Expectations, goals in training for improved customer service experience

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/02/2025 (310 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I have received several interesting requests from readers of recent articles asking for more details on how they can improve the quality of the customer service experience.

The work I do with clients can be incredibly detailed and moves beyond a couple of points in an individual article. That said, I am delighted to offer some deeper insights to not only get you started but to take your customer service delivery to a higher level.

First, reviewing any customer service experience program begins with asking why you believe it is necessary.

Are you seeing a drop in sales? Are you experiencing an increase in negative comments from customers? Are you hearing concerns from employees about specific customer service experience challenges in their daily interactions? Do you sense an opportunity to keep customers or add new ones?

If you do not understand the problem you are trying to solve or the opportunity you are trying to exploit, your efforts may not yield the hoped-for results. Since you are looking to improve, you must understand what it is you want to change.

Once you know why you want to change aspects of your customer service experience, I always begin with a review. The review is an assessment of current policies, training and any research that provides a measure of how satisfied your customers are. Customer satisfaction scores are typically a reflection of overall responsiveness, knowledge, empathy and problem solving.

Once you have the baseline from your review, you can determine the areas of strength to reinforce and the weakness(es) to be addressed.

To guide your efforts, remember the single most important indicator of future business performance is a strong, customer-obsessed culture.

Second, your entire organization needs to understand the elements of customer service that require adjustment so you can train and reinforce the correct behaviour. Using the data from your review, you can assess existing customer service training methods against the baseline to determine gaps in what employees are currently being trained on and what they should be trained on.

One of the most challenging and effective tools I use is to record roleplays. This is what professional athletes do on a regular basis with their coaches.

“The eye in the sky doesn’t lie” is a phrase I have personally experienced during my football and business careers. I know that while it is difficult to see yourself on video and have your performance reviewed, it is the most effective method to show employees how they actually look in customer interactions.

You get to see what is real.

This approach shows exactly how people say and do things. Hand gestures, body language, “umms’ and “awws” are there for the employee and customer to see. Knowing how you actually interact helps employees answer the question, “Would you buy from you?”

The recipient can feel like the critique is personal, so it is essential whoever is conducting the review address the performance and make adjustments so the employee gains confidence. You are reviewing the performance and not the person. This is the key.

The goal in these exercises is to help your team become more confident and proficient in what they say and do. When you achieve greater confidence and proficiency, you will also achieve greater trust that employees are treating customers consistently in the standard you expect.

Never train for the exceptions — train in the foundational areas and build confidence and trust that an employee can adapt to the unique situation when they face it.

Finally, you are ready to “go live” with customers. Your team is now more focused and confident on the correct actions and approaches.

The leader or consultant helping with the training should covertly view interactions with actual customers. The goal is to then reinforce the right actions and continue to build confidence with your staff. This feedback loop is essential and should continue even after your program is fully implemented.

In addition to this training, you can now expand policies to be more customer-centric and supportive of employees based on the evaluation and training completed in this process. When everyone is on the same page for the right reasons, you are well on your way to future success.

Tim’s bits: Employee confidence has several benefits. In addition to feeling certain in their actions with customers and colleagues, they are more attuned to looking for opportunities to continue to improve. Creating an environment where people feel good about what they do, how they do it and how it is noticed by leadership leads to a powerfully customer-obsessed culture. A winning culture is the foundation for a winning game plan.

Tim Kist is a certified management consultant, authorized by law, and a Fellow of the Institute of Certified Management Consultants

of Manitoba

tim@tk3consulting.ca