Customer Service Training: Five Questions to Ask When Seeking To Improve CSR Skills

Customer service training is a necessity for any business that wishes to be successful. The fact is plain and simple. What is not plain and simple is how to go about this type of training. Customer service training is offered by companies around the world and it is difficult for managers to ascertain the type of training that is best for their employees and best for their business.

When seeking customer service training, there are some key questions to ask and some specific answers to look for. If a business can take the short amount of time to learn these questions and is fortunate enough to find a business development firm that is able to answer all of the questions to that company’s satisfaction, the only remaining step is enrolling employees in the customer service training program.

Customer Service Training Questions

1) What type of training do my employees need?

This may be the most difficult question to answer. The company asking this question may not be aware of all of the nuances involved with customer service. The manager may have received numerous complaints or may feel that his or her customer service team needs motivation. A quality customer service training firm does not only have the ability to provide customer service training, but also is able to assess the business’s customer service team so as to provide the best training possible. Truly valuable are those business development firms that can assess individuals on a case-by-case basis, offering personalized training and coaching in order to improve both the unique members of the customer service group as well as the team as a whole.

2) How is the training carried out?

Most customer service training programs consist of a one or two day seminar, in which the entire customer service team is placed in a room with a speaker who talks to them about how to be better customer service employees and perhaps supplies them with materials that they can refer back to later. This is a tried and true method of customer service training, and many people can gain a lot of knowledge from seminars such as this. There are, however, some inherent problems with only using this type of training. Oftentimes, the individuals attending the training event show an increase in service in the days and weeks following the training, but eventually the training is forgotten and the team begins to falter once more. Also, because the entire customer service team is in a training seminar, short term problems can arise due to having no customer service representatives available while in training. If a company should choose to only allow a fixed number of individuals to attend the training while others are left to man phones or accept incoming traffic, the customer service team is left unbalanced, with some having received training and others left in the dark. Some customer service training programs have taken these issues into consideration and have added follow-up programs to continue to keep customer service at a high level. A few customer service training programs even combine a mass seminar with online learning and individual coaching that allow customer service representatives to train at their own pace and to train during down times at work, so that phones are not left unmanned and no individual in the customer service team is left without the appropriate training.

3) What is the customer service training company’s background?

An item that is tragically forgotten by businesses seeking customer service training is checking the background of the company providing the training. Anyone can start a business training companies in customer service excellence, but only a select few have the expertise and knowledge to create a winning team of customer service experts. A look into the company’s background, along with references from satisfied customers can save a business a lot of heartache when seeking customer service training.

4) Are customer service measurement tools employed?

Very few customer service training methods utilize measurement tools, that is, the ability to learn if each person in the customer service team is progressing in a manner that will lead to the greatest improvement for that person and the company as a whole. The best customer service training programs offer measurement tools and offer to share those with the company purchasing the training at any time.

5) What level of customer service does the training company offer?

This is the key. If the business providing customer service training does not provide excellent customer service themselves, one can be certain that the training provided will be subpar at best. If calls are avoided, if it is difficult to reach a human over the telephone, or if emails go unanswered, that should be a giant, red flag to any business seeking customer service training. Conversely, if the company offers individualized, friendly, and prompt service and feedback, it can be said that the company will be able to pass those skills on while conducting customer service training.

Finding customer service training need not be a time-consuming and stressful process. Keeping the above questions in mind, customer service training is not only a worthwhile effort, but can be a very profitable one as well.

Customer service training and sales training is offered to businesses of all sizes and from all industries through Molloy Business Development Group, LLC.