Investment in training pays off

Yet, there's something missing.

I usually buy packages of little stars in a large office supply store, which are displayed in the educational section. I often pass them out after speeches to remind audience members that they are “customer service stars!” I have purchased these stars from this store for about three years. This time, there were no stars.

As I was checking out, a nice young man brightly said, “Did you find everything you needed?”

“No, I didn't,” I said.

With a glazed look on his face, he continued the check out process.

“Well, thank you for coming in Mrs. O'Donnell.” Big smile.

“You know, you should really follow up on the question if you ask someone something,” I said, hoping that he would show a little life.

His face was stricken. He had no idea what to do. “Uh, what couldn't you find?”

“They're little paper stars that are usually in the educational section.”

“Uh, I guess I have never seen them.”

Silence. I finally just picked up my sack and slunk out.

What happened here? The clerk-salesman-associate had been taught, like a parrot, to ask the right questions, but he did not know how to proceed after he asked the question. He was completely stymied. He hadn't been taught to think.

How can we teach employees to think? We know the ramifications of not doing so - lost sales. The costs of hiring and retraining employees are astronomical. A study conducted by Development Dimensions International, a consulting group with offices in Bridgeville, Pa., showed that replacing an employee costs 29 percent to 46 percent of the person's yearly salary. We cannot afford to stint on training.

The “Uh, I dunno,” response is rampant, and very irritating.

Here are five steps to consider when you train any new employee:

1. Take the needed time. It takes time to learn and review. If training is given in a perfunctory, quick manner, you'll have customer service that is given in a perfunctory, quick manner.

Everyone learns at a different pace, and many learn more by doing than reading or listening. It is difficult to determine someone's learning style right off the bat, so take the time to present material in a variety of ways.

If you don't take the appropriate time in training, your business will suffer later. Also, your employees will feel stupid and this feeling (whether true or not) will show in customer interactions or poor craftsmanship. Often, poor training is the beginning of discontent with a job.

Assigning a co-worker as a mentor is another way to start employees off with an advantage.

If you decide on mentoring as one of your training tools, you need to make sure that the mentor knows that how he or she aids the newcomer will be reflected in the mentor's job performance as well. You then need to give the mentor some slack in terms of production.

2. Insist on role-plays. When was the last time a chemistry class was offered that didn't involve experiments?

We have to do experiments in order to understand.

In customer service, take the time to role-play some typical scenarios with your employees.

Here's an easy way to do it: Print out index cards with typical situations in your business. If you have more than one person training, have all parties “play.” Give a card to one player and have him act out the situation. The other person reacts to the statement, hopefully following your company guidelines. This will give you a chance to evaluate the reaction with a positive response.

In a retail environment, for example, a card might read: “A customer is angry that they took an item home and it fell apart.” The new employee must then take a breath and calm the customer down.

3. Teach your employees to listen. Recently, I went to the optometrist to choose a pair of sunglasses. I quickly narrowed it down to two. The optometrist told me one did not fit, so I told her I would take the other.

“Have you seen the ones on the rack behind you?”

No, I hadn't, so I got up and looked.

“I think I'll take these,” I said.

“Have you seen the ones in the back room?”

I schlepped back and glanced at them. “I really would like to buy these.”

She finally got the picture as I was getting tired of this little game. She almost lost the sale in her desire to show me sunglasses. I had already decided on a pair! She wasn't listening.

4. Ask and encourage questions. Answering the questions of a new employee is tedious for all concerned. Worse is to show frustration, so that the employee begins to feel discouraged.

For the first few weeks, you might set aside a half an hour at the end of the day to go over the “newbie's” day.

One of my favorite books is “Auntie Mame” by Patrick Dennis, later made into movies with Rosalind Russell and Lucille Ball. In the book, Auntie Mame's nephew doesn't understand the big words that she uses. She gives him a tablet and tells him to write everything down that he doesn't understand. Once a day, they discuss his questions. It's a good technique.

5. Consider hiring a professional. Sometimes bringing in an outsider to do training makes sense. There are five reasons why this may be cost-effective:

o Turning over training to someone else allows you to concentrate on other tasks.

o Professional trainers will use consistent learning tools, which you might not have or have the time to develop.

o Professional trainers have no ax to grind. They are there to teach a certain subject. Their main goal is to make sure that the participants learn the material. Your main goal is to make a profit.

o A professional trainer will usually make the class move and be interesting. They have “tricks of the trade.”

o Often, employees will listen more to an “expert from afar” than they do to a peer or even to you. They may have specialized knowledge which will add to your bottom line.

There are a number of places to find trainers depending on the subject. Ozarks Technical Community College offers a wide range of customized training options. Vendors will often have trainers who can help with certain kinds of equipment training and re-training.

You also can check with www.nsaspeaker.org (the National Speakers Association) or www.astd.org (American Society of Training and Development) for local trainers.

Take the time to train. Your rewards will be many. Your employees will be happy, and your customers will keep coming back to your professionally run company.

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?” She can be reached at sinaraspeaks@earthlink.net or www.sinaraspeaks.com. [[In-content Ad]]