The Public Service Commission conducted its first training for this Financial Year 2018/2019 at the Ministry of Health Conference Room at Moto’otua on CUSTOMER SERVICE. The training was held five (5) half days from Monday 6^th – Friday 10^th August 2018. This program was designed as a response to the growing need to improve Customer Service across the Public Sector.

Thirty-nine participants invited from Government Ministries and State-Owned Enterprises were trained and capacity built on how to deliver efficiency and effectiveness service for customers, with key themes including:

• Define the key concepts of good Customer Service as applicable to a Public-Sector Environment;
• Apply key concepts and principles to practice good communication and listening skills to satisfy customers;
• Demonstrate quality of communication relationships with internal and external customers;
• Discuss and demonstrate strategies to handle customer complaints;
• Identify and discuss solutions to challenges on Customer Service faced by the Public Sector;

The calibre of participants who attended the training included the frontline staff, Office/Administration officers and officers’ level who provided service for both internal and external customers. The participants positively reflected on day on lessons learnt such as:

A chance was given to the participants on the last day to share what they have learnt from the Training. They positively reflected on day 5 on lessons learnt such as the training has:

• Provided an opportunity for them to broaden their understanding, knowledge and skills on customer service and how to improve the serving of customers;
• Allowed them to learn new skills in performing their work effectively in their workplaces;
• Helped them understand the importance of effective communication in delivering exceptional customer service;
• Allowed discussions to share experiences in serving customers;
• Enabled them to value their roles within their respective offices in achieving office strategic goals.
• Provided tools to manage customers complaints and challenging customers;
• Enabled participants to create a network among themselves;

They have also reiterated that the new lessons learnt will be utilised in their line of work and will shared to their work colleagues.

 The Training was conducted by Faafetai Vaevaina (Principal Training & Development Consultant) with Declan Faalavaau-Mulipola (Senior HR Planning Officer) as the Co – Trainer.

During the presentation of certificates, Faafetai Vaevaina on behalf of Sarona Esera-Filipo, ACEO for the Human Resource and Development Division at PSC, congratulates the participants and acknowledged their participation during the training. She also acknowledged the Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment for their continuous support through partnership with GEF (Globally Environmentally Facility) under the Economy Wide Adaptation to Climate Change (EWACC) Project. Again, she emphasized on the importance of the applications and knowledge sharing of the learnings from this training in the workplace.