On Friday, July 2, 2021, the soft skills training session began with a quick test on the photography lessons the students had the previous week. The students quickly logged into their Kahoot accounts to start the test. Kahoot is a game-based learning platform that makes it easy to create, share and play learning games or trivia quizzes in minutes. After contemplating what the prize will be, the trainer concluded on awarding the winner with cash. Students logged in with their names and the game pin before the test started. It was fun as each student hurriedly read the questions which only had 10 seconds to answer. After answering all questions, there was a winner with 7,433 points ahead.
The class continued as Ms. Josephine Offei took over the class with soft skills training on “Customer service for career success”. Some students shared their best and worst customer service experiences at workplaces and hospitals among others. Based on their experiences, the ladies concluded that men are good at customer service than females. They also shared their reactions and response to these experiences. However, they established the fact that, customer service impacts career success and that no business can succeed without building customer satisfaction; losing customers is a big deal.
A customer was identified as a person with whom you exchange value. An individual can give poor customer service, good customer service and outstanding customer service. It was noted that customers have different expectations and they decide the quality of the service. In establishing customer service, students were taught how to create a customer service vision. This is a statement that describes the way you want customers to feel when they have been served. Following this, students learnt some techniques in building customer relations. Some techniques included; sharing your name, personalizing your service, focusing on one customer at a time, expressing genuine appreciation to customers and following up on customers to show that you care.
Ms. Josephine continued with measures the students can use to implement techniques to build customer service relations. The ladies reviewed phone etiquettes and chat, as well as SMS or email etiquettes. They also learnt how to handle complaints and difficult customers. They were taught to first take ownership when a problem arises, to refocus on finding a solution to the problem and follow up on the customer.
Finally, students were advised not to raise their concerns at work to customers. When there was no question asked, Ms. Josephine took the students through Isahit and why they should apply as means of earning extra income. She took them through some tasks on Isahit and how to apply to be a part of the program, after which she dispersed the ladies for the weekend.
