Training your customer services staff is a key part of offering a great customer experience. Because even the most knowledgeable member of staff can use training to refine their technique and ensure they have all the right approaches. There are lots of different ways to train your staff, so which have proven the most effective?
Mock calls
Mock calls are a brilliant way to role play a situation and help staff decide how to handle it – then give them feedback on their responses. A manager and staff member take turns in handling a ‘call’ with one being the customer and the other the customer services rep. Not only does this help judge how the staff member is doing but also provides them with a look at how the manager would handle the same scenario.
Personality testing
We’ve all seen those personality tests online where you get to know whether you are an introvert or extrovert and all the rest. But the real thing can be a great way to identify the communication, leadership and conflict management styles of your new or existing employees. This helps to handle customer services training and to better understand the individual. Examples include the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, 16Personalities and the DiSC profile.
No no’s allowed
This is a team training exercise where everyone takes a change as the customer and as the rep. The idea is to deal with the query without using the word ‘no’. This is a great way to learn reps about how to handle queries where they can’t provide what the customer wants without just giving a flat no. It can involve phrases such as ‘I don’t know’ and ‘we don’t do that’ as well. The aim is to reframe a no into something positive because nothing makes a customer irate than a flat out no to a query.
Employee shadowing
One of the most successful approaches to training customer service staff involves shadowing others doing the job. This allows the new staff member the chance to hear a whole range of situations, queries and how the staff member hands it. Navigating conversations, handling common queries and managing those irate customers are all things that can be taught but it is easier to do through demonstration in real life situations.
Product demonstration
To sell something, you need to know it very well and product demonstration calls or presentations can be an ideal way to test this knowledge. Staff are tasked with providing a ten to fifteen minute presentation or demonstration of the product to walk the ‘customer’ through all the most important information.
Call reviews
The ultimate tool for customer service development is call reviews. This provides feedback on real life calls, helps to look at what worked and what could have been handled differently. It allows managers to provide personalised reviews and training based on the calls that they listen to and can also be used to train others in what works or what could be done a little differently.
Elliott Training has experience with both big and small companies, and we feel confident we can help your business and your team to deliver the best customer service possible with the specific customer service training for managers that we provide.
If you’d like to know more about our Customer Service training courses, please contact us through email, phone or contact form.