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Customer Service Training – Is it Effective?
The ‘Global Shared Services Center’ of a Fortune 500 organization approached MMM Training Solutions to help them with a customer services training intervention that would not only improve basic customer handling skill sets but also help facilitate a change in the mindset of their employees toward becoming more customer service oriented as individuals and as an organization.
By working in coordination with the HR, Operations and Quality teams of the client organization, MMM Training Solutions demonstrated clearly the benefits of customer service training. We also facilitated a 20% improvement in the customer service skill sets of various teams.
For the purposes of this case study, our focus will be on the customer service training intervention we undertook for the IT services and Helpdesk Support team.
Challenges Faced:
The client outlined to us that the major challenge that they faced was that most of their IT Services and Helpdesk employees were not customer service oriented. Although, they possessed good technical skills they just had not been able to see the importance of customer service as they were dealing with ‘internal customers’ i.e. employees of the parent company, who had no one else to turn to for their IT support needs.
They wanted us to help instill a professional approach to customer service, problem solving and call handling as part of the IT Helpdesk operations. This included:
- Change in mindset toward a ‘culture of customer service’
- Politeness and courtesy when speaking to customers
- Using the right telephone etiquette
- Using the right e-mail etiquette
- Taking ownership
- Dealing with different types of customers
Pre-training Preparation:
Prior to the delivery of our customer service training program, an in-depth study of the situation was carried out by the MMM Training Solutions Team. Our pre-training preparation focused on areas that helped gain an insight into the real nature of the problem.
The Training Program:
The training programs were initially conducted for five batches of participants from the voice based support operations.
Duration:
Each batch went through a training program that was for 16 hours split into 4 sessions of 4 hours each.
Training topics:
- Developing a customer service mindset
- Understanding the elements of great customer service
- Understanding and managing customer expectations
- Call handling skills and E-mail etiquette
- Dealing with different kinds of customers
- Polite and friendly phrases to use that sound professional
Methodology:
- Numerous role-play simulations of customer facing situations with feedback from the facilitator and peers
- Group games, movie clips and case studies along with Instructor Led Training (ILT)
- Audio recordings of sample calls that were categorized as ‘good’ calls and ‘bad’ calls
Post-training Intervention:
A post-training assessment was conducted one week after the completion of training for each batch and the appropriate feedback was given to the participants.
Results:
The result was that the participants showed an average overall improvement of 10-15% in terms of quality of performance, specifically focusing on customer service.
Refresher Training:
We conducted a 4 hour refresher session for each batch one month after their initial training program. This session focused on key areas in which the participants were not showing significant improvement.
As a result, participants showed a further 5-10% improvement in their customer service skill sets. This meant that at the end of a month participants had shown an average overall improvement of about 20%.
Conclusion:
The client organization was so delighted with the results that they wanted us back to conduct a ‘Level 2 – Customer Service’ training intervention to take their teams to the next level of bringing about ‘Customer Delight’.
We continue to work with the organization to this day. Today, we are looked at as a strategic learning partner who is helping them focus on the core of their business – developing people.
Get to learn more about customer service training activities which you can introduce to your associates.
Customer Service Training Courses Need to Concentrate on the 2 Ps of Customer Service
On customer service training courses one of the key questions is, what is customer service? And are the customers always right. Everyone’s perception of customer service is different; there are common threads to most customer service training courses.
I have used the word perception in the first paragraph and it really is one of the most important words to remember, as good or bad customer service really is down to perception.
I recall shortly after 9/11 I was traveling to Florida, we were supposed to change flights in Newark, but what happened was the flight was late landing in Newark and we missed the connection flight to Florida.
The reason given for the delay was that the flight had to change its flight path due to the recent tragedy at the World Trade Centre. Although this was understandable it was still amazing to watch the reactions of the customers like us, who were affected by missing connecting flights.
From a customer view point, it was obvious to see that the airline staff had been through some level of service training. They apologized, showed empathy offered options and tried their utmost to calm some of the more difficult customers, just the type of key skills one would learn on a customer service course.
Just as we are always taught about service to customer, put yourself in the customers shoes, and offer options, the airline staff offered free accommodation and meals for those who had to wait overnight etc. The customer service training had really paid off, or so I thought.
Unfortunately when we were being transported by coach to the nearby hotels many of the customers were not happy with the service. At least 50% of customers felt the service was poor as it should not have happened in the first place. Although they did feel the people dealing with the problem did help they felt they would be reluctant to travel with the airline again.
The other 50% understood the problem and although were not happy about missing the connecting flights felt the skills the staff had show were excellent and they had done their utmost to resolve a situation they had no control over.
That evening I learned 2 crucial lessons; I learned that approximately 40 customers had received the very same service but their perceptions of the service they received were very different.
I also learned that training in this area should really concentrate on 2 key areas the first being the personal service the client receives from an individual or a company. The second being training should also concentrate on the performance or standards of service.
Both sets of customers were right the personal service was excellent; however the standards of performance were poor. With this in mind all service training courses should concentrate on the 2 Ps of customer service training.
Personal and Performance
The Importance of Role-Play in Customer Service Training
Many external Customer Services Courses are theoretical, with only a little practical application to the real world of the attendee. In-house training given by experienced staff or an in-house trainer has huge benefits. It is relevant, on the job Customer Service Training which will, hopefully, combine the technical knowledge of the job with call handling skills with Customers. However, there is a difficulty with this in the way the Company personnel may view their Customers.
The Difficulty with Internal Trainers
A big downside of Customer Service Training provided by internal trainers is often that the agent learns to see the Customer interaction from the Company’s side ONLY. The problem with this is that the Customer Service Representative then finds difficulty seeing each situation through the Customer’s eyes.
The result of this is -
1. They may find difficulty empathising with the caller, and controlling a difficult Customer effectively.
2. With the passing of time, this CSR now becomes more experienced, but the lack of appreciation of the Customer’s situation is more likely to become worse, rather than better.
3. The result is a group of CSRs with little appreciation of their Customers. Because of this, they are only building the skills to handle pleasant Customers and easy queries, not the more challenging situations or irate Customers.
4. The group will then stereotype the more challenging callers as ‘bad’ or ‘stupid’ etc.
5. This is then passed on when training new recruits.
Breaking the Cycle
Breaking this cycle begins with planning Customer Service Training sessions that includes -
1. Focusing on their Role with their Customers expressed in terms of the Customer’s satisfaction
2. Fostering a positive attitude to the Customer, seeing the world through their eyes
3. Understanding the importance of each Customer experience to the Company and to all the staff. Happy Customers come back, they spend, the Company has money and we all have jobs!
4. Appreciation that each Customer is different, each is important and each is worth all the effort to ensure they are satisfied. There is no Customer, or Customer type, that is not worth the bother!
These training sessions can be held by in-house trainers, Team Leaders or other experienced staff. However, it is important that the trainer really is Customer focused, and is promoting the right positive values and attitudes.
A good idea for existing Teams is to plan short Customer Focus sessions at the regular Team Meetings. Team members can be allocated to various projects to promote awareness of Customers. However, this will only take the Team so far. The real key is to involve both new and experienced personnel in Customer Service Training sessions that involve a good deal of role-play.
The Benefits of Role-play in Customer Service Training
Role-play sessions are extremely powerful in building Customer awareness, and in building new skills and techniques to handle different Customer types and different situations.
They have four major benefits -
1. The person playing the agent will learn to build up their focus, their skills and the timing of the call
2. The person playing the Customer will experience what real Customer’s feel. They will know when an approach or phrase works – or when it will trigger a negative reaction on the Customer
3. At the de-brief of the role-play, the Customer can give the Agent what worked, what didn’t work, and what they needed to hear that was missing from the interaction.
4. They can plan another approach, and try it again and again till they get it right.
With role-plays, they not only appreciate even the most difficult Customer, but they learn that this person is just human, and they can be turned around with effective use of good skills.
Ensure all Customer Service Staff use Role-Play
If you are planning bringing in an external Customer Service trainer, make sure they have a high level of role-play on their course and that they have a sound methodology for running the role-plays.
In-house personnel can carry out role-play sessions very well, and these are hugely beneficial. Each Team Leader can take a tricky situation, and have role-plays to find a better way of handling this. One tricky call solved each week will really improve any Team.
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Customer service training activities help improve the way businesses respond customers needs. The happier the customers, the more money they will spend on your business!
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