GOST Course Descriptions

Microsoft Windows XP for Beginners

Introducing Windows XP -- 80 min Outlines the basic skills that are necessary to start using the Windows XP operating system

Getting Started with Microsoft Windows XP -- 280 min Describes the basic skills and configurations necessary to start using the Windows XP operating system

Up and Running with Microsoft Windows XP -- 240 min Describes how to install and configure hardware, configure networking, and optimize Windows XP

Other Courses

Basic Concepts of Information Technology -- 280 min Introduces and discusses Information Technology (IT) concepts relating to computers, their components, and their role in business, the workplace, and everyday life

Create your Time and Memory Management -- 120 min Getting started is always difficult. You've got a million reasons why you are too busy. Your schedule is so full, how can you afford the additional time required to organize yourself? This course presents exercises and techniques to help you incorporate effective time and memory management into your daily schedule. You will learn how to develop a personal time schedule that will enable you to use time effectively on a regular basis and techniques that will help you turn scheduling into a habit. A lesson on performing a formal time evaluation to uncover bad habits or track your progress is included, along with suggested behavioral changes you can implement immediately to build momentum and give yourself encouragement. Finally, the course offers a number of practical how-to tips on setting up a computer to assist you in overcoming time and memory management problems.

Developing Good Time Management Habits -- 270 min Time management shouldn't be a separate activity--it should be an integral part of the way you do things. For this to happen, you need to be able to develop good time management habits and avoid bad ones. An effective use of time also involves managing your environment, managing your use of technology, and managing the time-wasting activities of people around you. Today we are often over-whelmed by the amount of paperwork that crosses our desks, or the number of e-mails that appear on our screens. There is a real danger that we end up being reactive rather than creative, and spend all our time responding to what we have been sent, rather than initiating new ideas. To avoid this, you need to develop techniques for handling paperwork, telephone calls, and e-mails to maximize their value, and minimize their disruptive potential. Technology makes it possible for us to be more efficient--get more done--in many different ways. But you need to make sure that you are really controlling the technology so that it also helps you to be more effective--getting the right things done, rather than allowing it to control you. There are many time stealers. Demands and interruptions from bosses, peers, or customers can prevent you from achieving your goals, and these must be dealt with appropriately. Not all time thieves are external. Most of us are prone to some degree of seemingly harmless procrastination, but this can be the most insidious and dangerous time waster of all.

Information and Communication -- 315 min Demonstrates how to use Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 to search and browse the Internet and how to use Outlook 2002 to send and receive e-mail messages

Organize to Remember -- 120 min Did you go to today's meeting totally unprepared because you couldn't find the pre-assigned reading material? Did the conference call with a prospective client fall flat because you forgot to send the requested information? This course presents a number of different or-ganizational systems that can be used to ease memory overload. Use retrieval systems to locate your reference and reading materials so you don't have to remember where you put them. Use reminder systems to remember names, commitments, and deadlines that you can't afford to forget. Systematically log your phone calls, conversations, and delegated tasks so you don't have to commit the details of these events to memory. The computer can be used to assist you in these tasks; and e-mail is an especially handy tool. The ideas presented in this course can be used in a number of different environments. Some are so easy to implement you will want to use them immediately

Using the Computer and Managing Files -- 260 min Provides an overview of the basic computer applications, programs, settings, and file management

Career Path Training Modules

Adobe Acrobat 5.0

Adobe Acrobat 5.0: Getting Started -- 120 min Provides an overview of the basic document-management features of Adobe Acrobat 5.0

Adobe Acrobat 5.0: Up and Running -- 120 min Offers an overview of the document organization, enhancement, and navigation features of Adobe Acrobat 5.0

Advanced Skills for Administrative Support Professionals

Behavior: Putting Your Best Foot Forward -- 240 min Are you interested in taking charge of your career? Would you like your job to be more interesting, to offer you more challenges? Today's workplace offers more opportunities than ever for administrative support professionals to assume more responsibility and be more active in office decision-making. This course will show you some ways to assess yourself to ensure you're ready to work towards a new role. It will also show you some techniques for interacting with co-workers, subordinates, and superiors. In addition, you'll see how to project self-confidence and to become the kind of person to whom people give their loyalty and trust.

Managing Yourself and Those Around You -- 240 min Successful administrative support professionals must be good managers. This means managing their own time and energies, as well as cooperatively working with their boss and co-workers. This course teaches successful strategies for dealing with the myriad demands on the time, resources, communication skills, and organizational powers of administrative assistants.

Partnering with Your Boss -- 180 min You may have noticed that the traditional secretary has gone the way of the dinosaur. However, your boss may not yet have entered this new age in which administrative support professionals are working as partners with their managers and supervisors. This course will equip you to make the transition from working as a subordinate who follows orders, to partnering with your boss as an empowered and valued member of the management team. For administrative support professionals who currently work in this type of relationship with their bosses, the course contains many strategies that will make them more effective in this role.

Communicating with Power and Confidence -- 180 min Do you want to be an effective and powerful communicator? Do you want to take charge, welcome responsibility and view challenge as an opportunity? In today's workplace, when administrative support professionals talk, supervisors listen. They have been empowered and given many managerial responsibilities. They can now work alongside rather than as subordinates to their managers. They no longer only proofread, make coffee, or take notes. Today they run team meetings, benchmark, make presentations to senior management, pass out their own business cards, and earn degrees. Administrative support professionals who can communicate, teach, guide, mentor, and make important decisions have a greater chance of achieving upward mobility in their workplace. Administrative assistants can earn more money as a result of taking on these responsibilities. This course will show you how to communicate with power and confidence, a skill that will enable you to advance your career.

Advanced Administrative Support Simulation -- 30 min You're an administrative assistant at the corporate headquarters of King's Stores Company, a chain of retail stores, and report to Maxine Washington, Merchandising Manager. Recently, you were disappointed when Maxine turned you down for a promotion. During a meeting with Maxine, you'll have the opportunity to find out to why she didn't promote you. You'll need to listen actively and effectively to her constructive criticism. Also, you will need to deal with this criticism like a professional. After the meeting, maintaining a positive attitude and avoiding the influence of negative people are among the challenges you'll face. If you take Maxine's advice and successfully improve your skills, you'll then try to establish a partnership with her. This will involve effectively pitching your partnership proposal. If she agrees to the proposal, you'll then have to implement the partnership plan. Also, as Maxine's partner, you'll need to represent her with confidence and authority when she's not in the office. This simulation is based on the Advanced Skills for Administrative Support series and contains links to the following SkillSoft courses: ADM0111, ADM0112, ADM0113, ADM0114.

Anger Management in the Workplace

Experiencing Anger -- 300 min Like most people, you have probably gotten angry while at work. A disagreement with a co-worker or manager during a business meeting could make you lose your temper. By taking this course, you will learn why people become angry and recognize how you express your own anger. You will also learn simple techniques to minimize angry emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. Since you may have to deal with other people's anger at work, you will also learn what to do when you encounter angry people.

Managing Your Anger -- 300 min You're angry and you want to let everyone know it. But, is this really a good idea? What will your co-workers or your supervisor think of your outburst? Is there something that you could do to control your anger? This course will help you manage your anger so that you will be less angry and will be able to channel your energy into more constructive activities. You will learn the three stages of managing your anger and techniques that will be useful for preventing your anger from getting out of control. This series provides techniques that a motivated person can use to deal with manageable anger. These techniques do not replace counseling or other professional assistance where such attention is appropriate.

Managing Anger in the Workplace Simulation -- 30 min Like most people, you have probably become angry at work. A disagreement with a coworker or manager could make you lose your temper and voice your anger, but is this really a good idea? What will your coworkers or manager think of your outburst? While confronting anger in the workplace is inevitable, it's important to minimize your angry thoughts, emotions and behaviors, and channel your energy into more constructive activities. Your role: As a Product Manager for the high-tech company SafeCom, deadlines on your current campaign are fast approaching. A rocky relationship with your coworker with whom you share responsibility for the campaign and an overworked boss with little time to mediate are both potential catalysts for an increase in your levels of anger and stress. Through it all, you must find a way to keep your cool and finish the day with your campaign and professional relationships intact. This simulation is based on the SkillSoft series "Anger Management in the Workplace" and has links to the following courses: COMM0701 and COMM0702.

Assertive Communication

Professional Assertiveness -- 180 min Do you sometimes wonder if your professional style is too passive-hesitant and weak? Or do you find yourself acting too aggressively toward your co-workers or subordinates--too critical and overbearing? Do you wonder if there is another professional style that might be better for you? If you answered yes to any of these questions, it's a good time to learn to be an assertive business professional. This course will guide you as you move into a proactive, responsible, professional style. You'll learn methods to help you identify an appropriate assertive style and strategies to prepare you use that style. You'll also learn how to implement the assertive style in your work environment. With the assistance of this course, you'll no longer worry about being "too passive" or "too aggressive."

Assertiveness from the Inside Out -- 180 min Do you sometimes wonder if there's a way to alter your professional style--to change yourself from the inside out? Do you believe there may be strategies you could use to develop a more assertive professional style? Do you want to learn about strategies that can help you interact assertively with others in the workplace? Now is a good time to enhance your professional assertiveness skills if you answered "yes" to any of these questions. This course will guide you as you move into a more decisive, more effective professional style. You'll learn about methods that can help you build and strengthen your assertive style and strategies to prepare you to act more assertively. You'll also learn how to implement your new, assertive style as you negotiate with other professionals, develop teams and partnerships, and cope with opposition. With the assistance of this course, you'll blossom as you become the assertive professional you've wanted to be.

Assertive Communication Simulation -- 30 min You are a team leader in an international consulting firm which primarily serves the manufacturing industry. Your group is responsible for producing high-priced Executive Conferences, for PR and for profit. While (and because) the group's initial meetings were very profitable, the need for more dollars to fund other efforts prompted a new mandate: You must reduce production cycles in order to increase the number of conferences and the industries they target. The firm's goal: to increase profit as well as to gain exposure in new markets. While you had your concerns about implementing this strategy, you informed the team and outlined a streamlined procedure to reduce production times. However, several months later you found production times were longer than ever before. Your supervisor decided to step in and institute financial penalties for late delivery of conference agendas and programs. She announced this while you were on vacation, and on top of that, she put one of your best content developers "on probation." Her justification: the company is a flat organization and your team members are her direct reports. The simulation begins here. Your hand-picked team is on the verge of revolt, and they want you to do something. You must find a way to balance the needs of your team with the demands of your supervisor. Realizing that things have gotten out of hand, you have decided to modify your professional style and work on a more assertive approach in order to gain and maintain control. This simulation is based on the Skillsoft series "Assertive Communication" and contains links to the following courses: COMM0171 and COMM0172.

Building Better Work Relations

Building Effective Interfunctional Relationships -- 150 min Whom did you talk with at work this week? To accomplish your goals in today's workplace, you not only have to interact with personnel in other departments, you often have to coordinate or even rely on them. Tasks are fluid and flow across functional boundaries. The products or services your company offers require a cooperative effort to produce. But by nature, most companies are structured territorially. Every department head and manager has his or her own troops on call and a personal domain to defend. Protecting your turf may be instinctual, but it's also counterproductive. By not cooperating openly with other sections or departments, you not only interfere with their ability to accomplish their tasks, you undermine your own efforts as well. In this course you'll discover how you may be inadvertently sabotaging yourself when you let your territorial instincts guide your interactions. Once you understand how Interfunctional relationships benefit you and your work goals, you'll be ready to learn some communication skills that will help you develop stronger, more productive work alliances across functional boundaries.

Building Effective Intercultural Relationships -- 150 min In a shrinking world, businesses operate across borders, whether they are borders between neighborhoods or borders between coun-tries. All of these bordered areas, large and small, represent differing cultures. Whether at home or abroad, chances are, your business deals with people of varying cultures on a daily basis. In today's expansive work environment, employees, co-workers, customers, vendors, and business partners can all have a different cultural background from yours. The most obvious cultural differences you encoun-ter are language and dress. But there are a multitude of subtler ways in which people from different cultures vary in their behavior. If you don't understand the ways in which they might differ, you're risking your business communication and relationships being misunderstood. When operating interculturally, mistakes are easily made when you take appearances and meaning for granted. This course lends significance to the term "multiculturalism." In this course, you will learn about the many ways in which mini- to macro-cultural behavior and attitude can vary, around the corner and around the world. This course will prepare you to understand and relate better to people with different cultural backgrounds, thus making your business deals with them easier and helping you avoid costly misunderstandings.

Building Effective Intergender Relationships -- 150 min Guess what. Men and women are different. Socially, the differences offer an attractive mystique. But in professional situations and in the workplace, the significant differences in male and female communication styles can cause problems. There is no denying that women and men vary significantly in their verbal inflections and tone, their body language, and how they listen to others. They pick up on different cues in conversations, and often the meaning they interpret is not the message the speaker intends. It's almost as if the two genders speak different dialects. And, in fact, that's nearly the case. Communication confusion and breakdown between men and women at work can lead to inefficiency and expensive business errors. This course explains the differences in the language and communication behavior of men and women so each can more easily understand what the other is really saying. The course also provides tips on how to modify your own communication behavior to be more clearly understood by the opposite gender.

Working Effectively with Customers -- 150 min It's time to disregard that old deferential model of short-term customer relations you're using. Why not replace it with a selection of long-term relational skills that work for you in the marketplace? Take control by picking the best customers and developing equal, trusting partnerships with them. When you limit your investment in your customer relationships, you also limit your growth potential. Developing strong, respectful relationships with your customers is a win-win situation. This course introduces the ingredients for creating and maintaining more effective and productive relationships with your customers and explains why these elements can generate better outcomes than earlier customer paradigms. The most effective relationships are mutually supportive and mutually beneficial. And they last beyond next quarter's returns. Investing in the relationship and creating value for your customers rewards your business as well.

Working Effectively with Business Partners -- 150 min You have three options when you want to extend your base of business resources: Expand your company, acquire another company, or partner with a complimentary company. In many instances, partnering is the most advantageous choice. Creating an alliance confers the same kind of benefits as an acquisition--but with fewer risks and better definition. The key to creating a successful partnership lies in the ways in which you define the relationship with your partner. The more explicit the definitions, the more productive the alliance. Recent research indicates that the most successful business partnerships are built on openness, trust, and mutual goals. This course outlines the key elements that make up a good partnership and shows you how to combine and apply them to build an effective relationship with your business partners. The lessons will prepare you to set up and manage an ongoing business alliance that satisfies you and your partner and meets both your separate and shared objectives.

Building Better Work Relationships Simulation -- 150 min Business doesn't take place in a vacuum. In order to succeed, employees at every level must forge relationships with both internal and external customers. The key to those relationships is effective communication. But communication requires more than just listening skills. It requires techniques and strategies designed to overcome all manner of boundaries--interfunctional, intercultural, and intergender. The Building Better Work Relationships Simulation is designed to provide participants with the opportunity to practice behavioral communication techniques that foster the development of productive relationships across different functions in the workplace. As account representatives for Orbital Communications, Inc., providers of global cellular telephone and Internet services, simulation participants will be tasked with generating new business accounts while maintaining existing long-term accounts. However, success will depend on more than just interaction with customers. Each of the participant's colleagues will require the same respect afforded to their clients--And more, if the necessary alliances are to be formed. The Building Better Work Relationships Simulation is based on the SkillSoft series "Building Better Work Relationships" and contains links to the following SkillSoft courses: COMM0191, COMM0192, COMM0193, and COMM0194. This simulation comprises four scenarios and an introduction.

Business Etiquette and Professionalism

Everyday Business Etiquette -- 180 min The rules of proper business etiquette are changing. In many corporations, middle management and the concept of seniority are being replaced by a flat organizational structure and intense competition. Such an environment makes the need for appropriate behavior especially crucial, particularly if you're looking to advance your career. How do you maintain your private "space" when you sit in one of a dozen cubicles? How should you address your peers and superiors, and what's the proper attire for today's corporate culture? In this course, you'll learn how to conduct yourself in the everyday business environment with poise and confidence.

Communication Etiquette -- 150 min "How's it going?" Is this an appropriate greeting in today's corporate workplace? How about telephone use? Is it always necessary to return phone calls? If so, how soon should you do it? Is e-mail the method of choice for communicating all your ideas, or is another way better? How important is your tone of voice when dealing with a customer? All these questions are a matter of etiquette. How you communicate--in person, over the phone, electronically, and with customers--has a direct effect on how people treat you, on whether you sell your idea or product, and on how quickly you advance in your career. In this course, you'll learn the subtleties of communication etiquette in the world of business.

Etiquette and the Business Meeting -- 150 min "Sleep not when others speak, sit not when others stand, speak not when you should hold your peace, walk not on when others stop." Was George Washington referring to the etiquette required at the business meeting? Indeed, such meetings have their own set of rules. Did you know that it's acceptable to use the telephone to invite people to a small, informal meeting but that written invitations are considered proper for all formal meetings? Did you realize that at a business lunch, small talk should be reserved for the period before the food has been ordered? Such is the nature of etiquette at the business meeting. In this course, you'll learn the proper conduct to display during both formal and informal meetings, negotiations, and entertainments.

Etiquette for Supervisors -- 180 min Some supervisors seem to be able to energize their employees to give their best efforts. Other supervisors have to engage in a battle of wills to accomplish the simplest tasks. What's the difference? According to a 19th-century management thinker, a supervisor: "has the power to make employees happy or unhappy; and to make their jobs a pleasure or a burden. A supervisor's power lies in words and looks, things so intangible they are impossible to measure." In other words, supervisors increase their own effectiveness as well as the effective-ness of their subordinates simply by the way they conduct everyday tasks. In short, they do it by applying simple etiquette. In this course, the learner will explore the special etiquette of being a supervisor, the etiquette of one-on-one interactions with subordinates, the etiquette of listening as a supervisory tool, and the supervisor's role in sharing information between his subordinates and the rest of the company.

Business Etiquette and Professionalism Simulation -- 30 min The rules of proper business etiquette are changing. In many corporations, middle management and the concept of seniority are being replaced by a flat organizational structure. Such an environment makes the need for appropriate behavior especially crucial, particularly if you're looking to advance your career. But how do you maintain privacy when you sit in one of a dozen cubicles? How should you address your peers and superiors? Deal with peer conflict or workplace friendships? In this simulation, you'll put your business etiquette skills to the test in a series of day-to-day tasks. This simulation is based on the SkillSoft Series "Business Etiquette and Professionalism" and has links to the following courses: COMM0181 and COMM0184.

Business Grammar Essentials

Foundations of Grammar -- 150 min When do you use "your" or "you're"? "Me" or "myself"? Is "good" an adverb or an adjective? Understanding how to use various types of words is a building block of good writing. To be a good writer, you must have a thorough understanding of the basic parts of speech that identify and classify types of words. Then, you must be capable of applying the necessary guidelines for more complex uses of various word types. In this course, you'll complete a comprehensive study on using words correctly. You'll study everything from pronouns to possessives, and you'll discover how to avoid the most common usage errors. When you've finished the course, you'll have the necessary building blocks to develop your skill as a top-notch writer.

Sentence Construction -- 120 min Writing sentences is a basic skill. But this "basic" skill seems to cause a lot of problems. Meanings are misinterpreted. Sentences run on and on, leaving the reader lost and confused. Poor word choice and organization make the writer look confused, sounding unintelligible and fuzzy. You're not alone if you're thinking, "That's how I write!" In the course, "Sentence Construction," you'll review basic sentence construction, including subjects, predicates, phrases, and clauses. Then, you'll discover how to eliminate the three most common sentence-writing errors--things you're probably doing right now and don't even realize. Finally, you'll learn how to develop sentences that are logical, clear, and powerful--the basis of any sound business document.

Understanding Writing Mechanics -- 120 min One of the biggest challenges in writing is to feel confident about appropriately applying the mechanics of writing. How do you know what should or shouldn't be capitalized? When is it appropriate to abbreviate words, names, places, and business terms? How do you know when to spell out a number or when to use a figure? How can you get past those troublesome words that are commonly misspelled? This course gives you the answers. You'll explore the rules of capitalization and abbreviations. You'll learn some of the special situations that influence how numbers are used, and you'll get tips and techniques to make spelling troublesome words easier. Your creativity will be enhanced when you're confident about writing mechanics.

Punctuating with Skill -- 120 min Should you use a comma or a semicolon? Does the punctuation go inside or outside of the quotation mark? What's the difference between the parentheses and brackets, the hyphen and the dash? Knowing the answers to these questions will ensure that you're using punctuation correctly and to your greatest advantage. In this course, you'll review the standard rules and guidelines for using punctuation appropriately. You'll also be given the most current information on some of those pesky rules that seem to be constantly changing. In today's world of fast-paced electronic communication, it's more important than ever to get your meaning across quickly and cleanly. A well-punctuated sentence does just that.

Business Writing Essentials

Writing with Intention -- 240 min Whether you're preparing a brief e-mail response, a business letter, a performance review, a multi-page proposal, or a presentation to a prime customer, you know that having a job means having to write. But if you're not a trained writer, how do you begin? The writing process actually starts before you pick up a pen or place your fingers on a keyboard. It begins with defining what you are writing, for whom you are writing, why you are writing, and which writing approach to use. "Writing with Intention" addresses these defining matters, which you need to consider every time you sit down to write. The course includes lessons on how to link your writing to its purpose, how to modify your writing for different readers and audiences, and how to approach your content in a manner that supports the message type. In this course, business writing is taught as a collection of easy skill sets, not as a strained creative exercise. The lessons flexibly encompass almost any kind of business writing you may be required to perform on the job. No matter what your level of writing skill, if you write at work, you can benefit from this practical writing course.

Avoiding Errors in Usage and Punctuation -- 270 min Have you ever received an e-mail so poorly worded that you hit the delete button before you even finished reading the message? Have you ever opened a letter so confusing that you couldn't understand what the author was trying to say? If so, you understand the frustration of receiving a badly written message. Are you afraid that you might have sent messages that have been discarded or misunderstood for similar reasons? If so, this course will help you to improve your basic usage and punctuation skills so that your messages are read and understood.

Avoiding Grammatical Errors in Business Writing -- 270 min Grammar: the very word strikes terror into the hearts of learners everywhere. For many people, it recalls the most difficult or most boring classes they can remember from childhood. Yet using correct grammar is one of the key skills for any business writer. Poor gram-mar skills interfere with communicating a clear message; moreover, they may suggest that the writer is careless and perhaps unprofes-sional. In this course, you will learn to recognize and repair the most common grammatical errors in sentence construction. Using correct grammar will help you to convey your information accurately and to represent yourself and your company as articulate and professional.

Crisp Composition -- 270 min When you send off business documents that you have written, what do you think the recipients--your readers--hope for? Do they want to plow through long-winded documents that never get to the point? Do they want to waste time puzzling out what your convoluted sentences mean? Do they want to send back numerous requests for clarification? Do they want to pull out an unabridged dictionary just to understand your document? Of course not. Your readers hope that you will work hard to write clearly and concisely. If you do so, your readers can spend their time considering what you have to say, not wondering what you really mean. If you're concerned that your writing does not meet the needs of your readers for clarity and conciseness, then this course will help you remedy these problems. You'll learn to recognize and repair the common errors that prevent your writing from being as effective as you would like it to be.

Writing to Reach the Audience -- 180 min Business writing is effective only when it informs or prompts the reader in the manner you, the author, desire. Whether your intended reading audience consists of one person or fifty, those readers will determine what kind of content you include and how you present it. If you were writing instructions for a child on how to answer the phone, it would sound very different from the same instructions written for an adult. All effective writing varies by audience--and skilled writers always write to connect with their readers. "Writing to Reach the Audience" instructs people who have to write at work in some easy-to-apply techniques to help them write to their readers, however those readers may vary with business circumstances. If you're writing a thank-you letter to a valued colleague, the approach, tone, and structure of the document are dissimilar to a complaint letter you write to a vendor. The principles and considerations that regulate the style differences in the two letters regulate the audience differences in all written documents. This course helps you master writing techniques to reach your audience without having to learn a lot of writing jargon or creative elements. This is a practical writing course for busy people at work.

Getting the Most from Business Documents -- 240 min How often have you or one of your colleagues stayed at work late to finish an important report or proposal to meet a deadline? Then two days later you receive a call from the intended recipient asking you where the report is. You faxed it over and it got lost in their fax room. Now you've missed the benefit of having met your deadline. This familiar scenario illustrates the importance of selecting an appro-priate document type and delivery method for your written business documents. "Getting the Most from Business Documents" explains the different business document types such as memos, reports, and proposals and the best uses for each. The course shows you how to align the message content, document type, and delivery method--Internet, fax, mail, courier, and so on--so that your business documents receive the right level of attention and achieve their designated purpose. Independent topics address five of the most commonly used business documents. You work hard on your business writing. Don't waste that effort with careless choice of document type or inappropriate delivery method. Learn how to prepare, lay out, and deliver business documents that reflect well on you and your company.

The Writing Process -- 300 min How do you go about writing for your work? Do you procrastinate until your deadline seems like a freight train that is rapidly approaching while you stand immobile on the railroad tracks? Do you try to complete the entire document--defining your message, analyzing your audience, deciding on your approach, worrying about grammar and spelling, organizing your information, and choosing your words precisely--all in a single step? If so, there may be an easier, quicker, and far more effective way to tackle your writing project. This course divides the writing process into manageable components: preparing to write and composing your message. It explains a methodical way of handling the various tasks from beginning to end. It also covers the particular challenges of writing in groups. There is no single correct way to write, and experienced writers usually develop their own individual processes. But if your current approach is haphazard and frustrating, using the process explained in this course may make the act of writing less formidable and more enjoyable. It may also help you to produce more focused, more polished, and more effective business documents.

Customer Relationship Management

The Customer-driven Organization -- 120 min Good companies are customer-focused. Great companies are customer-driven. What's the difference? Great companies don't just focus on the customer. Great companies develop a relationship with their customers. They listen. They commit to making their customers happy. Every decision they make is driven by giving their customers what they say they want, not what the companies THINK they want. To become truly successful, a company needs to acknowledge and honor the relationship it has with its customers. And this commitment should be reflected in everything the company does--from creating a mission statement, to treating customers like partners, to doing the kind of business that guarantees customer satisfaction.

Hiring and Retaining Service Professionals -- 210 min An organization's greatest resource is its people. And yet in today's highly competitive market, hiring and keeping top-notch customer service professionals is not an easy task. How do you identify the specific skills and qualifications a particular position requires? How do you attract the right candidates? How do you elicit the information you need from candidates to make effective hiring decisions? And what does it take to keep valued employees on staff? In this course, you'll learn how to hire and retain outstanding customer service professionals.

Effective Service Recovery -- 150 min Managing customer relationships isn't always smooth sailing. When a customer has an unexpected problem with a product or service, you risk losing that customer to someone else. With the competition for gaining new customers as fierce as it is, it behooves you and your organization to do everything you can to retain the customers you fought so hard to get. To accomplish that, you and your organization need policies and processes to help you act swiftly and proactively to solve problems and regain the customer trust. In this course, you'll learn the art of service recovery--a set of carefully designed procedures, strategies, and techniques designed to not only salvage your valued customer relationships but enrich them as well.

Serving Your Internal Customers -- 180 min This course focuses on the needs of an often overlooked group of individuals: internal customers. Excellent customer service starts internally and is reflected externally. Unless processes, procedures, organizational culture, and employee relationships support a service environment, the organization will fail to deliver terrific service. You must begin by determining who your internal customers are, under-standing their needs, and fostering a sense of unity at your organization. Then you must understand how teamwork and service teams can benefit your organization. Partnering successfully and learning to empower service agents are other important elements. You will have the opportunity to analyze your company's level of customer service from an internal perspective and solve specific service issues.

Beginning Electronic Customer Relationships -- 150 min The most influential technological advancement of this era is the birth and growth of the Internet. This fact isn't lost on the thousands of businesses that have taken up shop in the cybermalls located on the information superhighway. From startup dot coms to well-established brick-and-mortar companies, the Web rush is in full swing. But, as in a game of musical chairs, you have to wonder if your organization will be lucky enough to find a seat when the music stops and the high-flying hopes of e-Commerce come in for a landing. Some say the music has already stopped and the sound you hear is the hordes of e-Retailers scrambling to survive. To make sure your company succeeds with an e-Commerce strategy, you need to make a difference. The differentiator, as always, is service. In this course, you'll learn basic concepts, skills, and principles that will enable you to get started on the road to effective customer service on the Web. You'll examine what it takes to meet customers' e-Service expectations. You'll learn how to add value by personalizing your customers' e-Buying experience and retain them by keeping human support just one click away. The result will be an ability to increase profitability, increase loyalty, and connect with customers in a more cost-effective manner. And luck will have nothing to do with it.

Sustaining Excellent Customer Service -- 210 min How do you separate the "green" companies from the service-oriented giants? You look at their overall service records. It's sustaining quality customer service that counts these days. The ability to sustain comes from within first. Employees who are given feedback, guidance, recognition, compensation, and praise for their customer service efforts really shine. Then these employees affect everyone around them, including the external customers. This course teaches you to promote excellent customer service behavior by reinforcing and rewarding employees for their efforts. It also provides tools for you to address extreme service recovery situations. The practical know-how that you'll gain from this course will encourage you to take your organization to customer-service giant status.

Managing Customer Relationships Simulation -- 30 min You are the Customer Service Supervisor for Music House, a music warehouse that distributes compact discs, cassettes, and vinyl to the retail marketplace. Because the customer-service department at Music House is small, you'll be wearing many hats throughout the course of the simulation. On the front line, you'll be working with external customers to correct orders, offer technical support, and increase revenues by encouraging repeat business. You'll also be working with your coworkers and other internal customers to create a positive and efficient work environment that promotes cooperative goals and a sense of unity. This simulation is based on the SkillSoft series "Managing Customer Relationships" and has links to the following courses: CUST0121, CUST0123, CUST0124, CUST0125, and CUST0126.

Dealing with Conflict in the Workplace

Perspectives on Conflict -- 330 min What is meant by the term "conflict," and what are the general attitudes towards it in the workplace? In this course, three prevailing attitudes towards conflict are compared. These are that: --Conflict is always a bad thing --Conflict is always a good thing --A certain level of conflict is productive, but too much is undesirable. This last view informs the rest of the course, which goes on to describe how a healthy and productive level of conflict can be encouraged in an organization, promoting a win-win philosophy that improves performance. Of course, conflict cannot always be contained at this productive level, and often spills over into becoming destructive. Therefore, learners will also discover how to recognize the signs and symptoms of destructive conflict, so that they can deal with it in the workplace.

Handling Conflict with Others -- 360 min No one can complete a working career without experiencing conflict, so it is essential for you to handle this conflict in the most effective way. To handle conflict well, you need to build up a repertoire of techniques. These techniques require you to behave differently from your natural instincts at times. Therefore, a good starting point is to establish what your instinctive approaches to conflict are, and where these attitudes stem from. This will enable you to decide on a range of different approaches to conflict, based on a spectrum that goes from being only concerned about your own needs, to only being concerned about other people's needs. This spectrum gives rise to five possible strategies for dealing with conflict. Whatever strategy you apply, some core techniques will make you more effective. These involve three main actions: confronting the conflict, communicating with the other party, and determining an acceptable outcome. Sometimes, the conflict in the workplace just surrounds you, even though you are not involved directly. You then have to learn how to avoid taking sides, or becoming a scapegoat.

Managing Conflict in the Organization -- 360 min As a manager, you will inevitably have to sort out some of the conflict that occurs in your organization. Sometimes, this will be between individuals, but often it will be between teams, and even departments. The different nature of these conflicts is likely to require different approaches, and there are also likely to be a range of particular demands on you in the way that you manage the conflicts. A way of differentiating and applying these approaches is by adopting a short-term approach against a longer-term strategy. The first is categorized by a "quick and dirty" style of containment and reduction. The second is characterized by approaches that are concerned with resolving the roots of the conflict by finding structural remedies to prevent the conflict occurring in the future. Another form of a long-term approach is to attempt to prevent conflict from occurring. This is, of course, probably impossible, but this approach is characterized by considering in what ways a manager can act to discourage negative conflict.

Dealing with Conflict in the Workplace Simulation -- 30 min What are your thoughts on conflict in the workplace? Do you dread it? Quietly try to avoid it? Or do you rush headlong to meet it with enthusiasm, certain it will bring renewed vigor and badly-needed change to your organization? No matter your answer, the Dealing with Conflict in the Workplace Simulation will provide you with the opportunity to practice skills for coping with conflict and putting it to work for good. Conflict is inevitable in the workplace. Everybody has their own ideas about how things should run. Eventually, these ideas will collide. When they do, you don't need to be unprepared. Above and beyond all the skills you can possibly learn for coping with conflict, effective communication skills will prove to be the most beneficial. Without open lines of honest communication in the workplace, unspoken and harbored conflicts will boil and fester until productivity grinds to a halt. Knowing how and when to address issues of conflict will help you to cut away destructive behaviors, encourage healthy arguments, and create an environment full of vigor and embracing of change. The Dealing with Conflict in the Workplace Simulation will help you to learn all this and more. The Dealing with Conflict in the Workplace Simulation comprises three scenarios and is based on the SkillSoft series "Dealing with Conflict in the Workplace." Throughout the simulation links are provided to the following SkillSoft courses: COMM0341, COMM0342, and COMM0343.

Managing Conflict in the Workplace Simulation -- 30 min Conflict is inevitable in the workplace. Everybody has their own ideas about how things should run. Eventually, these ideas will collide. When they do, you don't need to be unprepared to manage the fallout. Above and beyond all the skills you can possibly learn for managing conflict, effective communication skills will prove to be the most beneficial. Without open lines of honest communication in the workplace, unspoken and harbored conflicts will boil and fester until productivity grinds to a halt. Knowing how and when to address issues of conflict will help you to cut away destructive behaviors, encourage healthy arguments, and create an environment full of vigor and embracing of change. The Managing Conflict in the Workplace Simulation will help you to practice all this and more. The Managing Conflict in the Workplace Simulation comprises three scenarios and is based on the SkillSoft series "Dealing with Conflict in the Workplace." Throughout the simulation links are provided to the following SkillSoft courses: COMM0341, COMM0342, and COMM0343.

Delivering Successful Presentations

Presenting to Succeed -- 270 min There are a number of basic types of presentations, but all presentations have four things in common: a presenter, an audience, a venue, and a message. This course concentrates on showing how each of these vital elements has to be taken into account when preparing a presentation. Presenting is a skill that needs to be learned and practiced, starting with how you prepare, and you will be shown a simple but powerful method for selecting the right content, and then structuring it. Controlling nerves is an important part of preparing, and this course helps you to remove anxieties in the presentation environment by making sure that the venue is set up correctly, and ensuring that you rehearse appropriately.

Delivering Your Message -- 270 min So, the presentation is prepared and practiced. Great. But this means nothing to the audience. When you stand there in front of them, all that matters to them is what you look like and what you say. This course is about delivering your message, and the techniques you need to do this. First of all, you have to make a positive first impression on your audience members by how and where you stand, by your appearance, and how you look at them. Then, you must lead your audience through your message, referencing what is important through the language you use, and the physical techniques you employ. Finally, the course shows what is needed to make a presentation really memorable, the 'wow' factor that outstanding presenters have, and how to achieve it.

Presentation Resources Available to You -- 300 min This course is about making effective use of resources that can take the pressure off you--visual aids, questions, and making a team presentation. Visual aids are overused, and presenters are overdependent on them. You need to know what visuals are available to you, and be able to determine which one suits a particular need. You need to know what makes a successful visual. Finally, you need to be able to use PowerPoint and other software packages appropriately, with a clear idea of what they can do. Some presenters are afraid of questions from the audience because they seem to represent a loss of control. This course shows you that questions are positive opportunities to be grasped eagerly: they are a way of deepening your communication with the audience. But there are techniques to handling questions successfully, and they need to be learned and practiced. Sometimes, a speaker needs to appear in front of a client or col-leagues and present, but as part of team. Each member of the team speaks, but the team members are collectively responsible for com-municating the message. This course tells you when team presentations are appropriate. It shows you how to look and sound like a team, how to prepare and practice together, and how to apply techniques that reinforce, rather than undermine, your collective relationship.

Delivering Successful Presentations Simulation -- 30 min After years of research and development, the Top-Shelf Cola Company is finally ready to release its latest beverage, Passion, to consumers. Passion is a caffeine-free, all-natural soda that's made from real passion fruits. The company has spent ten million dollars to perfect the product's taste and to create a brand for the drink. You are a brand manager at Top-Shelf and responsible for the Passion brand along with your coworker, Hannah. The drink will be hitting the streets soon, and the marketing campaign for Passion has already begun. Top-Shelf has been aligned with several restaurant chains to exclusively sell its other soft drinks. Now, Top-Shelf management wants Passion to also be on the menus at these chains. In this simulation, you must prepare and deliver a presentation to some of Top-Shelf's existing customers and convince representatives from these chains that they should be offering Passion to their customers. This simulation is based on the SkillSoft series "Delivering Successful Presentations" and has links to the following courses: COMM0301, COMM0302, and COMM0303.

Effective Business Meetings

Planning Effective Business Meetings -- 150 min If you are in a business that has meetings, you know how much time is spent in them. A recent survey of 2000 business leaders indicated that managers spend over fifty percent of their time in meetings. That same study indicated that managers felt that about one third of those meetings were unproductive. This course will present you with information that will help you improve the quality of your meetings. It will help you develop strategies necessary for preparing effective business meetings, by carefully considering the importance of all the components of the meeting, including people, place, purpose, time, agenda, and atmosphere.

Leading Effective Business Meetings -- 150 min Since there are more than 11 million meetings held every day in the United States, there is a good chance that your life is full of meetings. There is a general agreement among business professionals that most meetings are not well run. They often waste your time, drain your energy, seem to have no purpose, and bear few positive results. Are you tired of attending meetings like this? Are you tired of your meetings ending up like this? This course will teach you how to make your meetings more successful by providing the tools and information that are necessary to lead an effective meeting.

Participating Effectively in Business Meetings -- 300 min A meeting is a gathering of people to present or exchange information, plan joint activities, make decisions, or carry out actions already agreed upon. Almost every group activity or project requires a meeting, or meetings, of some sort. Knowing how to hold efficient and effective meetings can help make projects successful. In a good meeting, participants' ideas are heard, decisions are made through group discussion and with reasonable speed, and activities are focused on desired results. Good meetings help generate enthusiasm for a project, build skills for future projects, and provide participants with techniques that may benefit them in their future careers. As a chairperson, a secretary, or a group member, it is crucial to your meeting's success to know what your role is during a meeting. By knowing your duties, you can effectively assume one of these roles and help to attain success during your meetings.

Effective Business Meetings Simulation -- 30 min As the lead project coordinator for Pantheon Electronics, a national reseller of home and office electronics, you will oversee the daily activities of a project management group. Functioning as both a meeting coordinator and a conference chair person, you will test your skills in a broad range of situations, running the gamut from materials procurement to conflict mediation. This simulation is based on the SkillSoft series Effective Business Meetings and includes links to the following courses: COMM0331, COMM0332 and COMM0333.

Effective Listening Skills

The Basics of Listening -- 150 min Do you sometimes feel like you are not getting the whole message when someone talks to you? If you have problems receiving information that is verbally communicated, this is the course for you. This course will familiarize you with the communication and listening processes, and how listening functions within communication. You will discover the factors and variables that influence communication and listening and learn strategies to overcome weak listening skills. You will then apply these skills to business-based examples. Knowing the basic communication and listening processes will make you aware of where communication can be adversely affected.

Listening for Comprehension -- 300 min Do you need to better understand the basic meaning of a conversation or presentation? If you need to be able to identify what is said to you in a more effective manner, then this course is for you. This course teaches you how to comprehend verbal and visual messages to maximize your understanding of others. Because this course teaches listening skills, certain sections of this course deviate from standard SkillSoft courses by presenting audio and audio cues without accompanying text. You will require audio to take these sections of the course.

Listening for Higher Purposes -- 180 min Do you sometimes have difficulty using your listening skills to effectively evaluate arguments or appreciate complex ideas and emotions? This course teaches you how to listen more effectively for critical and empathic purposes to maximize your understanding.

Enhancing Your Listening Skills -- 180 min Have you ever been taken by surprise by an unexpected deadline? Have you ever left a meeting unsure about what was decided? Have you ever asked a supervisor for advice, only to later forget what your supervisor told you? You can avoid problems like these by using effective listening skills. Effective listening helps you to know what's going on in your organization, get cooperation from your co-workers, solve problems, and be successful in your work. However, most people don't listen very well. This course will help you to improve your ability to listen to others. You will learn the skills you need to understand what people say, read their unconscious nonverbal messages, and get others to want to listen to you. You also learn how to apply these skills in a variety of business situations such as interviews, business meetings, and negotiations.

Effective Listening Skills Simulation -- 30 min Although relatively straightforward in theory, the process that transforms effective listening into successful communication requires great skill, awareness and practice. In the course of this simulation, you will attend a day-long seminar, studying the topic of Effective Listening Skills through various exercises, lectures, quizzes and small-group activities. The day's events will be guided by an instructor, and your fellow conference attendees will be business professionals from various fields and experience levels. Though geared toward bettering communication and listening in a business setting, the seminar environment is casual, offering a safe and stress-free forum for self-evaluation and interaction. This simulation is based on the SkillSoft Series "Effective Listening Skills" and has links to the following courses: COMM0151, COMM0152, COMM0153 and COMM0154. NOTE: For portions of this simulation, note paper and a pen or pencil are required.

E-mail Essentials

Essentials for Electronic Communication -- 90 min Everyone seems to be using e-mail lately--family members keeping in touch, university students submitting assignments, companies offering products for sale, and office workers carrying out their daily business tasks. Most e-mail users can improve their e-mail skills by learning more about the basic features and potentials of e-mail. Any business person will benefit from developing an understanding of e-mail essentials.

Optimizing E-mail at Work -- 120 min In today's business world, e-mail is used to do everything from processing orders to supplying information. Because of the limitations of telephone communication when people who are very busy or sometimes in different time zones work together, e-mail use is on the rise in U.S. E-mail offers a plenitude of new opportunities for business, but understanding how to properly use it is essential in order to take advantage of these opportunities. This course will tell you what makes e-mail unique and provide you with the skills to write, send, and receive business e-mail effectively. You will learn how to best use the features that are commonly included in e-mail programs in a way that improves your communicative ability and efficiency at work.

E-mail and Organizational Communication -- 150 min E-mail is much more than sending information back and forth. This communication tool can change your entire organization. E-mail can affect how you communicate, where you work, what you do and even when you do it. This course will help you harness the power of e-mail and show you ways to optimize your e-mail use for maximum productivity and success. E-mail as a Marketing Tool -- 120 min How can you find new customers? How can you build stronger relationships with new and existing customers? How can you boost sales of your company's products and services? This course will provide you with useful strategies to help you incorporate electronic mail into your marketing approach. Learn how to communicate effectively with your customers through e-mail. You and your company will benefit from better customer relations and increased sales.

Frontline Call Center Skills

The Call Center Industry - 150 min When people pick up a phone and hear someone greeting them from the XYZ Company, they put little thought into the people, process, or technology behind the phone call. To them, the person on the phone is just a voice on the other end of the line. This course will examine all of the aspects of a call center. In order to facilitate this examination, this course has been broken down into three parts: overview, call center organization, and call center technology.

Call Center Communication Skills - 270 min Communication skills are very important for a successful career in customer service and sales. This is especially true in a call center environment. Call centers can be high pressure, fast-paced environments where you may have to deal with hundreds of people in one day. That is why it is so important to fine tune your communication skills. This course will examine handling different personalities, questioning skills, and telephone skills. These skills are essential to help you to communicate effectively and professionally with your call center customers.

Call Center Customer Service - 210 min Have you just become a call center customer service representative? Maybe you are experiencing some feelings of anxiety, as do many novice agents. You may be concerned about dealing with customers' issues one-on-one. Fortunately, there is a comprehensive training course for people in your situation. This course will help you overcome reservations about customer service in a call center setting. This course for potential or new call center agents is designed to introduce the learner to the necessary information and tools required to professionally handle customer service calls in a call center environment. Becoming a great customer service representative requires having finely tuned communication skills. Therefore, it is suggested that you take the course "Call Center Communication Skills" prior to taking the Call Center Customer Service course.

Call Center Telephone Sales - 180 min How many times have you attempted to get your point across over the phone, only for it to end up unsuccessful? Would you like to improve your conversational skills? When you take this course, you will learn how to save your and your customer's time. Learn which principles and techniques of selling, professional presentation approaches, and telemarketing laws apply to you. Using your time efficiently is important because time is money! Remember this course is dependent on the previous call center courses; to be a good sales rep, you need a combination of communication and customer service skills.

Frontline Call Center Skills Simulation - 30 min This simulation will test your ability to deal with unhappy external customers, and to establish good working relationships with internal customers--your co-workers. Using this simulation will help you assess and practice your skills assisting various customer types, such as; "relater", "director," and "thinker." This simulation is based on the series "Frontline Call Center Skills" and contains links to the following SkillSoft courses: CUST0112 and CUST0113.

Getting Results Without Authority

Building Relationships to Get Results - 150 min You are not the boss. You've been called "peer," "esteemed colleague," "invaluable staff member," and "friend," but no one's even come close to calling you "boss." When you stop to think about it, you realize you have no real authority whatsoever. In fact, you have much more power than you think, even if you are on the bottom rung of the corporate ladder. As Jack London said, "Life is not always a matter of being dealt a winning hand, but sometimes, of playing a poor hand well." In the corporate world, when it comes to getting results when you have no authority, it is imperative that you play your best hand. In this course, you'll learn how.

Teamwork and Results without Authority - 150 min When it comes to being a member of a team, what role do you think you should play? Legendary Alabama football coach Bear Bryant said, " In order to have a winner, the team must have a feeling of unity; every player must put the team first--ahead of personal glory." Yet, according to general George S. Patton Jr., "If everyone is thinking alike then somebody isn't thinking." When it comes to getting results without authority on your team, it's necessary to do both. In this course, you'll learn how to achieve results by playing the game, and you'll learn how to assert yourself.

Leadership without Authority - 180 min Lily Tomlin said, "I always wondered why somebody doesn't do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody." Tomlin could have been speaking on behalf of many employees in the corporate world who, despite having little authority, take it upon themselves to become leaders nonetheless. Becoming a leader, and getting results, without authority is especially important in today's corporate culture, where middle management and the concept of seniority are being replaced by a flat organization structure and intense competition. Such an environment makes the need for leadership skills especially crucial. In this course, you'll learn how to circumvent your lack of authority to get results through effective leadership.

Gaining Allies, Creating Change - 180 min "If you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours." Is this an effective strategy for gaining allies to create change? How about, "If you do it my way, you'll feel better about yourself"? Finding and winning partners for the purpose of creating change is not easy in the intensely competitive and harried environment of the corporate world. It's especially difficult when you lack authority. The people whose help you need most may have no desire to help you, or if they do, they may lack the time. In either case, winning allies, partnering successfully, and creating change require unique strategies when you are not the one who is in control.

Getting Results through Communication - 180 min When you want something done, you have to either do it yourself or see to it that someone else does it. As adept as you may be at multi-tasking, there will be times when you'll need a colleague's help or buy-in to perform a task. But how can you effectively achieve results without any formal authority within the organization? Communication is the answer. Through the effective use of the various forms of communication, you'll be able to extend your influence at work even without any recognized authority. This course is designed to help you become a more effective communicator so that you can become more productive and use written and spoken communication to achieve results.

Getting Results from the Boss - 180 min What does the word "boss" mean to you? Does it stand for Big Old Stubborn Sourpuss? Or does "boss" conjure an image of a level-headed, flexible, and thoughtful co-worker? Whatever the case, as an employee working in a subordinate role, it's up to you to learn how to get the results you desire. That means knowing how to do everything from building a relationship with your boss to dealing effectively with him when he only wants to disagree. In this course, you'll learn how to get results from your boss in a number of situations despite your lack of authority.

Getting Results without Authority Simulation - 30 min You have been hired within the last year as a design engineer at Autorad, a company that manufactures automotive components. Historically, the company specialized in custom-designed components for limited production runs. In recent years, the company has moved into more mainstream applications and must adapt to a mass-production mind-set. Your team has been working on a new steering wheel design for months, which you discover has been sent back by manufacturing for its third round of changes. Manufacturing claims the previous design version could not be produced cost-effectively. You have had past experience in production, as well as with "design for manufacturability" (DFM) programs, which incorporated manufacturing feedback early in the design process. You realize that such a program would reduce design iterations as well as production costs across the board. Having decided that you should be the one to lead such an effort, your challenge is to cultivate the image of a leader despite the fact that you have no authority and are the junior member of the design team. After assessing the risks of proposing a DFM program, you must use effective techniques to gain credibility, increase your influence and sell your idea in order to create change. This simulation is based on the SkillSoft series "Getting Results without Authority" and is based on the following courses: COMM0511, COMM0513, COMM0514, COMM0515, COMM0516

How to Excel at Customer Service

Building the Service Foundation: Corporate Culture - 210 min As the saying goes, "You can't create the cathedral before you build the foundation." That's why the first course in this Customer Service series focuses on building the foundation of good service. The buzz term is "Corporate Culture." It's not some rare disease, but your workplace "culture" can be positively or negatively infectious as it relates to customer service. In this course, you'll get the basics about corporate culture, and how it impacts service. You'll be able to identify on-the-job issues that are barriers to service excellence. Simple, but effective, exercises will enable you to differentiate between a healthy corporate culture, and an unhealthy one. At the completion of this course, you'll be able to develop a step-by-step action plan that sets the tone for an organization that prides itself on quality service. Finally, you'll gain the know-how to be a dynamic force within your own division, team, or group culture. By learning to strengthen the internal environment, you'll increase commitment to service, boosting performance, productivity, and ultimately, success.

Fundamentals of Exceptional Customer Service - 210 min You've seen the ad campaigns that boast, "Customer satisfaction guaranteed." But in today's marketplace, satisfaction isn't enough. This course is designed to take your goals beyond merely satisfying the customer to creating customer loyalty. The training takes aim at outdated modes of thinking, and establishes the building blocks for a service mentality that increases customer commitment, not to mention profits. Learn how to develop service standards and track their effectiveness. Gain new insights and strategies from the corporate masters of customer service. Explore the value of building relationships with customers. Most importantly, by the end of the course you'll be able create your own customer-focused philosophy.

The Voice of the Customer - 270 min Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, "Make yourself necessary to somebody." In today's competitive marketplace, it's important to make yourself and your company necessary to a lot of "somebodys". Those somebodys are your customers. This course provides the tools to learn all that you can about your customers. The focus is on recognizing and ultimately anticipating customer expectations. There are any number of ways to hear "The Voice of the Customer", but you have to know how to listen. Learn about the dynamics of client expectations, and the inconsistent, ever-changing nature of today's customer. How do customers judge our success? You'll explore the five key expectations dimensions, and you'll be able to assess your workplace in terms of meeting client needs. And you don't have to be James Bond to "gather intelligence" on your customers. By completing this course, you'll be able to master methods of compiling customer data and input. The final step in "hearing" your customer is creating compatibility. Explore how to align your services with each of your clients, and gain customers for life.

Advancing Your Service Expertise - 270 min It's obviously a treat to have a sumptuous meal at a five-star restaurant, or be doted on at a five star resort. But five star service extends beyond our personal entertainment. A certain degree of pampering is key to achieving customer loyalty, and this course shows us how to make "five star attitude" an integral part of our service commitment. These lessons are designed to foster awareness and new skills that deepen our customer service expertise. Gain techniques for personalizing customer interaction. Enhance your approach to customer assistance by giving it form in a structured plan. Understand the critical differences in specialized service when you are dealing with customers over the phone. And since technology now has an increasingly important place in daily business, you'll integrate tips for service-friendly e-mail into your customer assistance practices. With interactive examples, simulated dialogues, and game-like exercises, this skill-building course takes your customer service proficiency up a notch toward excellence.

Customers, Conflict and Confrontation - 330 min Is there anything that can torpedo your work day more than an arrogant, obnoxious, rude customer? YES! Not knowing how to handle one! It's challenging to stay service-minded when the person you are dealing with is being "difficult." This course will give you the perspective to effectively cope with customer conflict, and sound methods to deal with all types of potentially confrontational situations. You'll be able to identify elements of emotional response that interfere with good customer service. Staying cool, calm, and customer-connected is a critical learning objective for this course. Develop communication skills that defuse customer complaints. Learn and differentiate the best methods to handle difficult customers in person and over the phone. By the end of this highly interactive course, you'll have the strategies necessary to restore customer confidence and move beyond the thorny issue to an even stronger relationship.

Overcoming Challenging Service Situations - 360 min Your customers face is more contorted than anything you've ever seen on the X-files...eyes bulging, fists clenched, and a scowl that makes Scrooge look like a nice guy. It's tempting to cut and run, but coping with even the most challenging situations is part of customer service. This course is designed to give you the means to hang in there when the going gets especially tough. Recognition of the warning signals is an important first step. Then you'll practice strategies that de-escalate confrontational clients. Admitting mistakes is an easy concept, but for most people, it's not so easy to do. This training adds just enough sugar to make the medicine go down, helps us let go of our egos or our fear of being wrong, and accept responsibility for errors. Though it's not appropriate to tell a customer to "chill out", there are some easy to use tactics to cool down the angry client. You'll explore the steps to guiding customers toward a solution to a problem or issue. Finally, tackle the exercise that tests your tolerance, and take a preemptive strike at conflict by learning to plan for challenging situations before they ever occur.

Instilling Service Excellence: the EXCEL Acronym - 450 min In advancing to new levels of customer service commitment, it's helpful to have an easy way to remember additional concepts that can make you a service superstar. Since the goal is customer service excellence, this course uses the word E-X-C-E-L as an acronym for five important behaviors that impact the service mindset. It might surprise you, but seeking help and knowing where to find it can improve your service abilities. That's why E, for "Enlist Help", is the first concept in the EXCEL acronym. X is for X-Ray questions, developing the skills to "read" your customers by asking the right questions in the right way. It's a great relief to be able to say, "Case Closed" when there's a problem area with a customer. But it takes planning and proactive thinking to stay ahead of trouble-spots, and in the "C" topic, this course gives you the steps to close off problematic customer issues by anticipating them. The next letter is "E" for EMPOWER YOURSELF, one of the most crucial concepts to being a great service provider. This lesson establishes the steps to taking ownership of your own personal service philosophy. That brings us to the last letter, "L", which issues a challenge. In "Learn to be Flexible", you must come up with a plan to increase your flexibility one day at a time. These guidelines will instill a customer service mentality, and instill a spirit of commitment to service far beyond the workplace norm.

Service Stars and Service Teams - 330 min The Olympic athlete, the Nobel Prize winner, and the Oscar-nominated actor all have something in common. They are all stars in their areas of expertise. This course will move you to the level of stardom in the area of customer service. In profiling the highest achievers, you will grasp the meaning of leadership, the importance of long-term focus, and the secrets to making your customers more memorable. In this course you will also explore the importance of being a little "self-serving." You are much better caretakers if you practice taking care of yourself. After looking at individual excellence, you will look inside the workings of a championship team, a group that has the know-how to deliver knock-your-socks-off service. But beware of team issues that can destroy your levels of service. You will examine the pitfalls of attitudes that can put cracks in the smoothest service armor. This is the course that will help you to be the best service provider you can be.

Excelling at Customer Service Simulation - 30 min This simulation places you in the role of account representative dealing with a difficult customer. Using this simulation will help you assess and practice your skills in various customer service situations such as; diffusing an angry customer, taking responsibility for resolving problems; using proper telephone etiquette; (based on the SkillSoft series How to Excel at Customer Service). The simulation is comprised of four scenarios; Initial customer contact, gathering information at the customer site; determining potential solutions; presenting the solution to the customer.

Customer Service Simulation - 30 min The art of effective customer service requires anticipating your customers' needs and expectations in addition to working with them to handle and solve any and all of their present issues or requests. How well you can successfully practice effective customer service techniques will make the difference between building long-term customer relationships or losing patronage forever. Your role: As a Customer Service representative for Bizjet Airlines, you will be challenged to deal with various customer service scenarios during the course of your workdays. Whether it's in person, on the phone, or through e-mail, you'll either be working toward building a clientele of new and repeat customers, or encouraging these customers to fly with a competitor. This simulation is based on the SkillSoft series "How to Excel at Customer Service" and has links to the following courses: CUST0101, CUST0102, CUST0103, CUST0104, CUST0105, CUST0106, CUST0107, and CUST0108. This is one of two simulations developed for this series.

Inbound Call Center Management

The Inbound Call Center - 150 min Inbound call center managers of this century will face many of the same challenges that their counterparts faced in the 20th century. The emphasis will still be on the development and acquisition of cost-effective methods to provide customers with the service they demand. By ensuring that you have a good knowledge base of the inbound call center industry, you are establishing a sturdy framework for success. This course will provide you with the knowledge needed to identify customer care benefits resulting from key events in the history of call center technology; recognize the effect of environmental factors on productivity; apply the processes to turn the phone answering service into a business center; understand the value of linking with the rest of the organization; and employ methods to give customers the service they want. Becoming a successful call center manager is not an easy task.

Inbound Call Center Management: Leadership - 180 min Did you know that your personality can greatly affect your leadership skills? Are you aware that even if you are a fabulous manager, you may not be an effective leader? As a call center manager, how can you motivate everyone, including senior management, to work together toward a common goal? As you progress through this "Inbound Call Center Management: Leadership" course, you will become aware that enhancing your leadership skills can move you closer to your goal of managing an efficient and team-oriented call center. By participating in this course, you are ensuring that your call center will receive the best management and leadership that you can provide.

Inbound Call Centers: People Management - 180 min Inbound call centers are often the only link between a company and its customers. As a call center manager, you want to hire agents with special customer service "genes." Good call center agents do a better job on the telephone, are happier with their work, and genuinely enjoy helping customers. This course will help you staff your call center with the right people for the job. You'll learn how to select the best candidates, accommodate agent diversity, and become aware of union and nonunion personnel policies. Have you ever wondered how to attain high agent performance and low employee turnover? This course will show you how. You'll learn about calculating agent requirements, building workforce schedules, and conquering employee absenteeism. Finally, this course will present procedures that are necessary to keep a call center running smoothly. This course will equip you with the people-management skills that will ensure the success of your call center.

Inbound Call Center Technology - 240 min Today, the technology within the inbound call center is constantly changing and improving. How can you, as a call center manager, keep up with this advancing technology? Moreover, why should you? This course will explain the fundamentals of inbound call center technology, and explore ways current technology might evolve. It examines different methods of obtaining this technology, and outlines how to protect your call center through Disaster Recovery Planning. Understanding inbound call center technology is one important step to providing better service to your customers. Having technical knowledge of the call center is a considerable advantage when few in the call center environment understand the technology they work with.

Performance Metrics for an Inbound Call Center - 150 min The call center environment typifies the active, fast pace of the business world. In this hectic environment, is there time to consider how things are being done? There should be. As the call center industry slowly transforms into a customer management industry, the impetus will be on call center managers to ensure customers receive the best service possible. But where do you look to analyze performance? Is performance quantifiable? Yes it is! Call center performance metrics outlines the path to improved operations. This course will explore the full range of call center performance metrics. It will look at where the metrics come from, what they reflect on, and how they can be analyzed to improve performance.

Internal Customer Service

Excellence in Internal Customer Service - 300 min In today's fast-changing and highly competitive business climate, offering excellent customer service has never been so important. But what about taking a different approach? Has your organization tried looking inwardly to find the answers to offering great service? Organizations consist of an independent chain of individuals and functional units, each taking inputs from one another and turning them out into external customer service. If everyone within the organization works to provide their "internal" customers with better service, then the end customers will receive a much higher quality service in the long run. Focusing on your internal customers not only helps your organization to survive and prosper, but also has the added benefit of motivating your employees, meeting their needs, and promoting a satisfying environment to work within.

Working with Internal Customers - 240 min Excellent customer service lies at the heart of any successful business. However, you should not overlook the importance of meeting the needs and expectations of your fellow employees, your internal customers. By helping other people within your organization, you enable it to succeed. Great internal customer service improves people's morale, productivity, and external customer service, and ultimately makes your organization more financially secure. Giving great service to your internal customers means that people you work with can see, hear, and feel that they are valued. When employees value one another, the result is increased performance, which contributes to the success of the entire organization, and creates a positive and productive working environment.

Overcoming Internal Customer Service Problems - 210 min Managing relationships with your internal customers isn't always smooth sailing. When internal customer service does not go according to plan, problems occur, or communication breaks down, what can you do to get your plans back on track, and break down barriers? At times like these, you and your employees need to act swiftly and proactively to solve the problem, and regain the customer's trust. In this course, you'll learn the art of sustaining excellent service, and recovering the situation when things go wrong. By examining the pitfalls that can occur, and following a set of useful techniques and guidelines, you can salvage internal customer relationships, and increase your chances of sustaining customer service excellence.

Internal Customer Service: Conflict and Complaints Simulation - 30 min Complaints are an inherent part of customer service, and this is especially true of internal customer service. No matter the level of vigilance, problems will arise, and when they do, they must be greeted with quick and effective responses to ensure that business can proceed. The Internal Customer Service: Conflict and Complaints Simulation has been designed to allow participants to practice handling customer service complaints within the relative safety of a learning environment. Over the course of the simulation, participants will apply their conflict-handling skills to overcome a host of obstacles and provide excellent internal customer service. Special emphasis will be placed on the participant's ability to nurture a customer service environment that is open to and accepting of conflict and complaints. The Internal Customer Service: Conflict and Complaints Simulation comprises four scenarios and is based on the SkillSoft series "Internal Customer Service." Throughout the simulation links are provided to the following SkillSoft courses: CUST0142 and CUST0143.

Internal Customer Service Agent Skills

The Customer Service Agent in Action - 270 min There are now some 7 million customer service agents (CSA's) working in nearly 80,000 call centers in the United States. Call centers are burgeoning in Europe and the Pacific Rim as well, and experts predict that the number of CSA's will grow by 20 percent each year. Worldwide, revenues for the call center industry could soon reach almost $60 billion. The magnitude of these numbers suggests the important role that customer service agents play in today's business world. This course is designed to help CSA's understand their essential functions as well as the context and importance of their work. Increasingly, CSA's are responsible for managing customer relationships. Their jobs have evolved from simple processing of customer service requests to more complex nurturing of the customer, supporting company profitability by building customer loyalty. CSA's collect more detailed data than ever before, assess more varied and more complex problems, and use increasingly sophisticated technology. Working under intense time pressure, they must meet customer needs and exceed customer expectations. Of course, the crux of the CSA job in a call center is handling the service call. This course teaches CSA's how to manage each stage of the call, from introduction through problem resolution. It also covers methods of making call centers effective, by balancing customer needs against limited resources, and ways of measuring that effectiveness.

Professional Skills for Customer Service Agents - 270 min As a customer service agent (CSA), the focus of your job is to solve customers' problems within a short amount of time. To do this, you have to understand the optimum methods for professionally processing a large volume of customers representing many different personal-ity types. This can be a challenging task. You can successfully handle an agent's workload while satisfying customers by mastering a few vital skills. "Professional Skills for Customer Service Agents" covers professional issues such as call-center ethics and call protocol; proce-dures and techniques for handling calls and gaining customer confidence; and questioning and listening skills to help you address cus-tomer concerns more effectively. You will learn skills that help CSA's to efficiently and respectfully gather customer information and, where appropriate, take action to place a customer on hold without offending the customer or losing the call. When combined, the behavioral skills covered in this course can lead to a more satisfying work experience and increase your success rate as a customer service agent.

Managing Challenges in Customer Service - 300 min During an average working day in a call center, customer service agents (CSA's) handle dozens of customer calls. The calls may range from simple requests for product information to urgent demands for solutions to complex problems. The callers may range from quiet, logical, and professional in their manner to noisy, impatient, and infuriated. CSA's are expected to meet the challenges of handling all of these calls and customers with speed, skill, accuracy, and composure. This course helps CSA's to manage these challenges successfully. It teaches CSA's effective techniques for handling aggressive callers, such as controlling, outraged, and threatening customers. It also teaches CSA's practical methods of managing nonaggressive but nonetheless difficult callers, such as customers who demand excessive amounts of call time and cust