You’ve established your company’s expectations for customer service performance, but what is the best way to train employees so the message not only ‘sticks’ but is acted upon?

In my years of experience, I have found that bringing in professional training consultant often offers the best value.  The right experts bring a greater breadth of experience and depth of knowledge in certain specialties to the table and present it in an entertaining way resulting in longer term behavior changes.  By contrast, in-house education tends to suffer from death-by-boredom, coming from the top-down, with management talking at the staff. Sorry, I will now get off my soap box.

No matter who does the teaching, it needs to be specific and descriptive. And don’t do all the talking; elicit employee feedback, without letting it turn into a grievance session.  Training should be done on at least an annual basis, and change it up. The same presentation every year quickly loses its effectiveness.

Thinking of fun and interactive ways to get material across will improve information retention.

Follow through is essential. What types of fun/motivation are needed to maintain this level of service? Consistency is the key to keeping good habits alive.

Management is not exempt from modeling the company’s customer service standard. Department heads often don’t practice what they preach. Employees will follow the lead of those in charge.

Address sub-standard behavior immediately; think of it as a teaching experience. Be constructive rather than critical.   Keep in mind that most employees think they are already doing a good job.