It is rather unfortunate that business owners invest so much money in their inventory, physical structure, even décor. However, when it comes to investing in customer service training for employees, they come up short.
In the service industry, every organisation is dependent on the performance of their employees. A customer can tell in 3-4 seconds if an employee cares. The customer knows if the employee is knowledgeable. These determine if customer trust your brand or business.
Frontline (also called customer facing) employees have 99% of the customer contact. But consistently they are the least trained, least valued, least appreciated and least paid. Meanwhile, they are the face of your organization.
Many organizations have customer facing employees and they are reluctant to train them. There is an erroneous perception about training employees. It’s this perception that keeps small companies from developing into larger, more productive businesses.
The Untruths We Believe
- If I develop and train them, they will leave, so it’s best to not invest in them.
- They already know everything about customer service; they are good enough.
- They are not smart enough to understand customer service.
- Employee turnover in this industry is so high. By the time I get them trained, they will leave.
- Customers only come to our business because of the great products and awesome displays. The quality of my customer facing employees does not matter.
- The cost of training is more than I pay monthly; so this expenditure does not make sense. Why would I waste good money training them? They are not worth investing in.
- I employed people with the right attitude, so no further or continuous training is required.
A lot of us can relate to these seven points. But think about these too…
- We assume that a 24-year-old will go through 4 or 8 hours of initial customer service training and never forget what s/he has learned. S/he will be the perfect employee for life.
- Stop for a moment and think: What would happen to GT Bank or Coca Cola if they only ran ads once every 5 or 10 years?
- What would happen if manufacturing firms only did maintenance on their equipment once every 5 – 10 years?
So, why give your customer facing team customer service training only once in a lifetime – if ever?
The Truths We Should Know
Training is, quite simply, one of the highest-leverage activities available. Consider for a moment the possibility of putting on a quarterly series of customer service training. Wouldn’t that be a form of consistent reinforcement of your customer service values?
Over that year, they will work thousands of hours for your organization. If your training efforts result in even a 1% improvement in your employees’ performance, just think what that will do to company loyalty, brand issues, and your bottom line.
If you want superior customer service, it is critical that all employees get trained on customer service ideally with a new program every 4 months (that’s really just three times every year).
I believe if the customer receives an incredible customer experience, they will come back and tell their friends. Your business will be better for it. Do you know that it is easier to grow your business with word-of-mouth advertising on the foundation of well-trained employees? If you want customer driven and high performing employees so you can grow your business and reduce customer complaints then you need to invest in your total workforce with something new and fresh at least every 4-6 months.
We are dealing with fragile humans. They need to feel loved and wanted. If feel they have received really great customer service, it creates repeat loyal customers and word of mouth advertising. Your customers are your best advertising. If your team is well trained, they will act as a positive advert trigger for your company every time a customer walks through the door.
What types of customer service training do your team need? Well, take your pick:
- Managing Difficult Customers
- Speed
- Professionalism
- Making Customers Feel Welcome & Valued
- Positive Communication
- Understanding What Customers Want
- Using Customer Service Techniques to Close a Sale
- Customer Service Strategies
- Service Recovery
The list goes on…
Training can be delivered in a myriad of ways – on the job, over lunch, even through workplace apprenticeships. Every organisation can put together a unique program to fit their culture and budget. They do not have to forego training all together.
The key take away I hope from this article is that:
Training your employees; especially customer facing employees is guaranteed NOT a waste of time!
Liz Taylor who runs this blog Lizspire is a Service Quality Institute Certified Trainer and Consultant. She is able to work with your organisation to come up with an affordable customer service training curriculum and plan. Contact her today and find out how she can help your business.
