During a cold winter season, smart organizations get busy preparing for spring. One way to prepare is to create (or confirm) a clear and motivating vision of what you want to become. Back this vision up with customer service training and other measures and you can transform your business for the better. Your engaging service vision is one of the “12 Building Blocks for a Superior Service Culture” we teach at UP Your Service! College. This vision can serve as a guiding light for customer service training and to focus your efforts now and in the future.

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Statistics consistently reinforce that the biggest challenge in today’s contact center environment is agent training. Turnover continues to be high; new hire costs are on the rise–$6500 per agent! At the same time, losing customers because of bad call experiences negatively impacts your bottom line. What can you do? How do you justify the training expenditure?

Research has been making a case for how spending in human performance areas such as training, translates into bottom line growth. Accenture’s study on the impact of training on ROI has some interesting results. (Smith, David. Y. and Waddington, Ted. Running Training Like a Business: Determining the Return on Investment of Your Learning Programs, Outlook Point of View, March 2003.)

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In a nutshell, a comprehensive New Employee Orientation Program increases employee engagement and retention. Increased employee engagement and retention let’s you keep and earn more money. In other words, happy, loyal employees mean happy, loyal customers. On the other hand, a typical ad hoc “first day” will increase expenses. In fact, 4% of new employees will leave after the first day! And you’re left to start all over again.

Specifically, a carefully designed and delivered New Employee Orientation Program will:

1. Reduce new employee start-up costs

2. Help make the new employee independently productive as quickly as possible

3. Provide your new employees with relevant information when they need to know it

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The question we have to ask ourselves is what great customer service? Well, I have a two pronged definition to define effective customer service. Here it is.

My two pronged definition of Customer Service:

1. Finding a need and filling it.

2. Doing for the customer what you know they want done for them.

Let’s break this down a bit.

First, finding a need and filling it.

What does this really mean?   Have you ever heard the saying that the customer is always right? Of course you have. Your customers keep preaching that to you.   But let me let you in on a little secret. It’s not true. That quote has been taken out of context for years. In fact, it is only half the original quote. The challenge is that you have probably only heard it that way and even more challenging is that your customers have only heard it that way too.

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Putting the “Service” Back in “Customer Service”

by: pianopl123

The future of customer service is here. Technology has made seeking out support faster and easier than ever. But, has your digital age company sacrificed true service in the name of automation?

Today, finding customer support is as simple as writing an e-mail or picking up the phone. But, even though you’re not face-to-face with your customers, you still leave a lasting impression. Do you come across as caring and competent, or menacing and mechanical?

Offering stand-out service on the Internet isn’t as hard as it is rare. Take these simple steps towards old-style service in the digital age:

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5 Traits You Cannot Teach In Customer Service

By Leonard Buchholz