Although this is technically an interpersonal skill, it's so important for effective customer service and support that it deserves a separate section. A generic email response, or a well-researched answer sent from a service representative dedicated to their success? Appropriately managing each customer’s crisis and actively working to change their attitude is how you both serve and retain customers in the long run. Clarity in communication can improve customer service interactions tenfold — it’s the difference between sending 10 emails or one when explaining a product. If your product is software, obviously, it can be tricky to take apart. Also, check out this post for 19 more videos. You need to keep practicing it, over and over again, until it's perfect -- or in my case, until I can find the ball after I hit it. Customer expectations for service are constantly increasing. To gauge emotional intelligence, ask: “Can you tell me about a time you tried to do something and failed?”. To practice growing your reflective listening skills, break team members into pairs, and ask them to take turns responding to their partner by reflectively listening. On this thread, people take pretty complex topics, from biology to engineering to technology, and explain concepts as if they were teaching a child. This will remind employees how they should treat one another and how they should voice their opinions if they need to confront an issue. What did you do to solve it?”. No matter how well your team works together, it's important to conduct sensitivity training regularly. In these scenarios, speakers often use metaphors and paradoxes to compare their confusing points with other topics that their audience is more familiar with. That’s why training your customer support team is just as important (if not more) as training your marketing or sales teams. Outside of team meetings, there are plenty of online resources customer support and service reps can use to hone their education and skills to always keep improving. The key to customer advocacy is aligning your goals and needs with the customer and essentially “joining their team” as you work towards a solution. They've seen your product and company grow with its customer base and have been present for all the speedbumps and roadblocks along the way. Here's what you should focus on in terms of phone training: Being a customer service representative is tough work. Probably the latter. Challenge them to explain the product (or a portion of your product) in five minutes. Customer service reps need to be both assertive and direct. Premium plans, Connect your favorite apps to HubSpot. HubSpot uses the information you provide to us to contact you about our relevant content, products, and services. I’m doing this because hiring right is how you build a strong foundation for your customer service team — and how you ultimately ensure that your team is receptive to your training. It also helps customers to feel heard if they're dealing with a frustrating or time-sensitive issue with your product or service. Usually, a senior member of your company (e.g., manager, supervisor) or learning & development representative will play the role of an angry or disgruntled customer, and your employees will come up with an on-the-fly solution. Once the case is solved, reps switch places and repeat the scenario. I hope the nine ideas above will help you add some new perspectives to your in-house customer service training. I mean, they are doing their work, right? Customer service training materials. Building rapport as well as … hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(53, '45b1c88c-192b-4a93-b510-961f4008acd1', {}); Originally published Jul 22, 2020 7:17:00 PM, updated July 28 2020, 20 Ideas, Exercises, & Activities for Customer Service Training, The Ultimate Guide to Training for Customer Service & Support, 5 Software and Tech Tools That Can Help You Train Service Reps, 9 Soft Skills You Need to Master as a Customer Service Rep. HubSpot uses the information you provide to us to contact you about our relevant content, products, and services. Nowadays, customer-facing teams are labeled many different things: customer support, customer success, or customer service. Think about it this way — customers want quick and effective solutions to their challenges. As the name implies, customer service training is any type of activity aimed at teaching employees the knowledge, skills, or techniques they need to deliver effective and efficient customer service. No software, training exercises, or tools can compensate for gaps in this area. Whether they require materials like a whiteboard or simply involve your team, games are a way to teach valuable skills while encouraging teamwork and collaboration between your employees. These are letters written from the perspective of the customer that are addressed to the customer service employee. These four reasons are why right now is the perfect time to revisit your customer service strategy. We’ve gathered some of our favorites below. Considering you’re essentially teaching them to teach, they should know your product inside and out. Let's review some below. The expectations of the role might seem clear -- it's about helping and guiding customers to solve their problems and answer their questions. And given how your customers are your best growth opportunity, every employee should be working hard to keep them happy — whether from the position of a marketer, executive assistant, or customer service representative. The same goes for your customer support and service folks. By diving into these topics in-depth, employees can better understand one another and will be more considerate of their differences. This makes a complex topic much easier to understand because the speaker has connected it to a relatable concept. With over 4,000 likes, the value of this video speaks for itself. You’re training your employees to deal with some of the most important people in your life — your customers. These elements include a specific and relevant key message and the need for the exercise to be participative. Sarah: Hi, I was billed twice this month, and I need my money back. Invest in infrastructure that collects feedback from your customers, whether through surveys, social media, or direct messages. We share everything from customer service training activities to ideas for fun coaching games, as we help to freshen up your contact centre coaching programme. Clarity is easy to decipher during interviews and onboarding, but it’s still a skill that customer service representatives should hone throughout their careers, especially as new products or updates are introduced. Jot down five to 10 negative customer service responses and ask your team to rewrite them as positive statements. PowerPoints are a proven format for customer service training; however, if you are going to take this route, be sure to avoid some of the common pitfalls outlined in this video. Your candidates might not have a particular passion for your company just yet, but they should display a passion for working with customers and helping others solve their problems. These resources give employees the most up-to-date information on any new products that’ll be announced at INBOUND — which can be upwards of four or five major product releases! Ask routine questions and pay attention to different details during the call, like the rep's tone, the cadence of their voice, how quickly they were able to provide an answer, what type of follow up options they offered, etc. Periodically, teams should gather to listen to a recorded call with a customer and talk about what went well, and what can be improved. Your customer service team is going to be dealing with a variety of customer problems, and probably some that they wouldn’t quite deem problems themselves. Today, 48% of customers want to communicate with companies via phone call for customer service. Have your team present product demonstrations to you as if you were a brand new customer. Conducting mock calls that resemble a real customer service issue (and involve a seemingly angry caller) can help acclimate your team to the realities of upset customers. It’s also the key player in the game of customer retention. Maintenance anchors are actions that can be taken to maintain a positive attitude. Based on this, training reps how how they can provide a delightful experience via phone call is critical to your success. At this point, you might be asking, Why can’t I just hire the right people from the get-go and leave it at that? Premium plans, Connect your favorite apps to HubSpot. The topic doesn't matter -- it can be work-related, or it can be a presentation about their recent vacation photos, or an organization they volunteer with. Discuss contingency plans for potential shutdowns and what employees can share with customers if they ask about sensitive information. This training might look like a couple of different things: Sometimes, customer service training can’t be planned. The internal customer service philosophy is famously followed by companies like Virgin and HCL.By putting employees first, everything else falls into place. Below are some customer service training ideas you can use on your team to build a strong educational foundation -- no matter what industry you work in. However, this doesn't exclude your team from performing activities that can help them sharpen their skills. Here are some examples: There’s a lot that goes into customer service training, and it can be a daunting process to manage alone. That way, communication will be smoother on social channels and will create more delightful customer experiences. Ice breakers are an important part of customer service training. By reviewing these ideas consistently, new hires will feel more comfortable when joining your team, making them more productive early on. One way to do this is with a culture code. 1. You could train your employees to get that done and leave them alone. Schedule a team lunch on their first day. Its Customer Service Training course is geared towards beginners in the field so it’s a perfect place to start. It is cheaper and faster to do the job right the first time. To develop empathy on your customer service team, encourage them to spend time with people who are different than them. The customer service agent has to avoid saying no, while still providing value to the customer. That’s where role-play scenarios come in! This can be an extremely useful customer support skill to build to make sure you and customers you're helping are on the same page. For example, how does, “I’m not sure we can do that for you” sound when compared to, “Let’s see what we can do to solve that”? Our top 30 customer service tips will give you a few more ideas on exactly where to get cracking! It’s an iterative process that involves teaching skills, competencies, and tools needed to better serve customers so they derive more value from products and services. Marketing automation software. Customer service training, in this case, would be all about equipping your team with everything they need to know to do their job. Top-notch customer service skills will be invaluable to customer support managers. See all integrations. So, instead, talk to your employees about where your servers are located and how your software is powered. Think About the Different Ways People Learn (VARK) “Contact centres may benefit from putting [&hellip. Here are six free customer service tips you can start using today. As with any new role, the first month or two of training can dictate an employee’s long-term success. This course focuses on the social and cultural aspects of customer service and takes nine to 11 weeks to complete. Not to mention, reps are bound to encounter angry frustrated customers from time to time, too — this requires an even deeper level of conflict resolution on the part of reps. How about: “Let’s get you set up with the right person to help” versus “I can’t help with that”? If your team works with customers face-to-face, this exercise gives them a live environment to perfect their skills without risking customer churn. Train and onboard your new customer support hires with this customizable template. No matter how hard you try, sometimes you might get the blame for a problem or outage that's completely out of your control. So, here are a couple of training exercises to teach your customer service team how to deal with — and delight — difficult customers. Here are a few ideas for training on your product and company: Learn how to set up your knowledge base of articles in HubSpot's Service Hub. These images clarify and support your speaking points, making your presentation easy to follow and more impactful on the listener. Here’s what this type of customer service training entails: Acquainting the team. In this approach, the speaker briefly discusses a topic then opens the floor for the audience to ask questions. Tell your team to think about a time they were a customer and might’ve had a frustrating transaction or unsatisfactory experience. Integrating a brand advocacy strategy into your customer service training will allow you to receive support not only from customers but from your own employees too. In order to retain your customers and keep them happy so you can grow your business, you need to prioritize employee training so they're equipped to do that. Your customer service reps are responsible for keeping customers from running to your competitors. Smart companies always ask “What is good customer service?” Good customer service centers around carefully listening and attending to your customers’ needs and desires. In customer service, you often have to work quickly, but this doesn’t mean your communication skills should suffer. Question and answer, or Q&A, is a presentation style that's more intimate than the ones listed above. Of course, you’re going to hire highly-skilled people, but that doesn’t mean they don’t require training as a new hire and as part of a bigger team with a bigger goal — serving and delighting your customers. While passion isn’t quite a skill, it’s a fundamental part of going above and beyond in the customer service field. Have team members give them an office tour. Discover how to manage, plan for, and communicate during crises with these management plan templates. This is a critical skill for support reps when onboarding new customers who might be completely unfamiliar with how to use a product or service, and the Lunch and Learns will provide a safe space for reps to practice -- and to learn about each other outside of work. The benefit of this exercise is that reps can see the roadblocks they troubleshoot from the perspective of the user. Whatever the case, meditation can be a helpful tool for regaining and establishing mental relaxation and calm -- even in the middle of a busy workday. Give Your Full Attention. Apps like Headspace or YouTube videos can help if you want to do it as a team, too. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time. Sometimes, working on the front lines of customer support can be really stressful. Our new Director of Training and Possibilities, Katie Locke, has written the article below on ways to improve your internal customer service to help you with just that. Free and premium plans, Customer service software. Use these 10 customer service training ideas to build retention at your business. From these insights, you can identify the best practice ideas that you want to adopt within your own organisation. By being assertive and direct, reps make customers feel confident in the information they're being fed. This lets the speaker touch on specific training material while giving the rest of the team a chance to provide feedback or ask questions. Would you like help setting that up?". Here’s what urgent customer service training might consist of: Product or company updates. This is an important customer service skill because the customer will be more receptive if they feel understood by you. Onboard your new support hires with more clarity and efficiency using our Customer Support Training Template. Split your team into groups and have each one brainstorm two different types of anchors: maintenance anchors and repair anchors. Once your staff have reviewed your competitors, get them to share their experience with the rest of the team. We're committed to your privacy. This eBook has been designed with 50 tried and tested customer service training activities, featuring: Simple-to-deliver activities which require practically zero preparation or equipment. Assign One Customer Service Representative to a Single Customer / Account Customer service training is the coaching that employees receive with the goal of improving support and satisfaction among customers. Make the first day or two all about getting to know each other and learning how to work together. The word “no” is a trigger word that is known to evoke negative emotions in customers. Through a personality test, you can see how your agents communicate and what is their preferred working style. Customer service teams are often very busy, and you may not have time to host a formal training. This game is used to illustrate the power and importance of explaining what you are doing and why are you doing it. With this presentation, the speaker retells experiences that are relevant to their audience. The beauty of hiring a diverse workforce is that your employees encounter unique perspectives they may not have experienced before. Some are unconventional, while others might be ideas you are already using but didn't realize they qualified as training. Better yet, this customer might 1) be satisfied with their interaction with your company and customer service team and 2) go on to promote your business as one with great products and service. As self-led seminars, employees take ownership of their training and are exposed to skills and competencies outside the organization. Customer Service Training can make a huge difference to your organisation or business, and we're here to help you. Use positive language. But by offering alternative options, the customer might feel like the support rep is on their side, and won't get frustrated by what they perceive as stubbornness or inflexibility. Not only will this help each individual employee improve their skills, but it’ll also show your customers that you’re listening and care about what they have to say. Educate them about where your product's resources come from and how the manufacturing process is carried out daily. Foster a Customer-Centric Culture. (We do it here at HubSpot.) This will help reps maintain clear communication. Customer service is a company’s opportunity to connect with customers, solve problems, and show they care. On a regular basis, team members should take turns giving presentations during a team lunch. Instead of settling with “good enough,” challenge your team to do the best they can do, every day. You can find links to additional resources and descriptions under each technique. This resource lists all of the company's values and what it expects from its employees. See all integrations. These interactions will set the standard that your team will have to surpass. ficient in to help reach your end goal of effectively serving and delighting customers. Perhaps there’s a product recall, a major rebranding, or a national advertising campaign. What I'm hearing is that you were mistakenly billed twice in one month, and that you're looking for a refund. Good customer service boosts retention, reduces customer acquisition costs, and provides a powerful ally to your marketing strategy. They recap what happened, why it happened, and how they overcame it. Let’s see what you can use in your training. Happy, delighted customers are your very best bet for bringing in new business, and because of this, customer service teams need to deliver beyond your customers’ already high expectations. Resourcefulness is the difference between responding to a problem with “I don’t know” and “I will find out.” Problem-solving skills, initiative, and creativity are just a few competencies that align with resourcefulness. Check out ideas on how to do this in our resource customer service training ideas. Execute these customer service and support training ideas, and you’ll find your customers and employees more satisfied overall. communicate and collaborate with the team, basic ways to teach customer service to your reps, Culture of Services: New Perspective on Customer Relations, 6 Fun and Powerful Training Games for Customer Service Teams, 5 Software and Tech Tools That Can Help You Train Service Reps, 9 Soft Skills You Need to Master as a Customer Service Rep, Employee Engagement & How It Affects the Customer Experience, Maintaining a positive tone and attitude throughout the call, Remaining calm and professional, even on difficult calls, Asking customers clear and direct questions that help reps come to an effective solution efficiently, Presenting solutions in a way that will make sense for each individual customer, Using verbiage that's representative of your brand, Staying in control of the conversation and leading the customer towards an effective resolution, Making sure customers don't have any other questions or concerns before hanging up, Thanking the customer at the end of the call, Product Feature and Application Knowledge. Miguel: Hi Sarah. Camaraderie and community among professional teams in any industry can help with overall performance, but it’s especially important in customer service. These are activities that are performed after a call so reps can quickly bounce back and work with another customer. This is great for smaller audiences because each person has the opportunity to participate in the group discussion. There’s no better teacher than experience. Team members should be put into pairs and take turns role-playing the customer and the support reps. "Customers" should make big, bold requests that support reps can't say 'no' to -- but instead, have to figure out a solution-oriented response. If this is the case for your business, you should try the exercises below for improving customer service skills. Providing service that delights your customers and turns them into promoters involves excitement and passion for the success of both the company and the customer. Granted, the customer is not right 100% of the time; however, it behooves your company to make sure that your customers are almost always right or that they walk away feeling that they are. But, when they can think about it on a customer-to-customer scale, it becomes much easier to see how important your team is to your organization as a whole. Being able to walk in a customer’s shoes and be just as invested in finding a solution to a problem can help your customer service team reach that resolution much quicker … and make a customer for life. That's why starting off with a strong educational and training foundation is so important. Most likely the latter. But empathy doesn’t come easily to everyone, especially more technical, logical people. Consider writing out a training guide for your new hires that outlines what activities and plans to expect during training, what responsibilities they’ll have during their first few months, and any internal resources (like reading material or colleagues they should meet with) they can use to get acclimated. If these options aren't best for you, check out more presentation styles here. This is a challenging yet instrumental training if you want to do as much as possible for the customer. Just because a customer comes to you unhappy, angry, or rude doesn’t mean they have to walk away with the same sentiment. (Sorry, family.). Draw on past experiences to set expectations. Few types of presentations you can identify the best practice ideas that ’... For the customer that are relevant to their challenges the group feel comfortable. Problems are resolved are willing to shop with a business again frustration that is phrased... 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Practicing the job before doing the job recommended for all customer service representative is tough.... Each exercise when it becomes applicable during their workday been updated for comprehensiveness: “ can tell...
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