Customer Service Training - Classroom

A Training Partner with a Commitment to Return on Investment

Myra Golden Seminars, a division of Myra Golden Media, is one of North America's most respected providers of customer service and contact center training. From telephone skills to how to handle difficult customers to surprise and delight, our training helps companies improve the customer experience, retain more customers, and boost profits.

Our professional training approach to improving the customer experience and building customer loyalty is to combine exceptional customization with interactivity and focused reinforcement. All Myra Golden training programs include:

  • Interviews and research to collect the necessary information to customize and tailor the message to your industry, company, and most importantly, your people.

  • A precision-crafted training session (following the Myra Golden Participant Centered Model) to help your attendees retain and apply the new ideas and strategies

  • Targeted reinforcement materials that vary by program, and can consist of a take-away wallet card or S.M.A.R.T. Goal Setting.

  • 6-week follow reinforcement online video course. 

  • A certified Myra Golden trainer with demonstrated and documented expertise in customer loyalty, customer recovery, customer winback, and the customer experience. And a trainer who is engaging and energetic. 

Our core lineup for Customer Service training includes:


I have attended many customer service trainings and I have worked in customer relations for many years. Today I learned more in a few hours than I ever could have imagined! And the way Myra presented the information was wonderful.
 
Caitlin Singer
Team Lead
Aveda Corporation

Myra's program was excellent! One of the best training sessions we have attended -well presented. The session was very beneficial to our everyday job!

Shirley Perry
Michelin North America

The feedback I received from my employees about the seminar was fantastic. We truly appreciate the opportunity to be a part of it.

William Welch
Vice President, Operational Optimization & Customer Experience
Telerx Marketing, Inc.

"...Most intriguing and informative seminar I have been to in my life!"
 
Joseph McGill
Shuttle Driver
National Car Rental/Alamo Rent-A-Car
 
 
Stop Screaming at Me!
Packed with practical, ready-to-use tips, tactics, and techniques that will help you get any angry customer to back down AND regain their goodwill!
Your employees don’t have to get frustrated when dealing with demanding, irate, or unreasonable customers and they don’t have to put up with verbal abuse and threats from customers. Myra will get your people started down the fast track to total confidence and skill in dealing with frustrating customers.
When your people have the right tactics and techniques and the motivation, they really can get any angry customer to back down and ultimately regain the customer’s goodwill.
In this interactive training, Myra covers:

Hostile Interaction Essentials – 10 things every customer service representative should know

  • The psychology of anger
  • How to lay a foundation for problem resolution - so that you can make better deals with unreasonable customers
  • 2 effective responses for when you are the target of verbal abuse
  • Tone of voice: making the biggest impact on calming angry customers
  • The #1 tactic difficult customers use to try to control you
  • How to handle a problem that was caused by the customer
  • Exactly how to handle the customer who demands to speak to a manager
  • The importance of letting customers vent – and  how long you should let them blow off steam
  • Why you cannot rationalize or negotiate with an angry customer
  • 3 comebacks for the customer who tries to manipulate you with intimidation or aggression
  • The critical importance of reflecting back the customer’s intensity – and how to do it gracefully
  • How to say ‘no’ without causing resentment
  • How to respond to customers who want you to "bend the rules"
  • How to deliver bad news to your customer while preventing negative backlash


Don’t Shoot Yourself in the Foot – Self-defeating actions that make your job harder

  • Why reducing choice, sounding formal, and causing a sense of helplessness will always arouse resentment in customers
  • The reason “splitting the difference” just to appease an irate customer is almost always the wrong solution
  • Putting the difficult customer off…why avoiding calls and emails from difficult customers always escalates the customer’s rage
  • Telling a customer he is wrong (even when he is wrong) always spells TROUBLE. Find out why
  • Ignoring the customer’s expression of anger – find out why you MUST address, head-on, the customer’s anger
  • Defending the problem, company, or a co-worker will always back-fire. Myra will tell you why.


Conversation Control

  • How asking 3 closed-ended questions back-to-back instantly puts you back in control of any conversation
  • The surprising power of “telephone silence” and how to pull it off with eloquence
  • 20 powerful phrases, word-for-word, to help you regain control of common difficult conversations
  • Learn Myra’s favorite technique for regaining control of a conversation: The “Topic Grab” technique.
  • Exactly how to assertively respond to the yelling or cursing customer
  • The secrets to getting ramblers, whiners, and story-tellers to cut to the chase
  • How simply saying, “You’re right.” will stop a ranting customer cold

Powerful Anger Diffusion Strategies

  • How to deliver bad news to your customer while preventing negative backlash
  • Verbal Aikido…how the martial art Aikido can help you instantly create calm with customers
  • 6 tactics for getting angry customers to back down. These tactics are diplomatic, super-simple, yet highly effective!
  • 3 Strong, but non-threatening tips for creating calm with irate customers

PLUS

  • Self-Control – How to keep from becoming upset and unraveled when speaking with demanding, unreasonable, or irate customers
  • Listening Techniques: Let Customers know you hear and understand them
  • Question and Answer Session – Myra will answer your most pressing questions about handling difficult customers


This program is delivered in a customized, interactive half-day session.
 

The Golden Method for Complaint Handling
How to completely restore customer confidence and regain goodwill after any service failure...even with difficult customers


In this critically acclaimed training, Myra introduces the Ten Golden Rules for Complaint Resolution – a field-tested and proven strategy for resolving complaints in such a way that regains customer goodwill. Myra specifically designed Ten Golden Rules to help employees establish rapport and create trust with unhappy customers, make customers feel heard and understood, and most importantly, to completely restore confidence in her client’s brands.


Most of Myra’s clients report that the Ten Golden Rules dramatically reduce talk time because every point employees need to make is clearly lined out in a way that is practical, easy-to-implement, and extremely effective. 


Audiences gain strategies, tactics, and psychological insights for dealing with demanding, irate, and unreasonable customers, learn to deal with difficult customers with diplomacy and tact, say “no” without causing resentment, respond to negotiation ploys, avoid damaging admissions, and resolve problems without giving away the store.


Myra’s positive attitude really makes me feel that one person can completely change another’s state of being.
Pablo Martinez
Consumer Affairs Specialist
Kellogg’s


Audiences learn:

  • Exactly what it takes to make peace and regain goodwill in problem situations...Myra’s 4-tier response strategy is backed by more than 10 years of research from Gallup and it's guaranteed to restore customer confidence with more than 90% of your customers
  • How to establish rapport with complaining customers – in 15 seconds flat...All of the gurus are talking about these simple strategies (from Stephen Covey to Tim Sanders), yet almost nobody is doing this!
  • When to apologize to customers and how to do it...Research has found a link between a heartfelt apology and a drastic reduction in lawsuits and attorney fees. But how do you offer an apology that is both “safe” and since. Myra will show you!
  • How Cracker Jack® introduced the world to surprise and delight and how you can do it too in the wake of problems!
  • How to handle the customer who demands to speak to your supervisor- without refusing the customer AND without transferring the call
  • You'll love this: a sure-fire response to the yelling or cursing customer
  • Say 'No' without causing resentment or worse...losing the customer
  • The best way to work with customers when their requests are unreasonable and how you can get them to compromise   
  • 20 helpful phrases –word-for-word to use when dealing with unhappy customers
  • Examine the psychology of anger – and discover secrets for diffusing anger that only the pros know
  • How to (really) resolve problems without giving the store away

"The seminar was great! You are able to drill down to the exact issues we, as Consumer Relations professionals face on a daily basis. There are a lot of high-level programs out there, but none that cut to the chase better than your approach."
Tonya Leguina
Consumer Relations Manager
The Stride Rite Corporation


This program is delivered in a customized, interactive half-day and full-day sessions.

Before You Hit Send!
Why so many companies blow it with customer email and how you can do better! 


Every email that you send out has your company's brand in the signature line and it puts your corporate reputation on the line. A great email can completely restore customer confidence in your brand and regain goodwill. But, at the fingertips of a disgruntled customer, your emails can be plastered all over the Internet by way of a powerful blog. In Before You Hit Send, Myra shows your people, step by step, how to craft customized, friendly emails that answer customers’ questions and leave customers with a WOW reaction. Prior to delivering this program, Myra likes to review a random sample of email threads to get a great feel for your current level of e-customer service.


In Before You Hit Send! Myra reveals secrets like…


What You Need to Know Before You Send Your Next Email to a Customer

  • 7 grammar gaffes that make you look dumb (and rob your company of credibility)
  • The 100% dummy-proof trick that you can use to ensure you answer each of your customer’s questions completely
  • Why it’s important for your email to do more than just answer the customer’s questions
  • Never send an email that you wouldn’t want posted, in its entirety, on a blog!


Creating a Winning Email Style

  • How to write short, descriptive subject lines and why you should
  • How to structure your email for greatest impact
  • Build instant rapport with your customers by writing with a casual, contemporary tone
  • Why you need to communicate with short sentences and short paragraphs in email

Proofread Like a High School English Teacher

  • How to avoid (very) common gaffes and goofs that rob your company of credibility
  • Why proofreading your email backwards can help you catch embarrassing errors
  • Get a checklist of key things to re-view before ever hitting the send button
  • Great tips for proofing on your computer monitor
  • BONUS: Expert editors' tricks for spotting their own mistakes

Making Sure Bad Things Don’t Happen Over Email

  • Kid-glove techniques for responding to complaints when you can’t say “yes”
  • Avoid negative words and phrases that can push your customer’s hot buttons
  • How to know when it’s time to break the email thread and just pick up the phone
  • The greatest major hurdle to completely answering every question customers pose in emails:  Once you've reached this special "tipping point," your email response will suddenly hit a whole new level

 This program is delivered in a customized, hands-on half-day session.

 
20 Fast WOW Telephone Techniques 
This presentation is chock-full of tips and techniques to position customer service professionals to make callers feel taken care of, effortlessly diffuse anger, and keep customers coming back
 
Every person who answers your phones represents your brand. Are they creating warm experiences over the telephone, making callers feel taken care of, and building loyalty one call at a time? If not, this training may be just the jolt they need to overhaul your telephone customer service experience.


Participants of this seminar will discover fun and practical tips for WOWing every customer, every time. Attend and you and your team will learn…

  • 8 ways to make every caller feel taken care of...these tips will boost customers' satisfaction, create calm with upset customers, and make you a rock star!  
  • Steven Covey's 5th Habit...discover what it is and why you need to master it.
  • How to calm any panicked, upset, or irate customer in 6 seconds flat. Here’s a little hint: Reflect back intensity.
  • Learn the correct (and polite) way to put callers on hold...customers hate to be put on hold, but this technique will put them at ease immediately. 
  • The best way to transfer a call.  Customers have no tolerance for multiple transfers, but this 4-point technique will be like giving them a shot of Novocain before the transfer.
  • How to handle the cursing or yelling caller. Myra will show you how to handle extreme behavior with confidence, control, and credibility. 
  • The #1 Service Recovery skill you need to know.
  • The new service icon that customer service professionals are flipping for…what Gumby can teach you about WOWing customers…This new approach to service delivery is fun to implement, sticks with your employees, and truly surprises and delights customers.  
  • 3 things you can do to instantly get customers on your side, or at any rate, not against you
  • How to deliver Beyond WOW service by simply "going one better" when you come across a man in a desert. Trust us, this will make sense once Myra’s in the room with you
  • They say first impressions are everything. Myra will show you how to make the most of the first 6 seconds of a phone call and the last 3 seconds.
  • Be a customer service maven by tomorrow! 7 super-simple tips for WOWing customers over the phone.
  • How to say (just about) anything to any customer...it's not what you say, it's how you say it.
  • 3 simple questions to put you back in control of any conversation. This includes conversations with ramblers, difficult customers, and know-it-alls.
  • How to say ‘no’ without causing resentment…or worse, losing the customer.
  • If only you’d stop talking... How to politely get ramblers, whiners, and storytellers to cut to the chase…yes, it can be done!
  • Learn expert listening techniques that let callers know they have your undivided attention
  • Calm down already! Myra will give you 3 strong, but non-threatening tips for creating calm with upset customers. You’ll love these!
  • How to make customers feel smart... even when they ask dumb questions.

 
This program is delivered in a customized, hands-on half-day session.

10 Secrets of Generation Y Management: Think Out of the Box to Effectively Lead, Coach, and Motivate Yers


In 10 Secretes of Generation Y Management, Myra Golden reveals the Generation Y work expectations, work ethic, and the generational personality. She also offers a set of real, not impossible, solutions to the challenges of managing, motivating, retaining Generation Y talent.

“The program with Myra Golden on managing the relationships and our interactions with others in different age groups was the best program I've seen in years, we’d love to bring her back soon.  I think we hit a homerun. Her style, her content, her interactive teaching techniques helped our audience think through the situations and interactions they have every day and gave them ways that they could be more effective. Even long after our attendees could have left the program they stayed afterwards to learn more and talk with Myra personally about their own situations.  This program was such a hit, and everyone’s really going to be able to use the ideas they received today.”
 
Doug Johnson
Arkansas State Employees Association
 
Attendees will learn:  

  • 9 Things you can do to bring Generation Y workers into your circle
  • 5  ways to create a motivating environment for Yers
  • The importance of being frank with Generation Y
  • Learn how to stop battling with your Yers like 2 dogs fighting over one bone
  • How to motivate Generation Y when the company doesn’t want to spend much more than scientists do on rat pellets
  • What you can – and must – learn from Donald Trump’s Apprentice about managing Generation Y
  • Warning:  Your cube is not your workbench: you need to be MBWA (managing by walking around) –here are 7 tips to help you do just that
  • 9 Things you can do to win over Generation Y
  • 6 Things you need to understand about Generation Y and what they need to know about you –and two warnings
  • How to get Generation Y on  your side, or in any event, not against  you
  • How to give Yers instructions and them to act on it

This program is delivered as a keynote or interactive half-day session.

Extreme Motivation: Powerful Ways to Keep CSRs Pumped and Productive
 
According to Newsweek, customer service jobs are among the top 10 toughest jobs in the country! In this fast-faced and fun presentation, Myra shows you how to minimize burnout and reduce stress in customer service jobs and she lays out a proven program for truly motivating your VIP customer service employees. Additionally, attendees will learn:

  • What really matters to CSRs…straight from their mouths!
  • 10 Stress inducers in call centers and what you can do about them
  • 9 low-cost and no-cost ways to motivate Reps
  • Leadership techniques proven to increase CSR productivity
  • How to keep Reps motivated when they are under pressure
  • How Zappos.com has created a culture where Reps want to deliver absolutely amazing customer service

This program is delivered as a keynote or interactive half-day session.  

 

How to Negotiate with Customers: Win-win strategies for negotiating with customers you can't afford to lose.


How to Negotiate with Customers: 10 Simple Strategies for Negotiating with crafty, cunning, and unreasonable customers

We promise, after Myra's How to Negotiate with Customers workshop, your team will be inspired and thrilled with how effective they are at negotiating with customers.  And once they’ve gotten a taste of how easy it truly is to get angry customers to back down and reach win win resolutions, they will be completely STOKED and actually look forward to negotiating with customers!

How to Negotiate with Customers is CLEAR, CONCISE, and geared to give you QUICK RESULTS that will empower you to reach agreements that balance the interests of both your customers AND your company.

In How to Negotiate with Customers, Myra reveals secrets like:

  • How to lay a foundation for resolution - so that you can make better deals with customers (even unreasonable customers)
  • How to reach agreements that make good business-sense and still have the customer walk away (or hang up) happy.
  • Why empathy has no place in negotiations with tough customers. 
  • The first step you MUST take when negotiating with an angry customer - if you fail to take this step, you WILL spend more money than you should and you'll feel awful.
  • Hear a STRONG case FOR apologizing to customers - discover why a simple apology can diffuse anger, help customers cut to the chase, and minimize emotions AND slash your settlement costs.
  • A strategy that ALWAYS works - know your BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement) .This is a strategy used by all of the pros and it will work for you. 
  • 5 rules for having tough conversations.  Learn the importance of taking control, having the last word, and 3 other crucial rules.
  • How to regain control by using the "Pause" button - Pausing is a subtle, but effective strategy that can be used to intimidate, inspire awe, or just leave difficult customers in the dust!
  • How to set limits with customers -  AND actually stick to them! 
  • 2 mistakes you can't afford to make when negotiating with customers. 
  • 7 secrets for moving customers out of a hardball mentality - you'll love these! 
  • How to nail the customer that tries to manipulate with anger - three simple, but extremely powerful techniques.
  • 4 things to never do in a negotiation. Knowing these "don'ts" makes all the difference.
  • Why you need to beware of hypothetical questions.
  • How to call a customer on a negotiation ploy - a proven 2-step response is all it takes to call a bluff with finesse!
  • 3 questions you need to ask yourself before making any concessions - these questions will help ensure you don't "give the store away" in an attempt to reach  quick agreements.
  • How to analyze the concessions your customer makes.  What do large concessions tell you? Small concessions? What about quick concessions? There's a hidden meaning behind EVERY concession.

--So you can negotiate with the confidence and skill of Donald Trump, even if you never dreamed you could!

This program is delivered in a customized, interactive half-day and full-day sessions.

Quality Contact Center Monitoring: 
A remarkably quick and easy 10-point blueprint for building an effective quality program

Customer Service Representatives are “the company” in the eyes of your customers. Consumer perception about your company is formed by the one-on-one conversations your Representatives have with your customers. These conversations impact customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, brand perception and profits.

In contact centers, a solid quality call monitoring program makes all the difference. A well-designed quality program helps you identify and resolve service problems and continually improve upon the service experience. A poorly conceived program can result in de-motivated agents, frustrated supervisors, wasted time and no improvements in quality. Join us for this encore presentation of a blockbuster seminar where you get cutting-edge advice on every aspect of setting up or fine-tuning your quality call monitoring program.

You and your team will leave this intensive webinar with a 10-point blueprint for designing and executing your own quality monitoring and coaching program. Myra will also share best quality monitoring practices from such renowned companies as Nike, Johnson & Johnson, and Disney Direct.

Course Topics Include:
The Monitoring Form: Simple tips and tricks that will position you to design (or enhance) your form like a pro!

  • Myra will explain the five simple and basic components you MUST have on your monitoring form
  • Benchmark monitoring forms from superstar call centers
  • You will receive a PDF packet of 25 real (and really good) monitoring forms from which you can benchmark
  • You’ll even get a sample email correspondence monitoring form
  • We’ll examine how to effectively use both Yes/No and Numerical scoring

"With the discussion and information from the webinar we are ready to get started and have even scheduled our first meeting to get it underway! "
 
Debbie Riley
Consumer Affairs Supervisor
Giant Landover


Plain and Simple Performance Standards

  • Learn to distinguish between styles and standards so that your evaluations are legally sound and fair (not to mention, easier on you)  
  • How to establish clear, valid and measurable performance standards
  • Find out what's off limits for measuring in quality monitoring and why

Your seminar has given me the tools to build {a} new incentive program.  I’m sure that my operators will appreciate the scoring process as well as the incentives.  I will appreciate the opportunity to be a better coach.

Jeri Chandler
Ivie & Associates, Inc
 
How to Coach Contact Center Agents

4 Behavior Action Frameworks for Coaching Agents to Optimal Performance

  • The GOLDEN Method for Coaching Contact Center Agents (9-step proprietary model)

  • Coaching through questioning
    Exactly how to get whiners and blamers focused on their performance

  • A 7-step model for addressing unacceptable performance


Overcoming One of the Biggest Threats to Effective Coaching and Getting Agent Buy-In to Monitoring

  • Myra will reveal the one –and only- solution to solving the problem of inconsistent coaching among contact center supervisors
  • You’ll get to explore 7 field-tested and proven tips (straight from the world-class centers of some of our clients) for overcoming agent resistance
  • We will review 8 common objections agents have to monitoring and we'll tell you exactly how to respond to every one of them

All about Calibration: Getting Every Supervisor on the Same Page: Nipping the consistency challenge in the bud

  • Find out why it so easy for every supervisor to see (and rate) calls differently ---and discovery what you can do about it
  • You’ll get Myra's 6-step easy method for holding productive calibration sessions that will ENSURE consistency among all supervisors who coach

This program is delivered as a full-day intensive, hands-on workshop.

 

Member Loyalty: The Art of WOWing Visitors and How to Earn Devoted Member Loyalty
How to turn visitors into committed members


First time visitors represent 100% of a church’s growth potential, yet most churches fundamentally ignore this growth opportunity. Little or no first-time visitor follow-up and neglected hospitality touch points are robbing church growth initiatives of critical momentum. In this program, Myra draws on her expertise from the corporate sector and combines it with her experience as a growth strategist for such churches as the Sanctuary Orlando, Greenwood Christian Center and Sweet Bethel Baptist Church and shows church leaders the step-by-step process for turning first-time visitors into committed, regularly attending members.

"I wanted to thank you so much for coming and sharing and tell you that I've heard glowing reports about your time with our leaders!  It seems that everyone was encouraged and inspired to step up to a level of excellence in how we treat each other and the dear ones the Lord sends our way."

Shari Zimmerman
Greenwood Christian Center


Attendees will learn:

  • How a church in Tulsa went from 25 members to over 300 members in 2 ½ years by following up with EVERY first-time visitor with a phone call from the pastor, mastering all of the hospitality touch points and giving gifts to members who brought in guests.
  • How to create a warm, welcoming experience for all first-time guests.
  • How to train and ignite your hospitality team.
  • The importance of mastering Nelson Searcy’s 4 crucial areas of hospitality: Greeted, Directed, Seated, and Treated.
  • How to get visitors to want to complete your visitor card.
  • Exactly how to follow-up with first time visitors – including what to say and when to make contact.
  • How to create a culture where members don’t want to miss a single service.
  • How to help sporadic attenders to take the next step of commitment.  


This program begins with an exhaustive conversation about your current visitor retention strategy, what keeps you up at night about your current situation, and your goals for your work with Myra. Myra will then deliver this program to all relevant staff and volunteers as a 3 hour intensive, hands-on workshop.

 
"Thanks for the great impartation! You did a wonderful job!"

Bishop Gary McIntosh
Senior Pastor, Greenwood Christian Center

Thanks again for the wonderful insight you gave us.  Myra you are such a breathe of fresh air to this ministry.

Pat Bell
Greenwood Christian Center