“Know what your customers want most and what your company does best. Focus on where those two meet”
– Kevin Stirtz
The training provided must be tailor made to suit the kind of business and the current trends of the pertinent industry. Blanket training is adequate only when it focuses on soft skills which are all pervading and standard. The training should inspire and motivate the associates to compete with themselves in providing levels of service that only better with each interaction. The ideal mix of training on both soft and core skills is a sure shot way of having superlative associates that deliver and exceed customer expectations each time. There are a number of such top class trainers and training providers available in the market and when you approach them, you can take a leaf out of their books as you experience their level of service.
Such training also helps your company to understand how to collect data related to customer interactions. You would be able to see direct scores related to customer satisfaction, first call resolutions, reduction in repeat calls from one customer and increase or decrease in customer base. On the internal side, you should be able to keep a check on attrition rates as also employee morale and satisfaction. With great training you should see lower staff turnover and an increase in overall workplace jubilance. At the end of the day, you have way more than your money’s worth!
There is no refuting that the breakdown or failure of this particular aspect of any company is the greatest challenge faced by the management and it is therefore imprudent to neglect it. The customer reserves the right to do business with your company and unless he or she is shown outstanding levels of service you can be sure that it is your competitor, who has focused on this aspect, who will be the beneficiary of the customer’s business. Attracting and then retaining a customer really must be the prime focus. It is a known fact, that if the customer is shown respect and empathy at the first point of contact, he or she is probably willing to pay a slightly higher price for the same product or service available elsewhere. Conversely, the customer could leave your company, even if the product or service has been good, if he receives so much as a hint of shoddy and aggressive customer service behavior. It is therefore, incomprehensible how the senior management does not find time to engage with these employees or even be a part of setting and establishing company guidelines around customer service standards and upkeep. Top level meetings must include a portion where the focus is customer service and the representatives – policies, strategies and the number of man-hours the company can afford and should spare for in-depth training for these associates. It seems to make more sense to take the first steps towards prevention of any breakdown rather than having to devise quick-fix solutions for lop-sided strategies that didn’t quite make a mark. Scrambling nervously to counter the competitiveness of your business rival is a sordid waste of time and energy and could most certainly be avoided by empowering your customer service associates through well-planned and impeccably executed training.
Any manager, worth his salt, knows that hiring and training a new employee is way more tedious and costly than retaining and energizing the current lot. The same is true for customers – as a company you lose much more advertising ‘moolah’, time and manpower energy in attracting new customers since you would be starting from scratch trying to understand the needs and adjusting to the demands and quirks. Also you would most certainly need to extend all kinds of perks, discounts and benefits in a bid to attract them. With an existing one, you have all this information in place and all it takes is well prepared and well trained customer service to keep this customer with you and happy with you! You have as a company already invested a considerable amount of time, money and energy on putting together a team of customer service representatives so it is really half-witted to let this go to waste by ignoring or restraining them. Empower them, train them and let them get the customers to you while you focus on sharpening the edge on your product or service. Not rocket science!
As the trend changes towards better products and services, the old habits that some companies seem to cling on to must be changed. The need of the hour now is to focus beyond promotions through advertisements and sales. A simple tweak to your base – customer service – will be a mammoth stride towards profitability and success. This in no way means that advertising and marketing are not important and key it just means that when your base is strong, everything else is a breeze. Once you master the art of customer service, not only will you master the art of keeping your current customers, they will be instrumental in getting you more customers just by way of feedback and a good word. So you have covered the portion of attracting a fresh customer base and made everyone’s life, within your company, a lot easier.
Better and focused training also leads to happy employees with a high morale. They feel valued and are geared on to making each interaction better as they can see visible results of their efforts. As your company’s internal customers they too will feel energized and will prove indispensable to the growth of your company. No one likes to feel unwanted or be part of an environment that degrades and underestimates one’s capabilities and contributions and so paying attention to the needs of this key group, will reverse the trend of high-attrition that is commonplace in this segment. It is probably ignored, but disgruntled employees are major contributors to spreading a bad reputation of the company and also using sensitive information against the company. Many companies have had to face lawsuits and pay punitive damages as a result of this dissatisfaction. Wouldn’t it just make more sense to provide comprehensive knowledge through training so that your customer service representatives feel empowered and happy to be messengers carrying your products and services to your customers? Negative publicity either by way of annoyed employees or irate customers is never good for any company especially now given the wave of everything and anything being shared and openly discussed on social media sites and through the mobile phone applications. One annoyed customer is enough to spread the word to his / her entire circle of friends and associates, applying the brakes on even the slightest intention on their part to ‘try you out’. People now are less tolerant shoddy service and have short attention spans for good service and hence the level of difficulty, in keeping customers with you, has risen significantly. Therefore, the harmful impacts now of ignoring and not training your customer service base, seems to have much more far reaching effects than was thought possible. Train and empower is much simpler than one upset customer.
