Customer Service Training Programs:
Our customer service training
workshop teaches by doing with less than 15% lecture and 85% hands on
activities. Participants learn by Doing and not by being told. Exercises are
practical, realistic, fun and are skill based.
To maximize your customer
service teams effectiveness we suggest our custom, private
customer service training
courses offered in house at the location of
your choice, usually in groups of 6 or more.
Contact
us for a free consultation on how we can best service your
training needs.
Program Objectives:
In our Exceptional Customer Service one-day
training workshop
participants will:
- Understand how to handle inquiries and/or complaints in
ways that create improved, lasting relationships with your
customers or clients.
- Learn to promote positive "chemistry" between
your company and your clients by recognizing and
responding to the needs of each individual.
- Learn how to handle doubt, misunderstandings, and
objections.
- Acquire techniques for seeing issues from clients'
perspectives, creating value-adding options for clients,
and making sure clients recognize the added value they are
getting.
- Learn how to gain agreement from clients and reinforce
mutually satisfying long-term relationships.
Customer Service Training:
Wash Your Hands of Bad Customer Service Training
A recent story on NPR talked about the challenge hospitals face getting employees to wash their hands as often as they should. The article says:
"...studies show that only about 40 percent of health care workers in the United States wash their hands as often as they should."
Yet, washing hands reduces the potential for infection, something that causes 100,000 deaths every year in the US health care system.
Washing your hands is one of those things that is so basic it should be automatic (for all of us). And for health care workers, the risks and rewards make it even more critical.
And it remains a challenge.
If it's hard to get people to do simple things that can prevent illness and death, how can we possibly get customer service employees to do other things that have a less tangible benefit? How can we hope to have customer service employees remembering to smile, be polite, greet people, remember loyal customers, use their names, and focus on solutions and all the other important and fundamental behaviors that help create better customer service?
People don't die because a customer service employee forgets to smile. But these things matter. They matter because they create a better experience for our customers.
So how does an organization successfully encourage customer service employees to do basic things that make a difference?
Here are a few ideas (in no particular order):
1. Don't make it hurt.
A big reason many health care workers don't like washing their hands as often as is recommended is because it hurts. All that hand-washing removes the natural oils from their hands and makes them dry and cracked. They can be incredibly painful.
Whatever you expect your customer service employees to do to provide top customer service for your customers, make sure it does not cause them pain or discomfort. Especially if the pain and discomfort extends beyond the work day. Develop systems and procedures that enable customer service employees to do the right thing without adverse consequences.
2. Communicate and celebrate compliance.
In the NPR article mentioned above they discuss a hospital that installs a monitoring system for hand washing compliance. The developer of the system said it enables the hospital management to let customer service employees know when they are not washing their hands as often as they should.
To be more effective they should do the opposite. Recognize and reward people for meeting the standards. Rather than making compliance a negative issue, turn it into a positive. People will only respond to negative stimuli if they are at risk of losing something important to them. Positively affirming their desired behavior might result in higher compliance levels.
3. Make the customer service employee’s part of the solution
The customer service employees are the people whose behavior you are trying to change. Whether its customer service or hand washing, we are talking about helping people develop new habits. So ask the customer service employees what might help them establish new habits. This gives you the opportunity to surface new ideas. It can also increase customer service employee support and buy-in.
4. Show them the money
We're not talking about cash money. We're talking about consequences. Help customer service employees understand (in a very tangible and simple way) what the positive and negative outcomes are. If they don't wash their hands, patients are at risk of getting sicker and even dying. If they do wash their hands, they have healthier patients who recover faster.
If customer service employees treat customers poorly, customers leave and the company gets hurt. People lose jobs. If they take care of customers well they come back and buy more. The company is financially more healthy. Jobs become more secure. Paychecks can grow bigger.
Draw a line that connects behaviors with outcomes. Paint a picture and make it clear and obvious to your customer service employees. Keep this message in front of them every day. It needs to become a natural part of their awareness like turning the lights on in the morning and off in the evening.
5. Provide frequent, visible reminders.
Behavioral economics has shown us that a frequent, visible reminder of a standard makes it more likely that standard will be met. Talking about it at a monthly meeting is not enough. Frequency and repetition help keep it on customer service employee's radar. Awareness promotes compliance by helping build a habit.
Source:
Kevin Stirtz:
link
Article Content: Customer Service Training
More customer service training tips...
Contact
us for a free consultation on how we can best service your
training needs.
