Customer Service Training - Assignment Example

Service Training Service Training With the increase in competition and enhanced customer services from the competitors, organizations at present, are focusing more and more on employee trainings. Numerous training techniques, models, and workshops have been introduced so far in order to improve the customer service and to eliminate the loopholes in the workforce. Training has been found effective in terms of increasing sales and employee’s proficiency. The core purpose of this assignment is to establish a new training class / session for the new employees of the company. Furthermore, the paper will identify ways through which deficiencies would be eliminated by justifying the use of needs assessment of the company’s given employee training program. Undoubtedly, training can play a vital role for the success of an organization. Organizations (associated with customer service specifically) hold various training sessions as it is one of the appropriate techniques to meet the goals and objectives and to attain efficient production. Training session for new employees helps them to settle in the fresh new environment and get used to with the company’s policies. Furthermore, these training sessions also helps the new employees regarding the better use of technology and IT (Handy, 2008). Since customer service is a very delicate and important aspect for any business, therefore, it should be noted that the new employees must learn ways through which they can perform better. Also, it can create a steadfast team of their own that has the tendency to overcome issues and fulfill the customer requirements under every circumstance (Marquardt, 2000). The best way to hold a training session for the new employees is through needs assessment technique. There is an avid need to identify the loopholes or the actual training needs that are required by the company, and should be prioritized. For example in the present case of training new employees, there is an obvious need to address them the basic rules and policies of the company regarding customer services and how it stands out in the market. Furthermore, there are numerous tasks and functions that cannot be done without proper training or guidance, for example, the use of technology / IT in the company, etc. This approach would result in paramount returns by investing time and training on the employees by correctly identifying the basic needs, issues in customer service, and other work related queries, while it also helps inappropriately appointing the right employee at the right place (Evenson, 2011). The need assessment technique would take help of five techniques to assess the deficiencies of the company with respect to customer services. These five ways are mentioned as follows: • Customer Complaints. • Obtaining feedback from the customers. • Growth in the customer accounts. • Conducting research and finalizing the report. • Analyzing and managing the data. Since all the new employees are unaware of the in-house rules and policies of the company, therefore, they need to get to know the customs as well as the objectives of the company and how it handles customer services. Numerous studies have concluded that employee training sessions helps them to polish their skills and gives them an opportunity to obtain firsthand knowledge about the company and its operations (Jacobs, 2002). Keeping it in mind, a series of (three) training sessions would be conducted for the new batch of employees, hired by the company. The major focus of these training workshops is on customer services while it will also cover other important subjects such as the goals of the company, its policies, etc. and the issues identified by the report of the need assessment approach. These three training sessions would be divided into such a manner that it would effectively take advantage of the needs assessment approach and will address the current issues regarding customer services in an effective manner. Another main focus of these workshops is also to get feedback from the new employees regarding their issues and how they present solutions to it. The activities planned for this workshop would allow the new recruits to engage in teamwork in order to present solutions and how they will work effectively under challenging and pressurizing environment (Kumar & Reinartz, 2011). During the first training session, the new employees would be addressed regarding the major policies of the company and how it has maintained its reputation in the field of customer services. The training would also focus on important customer services strategies and how to be effective with their customer dealing. The second training session and the first workshop would focus on the current issues of the company in the field of customer services. Numerous approaches, policies, and techniques would be informed to the new employees so that they may not repeat the mistakes and avoid any unwanted situation in customer services. Overall, this is going to be an interactive session in which the new employees would be allowed to interact with each other and present their perspective and counter strategy to overcome the issues. It would help them in knowing each other and working in a team form. The last training session and the second workshop would engage the employees in various real life scenarios and would be asked to respond to those situations (Jha, 2008). The reason the training has been divided into three sessions including two workshops is because that it may have effective execution. The training session would be interesting as it will have a discussion session that would inform us about the further training that is needed by the employees in the future. The need assessment approach would allow us to identify the source of the issue and to present possible solutions to them by intense training to the employees. Furthermore, one of the major issues that have been identified in customer services is the lack of information. Therefore, the first training session is solely planned to inform and train the new employees regarding the use of knowledge and skills in the field of customer service (Jacobs, 2002). It is expected that by the end of the training sessions the employees would feel more comfortable and encouraged and would be aware of the current drawbacks and their solutions. Furthermore, the training session would also utilize the SMART approach for training. This approach would ensure that the training is specific, measurable, agreed, realistic, and time-limited. The SMART approach would allow effective execution of the training session. The presentation has covered all important aspects of customer training and the objectives and goals of the company (Handy, 2008). The use of presentation throughout the training sessions would allow simple and effective communication of the idea and the technical information is conveyed easily and in a persuasive manner. Furthermore, presentations help the presenters to overcome nervousness as they enhance the voice projections and help them to develop an eye contact and body gestures with the audience. A few videos regarding the deficiencies in customer services would also be shown via these presentations. It automatically determines the need of the audience (employees) throughout the training session. The use of various activities in the presentation and the discussion period would also allow us to effectively engage the employees as they have powerful results (Kumar & Reinartz, 2011). Since training is an ongoing process, and two- or three training sessions are not sufficient for many employees in the field of customer services therefore they need extra effort and support from the management, therefore, monthly on job training sessions are also planned for the new batch of employees for the coming months. However, it should be noted that the study revealed that most of the employees are not interested in attending such on job training sessions and thus avoid them if they have a choice. Therefore, in order to avoid such a scenario, and motivate employees for the training sessions a great many ideas have been put forward by our management (Lipman, 2013). • The training sessions would align the economic interests of the employees with their performance in the sessions and workshops. In simple words if they would perform well during the discussion and the activities they would be compensated for that. For example, a raise in their income, extra holiday / vacation for them, or a special celebration day for all the employees who would attend the training would ultimately motivate them to attend the sessions. It would automatically increase their interest towards the training sessions, and they would attend the sessions in order to perform well and do better than others. • A listening session (from the employees) that would address the queries and complaints of the employees for how they want to enhance the customer relationship is also planned during the workshop. It would contribute towards the need assessment approach and would help us (management) in order to address the numerous complaints of the employees. Furthermore, it would also interest employees to attend the session and raise their questions and disagreements (if any) with the management of the company (Lipman, 2013). The survey can also be conducted from the employees asking what type of training they want and how do they want it to be delivered. This technique is however difficult as not every employee would answer the same and it would be difficult for the management to cope up with the answers and demands of all employees. Therefore the aforementioned two techniques to motivate and encourage employees to attend the training sessions are the best in my opinion (Marquardt, 2000). Following the training sessions a feedback survey would be collected from the employees who attended them. The survey would ask for what they have learnt and would also consist of a little quiz regarding the subjects and topics of the training. It would show the management for how effective the training sessions were and to what extent the employees have gained knowledge and skills and learnt numerous other things. They survey would also ask for if the employees liked the training session or not and if they wanted any change in the conduct or the approach of the training sessions. It would help the HR and the management to improve for the upcoming training sessions (Evenson, 2011). In short, it can be concluded that training in the field of customer service sector is very important, and the employees need intense training in order to become effective with their tasks. For this purpose, we decided to conduct a series of training sessions and workshops for the new employees hired at our company. As an HR manager, I strongly believe that the training sessions would help improve the efficiency of the employees and would allow them to explore and polish their hidden capabilities and skills. References Evenson, R. (2011). Customer service training 101. New York: American Management Association. Handy, L. A. (2008). The Importance of the Work Environment Variables on the Transfer of Training. New York: ProQuest. Jacobs, R. L. (2002). Implementing on-the-job learning : thirteen case studies from the real world of training. Alexandria: ASTD. Jha, L. (2008). Customer relationship management : a strategic approach. New Delhi: Global India Publications. Kumar, V., & Reinartz, W. (2011). Customer Relationship Management Concept, Strategy, and Tools. Berlin: Springer. Lipman, V. (2013). 5 Easy Ways To Motivate - And Demotivate - Employees. Retrieved from forbes.com: http://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2013/03/18/5-easy-ways-to-motivate-and-demotivate-employees/ Marquardt, M. J. (2000). Successful global training : business skills. Alexandria: ASTD. Read More