Introduction
The programme “Problem-Solving Skills for Customer Service” develops professional practice in Customer Service. It connects the subject with workplace challenges by examining existing evidence and practices and choosing methods appropriate to the organization and its available resources.
The learning progresses from customer experience development and complaint handling to performance measurement and continuous improvement, with practical work on professional communication, negotiation, and conflict management, procedure analysis and work simplification, data analysis and decision support. Participants prepare outputs to support workplace application and review the quality and results of implementation.
Learning objectives
- Design a service journey and complaint response based on customer needs and follow-up evidence in an application related to “Problem-Solving Skills for Customer Service”.
- Select a communication and negotiation approach that addresses interests and preserves professional relationships.
- Redesign a procedure to reduce delays and rework while maintaining controls.
- Turn available data into documented analysis that supports a specific professional decision.
- Build performance indicators that distinguish activity completion from achievement of results.
Learning areas
1. Customer Experience Development and Complaint Handling
- Define customer groups, expectations, and touchpoints, and map an actual journey including waiting, effort, and information exchange.
- Analyze the voice of the customer, complaints, and feedback, classifying recurring causes and linking them to the process, product, or communication channel.
- Set response, resolution, and escalation standards that consider the problem's impact, staff authority, and message clarity for the customer.
- Simulate a difficult service situation, applying listening, empathy, and fact verification, and offer a feasible solution or alternative.
- Build indicators for resolution time, complaint recurrence, and experience quality, and use results to address root causes and monitor impact. The application examines a case related to “Problem-Solving Skills for Customer Service”.
2. Professional Communication, Negotiation, and Conflict Management
- Analyze the communication objective, audience, context, and sensitivity, and select the channel, message, and timing to support the intended result.
- Practice listening, checking understanding, and questioning, and distinguish facts from interpretations and personal assumptions.
- Identify the parties' interests, limits, alternatives, and comparison criteria, and prepare a list of negotiable points.
- Handle objections and disagreements by reframing the problem, generating alternatives, and documenting agreements.
- Simulate a communication or negotiation situation, assess message clarity and response quality, and plan improvements for subsequent practice.
3. Procedure Analysis and Work Simplification
- Define the procedure's start, end, owner, inputs, and outputs, and collect data on processing time, waiting, and rework.
- Map the actual workflow between roles, identifying approvals, handovers, bottlenecks, and duplicate data entry.
- Analyze the value added by each step and the controls it provides, and propose combining, removing, or running steps in parallel with reasons for the choice.
- Document the improved procedure with clear authorities, forms, timelines, and standards, and review its effects on beneficiaries and delivery teams.
- Test the procedure on a limited case, measure time, errors, and output quality, and document adjustments and the rollout plan.
4. Data Analysis and Decision Support
- Frame an analytical question linked to a specific decision, and define the unit of measurement, time period, and data needed to answer it.
- Check data quality for completeness, accuracy, consistency, and duplication, and document cleaning steps and limitations on reliance.
- Select appropriate comparisons, indicators, and charts, and distinguish statistical correlation from causal explanations of results.
- Interpret results in the work context, test assumptions and unusual values, and present alternatives and their associated uncertainty.
- Prepare an analytical report containing the finding, recommendation, data source and date, review owner, and next follow-up step.
5. Performance Measurement and Continuous Improvement
- Define the intended result and its beneficiary, and distinguish indicators of inputs, activities, outputs, and impact.
- Define each indicator's formula, unit of measurement, data source, update frequency, and responsibility for collection and verification.
- Select a baseline, realistic target, and alert thresholds, and review data quality before interpreting deviations from the target.
- Analyze the causes of performance gaps and link them to corrective actions with specified owners, deadlines, resources, and closure verification methods.
- Design a review meeting covering trends, decisions, and open actions, and track improvement over more than one measurement cycle.
Practical outputs
- A customer journey map, complaint response guide, and service quality cards.
- A communication plan, interests matrix, and actionable negotiation scenario.
- An improved procedure map, service profile, and acceptance criteria for implementation.
- A dashboard and decision memo explaining the data, assumptions, and alternatives.
- Performance indicator cards and a plan for reviewing results and improvement actions.
Who should attend
- Practitioners, specialists and supervisors whose work relates to the programme subject.
- Managers and teams working in customer service, according to their practical responsibilities.
- Professionals responsible for applying the outputs of “Problem-Solving Skills for Customer Service” within their organizations.
Prerequisites
- Working familiarity with the programme field and the ability to discuss a professional case or challenge.
- Confirm the suitability of your experience and any specialist prerequisites with the Union before participation.
Conclusion
The programme “Problem-Solving Skills for Customer Service” brings together concepts, case review and a practical application. Participants prepare steps that can be adapted to their responsibilities and organizational resources, with an indicator to follow application and review results after returning to work.
Participation arrangements and any special requests are specified in the confirmation issued by the Union.