Customer Service and Sales Training
Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday
February 7 – May 24
12:45- 2:45 p.m.
(90 Hours)
Cathy Quam - Instructor
Goals Of This Course
 Prepare participants for the sales and service
industry
 Concentration in retail sales
 Complete a professional workforce portfolio
Objectives Of This Course
 Handle entry level retail or sales position
 Communicate effectively, using
strategies for listening, speaking and
observing critically
 Use interpersonal skills to guide others
and work cooperatively
Objectives Of This Course - Cont.
 Apply customer service skills at home and
in the community, as well as at work
 Reflect, evaluate and assess your abilities
and adjust strategies as necessary to
become more effective at what you do
Benefits of Completing This Course
 Retail Sales Certificate
- To help get a job or transfer from one job
to another
 The Portfolio
- Documentation that shows evidence of
skills and knowledge to be used in an
interview
 National Certification in Sales and Service
- To prepare students to successfully pass the
test that is recognized from state to state
How to Get Started
 Instructor must complete the NRF Foundation Sales
and Service Learning – Train the Trainer
 Instructor follows a prescribed curriculum laid out by
the NRF Foundation
 Originally developed as a welfare to work program it
was decided to combine the Equipped for the Future
(EFF) standards with the National Retail Standards
which lead to the development of the EFF/Retail sales
course
Philosophy of the Course
 Specific retail skills are taught based on the belief
that participants need to be taught how to learn and
reflect on their learning and then transfer what they
have learned from one situation to the next.
 The EFF skills are based on the belief that participants
need to learn how to learn from past experience –
whether positive or negative.
The Intent of the Course
 To help participants progress from learning about
themselves to learning how to relate to their
classmates as their internal customers
 To then transfer these skills to relate to actual
customers
The Equipped For The Future Skills Wheel
The 16 EFF Content Standards
Who is Eligible to Take this Course
 Do not need a high school diploma
 Must be 16 years of age
 Need a minimum of a 6th grade reading level
 (I would recommend an 8th or 9th grade level)
Assessing Student’s Needs
 Students are assessed by using the Test of Adult Basic Education
(TABE) - Reading Test
 Learning styles inventory – Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic
http://www.howtolearn.com/learning%20styles-quiz
http://www.edutopia.org/multiple-intelligences- learning-styles-quiz
Assessing Student's Needs – Cont.
 http://www.aultmancollege.edu/Files/UnderstandingLearning-Styles.pdf
 Personality Inventory – Introvert or Extrovert
 http://www.personalitytype.com/career_quiz/
 Sixteen Personality Types
 http://www.personalitypage.com/high-level.html
Key Elements
 EFF Framework
 Speak so Others Can
Understand
 Listen Actively
 Observe Critically
 Guide Others
 Cooperate with others
 Reflect and Evaluate
 Sales and Service Standards
 Customer Service
 Sales
 Inventory
Interactive Curriculum



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Thought for the Day
Students set Ground Rules
Setting SMART Goals
Action Plan to Manage
Barriers
 Examine Roles as Worker,
Parent/Family, Community
Member
 Mystery Shopper
 Store Scenario
- mental math exercises
- counting back change
- figuring percents off
running cash register
 Good/Bad Customer
Service
 http://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=jZkdcYlOn5M
 http://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=FRJW6qZZ3uQ
Portfolio
 Workforce
1. Initial Goal Plan – WorkerCommunity-Family
2. Resume
3. Reference List
4. Workbook Assessments
5. Store Scenario Forms
6. Follow-up Goal Plan
7. Certificate of Completion
 Items for Use on the Job
1. Formal and Informal
Greetings
2. List of open-ended questions
3. Reflections on Thought for
the Day
4. Hints for dealing with
difficult situations
5. Hints for handling two
customers at a time
6. Tips to handle angry
customers
National Professional Certification in
Customer Service
 Assessment consisting of 75 questions – 90 minutes
 (accommodations are available - must be applied for
30 days prior to test date)
 Covers Four different work functions
 Given on computer at an approved testing site
(Rochester)
 Testing fee is $75.00
 Sample test questions website:
 https://www.castleworldwide.com/castleweb/candida
tes/sample-tests/nrf-customer-service.aspx
Demographics of the Class
 Two American men
 Five women representing the following countries:
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Ethiopia
Haiti
Mexico
Somalia
The Philippines
(Age range from the 20’s – 50’s)
Student Feedback
 Positive experience
 Learned many things they could use not only in the
workplace, but also in their everyday lives
 Liked the time and length of the course
 Two American men passed the NRF Certification Test
 ESL women passed two of the four sections of the
test (they had double the time to take the test)
 Lina’s story
Teacher Observations
 Literacy level of 6th Grade is high enough to handle
the course work
 Literacy level needs to be higher then 6th grade to
pass the test
 There is now an ESL version of this course