How to stop staff saying "How ya goin?"
By Cate Schreck - Service Excellence Coach
This past 2 months I've been on a mission to finish writing my book - "The A -Z of Service Excellence." So, I hit the phones and shouted lots of coffee to get inside the heads of business owners and customer service managers to find out what they find challenging in regards to creating a culture of customer service excellence.
Here's their top 3 challenges:
- Motivating staff to choose the right attitude when they arrive at work - a customer service focused attitude.
- Reminding staff of the meaning of professional presentation - themselves and their work areas.
- Coaching staff to speak professionally - "how ya goin", "yeah" and "narh" just have to go.
As a customer service specialist trainer who has worked in, managed, trained and coached customer service teams for over 30 years - I feel your pain. I felt it so much that was exactly the reason I created Lightbulb Training Solutions.
Here's my 3 tips to help you build a team of Customer Service Superstars
- Give instant feedback - when you see or hear a staff member speaking well, dressing correctly, providing excellent service, acknowledge the excellence.
- Start a conversation - ask your staff what stops them from providing consistently excellent service - you can't fix what you don't understand.
- Show - nothing works as well as showing what you tell. Like it or not, workplace managers set behavioural standards by how they behave. Check in with yourself - are you practising what you preach?
And don't forget, Customer Service Superstars are made, not born. If you're not a customer service training specialist, I am and Customer Service Boot Camp might be what some of your "rough diamonds" need.