Copiah Lincoln Community College’s Workforce Education programwants you to have a nice day, and they’re training customer serviceprofessionals to help with that.

Tuesday morning marked the first free Customer Service classgiven by workforce education. Workforce Training Specialist CelesteWilliamson said the program is off to a running start, with 19students and six businesses represented.

“I think it went very well, and the participants enjoyed it andgot a lot out of it,” she said. “The evaluations were good, that’sa pretty good indicator, and I understand some went back and toldtheir organizations it was a good program.”

The class consists of an educational video that focuses on fourmain tenets of good customer relations: Greet the customer, respectthe customer, listen to the customer, and really help thecustomer.

“I think it’s just a repeat of what we should have in mind,because the job is to take care of customers and their needs, andthis video helps in remembering that,” Williamson said. “I’m suremost of the participants knew that, but having it displayed to themwas good reinforcement.”

The participants also broke out into small groups and didrole-playing scenarios, practicing the skills they were learningfrom the video. Williamson led discussions between videosegments.

Williamson said the local business community is responding wellto the idea of increasing their customer service skills, especiallywith the economy on a downward slide.

“I think they realize that keeping local customers is important,especially during this economic time,” Williamson said. “The desireto better serve their customers is a good sign, I think.”

And thanks to public demand, repeats of the class will be held,and Williamson said they’re already starting to fill up.

“The next two classes are full, and then we’ll see how ourenrollment goes,” she said. “If we’re still filling classes at theend of the semester, we’ll have more in the spring.”

She said the class is already being planned for other areas inCo-Lin’s district as well. And if a business or organization wantsin, it can also be arranged by calling Co-Lin.

“If an organization would like to have it offered just for them,that is a possibility and they can contact workforce ed,”Williamson said.