Support Manager
Overview
The Support Manager class provides training on the management and leadership fundamentals relative to B2B support operations. Support managers must be able to manage in an environment of highly skilled, technical people. The manager must be able to lead, coach and facilitate the activities of these people towards accomplishing the services mission and have excellent insight into the demands of customers, subordinates and the service business.This class is dynamic and interactive, with students frequently working in small groups, presenting findings and working on the course case study. Students should plan for study time prior to the class commencing and also during the class outside of lessons.
Course Modules
- Leading the Knowledge-Based Organisation
- Managerial Leadership and Behaviour
- Managing Virtual Service Teams
- Understanding the Service Product
- Strategic Management of the Service Organisation
- Decision Making
- Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty
- Performance Measurement and Metrics
- Training & Career Development
- Hiring for the Service Organisation
- Performance Management and Retention
- Operations Management and Productivity
- Financial Management
Delivery and Duration
This course is available as a public or closed class. The workshop duration is four days taught in a classroom environment or as eight half-day sessions online over two consecutive weeks. See our calendar for the public class schedule.Certified Support Managers
The list of Certified Support Managers from around the world.More information
To request a course brochure, please complete our Contact Us form.
Click here for public class dates.
378 Comments
This training has changed my life for the best. I joined to course 6 months after having been promoted to manager and it has drastically changed my view on leadership for the best. It has increased my confidence, given me a strong set of tools to use to lead my team and my motivation to succeed in my role has greatly increased. The content of the training was exactly on point for my position, and the examples shared by Steve were always very relatable and helpful to understand and remember the concepts we studied.
Steve Brand was absolutely thorough and superb on the course content, he was able to share multiple real time examples for the questions that we had asked on all the days.
He is outstanding presenter and was just fab on this course to detail us on all the slides/and key takeaways.
Thank you Steve, it was a pleasure to attend this session.
It was a good training session relevant to my job. Steve was excellent.
The content and break-out room sessions were very relevant and interesting.
I would be great to have the course material as well electronically.
Thanks to Steve for this great and interesting course, as well to the participants.
Steve is a fantastic presenter and communicator. The most valuable takeaways are his real life examples from his past and current experiences. Amazing and useful information and his examples are very easily remembered.
Another fantastic course Steve!
Instructor was great – super amazing
This is the 2nd SGSA course I have been on, first was support supervisor.
Both have been incredibly impactful and valuable, have helped me understand my role and what steps I should take to do the job right.
Thank you Steve, a fantastic course with relevant context delivered with very relatable and informative examples. Much appreciated. Thank you.
Steven is such a nice person, mentor, and presenter! I felt very energized every session, and he explained everything very clearly and with so much confidence. I would risk saying that I borrowed some of that confidence for myself as well! The topics and materials were great. Even though I’m an experienced manager with over 5 years in the field, you can always teach an old dog new tricks. I learned a bunch of new exciting things. And it’s good to know the basic foundation for some actions we took guided by our instinct. Overall, a great experience.
Thanks Steve!
Steve was fantastic! He was energetic, and it was very clear that he likes this job. He is coming with loads and loads of experience and knowledge. There was no question that would surprise him. Also his straight forward approach was somewhat inspiring, alongside with him being super honest – that was super empowering.
The content of the class was something that every single manager in any support organization should go through. Well done on creating such an extensive and rich course covering all imaginable topics.
This training has really revealed how little authority we have as managers but definitely inspired me to take some actions moving forward.
Thank you for the 2 weeks manager session, I personally enjoyed and learned for this training program.
I really enjoy the way Steve works mixing theory and real scenarios. The minutes before and after the training are also great. I had a great experience.
Steve was amazing as he brought in a lot of his personal experience to address many questions that we had and that was very helpful.
Steve overall was an amazing trainer and mentor during this program. Great listener and approachable.
This was a good training to see our roles with fresh perspective and innovation.
Overall, Steve was awesome!!!!
The materials that are provided in this class are invaluable. The ideas and strategic topics covered that we can immediately start to implement is worth the time needed to invest in this class. I am looking forward to using what was learned in the course to better by organization.
This class was such a great experience! Steve was a fantastic teacher and this class gave me a whole new perspective on my role. The class came at a perfect time as my team continues to look at ways to improve our business and customer satisfaction.
I definitely would recommend any leader to take this course.
Thank you so much.
Wonderful coverage of the topics. I can see why Rohan chose this class for us.
What I liked the most : Steve is a great presenter and is a very engaging speaker. Also, you can tell he has A LOT of experience and is really generous with sharing it. I will be recommending this to every support manager I know 🙂
Other highlights: I am really charmed by the technical aspect of the class. I struggle with budgeting and I have been asking for good training on finance and working with concepts like ROI, NPV, etc. This class gave me the basics and explained the practical application. This had more value to me than much of my Finance class at uni (which was boring formulas mostly)
One thing I would improve : I know we discussed the reason for the paper version of the manual BUT I think we are ready for just using the PDFs. No need to mail all this paper out anymore.
It was a great class. I learned a lot and I’m planning to apply several techniques I’ve already learned! One suggestion I have, for the Excel portion of the class I think it would have been helpful to have more exercises around them. Including building the tables and formulas. Listening to the explanation wasn’t as effective for my learning as doing the examples. I also think most people don’t have the comfort in Excel to build the date out. So, they’ll struggle to get the point of the simulators and calculators without someone prepping the data for them.
Thank you, Steve! You are a fantastic instructor with deep technical knowledge, real-world experience and a gift for breaking it down into an understandable, relevant and fun format through which we can learn.
I really appreciate everything you’ve taught me over the last 2 weeks.
All the best for the future.
Chris
I loved the material, it’s all remarkably interesting. I did find module 12 and 13 taking most of my brain power. It was good to be introduced to the tools, but I can’t say it’s too practical because there’s still a bit of understanding that I’m missing here and there, and I couldn’t put this to work. But I do understand there there’s a pressure of time to get through all the concepts and that some are more important than others to different people.
Receiving the printed materials was a bit daunting (big book and sheets of questions) and immediately raised the question: “Couldn’t these have been digital resources?”
The instructor was very engaging, with no smart talk, and always accommodated our questions and comments.
I remember taking one of Steve Brand‘s excellent Support Management certification courses over 15 years ago, and I still apply many of the best practices today. Invaluable! Easily one of the best programs I have encountered in 25+ years.
The class was very informative. Never supposed it is possible to get so many useful skills and materials during one training in two weeks. Will do my best to put the knowledge I got into practice but will definitely need to reinforce the topics again in my free time when my business trips will be completed as it was not physically possible to remember all and practice enough having so many topics covered in two weeks especially in evening time while I am an early bird.
Brilliant course thanks very much again!
The training was well structured. I liked the exercises as it helped to relate lessons practically.
The course was well presented and covered everything that a support manager would want to know in detail. Steve’s experience and insight made each module relevant to how support currently work and how best practice should be applied in many situations.
This course provided great advice, technical detail and actionable points for each subject that will come in very useful for any support manager wanting to get the best from themselves and for their team.
Thanks to Steve and his team for creating such an enjoyable and fulfilling course.
I would prefer the class to be extended out to 4 1/2 or 5 hours a day to allow for overflow in advance of the training so calendar can be booked out well in advance. If the class does finish early this allows time for notes/kahoot/homework or lunch!
Great class. I have certainly learned a lot and although I found some of the content complicated and new to me I found it very informative and considering its an online course it was very engaging.
Thank you Steve for making some very dry topics interesting 🙂
The course is fantastic. Before complete the course, I have started to apply what has been learn to my team. Thanks !
Thanks a lot for your support and conducting lectures. You are an outstanding teacher!
Steve was a fantastic instructor and the lived experiences he shared to demonstrate the application of the processes were both engaging and easy to understand. I really couldn’t fault the course and how it was delivered, the course materials are fantastic and durable enough to last while I use into the future.
Steve is just wonderful. I admire him so much. Keep him at a high motivation level, he deserves it!
Great course overall!
Steve is an amazing instructor and leader. He presented the content very clearly which made everything simple to understand.
The materials were excellent including both theoretical and practical info. I really liked the fact that the course is hands-on and provides some best practices.
It was a pleasure attending the Support Manager training as I learned quite a lot about leadership and manager performance and operations.
Excellent course. I would suggest that when Managers are sent on this course the company sending them is advised Strongly to give Managers a days leave to revise and do the test and homework. The user could distribute the time as they see fit but it would help.
The SGSA Technical Support Manager course is by far one of the best I’ve done and I’ve used so much of it since to make a difference at work – thanks for all that you do SGSA!
I really enjoyed the course and the way it was delivered with the varied mix of the breakout rooms. Course content was delivered in a relaxed, informative manner with many examples which made it more relevant. Materials were also much needed and something that I will be returning to during my time in the role to reinforce the training and ensure I am full-filling the role.
The training covers a lot of topics and most of them are related to my day to day work. It will help me in my day to day work. The trainer was very good, giving lots of examples. I did not like the activities very much. I always had the feeling we were running after time. We did not get enough time to think.
Really enjoyed the class and the content that was covered.
While some aspects were outside the scope of my role, for the most part it was really relevant and enjoyable.
Steve was amazing as instructor – the examples made us relate and engrave the suggestions.
The breakout rooms & case studies made us gain the confidence in defining strategies.
Since English is not my native language, I really appreciated Steve simple way of talking. I would recommend this course to colleagues.
I like the idea of using the Kahoot quiz, but next time a little more extra time to provide an answer 🙂 as for non native English speakers, it needs a little more time to read the questions and available answers
Fantastic! I’ve already recommended it to one of our distributors 🙂
It was by far the best training I have taken so far. A clever mix of theory, real-life examples and practice. Steve is an excellent trainer.
It was a challenge to devote time to this training in addition to the endless daily work, but I really don’t regret it.
Thank you very much for this amazing class, Steve! What I learned from you in the past two weeks will help me improve a lot as a leader. Brilliantly structured and presented, good pace, great atmosphere in class. Also, thank you for all the additional reading recommendations and the tools you provided, already started to work on my radar charts 🙂 I hope I will get the chance to take another one of your classes in the future! All the best!
Steve has shared very useful materials that I can use and going to use in my day to day operations. Thanks to everyone involved, this was an amazing journey!
Thank you Service Strategies & Steve Brand for the remarkable program! Valuable lessons learned!
Excellent class. The material could be sent digitally instead of using a lot of paper.
Instructor (Steve Brand) was excellent. Given his vast experience in this area, he was always able to bring real examples which substantiated the course content and made it easier to understand.
The parts of the training that involved mathematics were presented a little too fast hence difficult to follow. But in connection with the student book and the download materials (spreadsheets, calculators) they are still a very good basis for further learning .
Thank you again for the great experience in the Support Manager training! Your know-how gave me a lot into my future career. I’ve learned a lot a I’ll continue implementing the gained knowledge in my organization.
i believe the part for customer survey was a bit too long on my side, as we don’t manage customer survey at all. i have like the part for hiring, retention, coaching that i have found the most usefull for me
Great learning for me , Steve was a great trainer and am glad i did it
I thought that doing the course over 2 weeks via Zoom would be difficult. However Steve made the whole experience engaging and interesting.
I feel this course has helped me think about things in a different way, and it’s given me plently of content to progress.
Thanks Steve, you were brilliant!
Thank you so much Steve! This course is absolutely brilliant and on day 2 I was already taking some notes back to my team!
Excellent course, Steve was born for this. The only thing I can say is that the amount of content in the short amount of time was insane (no one’s fault).
Steve made it very easy to take in the content, his teaching style is great! :o)
Steve is clearly passionate about the subject and his enthusiasm shows. He makes the course material much more interesting as he gives real examples, theoretical scenarios, and related anecdotes. If you were demotivated as a support manager before the course, Steve and the learning process he provides will give you the kick start needed!
Keep up the great job!
Maybe some more practical/group physical/team activities after lunch sessions.
Well done class with a very sympathetic and energetic teacher. I really enjoyed every bit of the session, although I was having a hard time following it as I still got too many distractions on the sidelines (kids, family, job) where an onsite training is most likely superior for my own needs.
Yet again, very well done and I need to say thank you to Steve, who taught me more beyond what the course curriculum might bring.
Thank you!
Well done! I was afraid of the online training but it did work very well.
It is true that there are pros and cons. but overall it was very valuable to have done it.
I really enjoyed this class and felt that it’s perfectly positioned for someone at my level of tenure (6 months into their first management role). The material is concise, clear and Steve delivers it with context that is oh so important for his audience. I was pleasantly surprised to find that every topic presented had immediate relevance to my role. Many of the modules also offered practical ways to transpose the knowledge delivered into actionable outcomes.
I am already brimming with ideas on how to tackle some of the challenges I am facing using techniques from this course. I have no doubt I will be using nearly all of the presented topics in the near future as I mature as a manager!
Very well laid course and Steve’s experience is telling. A few teething issues with it now being online but all round very good.
This is definitely a course I would suggest for most people in a support environment and also to other managers/directors (even outside of the support) as this is beneficial to everyone in the business.
The class was great and provided quite some info that will come in handy in the future
I absolutely loved the class and I feel it was extremely useful.
Steve way of teaching is just fantastic. Loved all his examples and how practical he has made it. So much learnt from him.. thanks!
Thanks you Steve, it was a really great experience! 🙂
Modules excellently lead and explained by Steve (instructor). Clear instructions and examples given and the breakout sessions were fun and informative. Some examples didn’t work on Mac but that isn’t instructors fault.
Steve is an outstanding instructor, excellent industry knowledge, brings the whole class forward together and creatives a true learning environment. Fantastic experience, I thoroughly enjoyed the course and learned so much.
Steve was great and the contents were very useful. Definitely a lot of take aways. Great course, great instructor.
Need more time to absorb material. Introduce some mechanic for some free text questions.
Steve is a great instructor.Thoroughly enjoyed it.He kept us engaged and always alert and focused with his personal experiences.Thank you Steve!!! One thing I would have personally liked is more time to go over the content at the end to help revision for the test.
AMAZING course, the best training I have ever attended! Thank you, I feel you have enabled me to do my job better.
FANTASTIC instructor!! Less paper used would be appreciated by the planet! 🙂
As always a lot of fun.
Brilliant instructor! Steve has so much knowledge which is relevant to the course! The exercises also help to reinforce concepts!
Excellent Course, very well presented, but a little too intensive. I think 5 days plus the exam would have been better.
Steve is a very good instructor with tons of experience that he shared in the class. I think the pre-reading should have been sent out earlier since most managers attending the class have very busy schedules. Perhaps you should also give an indication to future students that it is a considerable amount of pre-reading and time needs to be allocated for this purpose.It is probably more challenging for us who don’t have English as mother-tounge
Instructor was amazing and very easy to follow. He made the complicated stuff very understandable. The class is filled with information, and sometimes it’s hard to digest everything. I.e financial performance and planning is at the end of the course […]
As always, Steve you are a star – thank you. I will be recommending SGSA to my fellow managers.
Hard work but I enjoyed it
Maybe content should be reduced or extend the duration of the course, less homework during the evening review questions could be done at the end of the class on groups), it’s a lot of information during the 8h of class and it doesn’t allow free time […]
Very interesting course but most importantly great instructor!! Made it quite easy to understand all the different concepts. Great job Steve!
Thank you very much Steve, it was a great training experience!
Really great course – very informative and knowledgeable instructor – Steve. Great attitude which helped make the experience enjoyable as well. Thank you!
Thank you! This course gave me all the tools I need o make my team and org. successful. The topics genuinely help me do my job to the best of my ability and it wasn’t just a box ticking exercise. Steve was an amazing presenter. Thanks again!
Intensive course – would like it to be extended so more could be absorbed.
Excellent all round. Highly recommend this course and Steve was an excellent instructor.
Excellent class with a very interesting and personable instructor. One suggestion is to review the last module > Finance. Very heavy going.
Steve was very engaging. He was extremely knowledgeable . He held interest very well. Highly recommended.
Excellent course expertly delivered.
Great job Steve. Excellent course facilitation. Your passion for this topic shows. The transfer of information was clear and very interesting. The course material is well structured, easy to understand. Plenty of good examples.
I really enjoyed the training, it was a long week with long days of getting new knowledge and study in the evening,but I enjoyed it every minute. Learned a lot of new interesting stuff, together with repeating the stuff that I was already aware of. Steve, thank you for the great week! You are a great instructor and have a lot of experience to learn others. I really hope that my phone doesn’t ring the coming 2 weeks! 🙂 Thanks!! Stefan
Steve is fantastic. He is very experienced and he knows what he is talking. I loved these classes. Will recommend to my colleagues. I suggest if we could add a section how some regulations impacting the support industry such as GDPR. We are having trouble with some customers in EU not allowing data to be shared outside the EU and its impacting follow the sun model. I am sure other customers may be having same challenges. We are working on a process to handle this but if Steve suggests some best practices based on his experience with other customers, it would be really great. Thank you Steve. Also thanks Michele for reminding me of this course and make sure I registered. She is really great in her job.
I thought the advanced reading was very useful and set a good tone for the course. It was not obvious to me before I registered that this course had an exam and a certification – and now it is not clear to me what the value of the certification is. In some ways I can see that knowing there is an exam helps to ensure that everyone is focussed during the course, but I also found it meant I was perhaps thinking more about the upcoming exam than about how the learning would apply to my organisation. To be honest I would have found a fifth day of learning more useful than the exam….
Steve is infectious and really delivers the content with vigour. He has inspired me to improve and be a better leader.
Steve was very engaging and his way of presenting really helped me make the connection to the content. His use of analogies at the right times really drilled home points to me and allowed me to make much stronger reinforcements to the material. I found even in the exam I was regurgitating his words but this was due to how effective he put these across to me and I felt that making that personal connection allowed me to digest this information much more easily. The course is intense and there is a lot to get through but I felt the pacing was good and well spread out. It has made me realise that I should be doing these kinds of courses more frequently to not only reset my focus but keep learning new ways to be more effective in my role.
Great course and very informative. Very happy overall. Constructive feedback: Some modules and content can be better prepared or completely removed.. Some questions from Module review are ambiguous. At times we had to rush into some content to get through the day even when starting early.
Steve is massively knowledgeable and a fantastic presenter. I’d love to have had the opportunity to work with him over an extended period, his knowledge of the industry is staggering. The content is hugely
interesting – I wasn’t expecting for so much of the content to be unknown to me but so relevent to how I should be running my team. There is alot of content to consume in one week – I’ll need to keep revising over the coming
weeks!
It was very very intense. Would recommend that it should be residential;. Found it difficult to keep the momentum when going home each evenin
I found an awful lot of material to go through so the first 3 days were intense, the whole course could be split out over longer term or done in two parts I would have liked if some of the homework discussion or doing could be incorporated into the course that would help (not the review the following morning) Case study time for the presentation on the KPI and case study I felt was not long enough – feel like 1 hour more appropriate I’m not mathematically minded so these tended to be done in afternoon, luck of the draw, for me I would have preferred that was done on earlier in the week and in the morning
Steve was terrific, very helpful and very approachable it made the course a joy to be on. Apart from the amount of homework that is!!
Steve was a very knowledgable instructor with excellent presentation skills. He explained things in a very clear and interesting manner. Thank you.
There is a lot of very good content here that will definitely improve my
performance as a Manager, thank you!
However, I feel that because of the amount of content the course should be
either longer or split in 2 sections, or at least have recommended
to attend it in a different city from where you live so you can totally focus
on it. It was very difficult for me to go home with the family and just start
studying after everyone else was in bed (around 9.30 PM).
I did learn a lot but I feel I could have learned even more in a different
situation if I had some more rest.
Thank you, can’t fault it, material was concise, and instructor was knowledgeable and open to questions. Ability to go off track to enhance learning experience and come right back to where we were to keep to schedule was handled really well
Steve did a fantastic job and there was a real feeling that he had actual experience and real life advice the topics raised rather than book learned material. Give the man a raise!! 🙂
“It is a shame that Mind Mapping was presented in the last class.
If it was presented in the beginning, I would definitely try to use it.
Most of the examples given throughout the course
are the "e; perfect world examples & quote;.
I find these to be very exciting and inspiring during the course but
evaporate as soon as faced with the & quote; real world & quote; situation.
Perhaps having candidates prepare for the next day with their own
& quote; real world challenges & quote; would give a spark to the course
and inspire future & quote; real world & quote; examples.
All in all an inspiring and useful class.
For now I can say it has helped me move from a mindset of transitioning
between a TSE and a manager into thinking like a manager.
I don’t expect to start using everything demonstrated here, but I definitely
appreciate tips, tools, principals and methodology presented and already
have a few ideas what and how to apply in practice. Let’s see… “
The only reason I said “Agree” to number 2 as opposed to “Strongly Agree” is because I don’t have much budget of financial planning responsibility in my role. However some of the content if I use it will help me begin to demonstrate that I know how to and can be trusted so maybe I will one day soon! The stories Steve tells about real life examples is so helpful in remembering content.
Information could be decompressed as it might help beginner managers to better reuse the understanding of all topics.
Will be great to have the student manual in pdf. The focus was a bit off from my team responsibility but I managed to take a lot!! and I already started to use some of the points. Customer support manager is not always deal with call centre or direct.
Pre course reading is quite dated, 20 years old. Concepts are still valued but examples like Apple is out of date.
Maybe some discussion and practice. Not sure if Excel inputs are important. Great additional value to standard managers trainings.
The way Steve presented the topics showed he really had great experience. The ability to illustrate with real life examples enhances that impression.
It would be great if there were more hands on/participation things to do. I feel I got the most out of these aspects of the course. Although I appreciate you need to allow for multiple different learning styles.
Steve provides excellent real world examples.
Thank you & I felt it was very useful and I will be using most of the concepts in my daily work.
These concepts will play a bigger role in Manager’s activities and how he can take his team to the next level and be successful as a Manager/team, & to the company.
Instructor was very innovative while making every point I understand. It helped a lot in understanding course content.
Instructor Steve Brand is one of the best instructors I had experienced. He ensures that everyone is listening. He states the practical examples for every topic & shares his experience on the same which keeps interesting & encourages us to implement
Good and interactive with regular check points on learning with assignments & review questions. Too much content in 32 hours both for trainer and trainee. Revisit to make it more effective.
Very interactive class & Steve’s energy level was too good to make all of us active all the time. Shared many recommendations for some situations that I am facing challenges. Very creative thinking to find improvement.
Course was fantastic, I liked Steves skill. Couple more activities is great to have. More relative examples related to JDA would have been perfect as we don’t work on taking calls. Good job Steve !
Days were very long. Hours of class and homework meant no other work could be done. Some parts felt a bit dated.
Little more time required to revise, maybe one afternoon. But if you do homework, all should be good.
Your content is undeliverable in the time allocated for this course. 9-17.30pm + 2hrs homework.That is unreasonable.Nice guy but need to tell people what page you’re on before launching into topic, missed 1st bit of alot of things trying to find out
I would like to learn more about: Market analysis, Financial Management, Operations Management.
Homework amount is quite large, I would personally require more time than allowed to do it well to a standard(subjectively). Some more small games (red-blue chips) & viual concepts (a can with plastic pieces) would be nice.
Great course Steve, invaluable for me getting better and undertaking the complexity of support organisation. Many thanks
The activities really helped understand the topics. Brain maps helped studying for the exam so thanks to Steve for introducing them. The presenter is one of the best parts. He manages to keep everyone engaged .
Part of the context could be added to the CSV class, thus making CSM class more specific. Having already completed CSV class I found a lot of resoundant infromation in this class.
A lot of homework is needed. Being warned of this beforehand is very useful.
I can think of others in my org who would benefit and I’ll recommend this course. It was honestly the best professional course I have ever taken. Everything was relevant to me and has inspired me. Thank you Steve
It was an enjoyable week with a very nice group. Even if I hated the exam it was really helpful to review all material and deep dive on some topics
Little more on creative abrasion and how to implement in performance.
If I could score a 6 on Question 4 and 6 I would! I have thouroughly enjoyed the course and huge thank you to Steve for giving me the confidence to take the reins more in my job. The materials were perfectly relevant
Having the page numbers on the slides was a very good idea, thank you. Please remove the macros from the excel docs
The examples provided are extremely thought provoking and makes the concepts easier to understand. Was able to get several ideas as the course was very relevant to my experiences and struggles.
Maybe scale back the financial module and allow some time for revision/summary of the week.
It was a great course, it was above the level of what I am currently operating at but there was still a lot of useful information and tools that i can take away and use every day.It was a full on week with after class work but I can understand that[…]
Take some days shorter. Some afternoons went into unneccesary details that could be read by participants. Longer time to complete group tasks as different understandings 30 mins to agree for 5 persons make incorrect data into presentation
Some of the inclass exercises could have done with more time to complete. One section in the book was explained from the perspective of the other group, instead of the characteristics of each group. The course needs an extra study day 🙂
Too much content, a lot of stuff could be trimmed down. Almost no time to digest learnings , too few networking possibilities with other attendees. Hard even for the trainer. Thanks Michelle and Steve!
Finance chapter gave a bit more than an insight but not enough to action – not relevant to my job right now which was explained. Coaching book repeated itself a lot, could have been shorter . Great class Steve, thanks a lot 🙂
This class was very good and required a lot of effort which is something I value. There was things in this course that I will take and use daily. The instructor made the course – his experiences and advice were great. Top class stuff.
Excellent course. My only negative would be that there is a lot of information over a short period. Course by day, homework/study by night was very taxing for me. thanks Steve, enjoyed the way you presented the course, great job!
Too much information in a short time, long days, should be different.
I loved the course, and the presenter, Steve, doesn’t fail to captivate and get the concepts across. I was in over my head in some sections (metrics & financial) but that is due to my lack of experience and exposure.[…]
It was very useful for me as I have just been promoted to this new position. Thanks for a very innovative class.
Very intense but terrific material, look forward to using some of this in the workplace.
Is 5 a high score? is the difference between 4 and 5 the same as between 1 and 2? What’s the actual difference between “Agree” and “Strongly Agree”? Thanks for the course.
Maybe homework, reading can be reduced a little bit.
The first day was a bit slow and it gives an incorrect impression of the course. Still would not change it as it covered important topics.
Thouroughly enjoyed. Can’t wait to use the new concepts I’ve learnt. Steve Brand is an exceptionally good lecturer/tutor and creates an enthusiasm for learning in class which is uncommon and wholey refreshing.
The training is great. Steve was perfect. Just some comments: Time is too long. There is no group fun, like dinner or trip. They have to consider prear time for muslims. the all is well done 🙂
Excellent course and very applicable to my role.
Excellent material. Found exercise especially useful at reinforcing the topic. More exercises would be great. Found mind mapping incredibly useful for revision, short demo of this on day one would have really helped me.
There was an awful lot to cover in 4 days, which (for me) made it hard to absorb what had been covered in previous day, before moving onto the next modules. I would say it would be better to have another day of study…need 6 working days in a week!
I felt the course was 1 day too long. Overall, very useful with some good information.
I didn’t like pre-class material:4 presentations as page 2…change it for a film, video, project…ways more practical. I also would like more practise of things covered and real examples for financials. Book vocabulary is not easy to interpret..[…]
It was a lot of material for a 4 day. Maybe stretch it to 5.
Q5: The booklet is not always intuative.Without the talk track it would be hard to follow in some cases.In time referencing the booklet will be more challenging as you forget the talk track. Overall it was great-Thank you!
Only issue was with the time of year the air con was not very effective. this was negatied by the copious amounts of ice-cream!
Great course, thank you for your time and effort.
Very happy – can’t wait to use what I’ve learnt. Nothing like this in the market today.
Super intense course but extremely useful as it covers all areas. Learning material is very much to the point. Pre-reading material extremely insightful.
Good to have example fit in Asia cases. Language is a challenge for some terms.
Brilliant, loved every minute!
Less food 🙂
This is an excellent course and it is certainly very useful.
Top box!! Congratulations Sir! One of the most useful courses that I have done in years. Very relevant to my job. Directly applicable. Hugely appreciate that course given by someone with significant (and successful!) industry support experience […]
excellent course, very well delivered.
Steve gave a much broader view of the instruments on what I can achieve, enhance in my current role. The study materials are well structured, so in case I need advise, I will find the section to re-study quickly.Thanks so much, I am so glad that I […]
Coaching video is quite bad(old & cheesy).Pace could be diminished,homework outside of hours reduced or removed.All topics interesting, but some (KPI creations, survey design) out of scope of most 1st line managers who can’t decide on global matters.
Hard work but pretty easy to stay tuned in. I reckon the ppt could do with a few more visuals/graphs. Thanks Steve for entertaining us!
The financial management topic is not part of my current duties but i am really interested in doing & learning more about it.
All good & excellent but the Hotel for the course is very far away from London City Center
Very insightful, lots to learn & take in.Good examples of real life scenarios. Lots of material all very useful/valuable.Heavy on time and effort-could be a challenge for others, consider slight reduction in material.
Thank you. It would be great if the class can be a 5 day class. 4 days were very intensive
This has been invaluable. Steve’s real world experiences really help reinforce the topics he’s delivering training on. I felt engaged the entire time & am energised & excited to get back to work to start applying some of the lessons learned this week.
Steve Brand was amazing his experience in the industry really shines through and reflects in how he delivers the material. A very intensive course, but I loved every minute! Thank you!!
Very good course, very well taught. Instructor was great real life examples. Very enjoyable. Homework – 🙁
Steve?s past experiences & storys really made the class interesting. Thank you!
Great class ? Great spirit from students and instructor. This is my 4th course with you, I hope it won?t be the last. Steve is class, and always a pleasure to learn from him. One quick note ? this is far too much food. I think I put 3 ? 4 kgs this week!
Very helpful!
If Steve would have been my teacher in school I would probably be the US president now!!!
There is a huge amount of information to go through in 4 days. However the Exam is fair and test understanding rather than memory.
Steve was a fantastic teacher giving real examples from his extensive experience in the industry. This was certainly a management course delivered by an experienced Manager. I am already weighing up who to send next!
Thank you Steve! This course showed me that there are methods and strategies to what I already am doing at work, along with many excellent new ones which I will put into practice. I feel more of leader now.
Gr8 job Steve. As always! ?
Intense but great course giving you a lot to think about and a lot of skills to practice. Its great having Steve present, having someone that has done the job and who has made and can detail their past mistakes makes it very practice and real and made you
The exam contained a lot of writing. Maybe could be combines with 80% writing 20% choice? Thank you.
Very informative and engaging class. A lot of material over 4 days but always kept interest.
Loved this class . Enjoyed the example based presentation from Steve. Very interesting and relevant.
I’d recommend to my VPs!! Would be good to spend more time on last module, it felt a little rushed. Course was fun!!
I sincerely appreciated the patience shown and the time taken with me on some of my weaker areas. The atmosphere allowed in the room made it an environment conducive to learning.
Although stress levels continued to rise as the course progressed, Steve was able to give us enough confidence to get going. His clear, sharp explanations and WEALTH of knowledge has made this course worth the stress and nightly hours! Thank you Steve!
Exhausted but absolutely worth it.
Great and very valuable thanks, also the material will be a very good reference and I’m sure I will use it going forward. Thanks!
Very pleasantly surprised – there are a lot of mediocre training courses out there. This is highly professional and impressive – well done!
Thank you!
Excellent class, great presenter. I’m doing an MBA and Steve did a better job on some topics over the course of a few hours than some lecturers did over weeks of classes.
Excellent all round, have a lot I can take on board and apply to my job. Thanks a million.
Excellent course. It would have been nice to hear people’s own experiences in past situations but this was not possible because of the time constraints, which I completely understand.
Instructor very engaging, great examples and translating material into real scenarios.
The last chapters were in my opinion quite heavy though good to know but it is not something I use at this point. Will keep it in mind……To Steve => You are a great teacher, nice to listen to and easy to keep focus. Good entertainer! Cheers till next time!
A very enjoyable course. After the first day I was a bit shocked by the amount of work required (especially after not taking an exam for >25 years!) but in the end it has really stimulated me to take more time in future to develop myself and the new skills I have learned
What class would build on this one?
Very enjoyable course with lots of relevant information. Very full on but at the same time rewarding.
Very good training! Steve is a very good instructor. I really enjoyed that training. Thank you.
I have attended several courses with Steve. I feel lucky to live in a period with someone like Steve, he shares knowledge and teaches in such an effective way.
All the class material is great – but it is a little too much; example I will had more time to do more math of the Service Center. BUT GREAT CLASS ! Steve is really good, university level prof.
Top Box for everything!!! Great course, thought provoking and information. Good skills learnt which I will be able to take back and implement. Thank you. 🙂
Steve was great, loved the examples, talking from past experience the whole course was really good. The only think I didn’t like was the chair in the room, it really made my legs hurt because of my height I think made me get quite impatient
The class covers all fundamentals for managers jobs. Content was clear & precise. Literature was sufficient. Time allocation to modules were good. Instructor knowledge & deliverance was exciting & very strong. Very good course.
This was the most relevant training I have done. I would recommend this to both new managers for clear role guidance, and experienced managers for ensure they still have the right behaviour. Excellent course!
A very useful if demanding course, thank you.
Great course and very well presented. Huge amount in it but Steve did a great job of keeping our interest.
Excellent course. Instructor Steve was first class at giving the course.
This course is outstanding, Thank you very much. It was a privilege to be taught by Steve. Looking forward to putting this knowledge to use and turning it into experience 🙂
Hard work but enjoyable.
Thank you Steve, you made it all very enjoyable. You are an outstanding trainer, leader & coach.
The instructor was very knowledgeable and encouraging for people to ask questions
I have no experience in some of these aspects, but still found everything to be relevant. I really thought this class was fantastic and my expectations were high at the start. I appreciate that it was taken seriously and that it was challenging. I really liked it…Well done!!
Instructor is great. It is too much material for 4 days, it is difficult to stay focused – these where a bit long days. Again, instructor was GREAT. More interaction usually helps keep focused, but I understand there wasn’t much time for that.
Very good training although very intensive
Steve was passionate & engaging the whole time which kept my attention & motivation high
Brilliant course -> would prefer take away exam.
Instructor was fab.
Great course, Steve. Lots to take into my day to day work. Would recommend.
Good course & material
Steve was fantastic. A lot of things covered in the class were not alien to me but helped me gain a strong knowledge and build a different and a very effective perspective. THANK YOU STEVE!
The class was very intense and could have done with a little more time, taking into consideration homework & networking opportunity & sharing experiences. By far the best management course I have taken! The instructor was excellent. Thanks!
It is one of the best courses I ever had. Steve is extremely experienced with REAL LIVE examples. It is a MUST for every managers. Excellent idea to work with TEAM on case study + home work. Very well structured materials. Bit tiring!
My sincere thank you to Steve Brand who is a very engaging & intelligent coach. Probably the best in his field. Thank you.
Fantastic course, will help develop me as an effective, fair and professional leader.
Class – well paced, good review questions. Instructor – outstanding & considerate. Material – adequate, coaching is a great book. Should suggest some good books on Mgmt & Leadership.
Steve was very knowledgeable, excellent understanding of the subject and understood needs of students. He is a fantastic trainer – Cheers!
Steve is the perfect person for the session if audience are from technical support. He is very comfortably able to relate and connect. Class should be extended if possible to manage modules better.
If the class can be extended by 1 day, it will help the attendees to spend more time in doing daily homework/ assessments. Steve was really great in sharing live examples & a great instructor. Amazing.
Depending in the nature of audience, some more time or stress on financial tools. Steve was extremely knowledgeable on the topic given his vast experience and provided valuable insights & anecdotes all throughout.
Class – size ideal for creative abrasion. Instructor – highly skilful with industry experience. Materials – if can be provided with more elaboration, this will help.
Excellent and inspiring teaching by Steve
Instructor: I really appreciated all the help and support from instructor to help me to consume the class. Thanks a lot, Steve! Class: For my needs the financial part was not helpful. For me the time could have been better used with exercises on coaching
Definitely recommended. Should be mandatory for our directors and VPs.
Instructor was very good, gave examples, responded detailed on questions and made sure the essence of class/topics is digested by students.
Thanks to Steve for a great, energizing and motivating class!
Materials and Instructor have been very good. Module questionnaire could be better (understandable for non native speakers)
Excellent course; Instructor very good + knowledgeable. PowerPoint + workbooks were good.
Very good class, did enjoy the class and topics discussed, it was very fast paced, and quite intense, but very good participation from everyone which made it interesting.
Thank you, great class – very enjoyable. (remember that I am German so that makes an all 5 rating extra special – 🙂 ). Slightly shorter days would be good, – e.g. 30 minutes shorter – Rough not sure what to leave class.
Steve, thanks for your help + support through out the week. All the best, John
Excellent course. I would recommend it be run over a longer period of time. Thank you.
Instructor is brilliant. He is very experienced, knowledgeable and I learned a lot in this course.
Excellent course, right mix of management (general) and support centre techniques. Given at right pace & right amount of information.
A great course. And typically I cannot imagine anyone other than Steve to deliver. Magnificent material & delivery.
Very impressed with Steve & his vast experience & the examples he gave to illustrate the difficulties in management. Tough, long week but very satisfying having completed it. Thanks Steve!
Instructor – brilliant!! Very knowledgeable, extremely professional and experienced. Materials – very professional. Class – very intense. My suggestion is to cover material in 5 days, with 7 hour classes + 1 hour to review questions in classroom/individually.
Overall very happy with the course and especially the delivery of the course by Steve. Excellent and very clear teaching method. Thanks for all the help, tips and advice!!
I was blown away by how effective it is.
Excellent course. Challenging but effective. More hands on could improve the class but that is very minor. Steve is a great instructor. Very knowledgeable. I will recommend this course. Please keep me informed on SGSS events.
The course gives the information, not the skills required, only due to the time available to practice and the amount of content. Nothing else like it out there!
Excellent course. Excellently presented by Steve brand. Only 6 months into management, this course will be invaluable to me and more importantly my team as long as I implement some of the techniques. Thank You!!
I thought the material and delivery were fantastic. Steve used real life examples and experience which i could relate to. The fact that Steve had been there & done it added credibility.
Class was perfect. I’d recommend for every manager we have.
Thanks.
Overall very pleased with the course content and how it was presented. However there is a huge volume of detail to take on board and having the exam immediately after the course completion was challenging.
Really enjoyed the class. Steve has a lot of knowledge and experience and is superb at sharing it. Thanks Steve.
Instructor was excellent. Even though the training was highly intensive, he remained engaged throughout delivery and also recognised when we were lagging.
This was one of the best courses I attended in 8 years at EMC.
At the next SCP audit, factor in this courses view on metrics!!!
Steve is excellent and would be a credit to any organisation at any level. Thank you Steve! Could do with an extra day!
Steve did a very good job, I learned very much this week.
As topics are very relevant, I can see that it will increase my performance & improve the team and customer experience. Instructor makes topics interesting – normally I have a short attention span in classes, but not this time.
The class gave me examples that I can now go back and use at my work place.
Steve was a great instructor. Made all of the concepts easy to understand and to follow. Overall, great course! Thanks!!
It is very helpful regarding the experience in management. It offers good sources and techniques on best practices that could be used later in the work place.
It was excellent experience! Real life examples made the concept to be understood easily.
Steve was awesome. Thoroughly enjoyed the five days and Steve ensured there was no boring moment. Excellent job Steve!!
The instructor was too good and was able to answer/clearing all our doubts.
The instructor was able to encourage a lot of participation.
Fab job by Steve!
It was a great experience learning these topics from Steve.
Excellent instructor, very knowledgeable, included real life examples which were interesting.
Thank you.
Well Steve you actually did an outstanding job. Thank you for everything.
Steve really helped with learning through providing examples on each topic.
Excellent course. Brilliant instructor.
Brilliant!
I cannot say enough positive about this class & instructor to reflect how good it is. Steve brought us through all areas with excellent teaching ability & background knowledge. His answers to all (and sometimes difficult) questions increased our trust.
Excellent class, right level, exam focuses the mind.
A lot of material covered but all relevant. Exam at end made me work harder.
I really enjoyed the class & found it very relevant for my current role. I learnt new things & in ways reinforced what I hoped I was doing well at the moment, The instructor was excellent and made it fun.
The instructor was very good. The use of ‘The Art of Possibility’ video was very helpful.
Instructor credibility very high. Course concepts directly relevant. Some later group exercises had little time (e.g. KPI). Really, really, really…enjoyable, rewarding. Thank you!!
Overall very good & enjoyable sections on leadership & empowerment. Especially relevant to support. Some areas less relevant too my specific situation but still useful industry knowledge.
Fantastic instructor with recognized understanding of the topic and willing to answer all queries and all support even after the class.
The material was very well presented.
The group was cooperative and the team work exercises was very useful.
Some of the topics are closely related to call centres, more examples from tech support through web would be good. Overall very good course.
Maybe the module on Remote Management should be made more specific to virtual teams. Brilliant course – really enjoyed it.
Highly enjoyable – Steve was a great instructor. I will be recommending my service managers attend. Good balance of topics.
A very good class perfectly explained by the teacher. Examples given in the class did make a lot much clearer.
Would definitely recommend.
Steve did a brilliant job. The best trainer I have had in a very long time.
The experiences/examples provided by the instructor were key to the success of the course. Language used in the materials and review questions should be more simple.
Excellent class, delivered by an even better tutor! Fast paced, nothing boring at all. Absolutely loved the course.
Great course! I’m looking forward to using a lot of this with my team.
Super class
Very, very good training & very helpful (first time I can see immediate practise after a training). I am so happy to have done it. Congratulations to Steve!
An excellent course. Probably the most relevant training I’ve undertaken in years! Great real world examples reinforced all of the concepts. I can see me using things learned this week almost immediately.
Extremely impressed with Steve’s knowledge and training style. Fantastic.
Once more another excellent course, thanks very much Steve.
Steve was excellent. If the test can be made online it would be great. It may save time to write for 3 hours!
Very good course and will be of great value, well presented although very intense!
There is so much to do, it is a very big challenge to get the work done. Very rewarding experience.
Very useful tools, applicable immediately. I would have liked more role plays or exercises but given the time frame it might have been at the expense of the learning.
Steve Brand is an excellent presenter. His way of mixing theories with examples really makes the things you learn stick.
Most of this content can be used, but not all, unfortunately. I think that this course may be useful to many of our other units, however.
Steve is a very engaging and thought-provoking instructor. Very knowledgeable and entertaining.
I found the course the most beneficial I have ever attended, the material and support material was very relevant to my job but on a personal level I found the topics very interesting. Steve was an excellent instructor who explained each topic extremely
By far the best course that I have been on. Steve’s presentation style is excellent and ensures everyone in the class is participating. I would strongly recommend this class to any Support Manager.
Very well presented, kept my interest over a lot of material. Very well explained. Great course content, even the items not relevant to me at present were interesting and will be good in future.
Would highly recommend this course to others as a way of understand and a basis for managers to build on together.
The instructor was excellent and reinforced points by bringing points back to real life examples and his own past experiences.
Excellent course, participation and case studies, etc. very useful. Instructor was excellent, industry knowledge and insightful comments.
The benefit of this course was twofold for me: it made me aware of the things that I am already doing correctly and need to do more of, and highlighted skills I can use on a daily basis to perform my job. Steve – he is a wise sage – excellent tutor.
I truly enjoyed this course!
The excel tools are very welcome. Thank you.
Thought it was great. Would love to see some more of the videos. Dennis was very helpful and engaging.
A fast moving, crammed course. Dennis did good. Very enthusiastic every day which helped me focus.
Very good course. Some of it I knew already, but it was reinforced by the theory behind it. Other parts were totally new to me. I can see practical applications of all topics. Excellent!
This is the best course that I have attended in the past 10 years. I will strongly recommend it to my colleagues/friends. Top mark for the instructor (Steve)!
Starting the training, I was just back from my maternity leave. At the end, I’m like after 6 months of work! It reminded me of my professional behaviour and I will for sure be much more efficient in my job.
Very useful class. Bring best practices, bring processes.
I would like to thank Steve for his training style – he used a lot of examples which suited my learning style. I have learnt a lot from this course and want to implement ideas from attending this course.
Very good and very useful. I learned a lot but would question the homework and exam in such quick succession. A long and tiring week.
Very good course. Homework and projects made sure we kept focused throughout the week.
I think this course maybe is over my level bit. I have a lot of new skills now that I am going home. This is both a training and development course for me. I think my manager should have taken the time to know what they were sending me to.
Instructor was very knowledgeable and clearly has industry experience of the service industry. Highly recommend the course and took a lot of takeaways.
Absolutely fantastic! Not only values for career, but life also. Great instructor and great content. A lot to fit in with the time, but still excellent.
Excellent class. A tough 5 days.
3 hours for the exam is a bit short for non-native English speakers. But otherwise FANTASTIC!!!
Very good course. Relevant to my role. Good material and very well presented by Steve.
I found day 3 and 4 more interesting and challenging than 1 and 2. I really enjoyed the supportive environment created by Steve. Being more of a quiet personality, I appreciate not being “picked on” (that happens in a lot of trainings!) and felt encouraged.
Instructor was very good!
Steve was very knowledgeable and a pleasure to work with. Could I suggest a refresher of the following day’s subjects first thing in the morning?
Simply perfect – the training and especially the teacher. The module about “trainings” could be simplified, de-complicated. The “finance” and “leading” modules were very helpful.
Best course for me – 100% relevance. Instructor was captivating and held the attention of the whole class.
Steve Brand led the course very well, making it easy to understand and the topics relevant and interesting.
More of the same. Keep doing what you are. I do not see anything to improve
Good overall course. Very useful. Excellent trainer.
Brilliant – very specific to a support center. Virtual teams and outsourcing would be useful.
Great to go on a course which is so relevant to our day to day roles. Everyone learned something new regardless of experience or background, and good balance of concepts, practical techniques, and useful terms. Thanks Steve for making it so useful and enjoyable.
More time for group exercises during the class would be nice. Presenter was great, shared a lot of experiences, very good to put things into context.
It was very a productive and interesting course that will enable me to become an effective learner.
Steve has been an excellent instructor and has managed to keep a very high level of attention and participation in the group regardless of very intense content. Thanks Steve.
Outsourcing would be a good addition to the course. Very good delivery – enjoyed the week.
Excellent course enhanced by Steve’s delivery bringing personal experience, context and some fun humour. An intense experience, but very valuable! Interesting use of scale for survey considering course advice.
Thank you! Very strong course! I think some materials (like in pre-reading) could be delivered in less pages of reading.
I suggest an open question at the start. Excellent course. Very, very tough week, but well worth the effort. Thanks Steve.
Enjoyed the course and got a lot out of it. Very tired on Friday. Would be better if course was off site.
Slight US bias, but very good class. Would recommend it to others.
Great course!!
GREAT class – although I’m not in TS but customer care. Possibly more material could be made part of the preparation to take some pressure off of the training week/test preparation.
Steve was an excellent presenter and delivered the course with patience, knowledge and good humour.
Talking of shining eyes, Steve was a great instructor. I’d feel cheated if I attended a Service Strategies course again and it wasn’t with Steve. He was patient and knowledgeable and amusing in his anecdotes.
Beneficial to the environment of similar jobbed managers, other courses are generic managers but a lot of us could relate on one another’s experience.
The course content and delivery was great! Well done Steve + SS. I felt the importance of the exam and pressure of taking it distracted the enjoyable experience of the concepts. I felt I needed to be an academic to manage.
I got a lot more out of the class than I expected. It has inspired me to re-look at my role and every aspect can be applied when I get back. Great Instructor-Inspiring! Suggestion would be to re-word some of the review questions. Thank You!
Good course, good instructor!
Best training I attended! Brilliant trainer.
Excellent training will add value to my company. I will recommend it strongly.
Most relevant enlightening and direct-role related course ever attended. Has identified an effective roadmap to implement positive change to myself and my company. So many new tools and resources- The real work starts now! Good content, pace, timing of the course.
It was a pleasure, and answers met the (high) expectations. Thanks! Eran.
Enjoyed the class and working with both instructors. Materials will be very useful in the future. Thank you.
Jerry is very charismatic and his real world examples reinforced the theory.
Excellent course, well constructed exams. My right hand still hurts though!!!
Excellent course overall. Great to have concepts tuned for support environment. Industry experience of trainers is critical.
Very useful course. Put methodologies in place to improve the way I work. Also validated some of the “gut feel” reasons why I make the decisions I do and why some work better than others.
I found this course to be like no other Mgmt. / Leadership course that I have attended before — it was excellent. It covered topics I had never done before and has given me the opportunity to re-evaluate
It was an excellent program. Probably the best I have ever attended. I am taking back a lot of practical, handy tools to apply at the workplace. Congrats.!!!