Why is Customer Service Training So Important?
Customer service can greatly impact the success and perceptions of your organization. Great customer service can help you attain new business and maintain relationships with loyal customers. Every employee that interacts with customers helps to shape these impressions. This is why customer service training is important.
Training your employees gives you the opportunity to set standards and expectations. It gives your employees the opportunity to better understand the role they play in the company as well as improve their skills and learn new ones. Training your employees in customer service can improve customer satisfaction as well as increase and profits. Businesses that provide quality customer service earn revenues between 4% and 8% above their market.
What Kinds of Training Methods are There?
There are 4 methods you should know about
1. Instructor-Led Training
This form of training is highly interactive allows for conversation, knowledge sharing among team members and employee engagement. Because this kind of training can be interactive it is a great way for employees to learn both soft skills as well as the kinds of communication skills they will need to provide excellent customer service.
This method is not recommended for highly technical training or for small groups of people with varying skill levels. Instructor-led training can also be more expensive than other options.
2. Webinars
Webinars are great for large groups. They are especially useful when training many people who are in various locations because participants can watch from just about anywhere with a decent internet connection. Webinars can also be recorded and watched later which is convenient for those with busy schedules.
There isn’t a need for a venue or travel this option tends to be more cost-effective.
The disadvantages are potential technical issues such as lag time, incompatible internet browsers and devices such as mobile phones and tablets. The training sessions are virtual there is less control over the participants environment which could lead to distractions. Creating an engaging webinar can help minimize these problems.
3. E-learning Training Programs
Online training programs can be used for any group size. They often take less time and money to set up because much like webinars they do not require travel or a venue. Training can take place anywhere with an internet connection.
These kinds of customer service training programs often teach customer service skills by simulating interactions with customers. This helps employees learn how to best provide customer support.
Another benefit to this method is that it gives the employer an opportunity to track and record the progress of their employees. This data can lead to useful insights.
One problem that can arise with e-learning training programs is employee motivation. Often employees just click through the program without retaining any of the information. Creating an engaging program can help prevent this.
4. Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS)
Electronic performance support tools help employees with technical skill training they need to provide effective customer service. An example would be Walk Me, which is a cloud-based platform that integrates with online applications and websites.
The tool helps guide users through each step of whatever process they are trying to learn. It is a lot like having a digital support team. Instead of someone telling you each step in-person; the tool uses icons and balloons to lead you through the process. This tool improves service experiences by teaching employees in a technical process in their moment of need.
Choosing the Right Training Method
When choosing the right customer service training method for your organization there are many factors to consider such as cost, the specific customer service skills you would like your employees to learn and how they best learn new skills. Amongst the plethora of custom eLearning solutions, choose the best one to train your customer service team that best suits your business objective.….how they best learn new skills. Amongst the plethora of custom eLearning solutions, choose the best one to train your customer service team that best suits your business objective.
After the training, employees should have a better understanding of the product or service the organization is providing and how to handle common questions and scenarios.
Instructor-led training is great for learning soft skills and interactive learning. Webinars are a good way to teach customer service skills to large groups who may live and work far apart from each other. E-learning training programs are good tools to use if you are trying to simulate customer service scenarios or if you want to track employee understanding and progress. Electronic Performance Support tools help employees learn technical processes.
When creating customer service training programs blended curriculums are almost always the best approach. More specifically, studies have found that the best learning experiences occur when programs focus on how employees best learn. An effective model of that does this is the 70: 20: 10 Framework. This type of framework is set up where training is 70% on the job, 20% is peer learning and 10% is achieved through formal learning methods. Overall Choosing the right customer training method that focuses on how learners best absorb information will help improve both the customer experience and success of your business.
To learn more about customer service training visit infoprolearning.com
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