We’ve all been on the wrong end of bad customer service; it’s frustrating, annoying and infuriating. Frankly, a bad customer service experience can ruin your day. And the sad thing is, customer service is what drives a large sector of our economy and most of us rely on customer service, one way or another, every day. That’s exactly why it’s important to make sure your employees are well trained in the art of stellar customer service. Poorly trained employees can permeate many levels of a business and have a devastating effect on employee moral, retention of both clients and agents, and profits.

Bad Training Blues

Your company is all about training. Every representative goes through a rigorous, extensive regiment before they are released into the field. They know the products the service and the sales goals. But when you look at the numbers, your company looks like train wreck. Why is it so hard to retain clients, resolve issues and retain employees? You can only blame the economy and the present business landscape for so much, the rest, my friend, is due to inferior training. It is not quantity but quality and relevance that makes training, good training.

No Training Is Poor Training

Unfortunately, when the economy takes a hit and companies have to tighten their belts and make budget cuts, training programs are the first to go. It is essential for business owners and Human Resource managers to understand that when customer service training ceases so does customer service. Now, you have untrained agents acting as the face of your company. That might be fine when it comes to explaining products or assessing corporate needs but customers are ultimately people with individual needs. So, when that untrained customer service representative come up against those special clients, they will have no skill set to deal with them, and definitely not know the preferred method their company promotes for dealing with clients. This can and will result in losing clients and money.

The Customer May Not Always Be Right; But They Are Always The Customer

Another huge mistake many training programs make is that they are product, service and company centered. Meaning, they focus on representatives’ knowledge of the company and what the company does. This is a waste of time; company and product information can be easily relayed to reps through memos, emails, power points, video etc. But the real heart of customer service should be in-person training. Only in these trainer lead scenarios can service reps actually gain first hand experience dealing with the most important element of every business: the customer. Without the customers, we have no business, no job, no product advancement and no future.

It’s in these times of economic strife and downsizing that the quality of your customer service should be outstanding. When the customers feels as if they need you and your services are not the slightest bit expendable, that’s when you know your customer service training is working. When the priority of your business is the customer the impact of the economy around you will be greatly minimized, client satisfaction and retention will increase, new client acquisition will increase and customer service representatives will enjoy their work, be prosperous and stick with the company. A little insightful and quality training can go long way and even carry you business into the realm of success and keep you there.

The Effect of Poor Training Programs on your Employees