CUST104: Business Communications

It would be nearly impossible to find the first person who noted that good service is good business. However, if you want to find someone who said it recently, just ask any businessperson about the relationship between business and service. Adam Toporek, writing on the blog Customers That Stick, asked 19 business experts to define customer service. “Customer service is the act of providing your customer with something they need, want, or value,” one expert responded. Another said that it is the “deliberate practice to put ourselves in our customers’ shoes.” The definition Toporek recorded that best represents the approach this course takes toward the subject is: “Customer service means NOT reading from a script but, instead, reading the customer.” This course will not tell you what to say during your business communications or when to say it. Instead, you will learn how to plan, produce, and perform acts of communication that satisfy the most demanding audience: your customers. Communication is the stage on which customer service superstars perform, so this course begins by taking you onstage to familiarize you with the communication process and the elements that influence it, influence you, and influence your audience. Next, the course takes you out into the audience, teaching you the techniques needed to adjust your performance based on who you see out there and what you hear coming from them. The course then addresses your actual performance, providing guidelines for good writing, to ensure you have an excellent script, and good speaking, so that your performance is a success. The course concludes by considering the customer service equivalent of the set, props, and costumes: the visual aspects of the customers’ experience that frame you in their minds and create lasting impressions long after you have left the stage.