Customer Experience Excellence Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Customer Experience Managers, Customer Service Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-CS-122

Before you join: Participants should have at least six months of experience in a customer-facing, service operations, sales support, complaints, quality or customer experience role.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Customer experience failures rarely result from one poor interaction. They arise when service promises exceed operational capacity, customers repeat information between channels, complaints are handled inconsistently, or teams measure speed without measuring effort and resolution quality. These failures affect retention, trust, reputation and cost to serve. For banks, public agencies, utilities, retailers, healthcare providers and business-to-business service teams, customer experience must be managed as a disciplined operating process rather than left to individual goodwill.

This course develops the practical methods needed to design, deliver and improve high-quality customer experiences. Participants map customer journeys and service blueprints, define service standards, communicate with empathy and clarity, manage complaints and service recovery, and use feedback data to identify recurring friction. They apply recognised measures including Net Promoter Score, Customer Effort Score and SERVQUAL, linking customer evidence to operational measures such as response time, first-contact resolution, transfer rates and repeat contacts.

Instruction combines short expert briefings with sector-based cases, group analysis, communication simulations and improvement planning. Participants work with realistic situations such as delayed claims, billing disputes, vulnerable customers, failed digital self-service journeys and escalated complaints. They leave with a customer experience improvement charter, supported by journey evidence, service measures, ownership arrangements and review dates. The course is delivered over five instructor-led days, from 08:30 to 16:30, in classrooms in 50+ cities or through live online delivery. Participants receive a certificate of completion.

The course suits professionals who already work with customers, service operations, sales support, contact centres or customer feedback. It is particularly relevant for those expected to improve service consistency while balancing customer expectations, policy requirements, operational limits and commercial objectives.

What you will be able to do

  • Map customer journeys and service blueprints to identify friction and ownership gaps
  • Design measurable service standards using response, resolution and quality criteria
  • Apply active listening, empathy and plain-language techniques during customer interactions
  • Conduct complaint investigations using the HEARD model, root-cause analysis and ISO 10002 principles
  • Use NPS, Customer Effort Score and SERVQUAL findings to prioritise service improvements
  • Analyse customer feedback, operational metrics and verbatim comments for recurring failure patterns
  • Build customer experience dashboards with measures, targets, tolerances and accountable owners
  • Create a customer experience improvement charter using PDCA cycles and defined review dates

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Handle difficult customer conversations with clearer structure, empathy and appropriate boundaries
  • Diagnose service failures using customer evidence rather than assumptions or isolated anecdotes
  • Present customer experience improvement cases using credible measures and root-cause evidence
  • Set practical service standards that teams can understand, monitor and meet
  • Build a job-relevant improvement plan for an identified customer journey or service issue

For your organisation

  • Reduced repeat contacts through clearer ownership, better handovers and stronger first-contact resolution
  • More consistent complaint handling through defined recovery choices and escalation criteria
  • Better prioritisation of service investment using customer effort, feedback and operational data
  • Improved quality assurance through calibrated scorecards and observable service behaviours
  • Stronger retention and trust through reliable service promises and timely recovery action

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can distinguish customer experience from customer service and define the service conditions that influence trust, retention and advocacy.

  • Customer experience, service quality and customer service distinguished through operating examples
  • Moments of truth mapped from first contact through post-resolution follow-up
  • Expectations classified as explicit, implicit and emotional using Kano thinking
  • Service promises tested against actual delivery capacity and channel constraints
  • Customer lifetime value linked to retention, advocacy and recovery decisions
  • Experience principles translated into observable frontline behaviours and service standards

Participants can map customer journeys and service blueprints to locate priority friction, handovers and ownership gaps.

  • Persona evidence built from interviews, complaints, transaction data and observation
  • Journey maps document stages, actions, emotions, pain points and owners
  • Service blueprints connect customer actions, frontstage work and backstage dependencies
  • Channel switching risks identified between branch, phone, email, chat and self-service
  • Critical touchpoints prioritised using impact, frequency, effort and failure data
  • Accessibility needs incorporated into journeys for vulnerable and disabled customers

Participants can communicate with customers using listening, questioning, empathy and clear expectation-setting techniques.

  • Active listening uses attending, paraphrasing, probing and summarising techniques
  • Open and closed questions uncover needs without steering responses
  • Empathy statements acknowledge impact without admitting unverified fault or liability
  • Plain-language writing removes jargon, ambiguity, passive voice and unexplained policy terms
  • Positive language frames options, limits and next steps honestly
  • Communication preferences recorded and respected across approved contact channels

Participants can define service standards and quality controls that make customer commitments measurable and repeatable.

  • Service standards specify response times, ownership, quality criteria and escalation triggers
  • SMART service commitments align customer promises with operational capability
  • First-contact resolution measured alongside accuracy, effort and repeat contacts
  • Queue management balances wait-time information, triage rules and staffing decisions
  • Knowledge articles follow KCS principles for findability, accuracy and maintenance
  • Quality assurance scorecards calibrate evaluators against recorded interactions and cases

Participants can manage complaints fairly, de-escalate difficult interactions and select proportionate recovery actions.

  • De-escalation sequence recognises emotion, safety concerns, facts and resolution options
  • HEARD model structures complaint conversations: hear, empathise, apologise, resolve, diagnose
  • Root-cause analysis separates individual error from process, policy and system causes
  • ISO 10002 principles guide complaint visibility, responsiveness, confidentiality and accountability
  • Service recovery choices match severity, customer value, authority and precedent
  • Complaint records capture allegation, evidence, action, owner, deadline and outcome

Participants can select, interpret and act on customer feedback measures without relying on scores alone.

  • Customer Effort Score identifies friction in journeys, policies and handoffs
  • NPS interpretation separates promoters, passives and detractors from operational diagnosis
  • SERVQUAL gap analysis compares expected and perceived service across dimensions
  • Closed-loop feedback contacts customers after surveys, complaints and unresolved cases
  • Loyalty drivers distinguish transactional satisfaction from trust, confidence and advocacy
  • Sampling plans reduce bias across channels, segments, languages and contact reasons

Participants can connect customer experience measures to operational performance and prioritised improvement actions.

  • CX metrics tree links experience measures to operational and commercial outcomes
  • Leading indicators include response time, transfers, abandonment and knowledge gaps
  • Dashboard measures use definitions, targets, tolerances, owners and review cycles
  • Control charts distinguish normal variation from signals requiring management action
  • Verbatim coding groups feedback into themes, causes, sentiment and urgency
  • Prioritisation matrix ranks improvements by customer impact, feasibility, cost and risk

Participants can improve customer continuity across digital, assisted and self-service channels.

  • Channel strategy assigns enquiry types according to complexity, urgency and vulnerability
  • Chat and email standards set tone, structure, response times and handover
  • Self-service content follows task-based design, search terms and plain language
  • CRM case notes preserve context, commitments, consent and next actions
  • Automation boundaries protect customers from loops, dead ends and unsuitable decisions
  • Accessibility checks address readability, keyboard access, captions and alternative formats

Participants can establish team practices that support consistent service behaviours, learning and accountability.

  • Service climate examined through leadership behaviour, recognition, workload and psychological safety
  • RACI matrices clarify accountability for recurring service failures and improvements
  • Coaching conversations use SBI feedback to reinforce observable service behaviours
  • Calibration sessions align quality scores, standards interpretation and coaching priorities
  • Employee feedback reveals process friction affecting customer promises and morale
  • Recognition criteria reward customer outcomes, not speed alone or rule compliance

Participants can create a practical improvement charter for a priority customer experience issue.

  • Current-state diagnosis combines journey evidence, metrics, complaints and frontline insight
  • Problem statements define affected customers, failure mode, evidence and consequence
  • Five Whys traces recurring failures beyond symptoms toward controllable causes
  • PDCA cycles test service changes with measures, owners and review dates
  • Improvement charters specify scope, benefits, risks, dependencies and decision rights
  • Personal application plans schedule transfer actions, stakeholder conversations and evidence reviews

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Customer journey map template
  2. Service blueprint template
  3. Service standards scorecard
  4. Complaint handling and recovery checklist
  5. Customer experience metrics dashboard model
  6. Customer experience improvement charter

Who should attend

  • Customer Experience Managers — need practical methods for improving journeys, measures and service consistency
  • Customer Service Managers — need to set standards, coach teams and reduce recurring service failures
  • Contact Centre Managers — need to improve resolution quality, handovers and customer effort
  • Sales Support Managers — need to protect customer relationships after purchase and during fulfilment
  • Operations Managers — need to connect service processes, performance measures and customer outcomes
  • Quality Assurance Specialists — need structured approaches for evaluating interactions and improvement priorities

Skills and tools covered

Journey mappingService recoveryCustomer feedback analysisService quality measurementComplaint handlingExperience improvement planning

Tools and standards

SERVQUAL, Net Promoter Score, Customer Effort Score, ISO 10002

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce methods, followed by case analysis, group exercises, customer communication simulations and structured application planning. Participants examine service incidents, complaints, feedback extracts, journey maps and operational measures drawn from relevant sectors. Simulations focus on listening, empathy, de-escalation, expectation setting and service recovery. Facilitated discussions compare policy requirements, customer needs and operational constraints. Each participant develops an improvement charter for transfer to their workplace.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have at least six months of experience in a customer-facing, service operations, sales support, complaints, quality or customer experience role. They should be familiar with their organisation's customer channels, typical service issues and basic performance measures such as response times or satisfaction scores. No formal customer experience qualification is required. Statistical expertise, specialist software skills and prior knowledge of SERVQUAL, NPS, ISO 10002 or service blueprinting are not required; these methods are introduced and applied during the course.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should have some experience in a customer-facing, service, sales support, operations or quality role. They do not need a formal customer experience qualification or previous training in specialist frameworks.

Participants should bring examples of a customer journey, recurring complaint, service measure or process issue from their workplace. Sensitive customer information should be removed or anonymised before use.

The course suits managers, supervisors, specialists and experienced frontline staff who influence customer interactions or service processes. It is relevant to contact centres, branches, digital service teams, sales support and operational functions.

Basic customer service training focuses mainly on individual interaction skills. This course includes those skills but also addresses journey design, service standards, complaint systems, feedback measures, quality assurance and improvement planning.

Participants leave with a customer experience improvement charter focused on a real service issue. It can be used to structure discussions with managers, process owners and frontline teams, with measures and review dates already defined.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. Time is divided between instructor input, case work, group exercises, communication simulations, feedback discussions and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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