How do I Ensure Effective Customer Service Training?

In every business customer service plays a crucial role and to ensure an effective customer service, customer service training is very important. Customer service training go beyond stiff manuals and seminars, it empowers employees to solve problems and delight customers. However, effective and engaging customer service training isn’t something that happens easily. It should be offered on a consistent basis to cover a variety of topics in an array of formats for employees to actually acquire the skills they need.  

As Jerry Fritz said, “You’ll never have a product or price advantage again. They can be too easily duplicated. But a strong customer service culture cannot be copied.” And to create a strong customer service you need effective customer service training. A SurveyMonkey article states that, 86% of employees say job training is important to them, so,  your investment in their development and learning won’t go unnoticed at all.

Here are ways you can ensure effective customer service training.

1. Use various formats over various timings.

As we have already mentioned that customer service training isn’t about a bunch of seminars and manuals, it’s much more than that. A continuous and everchanging training program will eventually lead to great customer service agent. In fact, according to LinkedIn learning, 57% of employees now expect to learn on a ‘just-in-time’ basis. Our suggestion is to provide some sort of customer service training at least every six months, this way it won’t feel like a burden to your employees, but at the same time it will also give you a chance to cover any current trends or developments. You need to be able to inculcate various formats while customer service training as well. When you use different formats every now and then it doesn’t make the training boring. LinkedIn learning also found that, 54% of employees would spend more time studying if they were given specific course recommendations to assist them in achieving their professional objectives.

2. Make your training accessible and easy.

Employee have enough on their plate already and training can make it hard for the to focus and hence make them lethargic. Therefore, it’s important that you make customer service training programs accessible for all in their own comfort. In fact, 58% of employees say they prefer training opportunities that allow them to learn at their own pace. It’s important that you offer flexibility so that team members can learn at a time that’s most convenient for them, rather than tuning into a required seminar or training session when their inbox is full and their mind is elsewhere. This might sound complicated but it isn’t. To give effective customer service training that is flexible you can look for learning management systems for your employees which will help manage everything well. Even  Research Markets suggests that 49% of employees want to learn when and where they need to.

3. Put weight on the importance of soft skills.

According to McKinsey, 70% of the customer’s journey is based on how the customer feels they’re being treated by your organization. Soft skills play a major role in customer service, make it known to your employee. Training might include technical elements however soft skills are what makes in practical in real life situation. A customer service agent who has good communication skill can definitely help customers better. Your employees need to be equipped with the right soft skills to help those relationships and interactions go smoothly, and that might require some training. in fact, statistics says that CEOs spend 20% more time training and learning soft skills compared to the average time a normal learner spends. Soft skills like, attention to detail, patience, problem solving, emotional intelligence are important elements of customer service. Therefore, to make your customer service training effective include soft skills training programs which will help our employee as well as you improve a variety of soft skills.

4. Ask feedback and apply them.

Did you know that 30% of organizations do not evaluate the effectiveness of the compliance training programs they put in place? A customer service training plan which is not constantly being improved is worth nothing. The business world is ever changing and so are customer service expectation of customer. Therefore, training related to customer service has to be changed as well according to the feedback received. In fact, according to sideways6, four out of five employees have ideas to improve the business they work for, but one in three feel their ideas are ignored. Listening to feedback that your employee provide will lead you to an effective customer service training program. Your employees can help you improve training as well generate new programs for training.

5. Look for moments to teach your employees.

There will be plenty of scenarios that happen each day that provide a learning opportunity for you and your employees, use them. According to Docebo, 70% of skills are picked up by employees through their jobs, 20% through peers and colleagues, and 10% through formal training sessions. Thus, looking for moments between working where you teach your employee skills is a great way enhance your customer service training. Training doesn’t have to compact and rigid; it can be fluid and easy to learn as well. You can it to the next level and make this more manageable and scalable, create some sort of centralized place where you and your team can record information about interactions, questions, and more.

When you prioritize your training programs and deliver them in a way that resonates with your employees, you’re far more likely to reap the benefits of one of the most important aspects of your company which is your customer service. So, follow these tips to ensure customer service training that is effective and efficient!