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January 04, 2004
To better customer service (Part 1)
Jim writes about developing a passion for excellent customer service as one area he'd like to focus this year.
I recently attended a professional development course to get some formal training on customer service. I've learned customer service in the trenches, as an employee, as a manager, and as a business owner. I was excited to go through a formal class and think about the experiences I've had on my own.
The most important point I got from the class is that good customer service is a learned skill, and is based primarily on good communications, which is also a learned skill. I've worked in a lot of jobs, including my own company, and at each one there was always a lot of discussion (usually in a lecturing or reprimanding tone of voice) about customer service. But I've never received any formal (or informal, even) training in good communications or good customer service.
If I were to hire someone who didn't graduate high school and had no formal training, I could hardly blame them if they couldn't write a decent email or create a P&L for me. Companies even spend several thousand dollars each year on professional training for each employee, to keep them current in their field of work.
Yet when employees can't work effectively as a team, or engage in productive conflicts, or provide good customer service, many businesses seem to draw a blank, and the best they can manage is to encourage employees to do "better" at communicating and customer service.
How?
Formal training is a necessary beginning. Training will give people a direction for improving. Consistent improvements in communications between employees and with customers can only happen when employees (and managers) are given a recipe for change. It will also get people thinking cricially about the underlying issues of communications and customer service, and place them in a frame of mind to analyze and improve their own skills in these areas.
I highly recommend the class I took (the next one is Jan 20). I consider myself pretty good at customer service, and I learned a lot from the class. For those who are not an employee at UofU, I'd recommend finding out if your HR department offers a similar class (they might be willing--even excited--to arrange one if they don't), or find one at a community college or professional training center near you.
Tomorrow I will write about some of the specifics I have learned from my own experience and from the class.
Posted by pete at January 4, 2004 08:45 PM
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