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By Joanna Brandi |
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No Time or Money to Train Your Team? Make the Most of ‘Teachable Moments’ |
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As a customer care trainer who works with companies of all
shapes and sizes, I’m well aware of the ‘extreme cautiousness’ with
which most organizations are approaching any purchases—especially when
it comes to training their employees to be and do their best. As I see
it, there are three main challenges: 1) They have a small training budget—or perhaps no budget for training at all. 2) They’ve downsized, making it difficult for anyone to be away from their desks to attend training sessions for any length of time. 3) Even if they’ve bounced back from tough times, they don’t completely trust that the market will bounce back. As one of my prospective clients put it, “I have to check with my boss when I want to purchase a pencil.” Meanwhile, employees suffer from the stress of the worry and of the extra workloads they carry. That stress affects their relationships with each other and, of course, the experience they provide to their customers. And we all know how negative experiences can erode the bottom line. The great news is, there are simple, no-cost techniques managers can implement to maintain ongoing training even as employees are behind their desks. They’re known as ‘Teachable Moments.’ Successfully used by educators for years, Teachable Moments are spontaneous opportunities to use an experience at hand to demonstrate a skill or principle—to train your staff in some small yet powerful way. They’re one of the best, most effective ways I can think of to support your staff in developing top-notch ‘soft skills’ so they can create the kinds of customer experiences that yield profits. Here are six quick tips to illustrate how you can effectively use Teachable Moments: 1) When you hear team members talk about their experiences as customers . . . ask them how they felt during and after they purchased the product or service. Was the experience positive or negative? Was the service provider attentive, friendly and responsive or cold and removed? If the service was poor, what choices might the provider have made to make it better? Did the company live up to the expectations it created? What word best describes the overall customer experience? Will they return as a customer? Will they refer friends to the business? When they understand the emotional impact that their service providers have upon them, they'll better understand the impact that they have upon your customers—how everything they say and do can make or break a valuable customer relationship. 2) When you see team members ‘walking the company talk . . .’ acknowledge and appreciate them for delivering the value your company promises to deliver, being as specific as possible. For example, when you overhear an employee patiently talk a customer through your company's delivery process, that's the perfect time to say, "I'm really happy about the way you just showed your customer how knowledgeable, thorough and dependable our company is. Keep up the great work!" If you notice that a team member is returning customer calls quickly, praise him for demonstrating how responsive your organization is. You might add, "Responsiveness is something that we promise the customer, and that's what you're delivering. Super job!" 3) When your radar picks up grumbling about customer complaints . . . gently assist your team in reframing their perspective of customer complaints as ‘gifts’ to your company; they’re ‘free consulting’ that let your company know where there are gaps in your service and problems with your products. Questions will help you to positively shift your team’s focus (and decrease their defensiveness). Ask your team:
4) When you become aware that employees are making
tough choices that will benefit your company in the long run . . . . . . . . JoAnna Brandi is Publisher of the Customer Care Coach ™ a weekly training program on mastering "The Art and Science of Exquisite Customer Care." She is the author of "Winning at Customer Retention, 101 Ways to Keep 'em Happy, Keep 'em Loyal and Keep 'em Coming Back" and "Building Customer Loyalty - 21 Essential Elements in ACTION". She writes a free email tip on customer caring. You can sign up at http://CustomerCareCoach.com |
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Copyright Success Networks International.
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