Haris Ahmed Chicago Consultant on the Importance of Regular Trainings for Customer Service Staff
Haris Ahmed is the CEO of Chicago-based Pragmatium Consulting, Inc., a management consulting firm that has provided assistance to companies and organizations needing change. He has 20 years of solid experience as an organizational change expert, and 10 years as an executive coach. In a previous post, he talked about technology in customer service, particularly touching on the subject of how some companies are still stuck using the telephone to provide customer service. In this post, he shares his thoughts on customer service training, and why it’s important to have this regularly—at least once a year.
There are many reasons why a company may lose the valued patronage of customers but not one weighs heavier than customer service. With poor customer service, a valued customer who has been a patron for years may suddenly just up and leave without a second thought. In similar fashion, excellent customer service is one of the major reasons why customers choose to stick around, and why they keep coming back. With that said, regularly training your customer service representatives is a huge factor in customer satisfaction.
One must understand that the job of a customer service representative can be mentally and emotionally demanding. More than anything, your customer support team relies heavily on their soft skills (empathy, ability to listen, patience, etc.), and as such, their trainings usually entail practicing these soft skills in simulated scenarios.
Soft skills training will help them further develop, or learn more about, the following:
- Patience
- Compassion
- Empathy
- Listening skills
- Communication skills
- Professionalism in all situations
Training also gives your customer service team proper and accurate information about your products and/or services; another important factor that contributes to customer satisfaction.
Follow-up trainings serve two purposes: refresh their knowledge and skills, and learn about new policies, changes in best practices that will help them adapt to your consumers’ changes in buying behavior and demands, and new products or services that you have introduced, or will introduce.
Just as business landscapes constantly evolve, so too are customer service protocols. And in order to deliver exceptional customer service, your team needs to be trained in order to equip them with the necessary tools and skills to adapt to these changes. Failure to adapt could mean losing customers.
As you can see, every team on your organization plays a vital role in the success of your business. Unfortunately, the customer service department is often neglected. Train your team to adapt to changing environments and you’ll have better chances of maintaining your position in the industry, or finally taking the lead after lagging behind your competitors for so long.
Do you have comments on this post? Please feel free to leave Haris Ahmed of Chicago a message below. Meanwhile, you are encouraged to check out the rest of the website to read more about adapting to change, and why every organization should take action when and if necessary. Kindly stay tuned to this page for more posts on organizational change.