Experiencing Poor Service – a ten minute training session illustrating the effects of bad service

Experiencing Poor Customer Service

Aim

To examine the elements that make up ‘poor’ service.

Overview

Participants recall times when, as a customer, they have had bad service and then think about what made their experience so poor.

Numbers

Any number working in groups of up to four.

Suitable for

New starters, refresher, short session in a longer training, team meeting activity.

What you need

Handout 1 – The Brief

Handout 2 – Action Plan

Handout 3 – Report Back (for evaluation)

A flipchart or wipe-board and pens

Preparation

 

1. Copy Handout 1 – The Brief (one per group)
2. Copy Handout 2 – Action Plan (one per person)
3. Arrange the room so that people can work in groups of up to four people
4. Divide your flipchart into two sections, one headed ‘organisation’ and the other headed ‘person’.

What to Do

Activity – 5 minutes – groups

Give a copy of Handout 1 – The Brief to each group.

If necessary, remind the groups that they will not have time to re-live each event in detail; they should concentrate of the elements which made the service ‘poor’.

Reflect – 2 minutes – whole group

Lead a discussion in which the groups report back the main elements that caused the service to be so poor.

Conclude – 2 minutes – whole group

Ask the group to imagine that they had the opportunity to give advice to organisations and to the individuals who were involved in giving such poor service.  Collect the pieces of advice that are offered on to the flipchart, under the headings of  ‘organisation’ and ‘person’.

Plan – 1 minute – individuals

Give each person a copy of Handout 2 – Action Plan, asking them to complete.

Evaluation

Two weeks after the training session, send each participant a copy of Handout 3 – Report Back, asking them to complete and return it.

Variations

Get people to reflect on how they felt about the poor service and what the consequences were (e.g. did they ever use that organisation again?  Did they tell friends no to use that organisation?)

 

 

Experiencing Poor Customer Service

Handout 1 – The Brief

Every day we all experience being a customer of many different organisations.

 

Each person in your group should think of a time recently when they have experienced poor customer service.

 

Capture below the main elements that made each experience so bad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You have five minutes for this part of the exercise, so you will need to remain focussed on the task.

 

 

Experiencing Poor Customer Service

Handout 2 – Action Plan

Following the session today I have decide to make the following changes:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The result I hope to see is:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will do this by (date):

 

Signed:

 

Date:

 

 

 

 

Experiencing Poor Customer Service

Handout 3 – Report Back

Following the training session I took the following action:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The results I saw were:

 

 

 

 

 

I now intend to:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Signed:

 

Date:

 

Please complete this form and return it to:

 

By (date):

 

 

---