How do I get the free Customer Care Tip?
That’s easy! Simply visit our home page and enter your email address in the box that says, ‘FREE Customer Care Tip!‘.
Do you share my e-mail address or contact information with anyone outside your company?
Never. Nada. No way. We respect your privacy and do not sell, rent or exchange names with any organizations. Click here to check out our Privacy Statement.
Does JoAnna do customized training programs?
Absolutely. JoAnna’s training is customized for every client. Included in the investment in your training, JoAnna interviews people in your company (and if you’ll let her, a few customers) to get a feel for what you really need to meet your specified objectives. After your program, she does a de-brief to discuss reinforcement and what you can do to keep the learning alive.
Does JoAnna do coaching?
Yes, many different kinds of coaching. JoAnna coaches groups as well as individuals. Often a company will purchase copies of the Customer Care Coach® leadership training programs for all their leaders (this works especially well if all your managers are in different locations but you are looking to “brand” a singular kind of service) and JoAnna coaches once a month on the phone. In between coaching sessions the learning is done by reading the materials and engaging employees in “skill builder” exercises.
What is a “happiness coach”?
Six years ago JoAnna graduated from the Authentic Happiness Coaching program developed by Dr. Martin Seligman (The founding father of Positive Psychology). JoAnna and a small group of “happiness coaches” from around the world formed the Positive Workplace International. They study and mastermind together on using the principles and the “evidence-based” findings of Applied Positive Psychology.
Happiness coaches work with businesses and individuals to help them raise the amount of positive emotion they create in their lives and in the lives of others. JoAnna helps companies create positive workplace cultures and help them connect happy employees to happy customers. JoAnna teaches companies to deliver happiness, not just service.
What is the Customer Care Coach® Mastery Course?
It’s a self-study program. It covers ten essential topics related to providing what we call ‘Exquisite Customer Care.’ It’s a set of customer service training tools that any manager can use easily. When you complete each lesson step-by-step, week-by-week over nine months time, you’ll achieve mastery in customer care; you’ll develop a ‘practice and discipline’ that empowers you to create a ‘high performance learning environment’ that benefits everyone – your customers, your team, your organization and, of course, you!
It’s designed for managers who want to continually energize their team to take better care of the customer. You’ll discover customer service call center practices as well as small business solutions for being a customer focused leader.
Since it is a self- study course you can take as much time as you like to complete it. The course is delivered in three levels. The 12 lessons in level one can be done week-by-week or month by month or any time schedule you would like. Each lesson is about 10 pages long, so it’s up to you how you want to learn.
Is this a program for front line, customer-facing people?
Actually, the “Coach” is designed for managers and those aspiring to be managers. Our Monday Morning Motivation program designed for everyone in the organization who touches a customer in anyway. Monday Morning Motivation is an inexpensive personalized jumpstart to every week. It is designed to work along with the “Coach” to focus every one’s attention on the customer.
Is the Customer Care Coach® designed for people who are new to the topic of customer service, or is it an advanced course of study for those who know a great deal about the subject?
While the Customer Care Coach® has been designed specifically for managers, it’s a valuable program for anyone at any level who intends to make lasting, positive changes that benefit everyone on a team or in an organization. Those unfamiliar with the tenets of customer CARE will be introduced to a whole new world where they’ll sharpen their leadership skills, build a more cohesive team and create great customer experiences.
Those who have studied customer service will very likely find some familiar concepts presented in new, eye-opening ways, along with some completely new and sustaining food for thought. JoAnna Brandi is on the cutting edge of what is making companies “thrive” today. She’s a thought leader who constantly studies the latest thinking how to engage employees and customers.
Is this ‘E-Learning?’
As JoAnna would say, “Nope, it’s ‘Me-Learning.’ Here’s what we mean: Pure E-Learning has to be done in front of a computer. The Coach is much more versatile. You download your lessons to your desktop. You can print and carry with you anywhere. You can mark them up, write your notes on them, and highlight the important things to share with your team. In fact, we encourage you to read and complete lessons wherever you feel you’ll best learn and absorb them. When you enroll in each of the levels we’ll set our computer to send you a friendly reminder every week to read your lesson and engage your team in building new skills and stronger customer caring muscles.
I’m concerned about the length of the program.
If you do the whole program front to back every week it’s forty weeks. That’s by design. If you want to shift a culture from “mediocre to magic”, from “good to great” you’ll want to be working on it at least nine months. (But remember, it’s self paced so you can do one level at a time with space in between if you wish.)
You’ll be learning step-by-step how to manage and maintain customer caring changes. Most companies are not really customer-centric (although they would like to think they are!). Most organizational cultures are focused on themselves (their technology, their budgets, their policies etc.) and not on the customers. Over time, the Customer Care Coach® helps to gently and effectively shift the culture from old mindsets and outdated belief systems to new customer caring ways.
You pace the learning. You can buy the whole course at one time or get it in three levels and take a breather from learning in between. We’re only suggesting that you do one lesson a week. Let’s say you do…
Each week you get one lesson with a specific learning objective. The program gets a little meatier and a little more demanding as you get into it, just like any other program that builds muscle over time.
Here’s how we look at it – if you want to be extraordinary at anything – bowling, golf, yoga, guitar, mosaics, woodworking, management and yes, customer care – you must practice on a regular basis, integrating new skills and behaviors into your daily actions.
We call this a Mastery Course because you build mastery in customer relationship management skills over time. Step by step, inch-by-inch it takes you deeper into the discipline and gives you plenty of time to practice. Don’t want to do it every week? That’s great. Don’t. Some of our customers do all four lessons in a topic at one time. Some people do theirs every other week.
How is the Customer Care Coach® different from other customer service training tools?
Think back to the last one-day, two-day or week-long training program you attended in any discipline. How much of it did you apply when you got back to your desk or your life? Research shows that only a small percentage of what is learned in traditional training programs is retained and integrated over time – unless there’s some kind of reinforcement plan in place.
The Customer Care Coach® has as much material as you would get in a 2 ½ day program. It’s different in that:
*It encourages you via email weekly to study it regularly so you learn and integrate critical customer care principles and practices into your real, everyday world. Reinforcement is built into the structure of the program.
* We deliver small amounts of information a little at a time so you can easily learn and apply them. Have you ever heard of ‘drip marketing,’ where the marketing message is delivered bit-by-bit, building up to a powerful impact? Likewise, the Coach is “drip training.”
* It’s designed to help you craft a thriving customer-centric culture from the ground up. We help you to change your culture, not just your behavior.
How will I receive the training materials?
You’ll download your lessons from a link in our shopping cart. You can then read and complete the lessons on your time and at your own pace. (Unless, of course, you’re taking this training program with a group. In that case, you’ll follow the schedule that has been given to the group so that everyone is on ‘the same page.’)
You might want to print all the lessons and keep them in a binder as your own personal customer care reference manual! We supply a pdf format of each lesson for you to print.
How much time will it take me to complete each lesson?
We’ve noticed that the more time, thought and discussion people put into the Customer Care Coach®, the more they get out of it. The lessons themselves take approximately 15-20 minutes to read. If you answer the questions featured in the body of the lessons, and you complete the Skill Builders at the end of each lesson, writing your answers down as you go along (which we highly recommend), it might take up to an hour of your time. That’s no longer than a weekly lesson in any art, sport or skill would take.
Are there quizzes or any other way for me to test myself?
Yes, at the end of every topic there is a quiz. At the end of the course, if you want a written certification there is a essay test that is submitted to JoAnna to test for competency. You’ll be encouraged to establish metrics along the way as well, to measure your progress.
Do you offer CEUs for the course?
CEUs are issued individually by industry. If you wish to obtain CEUs for the completion of the Customer Care Coach®, please have your professional association contact us with the appropriate forms/applications, and we will be happy to fill them out on your behalf. Please send all relevant forms via email with the words ‘Customer’s CEU Application’ in the subject line.
You can send them to joanna (at) retunonhappiness.com
Is it a good idea to have JoAnna Brandi kick off the course for my team with an on-site seminar or a teleconference?
Well sure it is! If you have a training budget that’s the best of both worlds – JoAnna in person and then week-to-week as your “coach” on paper. Each lesson includes a “coaching” column from JoAnna.
JoAnna also has a blog creatingcustomerhappiness.com here she shares all kinds of ideas on changing your corporate culture and customer relations and even your happiness setpoint.
Price, payment methods, guarantee
Why is the Customer Care Coach® priced so reasonably?
JoAnna Brandi’s in-person training fees are high, which makes her expertise unavailable to smaller companies with smaller budgets. Since our goal is to spread the word about caring in business and organizations – and how profitable it can be – she reorganized her work into an affordable, easy-to-use format so everyone can take advantage of it.
Now small companies and companies with small training budgets, as well as independent business units, non-profits, franchises, agencies and so on all have access to one of the country’s highest rated speakers on customer care!
How do I pay for the Customer Care Coach®?
We accept Visa, MasterCard and American Express. We will accept payments by check for twenty or more memberships. We’re happy to accept Pay Pal if you prefer it.
If the course does not meet my needs, can I get my money back?
Absolutely! We offer a complete money back guarantee. If after reading the lessons and doing the exercises you don’t find something valuable and useful for you, your team or your customers, please do send it back and we’ll be happy to refund your money.
Group Enrollment and Sharing Coach® Materials
Would it be helpful for my whole team to take the course?
You bet! Shifting from old organizational mindsets to new, customer-centric ones is quite a job for most teams and businesses. Having everyone ‘on the same page’ hastens and eases the process. Likewise, the same benefits apply when all managers in an organization are enrolled in the program.
It works well when you combine it with our Monday Morning Motivation which is our customer-facing motivation tool.
Can I print my Customer Care Coach® lessons and share them with my employees and colleagues?
The Customer Care Coach® is a single user product. As the lessons encourage, you may use what you learn in training your team and in discussions with colleagues. If you intend to purchase only one copy, we suggest that you purchase it for the person responsible for Customer Service at your organization. The materials themselves are not intended to be photocopied and are protected by copyrights. If you have more than one manager then we suggest a copy for each manager for use in his or her individual departments.
Benefits/Results
At what point in the Customer Care Coach® will I begin to see changes in my employees?
That varies from organization to organization as different people are inspired by different components of the program. Sometimes groups that have never had any consistent training before see positive results very quickly after implementing Coach training; just the mere act of a manager having a team meeting once a week to discuss how to take better care of the customers is often enough to get the change happening.
In most cases though, employees have a ‘wait and see’ attitude. “Let’s wait and see if this time they do what they say they’re going to do.” Many people are slow to change because past training may have been done on a ‘flavor of the month’ basis, so it takes time for people to trust in the ‘new conversations’ they hear taking place about new ways of doing things.
If by week #12 you’re keeping your commitment to the Mastery Course by completing the lessons, sharing the information you learned and using all the tools, change on your team or in your organization is a sure thing. Conservatively, give it about 6 weeks at which time you’ll notice a change in the language – that is, if you as a manager begin to change yours based on what you’re learning.
What kinds of results can I expect to see – what are the benefits of the Customer Care Coach®?
Great question! When members of the Customer Care Coach® commit to the Mastery Course and make customer caring changes and choices, they:
- Become aware of the impact that any interaction with any customer has on the bottom line – they make the connection between soft skills and hard, bankable results
- Learn how to engage employees in a successful process of change for the better
- Learn how to lead employees in behaving in customer caring ways
- Create a team and/or company that is great to work for and great to do business with
- Consciously craft a customer caring culture – an environment where people feel great about themselves and want to do great things
- Learn dozens of ways to create value and to build it into every customer interaction
- Receive weekly motivation and inspiration that they can use to keep their employees motivated
- Gain control over integrating learning into the workday
- Decrease employee turnover as they engender higher levels of loyalty from employees and customers
- Learn a framework for ‘relationship management’ that they’ll have with them throughout their entire career
- Begin thinking outside the box. In fact, they start thinking as if the box never existed in the first place!
- Learn how to experiment, innovate and create
- Develop a new view of their role as a leader, manager, coach
- Build confidence
- Become empowered to lead more effectively and gracefully, to be more fully engaged with employees
- Learn new problem solving and conflict resolution skills
- Create their own individual traditions of excellence
- Shift from ‘What’s wrong?’ to ‘What’s possible?’ thinking
- Transform reactive customer service to proactive customer care
- Become more disciplined
- Build emotional intelligence
- Uncover and eliminate barriers to create clear and concise communications
- Decrease stress and optimize energy
- Sustain a positive attitude
What are the the top ten reasons people use the Customer Care Coach®
Advance Career
If you stay the same, you fall behind. Careers advance as skills advance. Our members find that as their leadership and customer care skills improve, so do their relationships with their team and their bosses. This creates more opportunities for growth and success!
Grow profits
Companies that want to maximize profits know it’s much more cost-effective to grow loyal relationships with existing customers than to lose customers (and spend money acquiring new ones). Coach members find that they’re getting more business (and more “thank you’s”) from their existing customers. A small 5% increase in customer retention could double your bottom line profit, especially if you own or work for a fixed cost business.
Expand skills
Many of our members are “home grown” managers. While they have extensive skills in their area of expertise, they’ve had very little formal management and leadership training (usually because training is too expensive or they can’t afford to be out of the office for two days). The intentionally low price of Customer Care Coach® and the one-hour-a-week training format takes away the boss’s objections. (Or so we’ve been told.)
Empower team
Today’s customers want their problems solved and questions answered NOW. This do-it-yourself empowerment program helps our members understand the benefits of managing their team from a ‘power with’ approach (as opposed to power over), enabling everyone to consistently create exquisite customer experiences. (Remember, it’s actually the customers who have the power. You’d better be equipped to respond to them – or your competitors will.)
Improve culture
The culture is the ‘soul’ of an organization. A good culture takes continuous, conscientious crafting. Our members become ‘landscape architects’ as they plan, shape and tend their living environments. With continuous nourishment from the Coach, organizations can go from just ‘surviving’ to ‘thriving.’
Create loyalty
Loyalty is an emotional attachment. This means that when it comes to creating a great customer experience, emotion does belong in the workplace. Pete Winemiller, Vice President of Service Development at the NBA Seattle Sonics and WNBA Storm and a customer care champ, ascribes to JoAnna’s F-Factor theory that the Customer Experience is the sum total of FEELINGS they have as a result of interaction at any touch point in an organization. Lots of good experiences = return business. It’s the feel good factor. Understandably, after years of being told to leave their feelings at home, most business people need a little schooling in this department.
Sustain Motivation
Some members tell us the best part of the Coach is JoAnna’s coaching column – they say it keeps them motivated to keep their teams motivated. Of course – even motivators need a little juice to keep them on track!
Lower Turnover
The number one reason people leave organizations is a poor relationship with their immediate boss. High turnover = higher organizational costs. Smart bosses who learn how to create and sustain an environment where staff members feel great about themselves in the manager’s presence tend to keep employees – as well as customers.
Increase Referrals
Exquisite customer care creates great relationships with customers who, simply by shouting your praises to their colleagues and friends, wind up getting you more referrals. Referrals are free advertising and marketing in disguise. Another one of the many ways customer care pays!
Have more fun
Let’s see – when you get your people motivated and feeling great about what they do by praising them when you see them doing things right, coaching them with useful feedback and care (not ‘constructive criticism’), quoting from Yoda, Pooh Bear and Kenny Rogers (not to mention Einstein and Da Vinci) and celebrating efforts as well as accomplishments, that usually adds to the FUN factor, yes?
