Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction 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 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-CS-119

Before you join: Participants should have experience working in, supervising or improving a customer-facing service, such as a contact centre, branch, service desk, account team, public-service unit or complaints function.

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

Service quality fails when customer promises, operational processes and frontline delivery do not match. The results are repeat contacts, complaints, abandoned applications, avoidable churn, poor survey scores and pressure on staff. Managers need more than a satisfaction score: they need a disciplined way to identify what customers value, locate failure points, set usable standards and verify whether improvements work.

This course develops the practical methods required to manage service quality and customer satisfaction. Participants assess service gaps using SERVQUAL, gather and interpret voice-of-customer evidence, select suitable CSAT, NPS and CES measures, map customer journeys and identify root causes. They learn to design service standards, improve first-contact resolution, handle complaints fairly, apply service recovery and coach teams against observable quality criteria. The course also covers reporting, governance and improvement planning so customer feedback leads to accountable operational action.

Teaching combines focused instructor briefings with cases from contact centres, retail banking, government services, healthcare, utilities and business-to-business account management. Participants work with sample feedback data, complaint records, service interactions and process scenarios, then adapt the methods to a current service issue from their own role. Each participant leaves with a service quality improvement portfolio containing diagnostic templates, measurement plans, service standards, complaint-handling materials and a 90-day action plan. The course is available as a five-day classroom programme in 50+ cities or live online. Participants receive a certificate of completion.

It is suited to professionals responsible for customer-facing operations, service teams, client relationships, complaint handling, quality assurance or experience improvement. It is particularly useful where leaders must turn customer evidence into specific changes to processes, behaviours and performance measures.

What you will be able to do

  • Diagnose service quality gaps using SERVQUAL, customer evidence and process observations
  • Design voice-of-customer plans using CSAT, NPS, CES and complaint data
  • Interpret satisfaction results using segmentation, trend analysis and priority matrices
  • Map customer journeys and service blueprints to identify effort and failure points
  • Set measurable service standards for response times, ownership, accuracy and communication
  • Apply complaint-handling and service recovery methods consistent with ISO 10002 principles
  • Coach frontline teams using quality monitoring forms, calibration and evidence-based feedback
  • Produce a 90-day service quality improvement plan with measures, owners and review dates

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Diagnose poor service using evidence rather than anecdote
  • Build credible cases for service improvement investment
  • Handle difficult complaints with clearer structure and judgement
  • Coach customer-facing colleagues against observable service behaviours
  • Present customer satisfaction findings to senior decision-makers

For your organisation

  • Fewer repeat contacts caused by unclear ownership and incomplete resolution
  • More useful customer feedback linked to operational action owners
  • Consistent complaint responses, recovery decisions and escalation records
  • Service standards that reduce variation between teams and channels
  • Improvement plans tied to customer effort, satisfaction and retention risks

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define service quality and identify the expectations that shape customer satisfaction.

  • Service quality as reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangible evidence
  • Customer expectations formed by promises, prior experience, alternatives and urgency
  • Moments of truth identified along enquiry, purchase, use and recovery
  • Service standards translated into observable employee behaviours and response times
  • Gap analysis comparing intended service, delivered service and customer perceptions
  • Frontstage and backstage processes linked to recurring service failures
  • Service-profit logic connecting employee capability, quality, loyalty and retention

Participants can design feedback collection that produces usable insight into customer needs and dissatisfaction.

  • Voice-of-customer sources: complaints, contacts, surveys, reviews and lost-business records
  • Sampling plans that separate transactional feedback from relationship feedback
  • Question wording that avoids double-barrelled, leading and ambiguous survey items
  • CSAT, NPS and CES selected for distinct decision purposes
  • Closed-loop feedback processes assigning owners, deadlines and customer follow-up
  • Verbatim coding into themes, drivers, severity and affected customer segments
  • Data privacy controls for customer comments, recordings and survey responses

Participants can interpret customer satisfaction data and identify the most important service priorities.

  • Response-rate, representativeness and non-response bias checked before score interpretation
  • Top-box, mean-score and distribution analysis used for satisfaction reporting
  • Confidence intervals and sample sizes interpreted without false precision
  • Cross-tabulation by channel, product, location and customer segment
  • Trend charts distinguishing normal variation from material service deterioration
  • Priority matrix combining customer impact, frequency and operational feasibility
  • Executive dashboards linking survey results, complaints, churn and service levels

Participants can use structured models to diagnose service gaps, needs and improvement opportunities.

  • SERVQUAL dimensions used to diagnose reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibles
  • Gap-one through gap-five logic applied to expectation-delivery mismatches
  • Kano model separates basic, performance and attractive service attributes
  • Customer journey maps expose effort, waiting, handoffs and emotional peaks
  • Personas distinguish needs, constraints, behaviours and preferred service channels
  • Root causes traced from visible failures to process and policy conditions
  • Improvement priorities set through importance-performance comparison and customer evidence

Participants can design service processes and standards that support consistent customer outcomes.

  • Service blueprints connect customer actions, employee actions, systems and support processes
  • Standard operating procedures specify ownership, timing, escalation and quality checks
  • Queue design balances arrival patterns, capacity, waiting-time expectations and fairness
  • First-contact resolution designed through knowledge access, authority and handoff rules
  • Error-proofing methods prevent common omissions, misrouting and data-entry defects
  • Channel standards align telephone, email, chat, branch and self-service experiences
  • Accessibility requirements incorporated into service instructions, communications and physical touchpoints

Participants can manage service conversations and written responses that build clarity and trust.

  • Active listening identifies stated needs, unstated concerns and emotional signals
  • Question funnels move from open exploration to precise confirmation
  • Plain-language explanations replace jargon, assumptions and unsupported assurances
  • Empathy statements acknowledge impact without admitting unverified liability
  • Expectation setting covers next steps, ownership, timing and contingencies
  • De-escalation techniques address anger, anxiety, confusion and repeated contacts
  • Written responses use structure, tone and evidence appropriate to channel

Participants can investigate complaints, communicate decisions and apply proportionate service recovery.

  • ISO 10002 principles guide accessible, responsive and accountable complaint handling
  • Complaint intake records issue, impact, evidence, remedy sought and consent
  • Acknowledgement standards confirm ownership, reference number and resolution timetable
  • Investigation plans separate facts, assumptions, policy requirements and customer allegations
  • Service recovery choices match severity, fairness, authority and regulatory limits
  • Apology, explanation and remedy structured for credible resolution communications
  • Repeat complaints converted into corrective actions and prevention controls

Participants can monitor service delivery and coach teams towards consistent quality standards.

  • Role clarity defines decision rights, service ownership and escalation boundaries
  • Daily service huddles review demand, incidents, backlogs and commitments
  • Quality monitoring forms assess accuracy, behaviour, compliance and resolution
  • Calibration sessions align assessor judgments against agreed service standards
  • Coaching conversations use observed evidence, self-assessment and targeted practice
  • Recognition reinforces behaviours that protect customer trust and service consistency
  • Workload indicators connect staffing, skill coverage and customer waiting

Participants can establish governance that turns service performance evidence into accountable improvement actions.

  • Service scorecards combine customer, process, people and financial measures
  • Targets distinguish minimum standards, improvement goals and control thresholds
  • Complaint themes linked to risk registers, audit findings and control owners
  • Monthly review cadence assigns decisions, actions, dates and accountability
  • Escalation criteria identify systemic harm, vulnerable customers and regulatory exposure
  • Benefits tracking tests whether changes reduce effort, failure and avoidable demand
  • Management reports explain insight, decision required, owner and due date

Participants can produce a practical improvement plan for a priority service-quality issue.

  • Personal service-quality baseline identifies strongest practices, gaps and priority relationships
  • Ninety-day improvement plan sequences measures, owners, milestones and review dates
  • Pilot scope defines target segment, service issue, success measures and safeguards
  • Stakeholder map identifies sponsors, frontline contributors, process owners and affected teams
  • Communication plan explains changed standards, reasons, support and feedback routes
  • Adoption risks assessed through readiness, capacity, policy constraints and dependencies
  • Review routine compares outcomes with baseline, target and customer evidence

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

What you take back to work

  1. SERVQUAL service-gap diagnostic template
  2. Voice-of-customer measurement plan
  3. Customer journey and service blueprint
  4. Service standards and quality-monitoring checklist
  5. Complaint-handling and service-recovery decision guide
  6. 90-day service quality improvement plan

Who should attend

  • Customer Service Managers — need consistent standards, measures and improvement routines
  • Contact Centre Managers — need to reduce repeat contacts, waiting and avoidable complaints
  • Customer Experience Managers — need evidence-based priorities for journey and process improvements
  • Quality Assurance Managers — need observable criteria for monitoring and coaching service delivery
  • Complaints Managers — need fair investigation, recovery and corrective-action processes
  • Branch, Operations and Account Managers — need to improve customer outcomes in daily service delivery

Skills and tools covered

Service quality diagnosisCustomer feedback analysisJourney mappingComplaint resolutionService recovery designQuality performance management

Tools and standards

SERVQUAL and Kano model, CSAT, NPS and CES, ISO 10002, Service blueprinting

How the course runs

Training methodology

The instructor uses short briefings to introduce service-quality concepts, then moves quickly into cases, data interpretation and structured group work. Participants examine customer comments, survey results, complaints, interaction records and service-process scenarios. Simulations build confidence in expectation setting, difficult conversations and service recovery. Small-group discussions compare operational choices and quality standards, while facilitator feedback tests assumptions against customer evidence. Individual application planning helps participants adapt the course methods to a live service issue, team or customer journey.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience working in, supervising or improving a customer-facing service, such as a contact centre, branch, service desk, account team, public-service unit or complaints function. They should be familiar with their organisation's customers, service channels and common service issues. Basic confidence reading tables, survey results and operational reports is helpful. No formal qualification in customer experience, statistics, quality management or process improvement is required. Participants do not need prior knowledge of SERVQUAL, ISO 10002, journey mapping or satisfaction metrics.

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, operational, quality, complaints or account-management role. No prior training in customer experience, quality management, survey design or statistics is required.

Bring a current service issue, customer journey, complaint theme or feedback result you would like to improve. You may also bring non-confidential service standards, survey reports or process documents for use during application planning.

It is designed for managers, supervisors, quality specialists, complaints teams and customer experience professionals with responsibility for service delivery. It also suits operations or account managers who need to improve customer outcomes without holding a formal customer experience title.

Customer service skills training concentrates mainly on individual communication and interaction techniques. This course includes those elements but also addresses measurement, journey design, complaint systems, service standards, team coaching and performance governance.

You will use the course methods to assess a live service problem and identify actions for customers, processes and teams. The final improvement plan provides measures, owners, milestones and review dates that can be used after the course.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours, for approximately 32.5 contact hours in total. Time is divided between instructor input, case analysis, group work, simulations, data interpretation and individual 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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