5 customer service training approaches to be wary of

A recently released Empathica study tells us that consumers perceive that customer service is continuing to worsen.  The survey of 15,000 Americans and Canadians identified consumers between the ages of 45-54 as being the most dissatisfied.

One of the recommendations for retailers coming out of the study was to institute better customer service training. Sounds like a great idea, but runs counter to most retailers instinctive staff-cutting, cost cutting model that comes with tough economic times.  The way to resolve this apparent conundrum will be for retailers to stop thinking of customer service as a cost, but as an investment.  In theory, training that improves service should also very quickly improve the bottom line.  In theory…

There are, however, a lot of skeptics to this theory - and rightly so.  "Show me the money," they say, "Show me the payoff."  And all too often, no one can.

The fact is that there is an abundance of poor-to-mediocre customer service training out there that companies opt for because it can save many thousands of dollars in the initial investment.  The problem is, of course, is that the money they do spend ends up going out the window.  It's like throwing a glass of water against a forest-fire.  What should you be wary of in choosing a customer service program?  Here are five things:

Do-it-yourself approaches:  Sure, anything you do yourself will have a cheaper price-tag, but unless you're a certified instructional designer with a great deal of expertise in customer service training, it is unlikely your program will make a significant difference to your business.

Self-directed approaches:  There are tons of self-directed programs out there - workbooks, videos, web-based programs - but they rely heavily on the participants already being engaged and excited about the process.  At best, only about 20% of participants will retain anything of value.  (Having said this, self-directed programs can have great value as part of an overall, integrated customer service training program)

Off-the-shelf programs:  Set, standard programs that rely on participants making the leap from general theory to application in your industry are only marginally effective, and are often painful to sit through.

Programs from general sources:  Customer service training is a very popular topic these days, and there are a lot of training companies (and colleges, etc) with different areas of expertise who are jumping on the bandwagon with programs of their own.  Their trainers might be training Excel Spreadsheets 101 one day, and Customer Service 101 the next.  There is no way they can possibly be as effective as training coming from a company that lives, eats and breaths customer service.

One-dimensional programs:  A training workshop, no matter how good, will not have the impact you are looking for unless there are components in place to support it and transfer the learning into new behaviors in a live environment.

Effective training should have a significant and measureable effect in the workplace.  Sometimes, in very transactional industries (like retail), you can actually measure the direct impact of training on sales - then you will really know how good the training is. Another option is to measure using mystery shopping or a similar approach. In other industries, you may have to use a more subjective, anecdotal measurement.  It's a little less concrete, but it's really not hard to tell when employees have become engaged.  You can see them use the skills, hear them talking about and referring to the training for weeks afterward.

Yes, you might get lucky with a bare-bones customer service training program.  But the question I always ask is, why take the chance?