Service Quality Management Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Customer Service Managers, Customer Experience 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-164

Before you join: Participants should have practical experience of working in, managing or supporting a customer-facing service operation.

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 failures are rarely caused by one poor interaction. They arise when customer promises, process design, staffing, systems, measures and accountability do not align. Long waits, repeated explanations, unresolved complaints and inconsistent responses damage retention, increase cost-to-serve and create avoidable operational risk. Service quality management gives managers a disciplined way to define expected performance, measure actual experience and remove recurring causes of failure.

This course covers the full service quality management cycle: identifying customer requirements, designing service standards, measuring satisfaction and effort, mapping journeys, managing complaints, improving frontline performance and governing service results. Participants work with recognised approaches including SERVQUAL, Kano analysis, service blueprinting, ISO 10002 complaint-handling principles, root-cause analysis and quality scorecards. They learn to turn customer feedback and operational data into targeted improvement priorities, owned actions and measurable controls.

Instruction combines concise briefings with sector-based cases, facilitated group analysis, service simulations and application planning. Cases can be adapted to banking, government services, utilities, healthcare, retail, telecommunications, NGOs and business-to-business support functions. Participants leave with a practical service quality improvement pack containing measurement, complaint-handling, governance and implementation templates suited to their own service environment. The course is delivered over five instructor-led days, classroom-based in 50+ cities or live online, from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, with approximately 6.5 contact hours daily. Participants receive a certificate of completion.

The course suits managers and specialists responsible for customer-facing operations, service design, contact centres, complaints, customer experience, quality assurance and service improvement.

What you will be able to do

  • Define measurable service standards using customer requirements, service promises and operating tolerances
  • Design voice-of-customer measures using CSAT, NPS, Customer Effort Score and qualitative feedback
  • Map customer journeys and service blueprints to identify failure points and handoffs
  • Apply SERVQUAL and Kano analysis to prioritise service quality attributes
  • Build quality assurance scorecards for evaluating customer interactions consistently
  • Manage complaints using ISO 10002 principles, recovery protocols and escalation rules
  • Diagnose recurring service failures using Pareto analysis, Five Whys, fishbone diagrams and FMEA
  • Produce a service quality improvement plan with measures, owners, milestones and review controls

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Diagnose service failures with evidence rather than anecdotal feedback
  • Set service standards that frontline teams can observe and apply
  • Conduct more credible customer-experience and quality review meetings
  • Handle complaint trends through structured recovery and corrective-action methods
  • Present service improvement priorities using quantified customer and operational evidence

For your organisation

  • Reduced repeat contacts, rework and avoidable service demand
  • More consistent service delivery across channels, teams and locations
  • Earlier identification of customer pain points and process defects
  • Stronger complaint governance, recovery decisions and escalation control
  • Clearer accountability for service measures, corrective actions and improvement benefits

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define service quality requirements and translate customer expectations into measurable service commitments.

  • Service quality dimensions: reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibles
  • Customer expectations mapped through stated, implied and latent requirements
  • Kano categories distinguish basic, performance and attractive service attributes
  • Moments of truth identified across priority customer journeys
  • Segmentation criteria connect customer needs to differentiated service propositions
  • Service promises tested against operational capability and channel constraints

Participants can design and interpret customer feedback measures for operational service decisions.

  • Voice-of-customer programme design using surveys, interviews, complaints and behavioural data
  • Sampling frames, response bias and confidence intervals interpreted for service surveys
  • SERVQUAL gap scores analysed without treating dimensions as universal
  • NPS, CSAT and Customer Effort Score matched to decision uses
  • Questionnaire wording avoids double-barrelled, leading and ambiguous survey items
  • Closed-loop feedback protocols assign owners, deadlines and customer follow-up

Participants can map service journeys and expose operational causes of customer effort and failure.

  • Journey maps connect customer actions, frontstage contacts and backstage processes
  • Service blueprint symbols expose handoffs, failure points and support dependencies
  • Touchpoint inventories distinguish high-volume, high-emotion and high-risk interactions
  • Customer effort mapped through wait time, repetition and channel switching
  • Failure-mode analysis prioritises preventable breakdowns before customer harm occurs
  • Future-state blueprints specify redesigned steps, controls and ownership

Participants can create service standards and quality controls that support consistent delivery.

  • Service standards translate promises into observable behaviours, times and tolerances
  • SMART service-level targets set response, resolution and accuracy requirements
  • Standard operating procedures separate mandatory controls from staff judgement
  • Queue design applies arrival patterns, capacity and abandonment indicators
  • First-contact resolution definitions prevent metric inflation and repeat demand
  • Quality assurance scorecards calibrate assessors against recorded interactions

Participants can strengthen frontline capability, coaching and accountability for service quality.

  • Recruitment profiles define service competencies, behaviours and technical knowledge
  • Coaching conversations use observation, evidence, practice and specific feedback
  • Knowledge management articles follow findability, accuracy, ownership and review cycles
  • Workforce planning aligns staffing intervals with forecast contact volumes
  • Recognition systems reinforce desired behaviours without encouraging metric manipulation
  • Psychological safety supports escalation of defects, risks and customer concerns

Participants can manage complaints fairly and convert recovery cases into improvement evidence.

  • Complaint taxonomies code issue type, severity, cause and customer impact
  • ISO 10002 principles structure accessible, fair and accountable complaint handling
  • Service recovery sequences acknowledge harm, apologise, remedy and confirm closure
  • Recovery authority matrices define compensation limits and escalation thresholds
  • Written responses distinguish explanation, accountability, remedy and next steps
  • Complainant data reveals recurring failures beyond individual case resolution

Participants can identify root causes of service defects and manage corrective actions to completion.

  • Pareto charts separate frequent defects from high-cost service failures
  • Five Whys tests causal chains before corrective action is approved
  • Fishbone diagrams organise people, process, technology, policy and environment causes
  • Control charts distinguish common-cause variation from special-cause signals
  • Corrective-action registers record owners, due dates, evidence and effectiveness checks
  • FMEA ratings prioritise prevention where severity, occurrence and detection intersect

Participants can manage consistent service quality across digital, telephone and face-to-face channels.

  • Channel strategies assign tasks according to complexity, urgency and customer preference
  • Cross-channel context prevents customers repeating information after handoffs
  • Chat, email and telephone standards reflect channel-specific service constraints
  • Accessibility requirements address plain language, assistive technology and alternative formats
  • Self-service content tested against task completion and escalation demand
  • Digital service defects logged with reproducible steps and customer impact

Participants can establish governance routines that connect service measures, actions and accountability.

  • Balanced scorecards link service measures to customer, process and people outcomes
  • Metric trees connect board-level goals with team-level operating measures
  • RACI matrices clarify accountability for standards, incidents and improvement actions
  • Monthly quality reviews examine trends, exceptions, decisions and follow-through
  • Supplier scorecards govern outsourced service quality, remedies and reporting
  • Audit trails demonstrate conformance with policies, commitments and approved procedures

Participants can prepare a prioritised service quality improvement plan for their own operating context.

  • Baseline assessments prioritise journeys, metrics, defects and stakeholder concerns
  • Improvement charters define problem statements, scope, benefits and constraints
  • Pilot plans specify hypotheses, measures, safeguards and decision criteria
  • Implementation roadmaps sequence quick wins, dependencies, resources and governance
  • Communication plans explain changed standards, roles, measures and escalation routes
  • Personal 90-day plans schedule actions, evidence reviews and sponsor check-ins

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

What you take back to work

  1. Service quality standards template
  2. Voice-of-customer measurement plan
  3. Customer journey map and service blueprint
  4. Quality assurance scorecard
  5. Complaint recovery and escalation matrix
  6. 90-day service improvement plan

Who should attend

  • Customer Service Managers — responsible for consistent service delivery, standards and team performance
  • Customer Experience Managers — need evidence-based methods for improving priority customer journeys
  • Contact Centre Managers — manage service levels, quality assurance and repeat-contact reduction
  • Quality Assurance Managers — require structured scorecards, calibration methods and corrective-action controls
  • Complaints Managers — need fair, timely recovery processes and recurring-issue analysis
  • Operations Managers — need to reduce service failures, rework and avoidable customer demand

Skills and tools covered

Service standards designCustomer journey mappingQuality measurementComplaint handlingRoot-cause analysisService improvement governance

Tools and standards

SERVQUAL, Kano model, ISO 10002, Service blueprinting

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce methods, followed by case analysis, facilitated group work, service simulations and structured application planning. Participants interpret survey results, examine complaint patterns, map customer journeys, calibrate quality criteria and prioritise corrective actions. Cases reflect common service settings such as retail banking, public services, utilities, healthcare and contact centres. Trainers adapt discussions and examples to the cohort's sectors, service channels and operational responsibilities.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience of working in, managing or supporting a customer-facing service operation. Familiarity with customer surveys, service metrics, complaints, contact-centre operations, branch services or operational reporting is useful. Participants should be able to discuss their organisation's customer journeys, current service issues and available performance data. No prior formal quality-management qualification is required. Statistical expertise, advanced data analysis skills, specialist software knowledge and previous experience with SERVQUAL, ISO 10002 or service blueprinting are not required.

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 experience of a customer-facing operation, customer experience function, complaints process or service support role. No formal quality qualification, advanced statistics or prior knowledge of named service quality frameworks is required.

Bring examples of current service issues, customer feedback, complaint categories, service standards or performance reports if organisational policy permits. These materials help participants apply the methods to relevant situations, but they are not mandatory.

The course is designed for managers and specialists who influence service delivery, customer experience, quality assurance, complaints, contact centres or operational improvement. It is also relevant to managers overseeing outsourced customer service providers.

Customer service skills training usually focuses on individual communication, rapport and handling interactions. This course focuses on the management system behind service performance: measures, processes, standards, complaints, root causes, governance and improvement action.

Participants can use the templates to review a priority customer journey, assess current measures, identify recurring service defects and assign corrective actions. The final module produces a 90-day plan that can be discussed with a manager or improvement sponsor.

The programme contains ten modules, each covering approximately three contact hours, with additional time for discussion, breaks and application activities. Training days run from 08:30 to 16:30 and provide approximately 6.5 contact hours daily.

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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