What frontline customer service staff need from you

Since 2010, Lightbulb Training Solutions has been helping businesses by educating and motivating frontline customer service staff to become Customer Service Professionals. We have travelled across Victoria from Geelong to Gippsland, Mildura to Melbourne, Benalla to Ballarat and Horsham to Hoppers Crossing and when travelling was ‘easy’, we jumped on planes to other States and across to New Zealand. We have a loyal base of customers and we love what we do!

But this blog is not for our existing customers. It’s for businesses who don’t provide their customer service staff with soft skill development. It might be for you and your team or your business but don’t worry, we’re not going to ‘shame’ or be-little you for not giving your staff soft skill development.

This blog is to help you by showing how easy it can be and how it can be free.

What are soft skills ?

The 2 skills sets that every employee in every workplace needs are hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are often referred to as technical skills. They cover things like; operating a cash register, driving a forklift, using a computer program, following safety procedures or ordering stock. Hard skills are the tangible skills that once learned are usually set, meaning they are retained and with practise (repetition) they are usually improved.

The word HARD in the sense of skills means set, not difficult.

Soft Skills are the intagible qualities that an employee uses when they are interacting with others. They are related to self awareness, self regulation, empathy, internal motivation and social skills. Just like hard skills they are a set of skills and with practise we can improve but unlike hard skills, they are difficult to measure - “one size does not fit all’.

The word SOFT in the sense of skills means flexible, not weak.

Customer Service Professionals are made, not born and hard and soft skill training is how you make them. Lightbulb Training Solutionbs specialise in soft skill developement. Spending money on soft skills training is investing in the most important asset in a business – staff.

Bringing soft skills to your team does not mean you have to spend money, read on for some ideas of what you can do without dipping into the budget.

DIY SOLUTIONS

Search Online. Use the internet to find loads of free training resources - just make sure the providers/creators are reputatable and the content is relevant to your goals and the needs of the team. Google Soft Skills.

Inspect what you expect – Watch, listen and provide constructive feedback on customer service interactions. Feedback should be regular and balanced with compliments and suggestions on how to improve.

Ask the team - What do they want to learn? What interactions do they find difficult? Who has best practices they can share? Involving your team in their skills development and confirming you know they have valuable soft skills, can bring a sense of confidence to the team and repsect for you.

Tell them your stories - Sharing your experiences of dealing with difficult customers and how you worked through times of stress is not a sign of your limitations, it ‘s permission for them to share and ask for help.

LET US HELP YOU

Remember that your time is money. For every co-worker disagreement or customer complaint, consider the amount of time you have to spend addressing the issue and multiply that by your hourly rate – this is money that could be spent on the soft skills training that empowers your staff to self-manage those situations.

By completing our FREE Customer Service Analysis, we will learn about your business, your customers and your staff and from there we put together your customised, comprehensive and flexible Service Excellence Package. Your package can include access to a range of on-site and on-line training options that will give you an insight into not only how your staff feel about customer interactions, but what you can do to refresh the attitudes and skills of long term customer service employees.

“Cate is a forward thinking developer of skills and initiatives within the customer service arena and she imparts this knowledge with passionate enthusiasm. I have learnt much from Cate in relation to her determination to change the way we traditionally view the implementation of customer service skills and how she empowers employees to know their value in the workplace.” Maryanne Gardiner - Manager Education Design