Implementing a new customer service program is a difficult thing. In a competitive market, it is vital to have a clear understanding of your businesses’ motives and that the consumer recognises that they are at the heart of every step of the decision process to make that their customer experience as streamlined as possible.
Customers will only invest into businesses they trust, and so it is important to understand the needs of your clients, customers and employees of your establishment.
Understand your customers
A fundamental starting point for creating a training program will be understanding who your customers are, their motives, and characteristics.
One of the simplest ways of researching this will be getting your team together and uncovering what they think makes good and bad customer service. From here, you can discuss whether there are any examples they have previously experienced.
Additionally, you could perform role plays in the perspective of the customer, working out the exact journey they will go through from the initial first words of the interaction, to potentially buying into the product or service.
All these exercises will allow your team to assess what works for customers, but also how they can improve their own service.
Have clear business values
Once you have understood your customer’s needs, it is important to establish a set of values which your business endeavors to achieve. You want to create an environment which will improve customers and your own employees sense of satisfaction.
Values not only need to be empathetic about the customers’ needs, but understand the way we treat each other, setting out the standards of work and behavior. With 4-5 values in place everyone will be able to recognize the business model, this will make overall strategies better as everyone will sing off the same page.
Business values must be visible and understood so that you can carry out your brands vision. Remember: value your customers and employees and they will value you.
Empower your business
You want your colleagues to feel as passionate about good service as you do, and it is therefore important to role model these principals, so your co-workers understand your vision.
Imagine you teach one-person information about what makes good customer service, then they tell another etc. If we engage with our peers, eventually everyone has the same experience and can help with the smallest details of the job, making initial training that quicker and more digestible.
It can be hard to find the time and resources to implement a customer service training program but Elliott Training have experience with both big and small companies. We create bespoke workshops centered around your business values. We have delivered training in customer service to companies like Computershare, BAM PP and a variety of other companies.
Want to book spaces on our courses or find out what’s on offer? Fill out a contact form or call us on 01454 203 355