Top 10 Tips To Improving Your Customer Service Training

Train Your Representatives To Offer The Best Customer Services

The constant journey to improve your customer service offering matters. Here are the undeniable numbers: 

• Fact #1: A survey found that 79% of customers have made a purchase decision based on the quality of customer service. 
• Fact #2: The same survey found that 91% of customers said a positive customer service experience made them more likely to make another purchase. 
• Fact #3: Another survey found that 65% of customers said they have switched to a different brand because of a poor customer service experience. 

It can be a competitive advantage for companies that get customer services right. Companies like Trader Joe’s have found that high customer satisfaction equals loyal customers. Compared to their competitors, they have a smaller selection of products, no coupons, and no discounts, but they excel in customer satisfaction. Another example is the Ritz-Carlton which empowers every staff member to create a wonderful stay at their luxury hotels. This commitment includes any staff member spending up to $2,000 per incident without management approval to keep guests happy. 

Related Link: Don’t Stop at Customer Support, Think Bigger

Top 10 Tips To Improving Your Customer Service Training 

From looking at examples of companies like these and our own experience, Viewabo has compiled a list of 10 training tips for customer service excellence: 

Tip 1: Product Knowledge 

Customers turn to your representatives because they have a question or problem. The agents need to be experts in what the company is offering, know how the product is made, how to use it, and what could go wrong. Expertise requires in-depth training. Give agents product samples and time to use them as if they were a customer. If it is a service, allow the agent to experience it themselves. 

Tip 2: Customer Information

Customer service agents need to know who they are dealing with. Training should include in-depth training on the target audience and customer profiles. Try role-playing games to help agents get into the minds of their customers. Review past company CRM logs and service records or conduct interviews. These exercises will help agents understand a variety of situations and how others have handled them. 

Tip 3: Empathic Listener

Listening takes practice. Spend time with your agents and practice being attentive and responsive to customers during a conversation. Help them learn skills to push back the noise and distractions. Agents need to be able to focus on making an emotional connection and their ability to deliver information with compassion. 

Tip 4: Practice Patience

Emotional control is hard when dealing with different people and how they communicate. Training should include exercises on how agents can build their capacity to accept and tolerate people without becoming annoyed or anxious. Agents who can show patience and listen to customers without prejudice will win their hearts. 

Tip 5: Go The Extra Step

A little extra care will be remembered and treasured. Train and empower agents to go the extra mile to spend time and resources to exceed customer expectations. Allow agents to do what is in the customer’s best interest to resolve the issue completely. 

Tip 6: Proactive Problem-solving

Customers want companies to be proactive in reaching out to them. Many issues can be avoided if agents anticipate customer needs and actively find resolutions before they notice. This skill requires training in constantly identifying problems and tools to reach out to keep customers in the loop. 

Tip 7: Clear Communication

Communication is a skill that needs to be learned. Agents should have exposure to different learning styles to help them understand how customers process information. There are different tactics required with visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and text base learners. Agents also need to learn about the entire communication process and how information is passed from one person to the next. 

To learn more about Learning Styles, click here

Tip 8: Attitude Training

Creating a positive environment and attitude is a learned skill. Agents need to be able to control their feelings, values, and motivations in many difficult situations. Design training around the company’s culture and expected behavior within the workplace. 

Tip 9: Goal-Oriented Focus

The ultimate customer service empowerment would be to be 100% customer-centric. This would require the company to promote this mission to their agents and all employees at all levels. If successful, agents would have no hesitations or limitations in providing their best service. 

Tip 10: Ask For Feedback

Skip the star rating surveys and after-call questionnaires. Customer service agents should ask for direct feedback on their work during the conversation. This will help them understand what occurred and adjust their approach immediately. 

Related Links: Applying the 7 P’s of Customer Support

Capture Success In The Long-Run

We hope these 10 tips in customer service training will open up new ideas for your company to improve. Taking a quote from the movie Field of Dreams: “if you build it, they will come.” Agents need consistent and constant training to improve themselves and their abilities. Take some time to review how you train your customer service agents and how our 10 training tips can help.