Businesses that allow their personnel to undergo a customer service course have an advantage over those that do not bother to provide adequate training to their customer service staff. As businesses grow, the training of frontline personnel becomes a critical area that may determine how much a business will prosper. By training staff members under an appropriate customer service course, management demonstrates its concern not only for their staff but also for the customers themselves.
Customer service is a critical area in many enterprises as it can make or break day-to-day business transactions. There have been numerous cases where key business relationships unduly dissolved only because of a less than responsive customer service. Good customer service will always be in demand and is a must for businesses across all industries.
As we expound the virtues of developing a customer service oriented enterprise through staff training, it is equally important to determine the right blend of training that will yield the best results for particular businesses. Some course contents for customer service are too superficial for certain applications while there are others that are, in a manner of speaking, overkill for other businesses.
Nevertheless, the basic skills and knowledge required to develop proficiency in customer service should be contained in the training course's syllabus or course outline. There are several things that one should expect in choosing an appropriate training course.
Course Content
The following points should always be present in a customer service course:
Focusing on the customer. The course should always put an emphasis on putting the customer first. This is the core of customer service.
Improving communication skills. Staff members who interact with clients must demonstrate impressive communication skills. Key facets of business communication must be tackled namely, email correspondences, telephone interaction and face-to-face communication.
Handling of difficult customers and genuine complaints. Complaints are indicative that something is not to the satisfaction or expectation of the client and should be handled judiciously and effectively. Properly, timely and professionally settling an issue raised by a customer, unruly or otherwise, saves the company from having to perform problematic and costly damage control later should the matter grow and remain unresolved.
Excellence in customer relationship management. The ability to build and manage valuable customer relationships is the cornerstone of excellence in customer service. Customer relationships go beyond mere superficial interaction and put the customer at the center of the successes achieved by the business.
Other Course Essentials
Apart from the essential course content enumerated above, other important things to consider in selecting a customer service training program includes the quality of the course materials, simulation activities, pre and post training assessment, follow up trainings and, when appropriate, a customer service proficiency certification.
A customer service course is a valuable investment into human resources towards achieving business excellence. When these items and course components are present in the customer service course being considered, the company's management may rest assured that the training will have desirable results towards a better overall customer experience.
You know the feeling. We've all been there. On hold, wading through phone menus, wasting time. The most frustrating thing is when you tell your story to one rep, then they decide they need to hand you off to a different department, and so on.
Well I must give credit where credit is due. Yesterday I had two truley surprising customer service experiences. In a GOOD way!
First the webcam on my Dell notebook wouldn't work. Their site had a "Chat with a Technician" button, so I tried it. The technician responded quickly, asked the right questions, diagnosed the problem and posted a link to a download, then used GotoAssist to install and configure it for me. I was back in business in 30 minutes.
The best part was that during the entire chat, my cell phone was ringing off the hook and I was able to take every call and take care of business while the Dell rep was taking care of my computer. It was as painless as it could have been.
Then the same evening I had a rare opportunity to pick a pay-per-view movie of my choice and relax. The kids were having a sleep-over and my wife was out with her family. Comcast's Movies On Demand wasn't working properly.
This time I just called the number on the screen and started wading through the phone system, and got disconnected, twice.
So I hit their website and noticed the Chat button again. I tried it again and within 10 minutes, my movie was on. As before, I was able to do other things while the process went on, rather than being stuck on the phone. The pizza guy came while I was chatting with the Comcast technician, I let the dog out, a phone call came in, life continued uninterrupted.
One note - I asked both the Dell and Comcast reps where the actually were and they were both here in Texas. I think the fact they weren't overseas improved the quality of the experience.
My company has been using chat for technical support for a couple of years and its definitely been a win-win. Its more efficient for us and our customers find it quick, easy and convenient.
I have to give Comcast and Dell Customer Service Grades of A+ for the way they leveraged chat to do an excellent job taking care of me.
The great news is that its also easy to set up in any business, even the smallest of businesses. If your business has a website, you can set up a chat button within a day, or less. Boldchat and LivePerson are two that we've used and have been pleased with.
In any business, large or small, adding chat to your website is bound to be a win. There are always going to be times when you're team is tied up on the phone and the next customer ends up on voice mail or on hold. Chat can be another answer.
Now, imagine a client initiates a chat by entering their name or email, your attendant looks them up in a contact management database and sees the history of their relationship with your company and previous chats and service requests. Now your client is really getting treated like a king!
I know I'm going to be finding new ways to leverage chat. You should too.
BTW - I watched "I Am Legend" with Will Smith. Pretty darned good.
Both Sheila Mulrennan & Craig Klein are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Sheila Mulrennan has sinced written about articles on various topics from Time Management Skills, Sales Training and Customer Service. Sheila Mulrennan is a business author and journalist who regularly contributes articles on Management, Personal Development and. Sheila Mulrennan's top article generates over 12100 views. to your Favourites.
Craig Klein has sinced written about articles on various topics from Customer Service. Craig Klein, Founder of SalesNexus, provider of online contact management solutions