Training from the Inside Out

Ever wish you could clone your 15 best employees?

Stop wishing. There is an effective way to increase your number of awesome service providers, and it doesn’t involve DNA at all.

Check out this great read about encouraging better customer service.

The author makes some outstanding points, but our favorite is #3 (“Champion Your Customer Champions”), as it perfectly mirrors our training philosophy:

“Who creates the best reaction from your customers in your business? Work out what they do, how they do it, what they say and how they say it! Replicate it! Get others to learn from them.”

That’s our training philosophy in a nutshell. Our typical process:

• Evaluate your staff’s performance using our in-house assessment tools
• Interview your customers to get their insights
• Identify your best people and what they do that makes them the best
• Train your staff on these best practices, using your best performers as live examples

Not only does this process improve training tremendously, but it’s a huge boost for morale, as employees LOVE being recognized for excellence.

Reflecting Values

Front-line service employees are not just there to smile and provide a service. They're also there to reflect the personality and values of their companies.

There are only a few ways that customers can form opinions on the personality and values of a company, and direct interaction is the most powerful.

We use T-Mobile and are constantly amazed by the superior service of their call center agents. They're emphathetic, engaged, empowered, and determined to help.

So, of course, those attributes become part of our overall perception of T-Mobile as a company.

Thus, it's crucial that staff members understand and embrace the values of their employers, and do their best to reflect those values in their interactions.

Here's a great post about how companies can use mystery shopping to assess how well the behaviors of their employees match their corporate values.

Cheers!

The Inherent Value of the Experience

Colleen’s latest post reminded me of something powerful I once heard. Someone interviewed the back-up to one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks.

The back-up was asked how he’s able to stay focused and prepare so hard every week, year after year, knowing that he’ll never be the starter, and that he’ll never achieve the fame and fortune of the All-Pro player ahead of him.

The back-up replied:

“I do it for the inherent value of the experience.”

That short statement by a back-up football player reveals tremendous insight on life. Doing things for tangible rewards almost always ends up feeling shallow.

What lasts are the feelings of success and achievement that come from doing your best all the time…not because it will bring fame and fortune, but because it’s the right thing to do.

Effort is its own reward, and a very enriching one at that.

This is part of the talk I like to give to front-line customer service employees. The best employees have deeper motivations and aspirations than just raises and promotions. They understand that giving their best is a reward all of its own.

And that’s why they succeed where others fail.