Strong Elder Care Businesses Focus on Customer Service During Challenging Economic Times
Submitted by: aQuire Training & EasyCEU.com
2009-08-28 00:02:14
Oregon City, OR (OPENPRESS) August 28, 2009 -- While businesses need to focus carefully on cutting expenses where they can, for a company to survive, customer service needs to be bolstered, not cut.
aQuire Training Solutions has developed a series of new courses on basic - and advanced - customer service skills. These courses are designed for caregivers and other staff working in the senior care environment: home care agencies, assisted living communities, nursing facilities and more. These courses, written by the newest member of the aQuire course development team, Melissa Dylan, take a light-hearted approach to a very serious subject: making the client the absolute focus of their work, every single day. Topics covered in the series include:
Courtesy. More than just being polite or nice to people, courtesy involves a set of unwritten rules or interacting with clients and guests on the job. It is the basis for good customer service.
Being there. Being available for clients is the first step in good customer service. This means promptly answering the phone, greeting guests the moment they walk in the door and setting aside less important tasks to help people. It means remembering - always - "people come first."
Listening. Listening sounds easy enough, but it takes special skills to learn to be an active listener: to focus on the client, avoid distractions, use appropriate body language and provide feedback so the client knows you been listening.
Being reliable. Being courteous, polite and responsive isn't the whole task. A key to great customer service is being reliable - to do what you say you're going to do. To give customers what they ask for the first time, without needing reminders.
Being positive. Being positive means finding reasons why things will work, instead of reasons why it won't. It means consistently positive behavior, positive responses to client requests (even when you can't fulfill a request personally) and going the extra step for customers.
"Melissa's approach to training includes a humorous and refreshing approach, lots of stories, and frequent opportunities for individuals to test their knowledge," notes Sharon Brothers, President and CEO of aQuire. "The online delivery used by all aQuire courses means that caregivers can learn at their own pace, and at a time and place convenient for them."
Individuals wishing to access a sneak preview of one of these courses may copy and paste the following link into their browser: http://aquiretraining.com/insights/Courtesy/
aQuire Training Solutions (www.aQuireTraining.com) is a developer and provider of online training courses for senior care professionals. aQuire Training provides an online solution for effective training of all caregiving staff in nursing homes, assisted living communities and home care settings. Courses are available for schools to license for their students, for companies to purchase for training their staff and for direct purchase by the public. Learn more about course options from www.aquiretraining.com.
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