Business & Professional Development/Professional Development

Customer Service Professional Certificate CBPD-7010

Training and professional certification program for customer service representatives, call center, help desk, technical support, financial services support, and administrative support professionals. Learn core knowledge and competencies on how call centers operate, including metrics, required skills, and terminology. Focused study and practice on soft skills such as listening, speaking, questioning, and de-escalating upset customers will be emphasized. After completing this course, successful graduates will have the certification and related experience to compete for customer service representative positions in the region. Tuition includes all textbooks.

Ready to learn more? Complete our online form or contact us at 319-398-1022.

Upcoming Offerings:
No upcoming dates at this time. 

Tuition Assistance:
Yes. Full tuition assistance is available to support your career goals. Fill out our referral form at www.kirkwood.edu/cefunding.
*Some eligibility restrictions may apply.

Industry Credentials Earned:
Customer Service Professional Certificate

Careers:
Source: Career Coach 2018, Kirkwood Community College region.
Customer Service Representatives
Average hourly earnings: $16.83
Starting hourly earnings: $11.59
Projected job openings (2018 – 2023): 3,960

Entrance Requirements/Prerequisites:
None. 

Delivery Method:
Classroom

Length of Program and CEU Credits:
288 hours, 35.1 CEUs

Program Completion Requirements:
This is a pass/fail certificate. Students must achieve the following standards in order to receive the certificate: (1) attendance of 95 percent or greater (no more than 14 hours missed time); (2) successful completion of classroom and lab activities; and (3) successful demonstration of understanding key concepts by scoring 80 percent or greater on accumulative of assessments, graded assignments/tasks, and final live exam. If you miss more than 14 hours, you may still attend class but not earn the certificate. You may still receive college credit. If an emergency arises that will cause you to be late or absent, you must call 319-398-4926 as soon as possible. If you have not left a message by 1:30 p.m. on the day you are absent, this will be considered a NCNS. One NCNS will result in a warning. Two NCNS occurrences will result in forfeiting the right to earn the certificate.

Course Objectives:
• Demonstrate customer service strategies including listening skills, steps of the call, and interactions with the customer.
• Demonstrate basic customer service collection, and sales principles and concepts.
• Demonstrate strategies to deliver efficient customer service to a diverse customer base.
• Demonstrate good and bad quality statements according to Quality Assurance Criteria.
• Demonstrate professionalism in the workplace by setting goals, creating a plan for personal time management, writing action plans, establishing a professional network, and exploring certification options.
• Demonstrate strategies for teamwork.
• Demonstrate the use of equipment and software commonly used in the customer support setting.
• Create a variety of written documents including, but not limited to, a standard business letter, resume, cover letter, application form, and thank you letter.
• Apply various problem solving and troubleshooting techniques common in the customer service workplace.
• Demonstrate ethics in relation to core values through the identification of the benefits and consequences of ethical and unethical behavior.

Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this program, students will use effective communication skills and will possess skills for further learning and for the general workplace. Students will also be able to determine the appropriate application software to use, assemble hardware to integrate operating systems for workstations (deploy, employ, implement), demonstrate effective strategies to adapt solutions to different work situations, exhibit accepted ethical standards of the IT industry, apply customer service and end-user support principles to customer interactions, and demonstrate effective oral and written communication skills in a variety of IT contexts to include participating willingly and effectively as part of a team.
 
Other Items to Know About this Course:
All classroom materials are included in the tuition fee and will be provided in class.

Pathway to Credit Program:
MKT-350 Customer Service Professional 

Related Information: 
See where customer service can take you. Meet six individuals from five local Iowa companies and hear their stories at: http://bit.ly/CSPCHeroes