USA Funds^® University’s service excellence webcasts offer helpful tips for improving office skills and business expertise for financial aid administrators of all levels. The webcast series presents the skills necessary to address challenges associated with customer service, helps hone skills in all types of communications and provides additional insights into building strong time management and communication skills.
 
Webcasts are scheduled from 2-3 p.m. Eastern time on the dates listed below and will cover the following topics:

• Jan. 20 — Communication Skills
• Jan. 27 — Dealing with Customers in Difficult Situations
• Feb. 3 — Telephone Etiquette
• Feb. 10 — E-mail Etiquette
• Feb. 17 — Effective Communication between Generations
• Feb. 24 — Time Management

Communication skills. How you communicate with staff and students makes a difference. Learn general, time-proven communication skills that involve listening, determining customer needs, and dealing with challenging behavior while saving time and reducing confusion between staff members and students.

Dealing with customers in difficult situations. Dealing with emotional customers can be challenging. Understanding a customer’s needs and offering solutions is the key to handling these types of situations. This session provides helpful tips on how to calm an emotional customer, and teaches you how to look for win-win solutions and resolve conflict with education and training.

Effective communication between generations. This session will open the door to better understanding of the many generations within the work world. Learn details about each generation and the factors that motivate them. Understanding the differences will help improve communication, make project teams more effective and enable staff to better relate to each other and students.

E-mail etiquette. This session helps you understand electronic communication issues and etiquette, and offers tips for more successful interactions that promote efficiency and confidentiality.

Telephone etiquette. This training session provides tips on dealing with customers by telephone and how to use listening skills and other techniques to be more attentive.

Time management. This session teaches you how to identify personal time stealers, plan your work, organize, prioritize and conquer procrastination.