Many external customer service courses are theoretical, with only a small practical application to the real world of the assistant. In-house training delivered by experienced staff or an in-house trainer has tremendous benefits. On-the-job customer service training that will hopefully combine technical job knowledge with customer call handling skills is relevant. However, there is a difficulty with this in the way Company personnel can view their Clients.
The difficulty with internal trainers
A big disadvantage of Customer Service Training provided by internal trainers is that the agent learns to view the interaction with the Customer ONLY from the Company side. The problem with this is that the Customer Service Representative finds it difficult to see every situation through the Customer’s eyes.
The result of this is –
1. They may find it difficult to empathize with the caller and effectively manage a difficult Customer.
2. As time goes by, this CSR now becomes more experienced, but the lack of appreciation of the Client’s situation is more likely to get worse rather than better.
3. The result is a CSR group with little appreciation from its Clients. Because of this, they are only developing the skills to handle nice Customers and easy inquiries, not the more challenging situations or angry Customers.
4. The group will then stereotype the most challenging callers as ‘bad’ or ‘stupid’ etc.
5. This is then passed on when training new recruits.
break the cycle
Breaking this cycle starts with planning customer service training sessions that include:
1. Focus on your Role with your Customers expressed in terms of Customer satisfaction
2. Foster a positive attitude towards the Client, seeing the world through their eyes
3. Understand the importance of each Customer’s experience to the Company and to all staff. Happy Customers come back, they spend, the Company has money and we all have jobs!
4. Appreciation that each Customer is different, each one is important and each one is worth all the effort to make sure they are satisfied. There is no Client, or type of Client, that is not worth your time!
These training sessions can be delivered by internal trainers, team leaders, or other experienced personnel. However, it is important that the trainer is truly client focused and promotes the correct positive values and attitudes.
A good idea for existing teams is to schedule short customer service sessions at regular team meetings. Team members can be assigned to multiple projects to promote Customer awareness. However, this will only get the team so far. The real key is to involve both new and experienced staff in Customer Service Training sessions that involve a fair amount of role playing.
The benefits of role playing in customer service training
Role play sessions are extremely powerful in building Client awareness and developing new skills and techniques for handling different types of Clients and different situations.
They have four main advantages:
1. The person playing the agent will learn to develop their approach, skills and timing of the call.
2. The person playing the Client will experience what the real Client feels. They will know when an approach or phrase works, or when it will cause a negative reaction from the Client.
3. In the role play summary, the Client can tell 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 until they get it right.
With role-playing, they not only appreciate even the most difficult Client, but also learn that this person is just a human being, and they can change with the effective use of good skills.
Make sure all customer service staff use the role play
If you plan to bring in an external Customer Service trainer, make sure they have a high level of role-playing in their course and have a solid methodology for running the role-plays.
Role play sessions can be done very well by internal staff and are very beneficial. Every team leader can take a difficult situation and role play to find a better way to handle it. One tough call resolved each week will truly improve any team.
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