Course Preparation
A company’s employees are the front line in creating any experience with both internal and external customers. Companies and, by extension, their employees have an obligation to provide the best customer experience possible. This 10-week course is designed to assist employees in developing their customer service skills. I developed this course for services related organizations, i.e. insurance, real estate, financial services, etc. However, it can be customized and applied to any industry or company.
Course Instructor
As a manager, it is important that you take the lead in refining and presenting this material. The impact of the presentation will be greater coming from you than if it were to come from someone in the Learning & Development or Human Resources departments. If you are an employee and want to lead change within your organization by presenting this course, I commend you for taking on this challenge! You have an opportunity to make a difference.
Tracking and Accountability
Requiring attendance keeps everyone on the same page. Use some form of attendance log to track class attendance and completion of the course. Including course completion as part of the employee’s annual objectives will help ensure accountability.
Measuring Impact and Desired Outcomes
What information currently exists that could be used as a baseline or starting point to measure the impact and/or success of the course?
Potential measures:
- Quality Control Checks/Processing Reviews –Has there been a change in the number of and/or type of errors?
- Absenteeism – What changes have there been in employee absentee rates?
- Retention – What has been the impact to employee turnover?
- Complaints – What changes have been seen in regards to the quantity and types of complaints received? Think about this in terms of both internal and external customers.
When
Timing of the course needs to be consistent throughout the 10 weeks. Hold classes when they will minimally impact the workflow in terms of meeting customer needs. The class schedule can be modified depending on the number of people on the team or in the department. You may choose to hold one class a week or host the same class each day of the week (as I did) to provide some added flexibility. Some might say, “Let’s just get this over with in two weeks.” Remember that everyone needs time to process the information received in order to incorporate it into their daily routine. Scheduling classes one after the other will reduce the likelihood of improving customer service and developing engaged employees.
Where
Reserve a training space that can serve as a regular venue for the course and that is convenient to all (or at least most) attendees. Employees can become frustrated if they are unsure of where they need to go each for each class. These little types of internal organizational frustrations can lead to poor external customer service. In this case, the employees are your in-house customers so offer them great service by making it easy for them to attend.
Why
Regardless of company, most employees will tell you that their Company does of poor job of communicating. Again, make it easy. Frame the course in terms of their role, their responsibilities, and how they contribute to the organization. In other words, what’s in it for them? By providing this context, it helps the employees make better decisions and deliver a higher level of serve to their customers.
How
This course is designed to help improve customer service. It also offers an opportunity to better engage your employees through open discussion. Make the attendees your primary focus and keep all other presentation materials to a minimum (for example, PowerPoint slides and flip charts).
The 10 Tenets of Better Engaged Employees
Tenet 1 – Customers Make the Rules
Tenet 2 – Service Comes from the Inside Out
Tenet 3 – Provide Solutions and Show that You Care
Tenet 4 – Customers Define Quality and Service
Tenet 5 – Feedback from Customers is a Gift
Tenet 6 – Know Your Customer and You’ll Be Rewarded
Tenet 7 – Skip Satisfaction, Exceed Expectations
Tenet 9 – Be More, Better, Faster, Different
Tenet 10 – Honor Your Customer
In upcoming posts, I’ll provide the discussion points for each of the 10 Tenets listed above. I’ll also suggest ways to prepare for each class and recommend exercises you can incorporate into the discussions.
Let’s Engage!
I’m Agent in Engagement Simpson…Gregory F Simpson.
Employee engagement is a critical mission. I hope I can count on your help! Subscribe to the RSS Feed to receive the latest intelligence/insights and/or register to make entries in the comments log.
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Learn more about me at gregoryfsimpson.com.
P.S. First contact? Welcome to the Agent In Engagement community. Explore and join fellow employee engagement operatives in targeting a known thief – alias: Disengagement. Together we can bring this thief to justice and make the world a better place for all companies and their employees.
