Turn your customer service team into a competitive advantage and engine for growth with these training ideas and tools.
Written by: Allie DeckerTrain and onboard your new customer support hires with this customizable template.
Customer service training is essential if you want to retain customers for the long term, reduce employee churn, and create a successful customer-centric company. But how do you begin training your reps to provide remarkable support?
We've compiled this guide to answer that question. After all, 90% of Americans say customer service plays a significant role in choosing a company.
Exceptional customer service is an absolute must if you want your company to succeed and thrive in years to come.
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While training for customer service is the main topic here, let's take a slight detour and discuss hiring for customer service, too. The right hires help you build a strong foundation for your customer service team. And your hiring process is how you can ultimately ensure that your team is receptive to your training. While some skills and strengths can be taught or fine-tuned through the different types of customer service training, there are some attributes your team members must have upon hiring. No software, training exercises, or tools can compensate for gaps in these areas.
Here are some skills to look for — even if just a hint — while interviewing and screening customer service candidates.
Your customer service team deals with a variety of customer problems, some that you can forecast, and some that no one can predict. The true heart of customer service beats with the ability to patiently listen, decipher someone else's problem, and empathize with them. Unfortunately, this skill doesn't come naturally to everyone, nor is it something everyone can master in training. Emotional intelligence is all about how you relate to other people. And, since this is central to excellent customer service, you want to ensure your hires have this skill before bringing them onto your team. One way you can gauge emotional intelligence is by asking: "Can you tell me about a time you tried to do something and failed?"
If your candidates can't answer an interview question, how would they communicate with your customers (who most likely have much higher expectations than you)? Customer service training can teach new and improved communication techniques. However, new hires should be able to showcase the ability to simplify complex topics and teach others new skills. To gauge good communication skills, ask questions like: "How would you explain a complicated technical problem to a colleague with less technical understanding?"
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. While these skills can be cultivated through customer service training, your candidates should display some resourcefulness — or at least a willingness to try to figure things out on their own. To gauge resourcefulness, ask questions like: "Describe a time when you faced a significant obstacle to succeeding with an important work project or activity. What did you do to solve it?"
While passion isn't quite a skill, it's fundamental to going above and beyond in the customer service field. Delighting your customers and turning them into superfans of your company means that your support team should have a sense of excitement and passion for the success of both the company and the customer. Your candidates might not have a strong passion for your company just yet. Truthfully, it may never be their top passion in life. However, they should be passionate about working with people — specifically, your customers — and helping others solve their problems. To gauge passion, ask: "When have you been most satisfied in your work at your previous company?" If hiring the right candidates is like planting seeds in the right soil, training your customer service team is like cultivating and growing your garden to its maximum potential. To continue the analogy, satisfied customers are the bountiful harvest at the end of the season. With that in mind, let's dive into training for customer support and service.
Customer service training ensures that your team can adapt to all kinds of different situations. After all, when your team understands the key principles that guide your customer service philosophy, they're better able to apply that knowledge to every customer encounter. While the concept of customer service training is to train your team to serve and delight, specific training methods and practices vary based on your company, your employees, and a variety of other factors. Let's break down a few instances where you might conduct customer service training and what you can expect as a hiring manager or owner.
As with any new role, the first month or two of training can dictate an employee's long-term success with your company. Customer service training for new hires isn't any different and should be an essential part of onboarding. This specific type of training will help new employees acclimate to a new job, company, and culture and ensure they're ready to communicate with your valuable customers. The steps of new hire customer service training involve:
The bottom line is that when your team has time to connect, they can form a bond that makes it easier to work together. And it helps new employees acclimate and feel more comfortable in their roles.
