Customer Service Training Tools: Changing Attitudes and Behaviors

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Customer Service Advice

Changing Attitudes and Behaviors

Virtually all employees know customer service is critical to their organizations success. Intellectually almost every employee knows customer service is important.

Then, why is service consistently lousy? Some would say, non-existent. This is true in almost every corner of the world.

How often do you experience superior service? Intellectual awareness of customer service does not mean that employees do it. In order to drive superior service you first have to change your employees ATTITUDES AND

Behaviors.

The most difficult thing to get employees and managers to use is COMMON SENSE.

After you change the attitudes and behaviors you then need to teach the "art of service." Many executives are reluctant to invest in training employees on common sense or the basics. It is a little like golf. We all know you need to hit the little white ball down the fairway. It should land on the green and then roll into the cup. So simple. Even those who take lessons have problems accomplishing this seeming simple task.

Tiger Woods makes about $80 million dollars a year in tournament fees and endorsements because he is the best golfer in the world. Tiger also spends more time practicing the basics and fundamentals than virtually any other golfer in the world.

If you want to be a Tiger Woods in customer service then you have to practice the basics over and over and over. Year after year. Flawless execution of the fundamentals is what you want from yourself and each person on your staff.

Attitudes

Attitudes have a lot to do with superior service. Most employees think they are incredibly good. Management tends to believe they are perfect.

To create a service culture and have incredible customer service you have to keep training your total workforce, yes total workforce, on the skills of customer service. It is imperative that in the process you have a heavy emphasis on changing attitudes and behaviors so your customer service is more than just " intellectual awareness".

In any learning or training environment their are several ways you can develop superior attitudes and behaviors. First, the training must be built with experiential learning. This means at LEAST 80% of the training time should be built around group discussion. A facilitator needs to be trained to NEVER answers questions. They need to get the trainees to discuss the issue among themselves so common sense floats to the top. The leader's guide you use should be instructionally designed so the training time is used effectively.

Second, you need to build the self worth and self esteem of your employees. You need to help them feel good about themselves. Often employees have personal problems that affect their performance on the job. Create an environment where the employees feel that the training is helping them with their personal problems as well as their job performance.

Third, you need to teach the basics of customer service. The fundamentals of customer service need to be reinforced over and over again. Wouldn't it be great if the next time you went to your bank everyone recognized you, greeted with a warm smile, called you by name and as you left the bank a bunch of employees waved to you, thanked you for coming and used your name. This is what I call the basics. How often does this happen in any organization?

Service leaders value their employees; continually train them in customer service. Many service leaders run customer service new training program every six months. There are no training programs that SQI has or that I have seen that are so powerful that an individual will be changed for life. This means we need to introduce new training programs at least every 6 months to build and maintain a service culture.