TRAINING: DON’T IGNORE
THE SOFT SKILLS
By John Tschohl
Customer service is the
cornerstone of a successful business, and training is the
cornerstone of customer service. If you train your
employees in the skills that will allow them to do their
jobs with skill and efficiency, they will provide
exceptional customer service. And, if you provide your
customers with exceptional customer service, they-and
their money-will return to you week after week, year after
year.
Also critical to your success is the focus of the training
you provide. Many training programs concentrate on
technical skills, completely ignoring the soft
skills-which include listening to and understanding what
the customer is saying-that are vital elements of customer
service. They fail to realize that how employees treat
customers is every bit as important as their mastery of
the technological systems your company has in place. Put
another way, it is not enough for an employee to know how
to use a computer to solve a customer’s problem, the
employee also must be trained to ask the appropriate
questions to determine the cause of that problem and to
empathize with the customer in the process.
Before developing or purchasing a training program, you
must identify both the technical skills and the soft
skills your employees need in order to take care of your
customers. For example, call centers typically spend 80
percent of new hire training time on products, 10 percent
on call center systems, and the rest on hard and soft
skills, according to Elizabeth Ahearn, president of The
Radclyffe Group, a training consultant group based in
Fairfield, New Jersey. A preferred ratio, she says, is 50
percent on hard and soft skills, 35 percent on products,
and 15 percent on systems. Companies that follow that
formula, she says, not only would generate greater
customer satisfaction, they would reduce employee
turnover. But more about that later.
Ahearn goes on to say that every customer satisfaction
survey she has conducted places issue resolution at the
top of the list, while product knowledge and technology
training rank toward the bottom. Not surprisingly when
companies boost their soft skills training, their customer
satisfaction ratings-and their sales-increase.
Employees who haven’t been trained in the art of customer
service will find themselves frustrated at their lack of
skill in, for example, handling customer complaints. That
frustration will quickly turn to anger, at both the
customer and the company, and will result in employees who
do more to turn customers away from your doors than to
invite them in.
A major obstacle for many companies is the cost of
training. Many companies simply don’t train their
employees because they think those employees will then
take those skills and head to the competition. While that
might occasionally occur, the employees who stay with you
will perform better than if they hadn’t been trained.
It’s important to realize that most employees don’t go in
search of new jobs in order to make more money. They do so
because they haven’t been trained to handle the jobs
they’re currently doing. Training has another benefit:
When you take the time and make the investment to train
your employees, they feel valued. And, when they feel
valued, they are loyal.
Of course, cost is still a consideration, but excellent
training programs are available at affordable prices. For
example, the Service Quality Institute (SQI) offers
several customer service training programs, including
FEELINGS, which can be conducted online, or in a classroom
setting with an SQI facilitator or the company’s own
facilitator. Technology-based training can cost 50 percent
less than facilitator-led training (FLT), because it
negates the need for training room space and long periods
of time spent away from the office. On the other hand, the
benefits of a FLT program include group interaction, which
increases employee involvement. I recommend a blend of
both types of training to maximize the results.
Whatever route you choose, training must be continual in
order to reinforce the skills and behaviors employees need
to perform well for your customers. Train each employee
within the first two weeks of hiring and provide
additional training at least every six months. And, just
as you vary the advertising you use to lure customers
through your doors, you must vary the training you use to
train and keep your employees. Make that training fun,
focus on the fundamentals of customer service, and use a
variety of media to keep employees interested.
Employee training, as with every company expenditure,
involves a return on investment. While that return is
easily identifiable for expenditures such as new computer
systems, it is more difficult to calculate for soft
skills. How do you measure the impact of an employee is
who empathetic with customers and solves their complaints
quickly and to their satisfaction? One way to do so is to
determine the lifetime value of each of your customers. If
that value is $1,000 and the cost to train an employee is
$200, you will lose at least $800 by not training your
employees to provide the type of service that will
maintain that customer’s loyalty. It’s not uncommon for a
business to lose 15 to 20 percent of its customers each
year. If you cut those defections in half, you could more
than double your growth rate.
The bottom line is this: If you want to increase customer
loyalty-and reduce employee turnover-provide training that
not only teaches employees the technical aspects of their
jobs but gives them the soft skills they need to provide
superior customer service.
John Tschohl is an
international management consultant and speaker. Described
by Time and Entrepreneur magazines as a "customer service
guru," he has written several books on customer service,
including The Customer is Boss, Cashing In, and Achieving
Excellence Through Customer Service. As president of the
Minneapolis-based Service Quality Institute, he has
developed more than 26 customer service training programs
that have been distributed and presented throughout the
world. You can contact John at (800) 548-0538 or e-mail
him at
quality@servicequality.com.
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