If you were a general fielding an army, you’d know that no matter how good your tactics, success in battle eventually will ride on the quality and morale of your troops.
Business is the same, and especially that aspect of business in which your organization is most likely to run into “hostile forces.” That’s customer service.
Business consultants suggest that perhaps the first lesson for customer service training–and, in fact, for business in general–should be “the customer does not come first. The employee does!”
This rather startling maxim is based on sound reasoning. Ultimately, the success of any business derives from the attitude of its employees. Good-natured employees not only diligently carry out their assigned tasks, but do so positively and creatively. They project good feelings and may find solutions to customer problems even where solutions don’t currently exist. That’s something even the best customer service training can’t teach an employee to do.
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Disgruntled employees, on the other hand, can sink a business, alienating all they come in contact with, including managers, colleagues, vendors and of course, customers. And all the customer service training you can do won’t likely change a basic bad attitude.
Think “associates” in customer service training, not “employees”
But how does one create happy, motivated employees? The answer, the consultants note, is not primarily with increased compensation or benefits. Instead, what’s recommended is re-conceptualizing management’s concept of its workers from “employees” to “associates,” with a clear share in the organization’s success.
To achieve that end, Management should accompany its customer service training with efforts to conduct business in an open and collaborative manner in an environment where every worker feels his or her ideas will be listened to and acknowledged, even if not ultimately used.
This, of course, is in direct opposition to micro-managing a business, says Myron Curry, founder and president of Business Training Media. “Micro-managing,” he says, completely kills the system.” Curry also calls allowing workers flexibility in such matters as setting work schedules or lunch hours. This, he says, is an additional tacit acknowledgement of the worker’s worth as a human being first and foremost, and a gesture of goodwill that the worker will reciprocate.
The Training Today—Customer Service Library includes everything you need for your customer service team to provide world-class service. In today’s environment, it is more important than ever to build loyal relationships with your customers and a better working environment for your employees. Get Free Access to 20+ Customer Service Training Courses here.
In tomorrow’s Advisor, we’ll discuss the importance of hiring the right people to customer service training–plus introduce a dynamic and effective online customer service training resource.