Customer Service Training a Waste of Time and Money-
A leading customer experience developer is urging business to stop spending money on front-line customer service
workshops and start focusing on a longer term strategic approach to improving the quality of a total customer experience
rather than just the customer service component
This according to Chris Bell Managing Director of Customer Experiences a company that specialises in the development of
a continual customer experience improvement programmes
What’s currently happening says Bell is that customer service training is currently being addressed in isolation and is
usually a reaction to customer complaints or customer defection.
What should be happening is a commitment to a total customer experience strategy that is part of an organisations
culture and becomes a highly effective competitive advantage
He said a Colmar Brunton survey found that 62 percent of people had stopped dealing with a company and of those 70
percent had done so because of a bad customer experience.
“Don’t blame business for these results. Customer service training providers need to look at themselves, their training
products, there approach to skills development training; the environment business is operating in and be more
accountable for their results.
This is the only way business will be encouraged to invest more money in this area. They must see real results,
otherwise their investment will just be seen as another business cost,” Bell said.
The fact of the matter is that when customer service training is carried out without a proper customer experience foundation, the training itself has very little impact on changing employee behaviour and ultimately little impact on improving
customer experiences
We are hearing more and more stories from business talking about little change in results from sales and customer
service teams after a commitment to training as well as an unwillingness to investment in further programmes
Bell said businesses must understand that everyone within an organisation plays an important role in the ultimate
experience a customer will have.
“You must have the right people in the right roles.”
Bell said customer service training providers must stop marketing their products just to fill a workshop. He said they
must take the time to understand the businesses they are dealing with and ensure they have an effective follow-up
programme in place to maximise any skill development programme.
ENDS