Effective customer service in English
DP DHL Express Customer Service Center (CSC Frankfurt)
As DP DHL Express becomes increasingly international, it is increasingly common for non-German speaking customers to call the Customer Service Center (CSC). Naturally, these international customers expect the same professional service as German-speaking callers. DP DHL's customer service agents have strong product knowledge and good customer service skills The performance benchmark was clearly defined – deliver the same level of customer service in English as in German.
DHL Express ensures that its Customer Service Center (CSC) agents are experts in their field and able to advise callers on all aspects of parcel logistics; from product advice to tracking and tracing, and from price questions to international customs clearance procedures. They now needed to deliver customer service in English. Target Training shadowed the operation of the CSC and watched the agents working in their native German. This:
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clearly demonstrated the expected high level of performance.
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allowed a detailed analysis of the language needed to perform their tasks.
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demonstrated the terms and expressions used.
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provided the basis for a wide range of authentic real- and role-plays.
We developed a fully customized Customer Service in English program which combined key language with the required skills and behaviors. This included developing a series of telephone dialogues which reflected the typical questions about products, service and price asked by DHL Express customers. These recordings became the springboard for 5 days of intensive, work relevant training.
We introduced the language that the agents needed to do their job. This language was first practised in a controlled environment, with the scripted dialogues.
This led to the agents role-playing the exact situation of the recording, further practising their English to build confidence.
They used their work experience to create comparable authentic scenarios which were then used as training real-plays. The transfer to their workplace was smooth and rapid.
“...Target immediately understood our requirements and, following a comprehensive needs analysis carried out at our Customer Service Center in Frankfurt , transformed these requirements into a practical training concept. From the very first, the training delivered both the success we were looking for, and the positive changes and development of our Service Team.”
The result
At the end of the program the participants could confidently take any in-coming call, safe in the knowledge that they could deal with any questions the customer might ask – in English as well as in German. The 5-day program has been run 6 times at the DHL Express CSC in Frankfurt.
