 The Importance of Training for Customer Service

 How do Customers Evaluate Service Quality?

 Customer Service Training ideas
 The Importance of Team Building
 Easy Team Building Ideas
 Customer Perceptions
 To the Customer you ARE the company
 Organizations with Happy Customers are
more successful
 Financial Benefits
 Happy Customers come back
 Happy Customers tell their friends
 Providing good Customer Service doesn’t come
naturally to everyone.
R Reliability – Deliver on Promises with dependability &
accuracy

A Assurance - Knowledge, courtesy, ability to convey trust,

competence and confidence

T Tangibles - Facilities appearance, comfort, look and feel of

Marketing materials, etc.

E Empathetic - Degree of caring and individual attention the

customer receives

Responsive - Willingness to help promptly – without

R distraction
 Organizational commitments
 Promises made via advertising, marketing, policies,
contracts, etc.
 Common Expectations
 Customer expectations are often based on
assumptions and past experience
 Personal Promises
 Agent to customer promises

Often the challenge is to reshape customer expectations. Are you

training your folks how to do this?
 Assurance Factor
 Product Knowledge & Company Knowledge
 Listening Skills – Active listening skills
 Communications Skills - includes verbal and written
(in-person, phone, and email service)
 Problem-Solving Skills
 Tangibles
 Take pride in your environment, yourself, your
workspace and any forward-facing delivery
mechanisms (online and marketing materials too!)
 Empathy
 Recognize the Emotional State of the Customer;
validate their feelings
 Treat each person as an individual
 Responsiveness
 Respond quickly
 Set Expectations – deliver on those expectations

Research shows that the most frustrating part of

waiting is not knowing how long the wait will be.
 Train for Active Listening, Questioning, etc.
 Use Case Studies to open discussions
 Soap Story, Johnny the Bagger
 Group Activities
 Role Playing, scavenger hunts.
 FISH! Philosophy www.thefishphilosophy.com
 Practice for Listening and Communications Skills.
Some Problem Solving involved.

Pair up trainees. One person faces the screen (director), the other has
their back to the screen (solver). The director has to sit on their hands
and is tasked with directing the other to complete the puzzle. They must
communicate clearly. The solver must listen to directions and can only
move the pieces as directed.
This is some correspondence which actually occurred
between a London hotel's staff and one of its guests.
The London hotel involved submitted this to the
Sunday Times. No name was mentioned.

Read the story then use these questions to facilitate a

discussion.

 What went wrong?

 How could the situation have been avoided?
 How could it have been curtailed before it escalated?
Forbidden Phrase . . . Replacement . . .
 I don’t know . . .
 “Good Question, let me look into that for you.“
 We can’t . . .
 “That’s a tough one, let’s see what we can do” (find an
alternative)
 You’ll have to . . .
 ”Here’s how we can help you with that.”
 Hang on a second, I’ll be right back. . .
 “I’ll need to ask an associate to be sure, are you able to wait while
I check into it?”
 No . . .
Find a positive alternative. “We are all out of stock, but we can give
you rain check or a similar product at the same price.”
 Pay attention to Content & Intent
 Ask great questions
 Use activities that hone questioning skills
 See the big book of customer service training games
 Tips:
 Tune in to the other person
 Limit distractions
 Don’t jump to conclusions
 Take notes and reflect information back
 Be prepared – use a Question Map/Flowchart
 Turn off your own worries
 The following quote from The Leadership
Challenge, outlines the responsibility of
leadership in Customer Service Delivery

 Lindsay Levin took over the reigns of her

family automotive business, Whites Limited, at
only 29 years old. She talks about what she
knows about enabling her folks to provide
great customer service.
 http://www.stservicemovie.com/ by Barbara Glanz and Ken Blanchard.

Barbara was hired by a supermarket chain to deliver

Customer Service training to build customer loyalty. During
her presentation she said: “Every one of you can make a
difference and create memories for your customers that will
motivate them to come back. How?”

“Think about something you can do for your customer to

make them feel special – a memory that will make them
come back.

A month later she received a call from a 19-year-old bagger

named Johnny. He proudly told her he was an Down
Syndrome individual and told her his story.
“I liked what you talked about”, he said, “but at first I
didn’t think I could do anything special for our
customers.” “After all, I am just a Bagger.”

“Every day after work, I’d come home and find a

thought for the day. If I can’t find a saying I like”, he
added, “I just make one up!”

His Dad helped him print them out on the computer.

Johnny would cut them out and sign them on the
back and bring them to work the next day.

When he finished bagging a customer’s groceries, he

would put a thought for the day in the bag and say
“Thanks for Shopping with us!”
The Manager was on rounds about a month later
and noticed a long line at Johnny’s line.
He called for more cashiers but no one would
move.
They all wanted to be in Johnny’s line to get his
“Thought for the day”.

Great service comes from the heart.

 Helps build strong working relationships
 Enhances teamwork and communications
 can make work fun and enjoyable
 has a positive impact on attendance and retention

People who have friends at work are more productive

and loyal
 Use Icebreakers & Introductions – be creative
 3 Truths & 1 lie
 Helps people learn about each other in a fun way
 Doodles
 Helps open up discussions
 facilitates getting to know each other
 Scavenger Hunts
 Building activities – balloon sculptures, coffee
cups towers, airplanes, etc.
Ingredients:

 Canvas(es)
 Paint

 Brushes

 Newspaper or

Paper Towels

Imagine how connected your employees will feel with their

art on the wall . . .
 www.johannstoessel.com
 Card Trick
 Teach them to Fish
 Logic Puzzles
Anderson, Kristin & Zemke, Ron. Delivering Knock Your Socks off Service.
United States of America: AMACOM, 1998.

Carlaw, Peggy & Deming, Vasudha Kathleen. The big book of customer
service training games. United States of America:McGraw-Hill
Companies, Inc., 1999.

Friedman, Nancy a.k.a “The Telephone Dr.”

http://www.telephonedoctor.com/

Glanz, Barbara & Blanchard, Ken. “Johnny the Bagger”

http://www.stservicemovie.com/

The Berkshire Leadership Group – Steven Green presenting

Delivering Exceptional Customer Service

Weisler, Kirk. Teambuilding Made Easy. SupportWorld Magazine. Also

available at: www.kirkweisler.com