Customer Service Training Articles

It’s 8:05am and I carefully pry myself out of my car, balancing a non-fat Venti Caramel Macchiato in one hand and briefcase in the other, while participating in a conference call with my boss and our Sales Director on my cell phone….The Master of Multitasking has once again conquered the impossible…..or so I think.

Growing up in Indianapolis, home of the Indy 500, I am a huge racing fan. It’s an exciting sport full of big wins and clever strategies…In today’s world, business is a lot like a race - having a good offensive strategy is critical, especially with the current economy.

The look of utter shock and amazement on my friend’s face as he related this conversation isn’t one I’ll soon forget. He asked me, “Who does this kid think he is?” The answer is he’s a member of what is known as “Generation Y” and there are many more just like him entering the workforce!

Imagine my surprise when I pulled up to my neighborhood Starbucks only to discover that they had closed down for the evening! For training! Who ever heard of such a thing?

Imagine perusing the Sunday paper for job opportunities and running across this ad: “Seeking call center professional that is tired, bored, unenthusiastic, apathetic and conveys an overall disinterest during the greater part of the day.”

The philosophy behind the phrase “Dress for Success” should extend beyond just the interview process. It’s tempting once we land the job we want to relax our standards and get a little too comfortable in our clothing choices. But while people aren’t supposed to judge a book by its cover, the reality is that most of them do. And how you dress could be saying more about you than you realize!

The most common and yes, the most obvious variable is that the product and service being discussed is as variable as your imagination can muster. But since most people call because there’s been a problem, a perceived problem, an anticipated problem, a question, a concern, and not because they are delighted with being one of your thousands of buyers of electricity, there is another common constant that is so often missed in handling calls. Compassion.

You will find that the members of management who aren’t afraid to have fun, smile, and act silly sometimes, are the managers who get the most from their staff. So, go on, have some fun, and see how a fun work environment can work for you and your staff!!!

The New York Times carried a small note of large interest to all of us in personnel management who are in contact with the public: “If one of your New Year’s resolutions was ‘I will be more patient’, be warned: Customer Service Reps are not going to make it easy for you!”

Ten years ago if you told someone you worked in a call center, they responded by asking, “A call what? What’s that?” No more. In fact, I’m waiting for the TV sitcom to come out because the life in a call center is such “real life” and full of story after story. So it’s no surprise that call centers make the news as did Victoria’s Secret recently, and it’s no surprise that in a letter to its credit card holders, Dress Barn alerted its customers to a change in the location of their call center operations.

Want to add some fun into the workplace while making sure that company or department standards are being met? It’s easy!

Put on your consultant hat and invite the manager to chat about the situation. There are some important considerations to look at before signing folks up for a return trip to the same class. First, look at the message sent to the returning staff person and their colleagues. Is a return trip for re-training a signal to everyone of failure the first time? Do other staff members think management is clueless about how to help this person?

An important six article series written by an industry expert who provides clarity for call center teams. The call center industry insists on interchanging the terms “coaching” and “monitoring.” But they are two separate and distinct activities that should be clearly set apart from each other. If you want to know who has a handle on how different these activities are, ask the people involved – management and the frontline. You will discover one question gets two different answers every time.

Effective coaching increases a person’s level of self-confidence due to the positive reinforcement that is deliberate during the feedback. It is this confidence that then catapults your staff into achieving mastery of the newly introduced behaviors. That being the case, then, everyone on the team needs coaching! Even those employees you would say are your so-called “best performers” benefit from coaching.

The front-end qualifier is sound (voice-tone presence) not appearance. If you bristle when you hear their voice, what will your customer do? If you lip-read to interpret their dialog while they answer a face-to-face interview question, what will your customer do on the phone?

When you were little, remember the teacher saying, “Good Job!” And remember how you felt when you test came back with a BIG GOLD STAR? WOW!
Recognition! It’s one of the most powerful motivators we have. Your employees may have certificates, trophies, and plaques all over their desks and walls. But why does it seem that it is typically the same group who win all the awards?

Whoever answers the telephone — it could be the receptionist, switchboard operator, customer service specialist, technical support engineer, or manager — is actually the company gatekeeper and sets the tone for the entire conversation during the first 3-5 seconds of the call!

Measuring soft skills in an objective manner has always been difficult, and it still is. The software and technology we have available is conducive to capturing real numbers; soft skills are simply more difficult to define and measure — which is exactly the reason they are often avoided or overlooked.

Beyond tools, toys, and trends lay the true essence of relationships – people interacting with people, and not all people speak the same language. In his book The Five Love Languages, Gary Chapman makes a profound observation about the frustration experienced in many personal relationships. He writes that “We have overlooked one fundamental truth: People speak different love languages.”

There is a goal in the hiring process: find the best person for the job. In pursuit of that goal there may be many people that just are not the right “fit” for the position. For these people, it is important to remember that they may not become an employee, yet they still may be a customer.