Free, right now
The first four chapters online, with a knowledge check after each chapter. Plus a PDF with a worksheet and cheat sheet.
You can read the lessons straight away. For the PDF, you leave your details.
Start with lesson 1Prefer to have a trainer there with you?
The two-day Customer-Focused Telephone Skills course. You hold real conversations, hear your own voice played back and practise the calls you are dreading.
€1250,- excl. VAT
View the Customer-focused Telephone Skills course All Customer Focus courses →The phone rings and you know nothing yet. Not who is calling, not what about, not what mood they are in. You have no face to go on, no paper to point at and not a second to prepare. Everything the caller takes away about you and your organisation travels through a handset in those few minutes: your voice, your words and the way you listen.
This free online course is the starter for our full Customer-focused telephone skills. In four chapters you learn to use your voice as the only tool you have, to put someone on hold and transfer them through without anyone feeling fobbed off, to steer a conversation you didn't see coming by listening and asking questions, and to close with a firm arrangement instead of a vague "we'll look into it". Each chapter ends with a short knowledge check, so you notice straight away whether it is sticking.
The full course goes on to cover the communication model and noise on the line, complaints over the phone, the bad-news conversation, giving and receiving feedback, and a personal action plan. Would you like to practise those parts with a trainer present, using recordings of your own calls? Then take a look at the Customer-focused Telephone Skills course.
0.-
IntroductionHow this free course is structured and what you learn in the four chapters.
1.-
Your voice as your only toolWhat falls away when the customer cannot see you, the five VITAS factors and words that keep the door open.
2.-
Taking and transferring callsThe opening line in four parts, putting someone on hold politely, warm transfers and a call-back arrangement that holds up.
3.-
Steering through listening and questioningActive listening on the phone, the questioning funnel from open to closed, and summarising as a steering tool.
4.-
Closing with an agreementThe four phases of the call, who does what and when, and the difference between a commitment and an impression.
5.-
Your role in customer contactThe organisation's calling card, customer-focused thinking and the cost-benefit trade-off behind every call.
6.-
Communication as the foundationThe communication model, noise and misunderstandings, and the other person's frame of reference.
7.-
Dealing with complaints over the phoneThe anatomy of a complaint, the resistance ladder and the four G's for bringing an angry caller back to the table.
8.-
The bad-news conversationDelivering bad news without beating about the bush, how to structure such a conversation, and the reactions that follow.
9.-
Giving and receiving feedbackFeedback as your missing sense, the 4G method and listening without becoming defensive.
10.-
Experimenting with behaviour and your action planTrying out new behaviour, reflecting on your own conversations and putting your commitments to yourself down on paper.
That is the difference with a pdf: there is someone standing in front of the class who answers your questions and thinks along with your own situation.
Mieke
Trainer in conversation techniques and train-the-trainer
8,8 from 386 evaluations
Rob
Trainer in communication and leadership
8,6 from 346 evaluations
Michaela
Trainer communication and personal development
9,1 from 264 evaluations
Christy
trainer in communication and leadership
9,2 from 256 evaluations
I found the 'Interview Techniques' course to be good. Nothing to fault. It was also good that Job called beforehand for a short preliminary discussion. You don't see that very often. A very worthwhile course. It also had a strong element of repetition. Plenty of variety, including between theory and practice. Learned a lot, and applied it straight away during the course. And I think these learnings will also help me further when conducting interviews.
Tjeerd J
We took the Outlook, Teams and OneNote course with Roy Nieuwenhuijzen. Good content, and a few days before the course he got in touch with me (coordinator of the course, head of the secretariat). Pleasant that you can fill in the day itself as needed. The booklet for reference is rather dated, but apparently there is little up-to-date material to be found.
Inge Brouwers
In May 2024 I took the WordPress course. As an IT enthusiast with broad but not necessarily deep knowledge, I wanted to know more about WordPress. How do you install everything and how do you start building a website. This course is extremely well suited to that. From the outset you learn in 3 days how to start a website and what to look out for. I now have a solid basis for getting to work with WordPress and I know my way around the various options. The course is recommended for anyone who wants to learn in three days what WordPress can do and how to apply it.
Igno Freriksen
Your own motivation and commitment are essential if you want to master something new. You can get a long way with self-study. Learnit wants to contribute to this by offering valuable content such as free webinars and courses. This way you can get acquainted with new fields of learning. Once you have made a start, you may discover that there are also many advantages to taking a course at Learnit under the guidance of an experienced trainer.
In short, you achieve much more in less time.
The free courses are suitable for home study, as you can download them online as a PDF. The range of free courses consists of IT and Communication & Management courses. Would you like to learn more about these subjects, or is the subject you want to learn about not included? Then take a look at our courses.
In this course you learn how to turn complaints into valuable feedback. You practise difficult conversations, listening techniques and drawing up a workable complaints policy.
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In this course on customer-focused working and customer satisfaction, you learn how to truly understand customers, translate their needs into suitable solutions and maintain pleasant contact even in difficult situations.
In this course you work on the skills you need to sell with more enjoyment, confidence and results. You practise conversation techniques, presenting and closing, and apply everything directly to your own working situation.
Learnit offers more than 300 IT and Communication & Management training courses. The courses are given as one-day or multi-day courses, and almost all of them can also be given as a workshop. In addition, Learnit offers courses as e-learning and as a combination of e-learning and classroom lessons.
Learnit has many locations throughout the country, so there is a good chance that a course is also given near you! A course can also be given in-company, in which case it takes place at your own company or organisation.
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