s). During
this session we will look at examples of unsatisfactory, satisfactory and excellence service from a
customer perspective. Measures and standards will also be discussed. Special face-to-face
delivery issues are also included. Service Excellence is a source of value and therefore a critical
source of competitive advantage. Innovation is a key part of it.
 The eight (8) Pillars of Service Excellence (see Dr. Marra’s new book, ‘The
Wisdom Chronicles: Competing to Win’ on Amazon. Chapter 4 contains
background on these 8 pillars in the chapter of creating and delivering value.
 Relationship excellence and its importance in your organisational success
 Examples of unsatisfactory, satisfactory and excellence service
 A three step process (describe each – contact, fulfillment, measurement &
management; their role/how they can contribute in each; measures and standards
– related to their department/function)
© 2014, Dr. Ted Marra All Rights Reserved 4
Wisdom Chronicles Amazon Link.htm

5.  Ensuring customer fulfillment – “Be Prepared (mentally); Listen & Learn; Be a
resource for the customer – make their life easier; act as an advocate for the
customer – follow through! (note: weave in value-based decision making)
 Special face-to-face issues (e.g., body language, safety, others)
Module 8: When Something Goes Wrong – The Recovery
Process
This module covers all aspects of clarifying and handling customer issues, demands, feedback, and
complaints. The reality is that “perceptions” tend to be “reality” from a customer perspective.
That is to say, if the customer thinks there is a problem, there is a problem. When Something Goes
Wrong – The Recovery Process includes recovery and customer retention techniques such as
diffusion of anger, effective use of empathy. The module contains discussion of “land mines” to
avoid. The goals of the Recovery are clarified. Measures of performance and standards will also
be discussed.
 What do we mean by “recovery” process? What are our objectives? (e.g.,
maintain relationship, respond to issue, take corrective action where appropriate
to prevent re-occurrence)
 Examples of customer problem experience in different environments. How does
this compare with your organisation? What types of problems do you think
customers encounter in dealing with your organisation?
 A three step recovery process (describe each – contact, fulfillment, measurement
& management; their role/how they can contribute in each; measures and
standards – related to their department/function)
 Ensuring customer fulfillment: Understand (listen & learn); Assess (evaluate);
negotiate (value-based decision making); Follow through (act as an advocate for
the customer; meeting your commitments). Includes diffusion of anger
techniques, what to do and what not to do, (avoiding land mines), effective use of
empathy.
Module 9: Creating and Delivering Value to Build Exceptional
Relationships
This module covers all aspects of the concept of value. This concept has proven to be one of the
most important strategic concepts to evolve in the past 8-10 years. In general, businesses which
are able to deliver value often enjoy greater market differentiation and competitive advantage,
higher levels of profitable growth and customer loyalty. The concept of value must be built on a
foundation of understanding and meeting basic needs. This module will look at defining basic
needs as well as reviewing the six sources of value. Discussion of how the organisation can
leverage these six sources will be discussed along with measures of performance.
 Defining our terms. What do we mean by “basic” needs or requirements, how do
we find them and what are they? Why are they so important? What happens
when they are not met?
© 2014, Dr. Ted Marra All Rights Reserved 5

6.  How do “basic” needs differ from expectations or what the customer really
“wants” from us?
 How should we define value? What does it mean in the context of our business?
 Exploring the six sources of value: process, people, products, services,
technologies and support. Which ones can we leverage in our organisation?
 Relating the concept of value to service excellence.
 How do we know if we are delivering value? What are some of the measures or
indicators that would tell us we are successful?
Courses for Team Leaders, Supervision
and Management
Module 10: Leading & Coaching
This is a class for team leaders, supervisors and managers. Leading & Coaching introduces
helpful skills and approaches necessary for team leaders, supervisors and managers to successfully
provide critical and complimentary feedback, handle issues, provide recognition, motivate
personnel and otherwise improve their organisation’s performance through more effective people
management.
 Leading versus managing (styles of leadership).
 What is Role Model behaviour and why is it important? (mindset: how can I help
my employees be successful)
 Coaching and motivating employees (includes recognition, giving feedback,
delegation/empowerment, involvement and other techniques to make employees
feel valued)
 Recognizing “burnout” or stress and steps you can take to deal with it effectively
 Management by exception (80/20 rule) including mediating escalated complaints
 Building trust
Module 11: Working Toward Greater Organisational
Effectiveness
This is a class for team leaders, supervisors and managers. A lifestyles assessment tool (LIFO)
will be used to help provide team leaders, supervision and management with the skills to recognise
the styles of interaction used by their employees – in normal and stressful situations. They will then
be able to develop plans to address “excesses” that may hamper individual performance or
cooperation with others. Team leaders, supervisors and managers will also learn about their own
interactive styles. Decision making styles are also discussed.
 Relate the styles to the Critical Components of Relationship Excellence
© 2014, Dr. Ted Marra All Rights Reserved 6

7.  Recognise your own preferred style of interaction as well as any excesses you
may have the their consequences (self-evaluation & evaluation as management
team)
 Recognise the styles of interactions of others as well as any excesses which may
be inhibiting their daily performance, ability to work effectively (cooperate) with
others or satisfy customers
 Designing development plans and integrating these with the performance
evaluation, coaching and recognition processes
 Decision making styles and when consensus is appropriate and how to achieve it
Module 12: The Continuous Improvement of Product & Service
Quality
This is a class for team leaders, supervisors and managers. The Continuous Improvement of
Service prepares team leaders, supervisors and managers with the essential tools and approaches
to successfully drive improvement, innovation and manage change effectively. The issue of team
leaders, supervisors and managers as “change agents” is included.
 The philosophy of continuous improvement and how it relates to your
organisation (draw out examples and reflect on the stimulus for improvement)
 Describe your department’s mission and the most important “deliverable
(product, service, support) that it provides to customers internally or externally.
 How does that most important deliverable get created (the process steps)? Is
your customer always satisfied? When they aren’t, where do you find that things
gone wrong most often (the most frequent problem or complaint)? What can you
do to improve the process and prevent things from going wrong?
 What do we mean by innovation and how does it relate to continuous
improvement? What are the six sources of information that drive innovation?
How are you using them today?
 What does it mean to be a change agent and why is it an important role for team
leaders, supervision and management?
 Key quality tools and techniques are included along with actual business issues
to investigate using them
Module 13: Balanced Performance Measurement and
Management
This is a class for team leaders, supervisors and managers. Balanced Performance Measurement
introduces helpful skills and approaches necessary for team leaders, supervisors and managers to
more effectively utilize data to manage their area or department. The emphasis is on ensuring a
balanced a view of performance and how that can be more beneficial to effective achievement of
organisational goals and objectives. Aligning performance measurement with the vision, mission
and goals of the organisation will also be discussed.
© 2014, Dr. Ted Marra All Rights Reserved 7

8.  What set of performance measures do you find to be most helpful to you in
assessing your group’s, department’s or function’s performance? Categorise
them (e.g., financial measures). How do you use them? Relate these
performance measures to your organisation’s vision, mission, goals or objectives
and key stakeholders (define stakeholder). Are there any gaps? (NOTE: The
other alternative here would be to take service quality or service excellence and
ask what they believe the factors to be that influences performance. Then ask if
there are measures in existence – surrogate or otherwise that align with these
factors. What is missing? What is there, but not as helpful as it needs to be and
how can it be improved?)
 What do we mean by balanced performance measurement? (examples)
 What could you do to make the performance measures for your organisation
more balanced (close the gaps identified above) and what do you believe would
be the benefit?
 How to ensure achievement of organisational goals/objectives (e.g., resources,
cost effectiveness, quality, productivity, policy or others)
Module 14: Setting Service Standards to Drive Performance
This is a class for team leaders, supervisors and managers. However, a high level of involvement
by frontline employees should be strongly encouraged. How should standards be set? What are
the critical factors that should be considered? What are the benefits of customer service
standards to the organization and to customers? If you are serious regarding maintaining
service excellence, then standards of performance are essential. Set them the wrong way and it
can have serious demotivating effects on people and negative consequences for customers.
 How should service standards be defined? What are the three areas of focus for
service standards? What are the characteristics of effective service standards?
What is the relationship between performance guarantees and service standards?
 Why employee involvement is critical to success. How to involve them
effectively in the process
 Review and discussion of service standards in your own organization.
Evaluating them for effectiveness.
 The 6-Step process for setting service standards:
 Agree on assumptions
 Identify and prioritise targets of opportunity based upon internal and external
(customer) data
 Conduct performance gap analysis
 Establish standards
 Implement standards
 Monitor, evaluate and improve
© 2014, Dr. Ted Marra All Rights Reserved 8

9. Additional Courses for Personnel in High
Volume Customer Contact Units –
Customer Support Lines, Call Centres or
Others Similar Environments
Module 15: Call Centre Telephone Skills
Call Centre Telephone Skills is an introductory module on basic telephone skills for call centre
operations. The course uses practice sessions, demonstrations, and role plays to demonstrate what
works well and what does not so that participants can experience and learn from both successful
and unsuccessful interactions.
 Overview of the basic purpose, goals, and operations of a call centre
 Telephone systems and capabilities
 What are the basic telephone skills necessary to work in a call centre operation?
(Voice, annunciation, clarity, speed, pace, listening, etc.)
 Hold, transfer, and call management
 Cooperation with others in the centre
 Handling information (including accuracy, quality, etc.)
 Use of goals, measures, and service standards
 Call management skills (listening, establishing rapport, controlling the call,
following up, closing, etc.)
 Special situations (and how they may be handled)
 Continuous improvement of telephone skills
Module 16: Advanced Call Centre Telephone Skills
Advanced Call Cenrer Telephone Skills is an extension of the Call Centre Telephone Skills course,
focusing on the advanced telephone skills which lead to increased effectiveness, efficiency, trust
building, professionalism, and customer satisfaction.
 Methods of assessing skills
 Continuous improvement of telephone and related skills
 Training the trainers and coaching the coaches
 Assessment techniques, rapid assessments, assessment of performance, and other
ways to begin the assessment and improvement process.
 Developing procedures for greater success
 The psychology of interaction via telephone
 What works the best? (best voice, best response, best greeting, best response
techniques, best ways to control the call.
© 2014, Dr. Ted Marra All Rights Reserved 9

10.  Getting rid of not words, intimidating phrases, and other barriers
 Building trust with customers.
© 2014, Dr. Ted Marra All Rights Reserved 10