Customer service expert Shep Hyken wrote in one of his articles ‘Customer service is not a department. It is a philosophy’ and many professionals would wholeheartedly agree with this.
When you utilise good quality customer service throughout the entirety of an organisation– from the recent hires to the CEO – you can improve the way that every element of the operation impacts the customer. This includes not only the employees on the front line, but also those working behind the scenes.
Customer service training makes the difference
As an example of the difference customer service training can make to unlikely roles in an organisation, imagine an employee behind the scenes in a logistics company. This person loads packages in and out of vehicles without ever interacting with a customer. Without keeping the customer in mind, these packages might seem to them like little more than boxes and a few dents and scratches that might be acquired during the loading process aren’t going to make much difference. But, to the customer, even superficial damage to their package can negatively affect their experience with the company – they might think that the company doesn’t care about their goods.
With customer service training, this employee that made a slight error will have a better understanding of how their work can make an impression on their customer.
Instilling customer-oriented mindset and culture
Customer service training doesn’t only supply individuals with the skills to manage and communicate with customers: it instils a customer oriented mindset and culture that can improve motivation, employee engagement and job satisfaction, as well as establish company priorities consistently across different departments.
A highly applicable customer service course like ServiceManagement, for example, can equip project managers and operations managers with useful strategies and techniques to create a customer-focused culture and inspire their team to take ownership over their role in the organisation.
Research has shown that employees often reflect back the attitudes and emotions of their managers, so a manager that is happy to go the extra mile for the customer and takes pride in the services and products they offer will be able to pass that outlook onto their team. Employees will be more productive, motivated and conscientious about the quality of their work.
Start from day one, company-wide
For any organisation, customer service training should start from day one and should be utilised in all departments. This doesn’t necessarily imply that you would need all of your employees to receive official certifications, but an effective New Employee Orientation that highlights the basic principles of customer service and in-depth customer service training for managers and senior employees can greatly impact the quality of your products and services and significantly improve customer retention.
You can also establish a relationship between employee and customers by showing them how their work affects the customer. This can be done by sharing customer reviews, making employees aware of interactions with customers on social media, or allowing them to get first-hand experience of the front line and answer customers’ queries.
The aim is to make them aware that there are people on the other side of the operation that will receive the efforts that employees put into their work.
Takeaway: CEO – What’s your role?
What’s important to remember before investing in the appropriate training is that creating a customer focused company culture all starts with the CEO. In order for you to create a customer focused operation, you need to first realise how important customer service is to your organisation and how it fits in to your company culture.
You are the one responsible for establishing your ethos and mission statement and without you to set the standards and affirm the importance of customer satisfaction, the customer service training and knowledge you provide for your employees will not be used to its full potential.
