Why it’s Important to Provide Customer Service Training for All Employees

14/6/2018

Every member of your team plays a part in delivering customer service excellence. Some employees may not have a customer-facing role, yet they still contribute to the perception of the business.

The Customer Service Team
Let’s consider a supermarket shop. A positive customer experience begins with the availability of a trolley or basket. This is further enhanced if the store is clean and the shelves are well stocked. It’s a bonus if there is someone on the shop floor to answer a question. If your final encounter is with a friendly, helpful person on the till, you leave with your purchases and a good impression.
Your customer service expectations have been met, but you didn’t visit the ‘Customer Service Desk’. The individuals that contributed to your positive experience aren’t members of the customer service team and it may not be considered necessary for them to undertake customer service training.
I argue that it is important for everyone to understand how their role impacts on the provision of outstanding service. Does everyone in your team know how they help to meet or exceed customer expectations?

Wearing the Company Uniform
If your staff wear a uniform, they are part of the branding. Their attitude and behaviour reflects on the company and this isn't limited to the time when they are at work. Your business is being judged on employee behaviour whenever they wear the uniform. Are they aware of this?
I recently saw two construction workers in the supermarket, both in uniform. One was younger and it seemed that he was ‘away on the job’ for the first time. The other was giving him advice on what food would be good value and easy to cook. The helpful attitude of the mentor generated a favourable impression of the company, even though it was off-site and out of work hours.
Your team members may hold open a door or give up their seat on the bus because of their own personal attitude. In addition to being grateful, the recipient will associate the positive experience with your brand.

Answering Business Calls
Back to the workplace and callers expect the telephone to be answered within three rings. Leave it any longer and you risk the caller hanging up and not calling back. As you never know when your next big customer is going to get in touch, this isn’t a risk worth taking.
The challenge is that your ‘Customer Service’ team may already be on the line, or away from their desk. As a business owner, you need to be confident that any member of your team could pick up the phone and hold a polite and professional conversation. Even if they are unable to provide the requested information, good call handling can ensure customer satisfaction. Have your team received sufficient training to give you confidence in their abilities?

Customer Service Training for All
With these examples, I hope to illustrate that each and every employee represents your company. They can all help build its reputation or damage it. For this reason, I strongly believe that everyone should receive customer service training. With greater awareness of how their role impacts on the customer experience, they can take pride in their contribution. They can also ensure that your company always makes the right impression.

If it’s time to refresh your customer service training, Aylesbury based Helen Pettifer Training is here to assist. From introductory sessions to training in specific areas of customer service, such as Effective Complaint Management, we can meet your business requirements.
For further information, please contact Helen on 07704 221241 or info@helenpettifer.com

1 Comment

Delores Airey link

10/7/2018 02:34:05 pm

Dear Helen,

The below was posted on the Awards International website today, partly in response to the views you related in your interview entitled, "An Expert Eye for Customer Service," and partly to express my observations about customer welfare.

Out of courtesy, today I left a voice-mail on your mobile number appearing on your website to basically inform you that I have posted my response to your interview.

Awards International may elect not to permit my response to be published for obvious reasons and I am fine with that as we all, including customers, have a voice.

RESPONSE
Companies train front-facing staff for a reason and fail to train customer service staff for a reason. This is not an accident. Customers tend not to be respected after the spend and/or provision of their personal data. When a customer purchases a product, say, an electrical item that comes with a manual, trouble-shooting would be featured and located towards the end (on-line) or the back pages of the manual. This proves that items can malfunction and that things can go wrong. The manual script presents a series of suggestions on how to put things right or, if all else fails, instructions on how to return the item to the retailer or wherever directed. Unfortunately, companies receive complaints about issues that are common and yet repeated. It is evident, that nothing at all is done to alleviate the issues and, in a way to allay worries and concerns for the customer who is sometimes treated with disdain by complaints handlers who are difficult to track, trace and identify due to the systems that are in place that were designed by companies. These are not mistakes.

Consumer Welfare is very important and the experience of the gentleman who suffered at the hands of the airline proved that we are living in times where people just simply forget and continue to use the services of the offending companies hence why companies and their brand are economically affected only for a very short while by the media.

All companies should treat their customers, (who are individual people) with respect, yet not all do. Companies have accountabilities and responsibilities towards their customers. Companies are almost behaving as though without their being in business customers would not survive very easily and that they need them. Unfortunately, people are afraid of big organisations especially when they are not able to get their calls answered when they are attempting to contact the customer service department to complain or even to inform the customer service employee of an issue which would benefit the company and, in turn, its consumers. When the call is eventually answered, the complaints handlers can, at times, deliver their non-customer-centric behaviour, become very defensive on behalf of and to the company and deliberately fail to show respect, listen and comprehend that not all customers have neither the time nor the ability to ‘fight’ in the belief that they will not win to then suffer with the issue remaining in their lives. They are left to cut their losses and go elsewhere or give-up the fight and continue to give their patronage to the offending company. Companies are fully aware of this. One question is, why?

A complaints procedure is a subject to itself which I will write about extensively in my new Consumer Welfare blog when it is published sometime this year. Customer service, benefits, welfare, culture, respect, handling, whatever name one wants to use after the stand-alone, prefix, “customer,” is a culture and there are many organisations still popping up in the business of customer service simply due to negative aspects rather than positive ones.

Companies ought to be lessening the amount of complaints they receive due to conscious provision of decent service to customers as one of their core values and vision, missions statements of their company culture, but instead, companies are not doing so and awarding staff for their great handling of customer complaints, of which, there should never be a need for certain types of complaints to arise and, indeed take place. And, what of the consumers? Do they receive awards for the unnecessary experiences they’ve had to endure at the hands of the companies apart from, if any, apology letters, compensation, complaints resolved?
RESPONSE END

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