The Sparkle Program for Councils – 2 days
Who this program is for:
The Sparkle Program is a Customer Service Training Program suitable for all Council personnel. Each Sparkle program is specifically tailored to your needs. We customise the program to your specific issues and requirements.
This program is designed to build upon your existing customer service culture, enhance your interpersonal communication and customer service skills, and help you to establish and enhance rapport with your customers.
It will teach you the skills and knowledge of understanding, clarifying, meeting and exceeding customer needs and expectations.
There is also a particular focus on providing your staff with the skills to handle challenging and difficult situations and people.
Duration:
2 x one-day modules, approx 2 weeks apart
Program outline:
Module 1 - Developing a focused customer service culture (1 day)
How to build a customer service culture into your business environment based on the 5 ‘Sparkle Principles’ – B.E.A.M.S
Being Present
Enjoyment and Fun
Attitude is Everything
Making a Difference
Supporting and Serving
The important customer service skills:
Maintain a positive attitude in all situations
Develop rapport using verbal and non verbal communication
Build active listening and questioning skills to aid effective two way communication
Create awareness about the sensitivity in dealing with cultural and social differences
Present solutions to the needs of customers
Develop conflict handling skills to achieve win/win solutions promptly
Outcomes:
By the end of this program, you will be able to:
Greet your customers professionally whilst demonstrating a caring attitude
Ask appropriate questions to quickly identify your customer’s requirements/needs
Present solutions in a clear and easy to understand way
Deal appropriately with conflict and resolve complaints
Adapt your communication style to suit different personalities and challenging customers
Manage your state of mind to stay in control when frustrated
Approach customer service in a consistent way across the whole branch/division/team
Notes:
Personal profile instruments are included in the per person fee
GST is in addition to the per person fee
Registration of your place on this program is subject to the Registration Terms as provided with the Registration Form
Understanding the components of true customer service
Thinking from a customer’s perspective about their expectations from you
Identifying who your customers are - externally and internally
Identifying qualities and characteristics of excellent customer service providers
Brainstorming ideas on exceeding customer expectations
Module 2 - Customer Service Skills (1day)
Behavioural Styles - Understanding yourself and others
This part of the program is designed to improve your ability to understand yourself and others, and thus bringing about improvements in your ability to relate to others, your personal effectiveness and your performance.
Understand self (why we behave the way we do)
Understand others (why they behave the way they do)
Improve communication
Improve behaviour flexibility
Improve results through and with others
Improve win/win potential
Testimonials:
“The Sparkle Program helped me recognise that people behave in certain ways for many reasons.We may or may not be able to help them and that is ok.It is always best to remain positive and offer positive options.”
Bernadette Fleet NSw
“Communication is the heart of customer service, so understand one another and understanding my behaviour profile will help understand others in interaction.”
Cheryl Farlow NSW
“It will improve my communications with customers and help when dealing with difficult customers.”
Doreen Meer NSW
“Trying to use everything I learnt on the course to deliver better service to satisfy customers and their needs.It gave me a lot of good hints.”
Margaret Bilcharski NSW
"The Sparkle program is a lesson in handling people with different thoughts, backgrounds and agendas to our own. It is for improved customer service, work place relationships and communication. The Sparkle program helps you to develop skills where it may have been difficult to think of other options to handle some workplaces situations."
S Desousa NSW
Having just completed two days of the customer service workshop with our leader Carol, I would not hesitate in recommending this program to others. It has been an invaluable learning experience and Carol has been an excellent facilitator.
Cheryl Taree NSW
The Sparkle Champions program for Councils
The Leading and Coaching follow through for Council Management and Supervisory staff
It is vital that there are “Sparkle Champions/Coaches” in each Council in order to ensure that the knowledge and skills learnt during the two day Sparkle Program are implemented back in the Councilenvironment. The role of the coach will be to support their people and help them to continue to apply the learning’s on an ongoing basis.
We see the role of the Managers and Team Leaders as being crucial to the success of the Customer Service Sparkle initiative. For this reason, managers and team leaders should have the opportunity of attending the two day Sparkle Champions program which will give them improved skills in leading and coaching their staff on the customer service skills provided during the program.
Duration:
2 day program
Program outline - Day 1
The first half day module is focused on ‘How to keep the Sparkle alive’. This module provides knowledge and skills to create culture change through vision and values. The key theme of “Find it, Live it, Coach it” will enable management to sustain the change process.
The second half day module is focused on ‘Coaching Sparkle for Managers and Team Leaders’ and this module teaches how to coach and develop your people based on their competency and commitment levels. The program shows how you can encourage people and help them grow. They will learn a powerful coaching method, which will give them the skills to do just that. We will apply these to customer service situations in the workplace.
Module 1: How to keep Sparkle alive – what will make it stick
Creating culture change
What helps and what hinders
Your role, your example, your leadership
Leading is setting, giving and letting
Find it, Live it, Coach it
How to implement the change process through involvement
Module 2: Skills to Coach Sparkle
Communication skills for coaching
Learn and apply the GROW and CIGAR models in your coaching conversations
Changing difficult behaviour:
Often the biggest challenges Sparkle coaches have are managing the attitudes and behaviours of difficult people. If you have staff who come to work focused on the negative or are often complaining or being critical to name just a few of what can be challenging behaviours, we will show you how to instantly influence all behaviours skilfully and easily - using three simple steps.
Constructive feedback:
We all need it at times as it is the fertilizer of growth. We have two easy to use strategies designed to give feedback in the best possible light. One strategy is for spontaneous feedback when we need to have a quick word and the other is for performance management when a change of performance behaviour is required.
Being open to and receiving feedback as a manager is important, yet most team members are reluctant to give feedback to their manager. You will be introduced to some simple tips for receiving feedback that will help you evaluate and take advantage of any feedback you might receive.
Recognition:
The most positive way to reinforce good behaviour and motivate your team is through praise and recognition. It has been said that if you constantly focus on what a person does well and reinforce that behaviour, then other less satisfactory behaviours a team member might have will begin to diminish and disappear. We will cover the value of recognition, how to deliver recognition in the most meaningful ways and the different opportunities that exist within the workplace to give recognition.
Module 3- Motivation
Identify the motivators that make your team members feel good at work
Develop a motivating environment to stimulate loyalty
Module 4- Changing difficult behaviour
Learn how to change behaviour patterns in positive ways
Discover the TRIAD that creates every emotional pattern
The importance of asking ‘coaching’ questions
Creating willingness vs. compliance
Handling differences for win/win outcomes
How to present information that empowers and engages
Program outline - Day 2
The second day of the Sparkle Champions Program is focused on the key behavioural communication skills for building positive relationships with your team. The following key topics are the most sought after by leaders and managers who want to build, keep and grow a loyal team.
Motivation:
The Motivation Diagnostic is a powerful tool to understand your own motivations as well as that of your staff.
Have you ever wondered what makes you tick? Are you motivated by responsibility and challenge or just more money?What brings out the best in you?Many Managers, Team Leaders and Supervisors think that the only way to motivate their staff is by offering pay rises – yet if you can’t give pay rises then how do you motivate your staff?!
The Motivation Diagnostic will show you 9 different Motivators for you and your staff. Money is one of them and there are eight others. These motivators actually align with your values. They provide you with a great tool to help you lead develop and inspire your staff to be the best that they can be.
Module 5- Performance management
Learn two quick and simple strategies for giving feedback
The CIGAR strategy is an excellent performance management tool
Module 6- Giving recognition
Learn the value of recognition
How to give recognition that is meaningful
Different ways to give recognition
Testimonials:
“The skills practice and interaction helped to make the whole experience positive. The content was excellent. I will always remember that with difficult behaviour it is essential to step up and change my own behaviour. I recommend this program to anyone who supervises staff."
Elizabeth Barry, Central West Libraries
“This training is inspiring and gives relevant practical skills. The strategies involved in interrupting behaviour and modifying performance - Carol gave really relevant real life anecdotes that illustrated her concepts well."
Vicky Prestwidge, Central West Libraries
The Sparkle Advanced Program for Councils
Greetings to all Sparkle Councils!
As a way of providing additional support and keeping the Sparkle skills and energy re-invigorated we have developed a Third Day to the Sparkle Program.
The purpose of this third day is to assist your team to rejuvenate their Sparkle skills, learn new strategies to be even more successful in life and the Council, plus new skills to create customer satisfaction and loyalty.
What we will cover
We will review the Sparkle skills and add enhancements for your staff. We will also run a session on the Psychology of Success to provide Council staff with enhanced skills to “choose their attitude” for professional and personal benefits.Participants will be asked to bring to the program positive and negative personal service experiences they have had as customers.
Duration:
1 day
Morning session:
The link between what our thoughts and results
Two strategies that will give us more conscious choice for living a sensational life
This session promotes: personal accountability, ownership and responsibility. Participants will clearly learn that blame, denial and excuses do not serve them or their Council, family or friends. Also that even with the unexpected challenges that we sometimes get in life our attitude towards it will always determine how we move forward.
Afternoon session:
What’s working and what’s not plus new ideas to make your Council Sparkle
A review and discussion of what has been successful as a result of the implementation of Sparkle and what hasn’t worked. Also brain storm new ideas to make the Council Sparkle.
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A review activity to cover all the skills from Sparkle : Team exercise to review all the skills and quiz other teams on skill steps, this is a fun way to get across the skills from Sparkle.
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New skills for managing difficult customers
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Identify different difficult customer situations and how to resolve using PAUSE or other strategies.
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Practice presenting bad news to customers
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Practice bringing those customers who like to chat back to business
Testimonials:
“I wish to complement you on your professional approach to deliver a concise and effective training session to the team, that has resulted in significant operational improvements, including a lift in moral and motivation.
David Sinclair, Customer Operations Manager
Independence Solutions
a division of ParaQuad NSW
Carol’s broad industry experience enabled her to tailor design a session which captured the attendee’s attention and definitely had an impact on their attitude and I believe performance in the future. The session was both entertaining and educational and provided the group with specific skills to use in the workplace and in life.
John Hughes
State Manager NT/ QLD Sales and Marketing
Austcorp Group Limited
To register your place on the Sparkle Advanced Program contact:
Perform Solutions International P/L
Address
PO Box 342 Labrador Queensland 4215
Telephone: 0417022688
Fax : 0299741539
E-mail:carolcooper@gotalk.net.au
