Tips for planning customer service training

Planning customer service training – how to plan smarter, not harder!

In this article, I’m going to share with you some simple tips that will help with planning customer service training.

My formula for success?

Who, why, what, how + inspire and motivate.

To get started,  ask yourself these simple questions:

Who: Who you are as a business and where your participants fit.

What: A basic understanding on what your company perceives customer service to be.

Why: Why great service is paramount to your business success, what the participants will gain from giving great service (what’s in it for them – selling point).

How: The skills and knowledge the participants need to create genuinely great customer service and experience every time.

Inspire and motivate throughout

Once you have the above questions answered you can devise a plan and within the plan, include fun activities, motivation (positive stories) and inspiration (videos, clips, guests and more stories).

Objectives

Ask yourself “What do I want my participants to do and how do I want them to feel as soon as they leave the classroom? (What am I trying to achieve)?

The answer to this could be a list of main modules such as:

• Vision and Mission – Describe our business vision or motto and know how and why to live up to it in every interaction.
• Customer Connection – Know how to make a genuine personal connection with customers and colleagues.
• Feedback – Understand the importance of giving and receiving all feedback, including opportunities and compliments.
• Self-Care – Make sure employees feel supported, comfortable and cared for as employees
• Diversity – Connect with different people, personalities and cultures
• Conversation skills – Deal with challenging situations
• Confidence – Be confident and know their worth

These are just a few ideas to get started you can add or change as your content evolves.

Fleshing it out

Once you have locked in your main modules, its time to choose sub-topics within the modules.

This makes up your actual content! For example:

Module name: Self-care

Sub-topics (within the module) could be 4 different topics for learning:

• Responding to difficult situations
• Employee assistance program
• Mindfulness
• Work/life balance.

The overarching point of this topic would be the purpose or main outcome.

For example:

Self-care purpose:

To help participants to feel comfortable, supported and cared for as employees and know where and how to get information to feel at their best. (This results in a better chance of positive customer experiences).

Once you are happy with your main modules and their sub-topics – you can play with the order and make sure it works.

If you have met your desired outcome with the main content, you can then organise activities, inspiration and fun and balance it out accordingly.

Recommended further reading: 5 Tips for effective training in contact centres

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