Customer Service Leadership Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Customer Service Managers, Contact Centre Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-CS-141

Before you join: Participants should have experience supervising, managing or supporting a customer-facing team, service process or customer experience programme.

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 service performance often breaks down not because teams lack goodwill, but because leaders have unclear service promises, weak feedback loops, inconsistent coaching and limited authority to resolve customer issues. The result is repeat contact, complaint escalation, staff frustration and declining trust. Service leaders need to connect customer expectations with practical operating standards, team routines, measures and cross-functional improvement work.

This course develops the leadership methods required to manage and improve customer service teams across contact centres, branches, service desks, digital channels and field operations. Participants learn to set service standards, interpret voice-of-customer evidence, manage service performance, coach advisers, lead complaint recovery and remove recurring causes of failure. The course also addresses customer journey design, workforce planning, knowledge management, change adoption and governance. Participants use methods including RATER, Net Promoter Score, root-cause analysis, RACI, ADKAR and service scorecards.

Instructor-led delivery combines short technical briefings with sector-based cases, group analysis, service recovery simulations and structured planning. Cases reflect common challenges in banking, government services, telecommunications, healthcare, retail and business-to-business support. Participants leave with a practical 90-day service leadership plan, supported by reusable templates for customer insight, coaching, recovery, performance management and improvement governance. The five-day course is available in classrooms in 50+ cities or live online, with approximately 6.5 contact hours each day. Participants receive a certificate of completion.

The course suits managers who are accountable for customer-facing teams and need to improve both customer outcomes and operational discipline. It is particularly valuable for leaders moving from individual service delivery into broader responsibility for people, processes, channels and customer experience results.

What you will be able to do

  • Design service standards that convert customer expectations into measurable team commitments
  • Interpret voice-of-customer data using RATER, Net Promoter Score and root-cause analysis
  • Build service scorecards linking customer, quality, people, process and financial measures
  • Conduct coaching conversations using SBI feedback and the GROW model
  • Apply service recovery methods to complaints, exceptions and emotionally charged interactions
  • Map customer journeys and prioritise process failures using failure mode and effects analysis
  • Lead service change using stakeholder mapping, ADKAR planning and benefits tracking
  • Produce a 90-day customer service leadership plan with priorities, measures and ownership

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Lead service teams with clearer standards, routines and accountability
  • Handle difficult customer escalations with a structured recovery approach
  • Use customer feedback data to justify operational improvement priorities
  • Coach advisers using observable behaviours rather than general advice
  • Present a credible 90-day service improvement plan to senior management

For your organisation

  • Fewer repeat contacts through stronger first-contact resolution and root-cause removal
  • More consistent service delivery across teams, channels and customer touchpoints
  • Better complaint handling through defined authority, escalation and follow-up rules
  • Improved manager capability in coaching, quality assurance and performance conversations
  • Clearer links between customer metrics, operational measures and improvement investment

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can translate customer expectations into a clear service vision, operating standards and leadership priorities.

  • Service vision translated into observable promises, standards and team priorities
  • Moments of truth mapped across priority customer journeys and channels
  • Customer effort identified through journey friction, handoffs, waits and repeat contacts
  • RATER dimensions used to distinguish reliability failures from empathy gaps
  • Service-profit chain links clarified between employee conditions, loyalty and growth
  • Leadership behaviours aligned with psychological safety, accountability and customer advocacy

Participants can evaluate customer evidence and identify the service issues requiring leadership action.

  • Voice-of-customer architecture combining surveys, complaints, contact reasons and frontline insight
  • Closed-loop feedback process assigns owners, response times and escalation thresholds
  • Net Promoter Score interpreted alongside retention, effort and verbatim comments
  • Sampling bias, response rates and score distributions checked before decisions
  • Root-cause analysis separates symptom data from process and policy causes
  • Customer personas validated against behavioural evidence rather than assumptions

Participants can establish service measures, quality controls and performance routines for their teams.

  • Service level agreements distinguish customer promises, operational targets and measurement rules
  • Operational definitions prevent inconsistent counting of response, resolution and abandonment
  • First-contact resolution measured with repeat-contact logic and quality safeguards
  • Quality assurance scorecards calibrate evaluators against recorded interactions
  • Control charts separate common-cause variation from special-cause service failures
  • Daily performance huddles convert exceptions into owned corrective actions

Participants can coach customer-facing staff using structured feedback, development conversations and follow-through.

  • Coaching cadence links observation, feedback, practice and follow-up commitments
  • SBI feedback structures conversations around situation, behaviour and customer impact
  • Behavioural coaching diagnoses skill, knowledge, motivation and environmental barriers
  • GROW model frames developmental conversations without taking ownership from advisers
  • Recognition practices reinforce specific customer-centred behaviours rather than raw speed
  • Performance conversations address conduct, capability and documented improvement expectations

Participants can lead fair, timely and customer-focused recovery for complaints and service failures.

  • Complaint taxonomy distinguishes product defects, process failures, conduct and communication
  • Service recovery framework combines acknowledgement, apology, ownership, remedy and follow-up
  • Authority matrices define refund limits, exceptions and managerial escalation points
  • De-escalation techniques address emotion, threats, vulnerability and unreasonable demands
  • Written complaint responses meet tone, evidence, timeline and remedy requirements
  • Recovery cases reviewed for systemic fixes rather than individual blame

Participants can identify service breakdowns and lead improvement work across customer journeys.

  • Customer journey maps expose handoffs, rework, channel switching and avoidable demand
  • Lean waste categories identify delays, duplication, defects and unnecessary approvals
  • Failure mode and effects analysis prioritises high-risk service breakdowns
  • Standard work documents critical steps, decision rules and error-proofing controls
  • Kaizen boards track experiments, measures, owners and implementation dates
  • Cross-functional governance resolves issues spanning operations, technology and policy

Participants can manage consistent customer service across assisted, digital and self-service channels.

  • Omnichannel service design maintains context across phone, email, chat and branch
  • Channel strategy matches customer intent, complexity, urgency and accessibility needs
  • Knowledge management governance controls article ownership, review cycles and search quality
  • CRM case fields capture contact reasons, commitments, consent and next actions
  • Automation candidates screened for risk, value, exception volume and customer preference
  • Accessibility requirements considered for language, disability, digital literacy and channel choice

Participants can align staffing, roles and team routines with service demand and customer needs.

  • Workforce planning links demand forecasts, shrinkage, occupancy and service targets
  • Queueing concepts explain trade-offs between staffing cost, waits and abandonment
  • Schedule adherence managed alongside wellbeing, flexibility and customer demand patterns
  • Role clarity assigns decision rights using a RACI matrix
  • Team rituals build information flow, peer learning and service ownership
  • Inclusion practices ensure customers and colleagues receive respectful, equitable treatment

Participants can plan and lead adoption of service improvements across teams and stakeholders.

  • Change impact assessments identify stakeholder concerns, capability gaps and adoption risks
  • Stakeholder maps distinguish sponsors, influencers, resisters and affected customer groups
  • ADKAR planning sequences awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement actions
  • Communication plans specify audience, message, channel, timing and feedback route
  • Pilot measures test adoption, customer outcomes and unintended consequences
  • Benefits tracking connects change activities to service, cost and loyalty measures

Participants can establish a service leadership rhythm and produce a focused 90-day action plan.

  • Balanced service scorecards combine customer, quality, people, process and financial measures
  • Leading indicators distinguish controllable drivers from lagging customer outcomes
  • Monthly business reviews challenge variance, root causes, actions and accountability
  • Risk registers record service threats, controls, owners and review dates
  • Leadership operating rhythm integrates huddles, coaching, governance and escalation
  • 90-day service leadership plan sets priorities, measures, sponsors and milestones

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

What you take back to work

  1. Customer service standards template
  2. Voice-of-customer analysis framework
  3. Service performance scorecard
  4. SBI and GROW coaching guide
  5. Service recovery authority matrix
  6. 90-day service leadership plan

Who should attend

  • Customer Service Managers — responsible for service standards, team performance and customer outcomes
  • Contact Centre Managers — managing service levels, quality, coaching and escalation performance
  • Customer Experience Managers — converting customer insight into operational improvement priorities
  • Branch and Service Centre Managers — leading consistent service across face-to-face customer channels
  • Operations Managers — reducing service failure, avoidable demand and cross-functional handoff issues
  • Team Leaders and Supervisors — preparing for wider responsibility for customer-facing teams

Skills and tools covered

Service performance managementCustomer insight analysisCoaching and feedbackComplaint recovery leadershipJourney improvementService change management

Tools and standards

SERVQUAL RATER model, Net Promoter Score, RACI matrix, ADKAR model

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce service leadership methods, followed by case work drawn from customer-facing operations. Participants analyse customer feedback, service measures, complaint records and journey failures; practise coaching and recovery conversations; and work in groups on realistic improvement decisions. Simulations focus on escalation, feedback and cross-functional problem solving. Each participant applies the methods to a current service challenge and develops a structured 90-day leadership plan for use after the course.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience supervising, managing or supporting a customer-facing team, service process or customer experience programme. Familiarity with basic service measures such as response time, complaints, customer satisfaction or service level is useful. Participants should be comfortable discussing real operational issues and using simple spreadsheet-based data. Previous formal study of customer experience, Lean, quality management or change management is not required. The course does not require technical CRM administration skills, statistical software, coding knowledge or prior responsibility for a large service operation.

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

You should have experience in a customer-facing operation, customer experience role or team leadership position. Formal qualifications in customer service, Lean or change management are not required.

Bring a current service challenge, such as repeat contacts, complaints, low satisfaction, inconsistent quality or a planned channel change. If permitted by your employer, bring anonymised customer feedback or performance data to support your action plan.

The course is designed for service managers, contact centre leaders, customer experience managers, branch managers, operations managers and supervisors. It suits professionals who influence both team behaviour and service processes.

Customer service skills courses focus mainly on individual interactions, communication and complaint handling. This course focuses on leading teams, setting standards, managing performance, improving processes and sustaining change.

You will leave with templates and a 90-day service leadership plan linked to a real workplace priority. The plan identifies customer issues, measures, actions, owners, sponsors and review points.

The course provides approximately 32.5 contact hours, delivered from 08:30 to 16:30 each day with scheduled breaks. Time is divided between instructor input, case analysis, group work, simulations and development of your service leadership plan.

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

More courses in Customer Service

Customer Service Customer Satisfaction Management Training Course 5 days · from USD 1,100 · next 16 Nov Customer Service Customer Satisfaction Measurement Training Course 5 days · from USD 1,100 · next 16 Nov Customer Service Customer Service Management Training Course 5 days · from USD 1,100 · next 16 Nov Customer Service Customer Service Negotiation Skills Training Course 5 days · from USD 1,100 · next 16 Nov Customer Service Customer Service Problem Solving Training Course 5 days · from USD 1,100 · next 16 Nov Customer Service Customer Service Quality Assurance Training Course 5 days · from USD 1,100 · next 16 Nov Customer Service Customer Service and Retention Training Course 5 days · from USD 1,100 · next 16 Nov Customer Service Customer Service in Transport and Logistics Training Course 5 days · from USD 1,100 · next 16 Nov