The 5 W's of World Class Customer Service Training (part Ii)

Strategies for success for world class service should include:

Respond promptly

Handle requests through the customers¡¦ choice of medium

Be brief and clear

Reduce back and forth communications (especially in writing, i.e., email, kick it up to a phone call if it goes beyond two)

Personalized service

Delight the customer

What do we mean by delighting the customer?

Inform and educate them

Establish your expertise and professionalism

Offer options

Diffuse upset, anger, when and if necessary

Escalate, if required

Take Ownership of the call

Remember we¡¦re still on the first W ¡V the Why. Today¡¦s pressures on agents are different than in the past. They are asked to handle more customer, more volume, more complex and/or complicated calls. After all if we could handle our issues with self service, we probably would not call. But if we tried self service and it didn¡¦t work, now we¡¦re upset and it¡¦s an escalated call from the get go.

They¡¦re asked to provide more information, do it faster and be available and accessible. But they are to lower costs, generate revenue, incorporate new technologies, ensure closure and commitment, deliver ¡¥great¡¦ service and when? Yesterday, of course.

As a matter of fact the CDC (Center for Disease Control) has said that the causes of death for people under 65 are:

21% - environment ¡V war, accidents, crimes

9% - health care system ¡V doctors, hospitals, medications

17% - human biology ¡V not because of lifestyle

53% - because of the way people choose to live their lives!!!

This is the good news and the bad news. It¡¦s bad news because it¡¦s more than half. However, the good news is that this is something we can do something about, it¡¦s about choice.

The #2 W is Who should be trained?

We suggest front line agents/representatives, supervisors, team lads, managers, assistant managers, internal customers and other departments ¡V anyone who is a touch point so that they can learn to speak the same language, and more importantly, not be in an adversarial position, but rather, together they are serving the external customer or end user.

The #3 W is Where should the training take place? Offsite vs onsite, and there are advantages and disadvantages for both.

Certainly it is most cost effective to have training on site. However, distractions are rampant as is the participant¡¦s availability to a person or problem.

Offsite is more costly. However, there are no distractions and the participants are unavailable to other departments, their managers, or any issues. I believe there is psychic value in taking people away from their work stations and off site to acknowledge the touch jobs they have.

The #4 W is What should be included in any training? We believe the following modules provide a robust, powerful, and succinct training curriculum:

ľ Quality Customer Service ľ Rapport Building

ľ Customer Expectations

ľ Perception Shifting ľ Conflict Resolution

ľ Language Skills

ľ Anger Management ľ E-Mail Protocol

ľ Stress Reduction ľ Empathetic Responsiveness

ľ Change Management

ľ Communication/Listening Skills ľ Interaction/Role Play

ľ Service with a Smile

Further suggested is university certification to up the ante. The more professionally you treat your employees, the more professionally they will treat your customers.

The #5 W is When. We say for new hires, monthly, ongoingly, consistently, whenever change occurs, when stressors increase, and as needed.

We further suggest that each employee get a minimum of 24 hours per year of ongoing training, spread out over time for the most absorption. We divide our trainings into two four hour sessions per day and deliver 6 days per employee. Therefore, 30 people can participate in the training per day. If there has been no ongoing training, we do four days once a month for four months and then a session three months later, and then another three months later. In this manner, training is customized, in real time, and can address whatever challenges are presented when they occur.