Customer service best taught by example

The answer to the question of whether customer service can be taught is an emphatic “Yes!”

The technique is not easy, however. You must be committed to customer service as part of your mission. Otherwise, you will be giving lip service instead of customer service. You need to be compassionate about the lack of training that your employees have received in the past. You need, mostly, to have optimism and patience.

My customer service epiphany came when I first started work as a sales representative in the textbook industry where I toiled for 12 years. During that time, I went to endless national, regional and local sales meetings. We sold college textbooks from A to Z, so we learned a little bit about every college subject.

My first national sales meeting was held in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. It was a 10-day marathon. Editor after editor stood up and presented arcane facts about his or her books. About midway through this ordeal, I was sitting by the pool with a very successful rep from Puerto Rico. This guy had been in the Top 10 many times. I told him that I didn’t think I could hack it. I couldn’t cram all the information into my head. It was worse than graduate school. I was ready to quit.

I will never forget what he said.

“You don’t have to know the books. You have to know the professors. If they like you, they’ll buy your books.”

“What?” I said. “Then why are we sitting here for 10 days?”

He said, “Well, you have to know something, but you don’t have to know it all. If you did, you would be teaching engineering rather than selling engineering books.”

I never forgot this little conversation. This guy had let me on the big secret of customer service and sales: It is all about relationships.

Two years later, I was in the Top 10 out of 200 reps for selling engineering books!

Most managers teach product and

technique when they should be teaching relationships.

Here are six tips to help you teach customer service:

• Hire the right people. This is my favorite subject, as many of my readers know. If you don’t check references, ask experiential questions or have a probationary period, your staff may not re?ect you or your business. Your relationship with your staff is key.

• Take the time to train your staff. Technique and rules are certainly important. Filling out the correct forms for human resources is essential. But what is most important is making your new employees feel that they are part of a team and that, as a team, everyone works together to give customers the best service ever. Starting with core values and customer service principles will help to lay the groundwork for future success. From this, move on to the cash register, rules and inventory.

One of the best ways to train is by doing. You can teach customer service by presenting different customer service scenarios to your new recruits and having them role-play based on the material you have given them.

• Teach different learning styles. Some of us learn by listening to lectures. Some of us learn hands-on. Some of us learn by reading. All of us learn by our mistakes.

First, establish a “no question is stupid” policy. Then, prepare your customer service training so that it addresses all learning styles.

• Make employees feel proud. Pay as well as you can. Offer incremental increases over time. Give nonmonetary rewards such as special meals, blue ribbons and cakes for special occasions.

Most of us can remember jobs we loved but where we were paid very little. When I was in graduate school, I worked as a waitress in a deli during the 11 a.m.–3 p.m. shift. The pay was lousy and the tips from other students were pretty crummy, too. But it was fun. I worked there because I enjoyed the relationships.

• Reward great customer service. There are two words that won’t cost you anything: “Good job!” Public recognition of great customer service by compliment or plaque goes a long way to create loyalty and pride. If your business has any way to capture customer comments, make sure that those who receive good marks get recognized. Recognition shouldn’t be a once-a-year deal at a banquet, it should be an every day event. Relationships have to be nurtured over time if you want to reduce turnover.

• Punish poor customer service. “Punish” is kind of a tough word, but there have to be consequences to bad customer service. If you decide to reprimand an employee, make sure that you do a lot of listening to get the true picture of the event. After being presented with the facts, work through the event as a role-play and encourage your employee to come up with alternative methods for handling the situation. If you merely tell him or her what to do, you are taking away imagination, and you can be assured that you’ll be in this discussion again. Make it clear that you are there to provide guidance the first time, but continued poor customer service decisions may result in termination. Make sure that you write down what was discussed along with the date. Make it clear how much you value good customer relationships.

You can teach customer service relationships very easily – by example.

Sinara Stull O’Donnell is a professional speaker and writer through Springfield-based SinaraSpeaks. She is the author of “Be The Star Of Your Life: Are You Ready For Your Close-Up?”