Customer service is perhaps the most important of client-facing activities in a business. For the giant US retail company Zappos, ‘Deliver WOW Through Service’ is their first and foremost core value. For Amazon, the first principle that defines who they are is ’Customer Obsession’. But more than a guiding principle, customer service training ideas are important to the success of a company itself. Customer service workers are those who address client needs and ensure they have a positive experience. But as a skill set, customer service encompasses rare-but-teachable traits such as active listening, proactiveness, problem-solving and effective communication. But why is customer service training important? Creating a customer service program and training is important to ensure that your company continues to deliver uniform and quality experiences and products, even as it onboards new employees and changes its offerings or structure. Read this article until the end to learn about engaging workforce training solutions that will help you navigate your business’s own customer service journey.
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What is the best training for customer service?
Common challenges in customer service operations include meeting the high expectations of customers while remaining calm and professional with irritated clients, managing time upon the need to handle multiple tickets at once while providing quality service, and keeping up with all the technical knowledge, information, tools, and techniques necessary to deliver excellent customer service. The key to resolving these challenges are effective customer service training programs and employee retention. It is important to find the right balance between theoretical and practical training, as well as providing continuous and consistent training across the entire business, and tracking and measuring results.
This is why microlearning is the best option for customer service training – better than hiring customer service training online. Microlearning involves delivering content in small, digestible bites, usually in a video format. Did you know that your staff is 75% more likely to watch videos than read a manual? Video-based employee training works best because short videos are more engaging than other formats, and in this way allow for greater content retention. Don’t forget to make your training content available to employees on demand at all times in case they need a quick reminder of the rules or best practices of the job. Follow up your videos with summary cards, quizzes and discussion boards for a comprehensive customer service training experience.
What are the fundamentals of a customer service employee training program?
When developing a customer service training program for your employees, many questions may arise. For example, what are the customer service skills an employee should possess? What is the most important customer service sklil? What is the best way to create a customer service training that is easily scalable? Should my training program focus on employee retention or on quick onboarding? Should I make customer service training online or in person? Here’s what to keep in mind when creating your business’ own customer service employee training program.
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Establish clear priorities and objectives
Start by identifying all customer-facing activities and what success means in each of them, and then map all current customer service practices, tools and processes. Develop a comprehensive assessment of how your business currently engages in customer service and employee training activities, and clearly state your vision and goals for the future.
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Build a uniform and scalable system
Employee onboarding and training that run smoothly and quickly are critical components of customer service, as they help new hires get up to speed quickly and deliver results in their roles. Using multi-platform microlearning solutions can help deliver continuous employee training and learning experiences to your workforce, making content available to them at all times and locations if they ever need a refresher.
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Monitor Performance and Measure Results
To measure the success of customer service training, businesses should track both their employee training performance and customer satisfaction rates. Gather feedback from employees and customers, and analyze key performance indicators. Don’t forget to recognize and reward good customer service.
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Focus on Employee Retention
One of the main reasons why many managers of frontline businesses have been struggling with employee retention is that the US labour force is becoming increasingly dominated by Gen Z workers. A study found that 63% of people between the ages of 25-34 have considered leaving their jobs because they don’t feel like they’re being challenged or developing skills at all. It is employee training, learning and development that is key to employee retention and thus effective customer service.
What are customer service skills?
The truth, for any business, is that having employees that can efficiently interact with customers across all sales and communication channels is fundamental to the business cycle. Many benefits can be gained from customer service training, including increased customer loyalty, improved employee performance and morale, and higher revenues and profitability metrics. That’s easy to say, but it can be much harder to say what customer service is or what skills do you need for customer service. Thankfully, some tools help you with the employee training aspect of customer service programs. In any case, the three key aspects of excellent customer service programs are:
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Efficient
There is nothing worse than experiencing an issue with a product you just purchased only to find out you must wait days until the company gets back to you about it. Be sure to make your customer service channels available to customers at all or most times, and that interactions are kept to the necessary for exceptional service.
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Convenient
Customer service should be accessible to clients through different and convenient channels, not only through one system “because it’s easier for the company.” Be sure to make your client communications reachable in person, via email and phone calls, and on the internet, both on mobile and computers.
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Customer-Focused
Your customer service department and workers should be client-centric, that is, have the client as their key stakeholder. Success should depend on client satisfaction, and no matter should be considered as addressed until the customer thinks of it as dealt with as well.
Conclusion
Customer service training and operations are the cornerstone component of any successful business. Investing in a microlearning training and communications platform such as Bites for your workforce is a sound business decision. A Bite is a content capsule made of four parts: a video, a quiz, a summary card, and a discussion board. Record or upload training content in different formats – videos or PowerPoint slides – and add text voice-overs to boost employee training and onboarding engagement rates. Use flashcards to summarize your Bites’ main lessons, and encourage employees to follow up with questions and feedback for greater content and employee retention. Track views and completion rates, evaluate performances, and drill down on employee progress statistics with smart analytics. Bites empowers you to train and communicate with your employees in only a few clicks, and to use your content any number of times.
If as the manager of a customer-facing staff you need help brainstorming customer service training ideas, following these steps and tips will help you create an effective and innovative training program that benefits both employees and customers through improved employee retention and employee training metrics and higher customer satisfaction and fidelity rates. If you’re interested in learning more about the Bites microlearning workforce training and communications solution for your customer service and employee onboarding needs, you can reach out to them here. It’s a promise that they offer excellent customer service!
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