Customer Service
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levels of compensation? Does customer service performance play a
significant role in the decision? Are customer service criteria clearly
outlined so that everyone understands how service performance
impacts their pay? The criteria, of course, must align with the
values that are at the core of your service initiative. This process
requires objective measurements of performance and thorough
communication of expectations. Adjusting the compensation
system causes a lot of short-term anxiety, but is important for long-
term sustainability of any service improvement process.
Training
Most service initiatives include training for all frontline and
management employees. Organizations mistakenly think that such
“kickoff training” is all that is necessary. Organizations that are
truly committed to creating a culture of service excellence know
that kickoff training simply provides a common understanding
of the service initiative and begins the education process. Such
training must never stop. Most of the organization’s internal
training mechanisms will have to evolve to include consistent
messages about service excellence.
Committing to ongoing
formal training demonstrates
that service is not a flavor-of-
the-month initiative, but an ongoing
organizational strategy.
New Hire Orientation
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New hire orientation is usually a dumping ground for a variety
of topics that have no business appearing in orientation. Since all
new hires go through orientation, it seems easiest to simply add
any new rule or policy to orientation. Such information will never
be remembered by the new hire, since there is usually no context
for learning most of these subjects. The purpose of orientation
parallels the word itself, orienting new employees to the organiza-
tion and getting them headed in the right direction.
The company’s approach to service excellence should certainly
be a part of orientation. If service excellence is to be a competitive
differentiator, all new employees must understand what is expected
from a service perspective. Review your new hire orientation. Let’s
say that it lasts one day. How much time is dedicated to customer
service issues? Fifteen minutes? Thirty minutes? If customer service
is supposed to be a critical component of the culture, doesn’t it
deserve more attention than a 15- to 30-minute brief overview?
Make sure that the content that was included in the service
initiative’s kickoff training is included in new hire orientation. This
will involve condensing, moving or even eliminating other content
currently in the orientation program. That is probably a good
thing.
On-The-Job Training
Who conducts the on-the-job training in your organization?
Are those employees selected to train others simply the most
available or are they truly role models of your service culture? Being
selected as a trainer should be an honor. It should signify that,
not only is the employee technically expert, he/she embodies the
values of the organization. Organizations that sustain a culture of
service excellence carefully select their trainers using specific criteria
that include modeling excellent service. These trainers are, in fact,
trained on training others. They are taught how to put together
a training plan, how to adapt training to different learning styles
and how to incorporate the organization’s values in the training.
This means that train-the-trainer sessions must occur to ensure that
service is an integral part of on-the-job training.
Pertinent training materials, such as instructor guides, training
manuals, participant materials, etc., must evolve to include the
service initiative’s content. Many times I have been asked to assist
with an already existing service improvement initiative that had
not achieved the hoped for impact. In some cases, the initiative was
kicked off 2-3 years previously. One of the first things I ask to see
is a sample of training materials. I’m sure you are not surprised that
many times these materials are seriously out of date and include
nothing about the “new” service initiative. Yes, it takes a lot of time
to review and update the materials, but such updates help to ensure
that the service initiative continues past the kickoff and doesn’t rely
on trainers to “remember” to include service content.
Ongoing Training
Formalized refresher training on customer service should
occur yearly at a minimum. Such training can take place in a
variety of formats such as best practice forums, e-learning or simply
straightforward training that continues to build on the service
initiative. Committing to ongoing formal training demonstrates
that service is not a flavor-of-the-month initiative, but an ongoing
organizational strategy. If it has been a year or more since specific,
formal customer service training occur