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CartWhether you’re putting together an IT customer service training program yourself or arranging with Compassionate Geek IT Training to do it for you, there are five must-haves that will make your training initiative a success. Omit any of these five and you could end up wasting time and money on an ineffective program. In no particular order, here are five must-haves for your IT customer service training program.
Relatable Stories and Examples
Stories are one of the ways you make the training memorable. People remember stories, not statistics. Your stories, however, must be relatable for the audience. Since you’re training IT people, use stories from the IT world. It’s not necessary for all your stories and examples to be from the IT world, but any that aren’t from IT should be general enough that nearly anyone can relate to them. For example, you might tell a story about how you handled a difficult end-user who was afraid of technology. You could also, however, tell a story about a time you had to return a shirt to a clothing store and how the customer service rep handled it. Do not attempt to tell stories where you don’t have personal knowledge or experience. For example, a customer service trainer with no experience in IT would come across as a fraud if they tried to use IT terminology.
Compelling Exercises
As with relatable stories and examples, a compelling exercise for one group could be an eye-roller for a different group. As a group, IT people tend to have little interest in touchy-feely exercises. Instead, try for thought exercises or exercises where they reflect on past experiences. Of course, there are always exceptions. Know your audience.
A Relatable Trainer
I read an article about customer service training that talked about the importance of having an entertaining trainer. I disagree. It’s way more important to have a relatable trainer who is able to keep the audience’s attention. If they can be entertaining while still providing good training, that’s fine. Entertainment, however, isn’t the point of the training; the training is about effecting change. Compelling stories and examples, relatable exercises, and a polished presentation all contribute to a good training experience that helps the audience grow and develop.
Clear objectives for Your IT Customer Service Training Program
At the risk of using a worn-out cliche one more time, you can’t get to the destination if you don’t know where you’re going. Identify four or five clear objectives for the training. As you’re developing the training (or evaluating it if someone else has developed it), ask yourself if it’s consistent in accomplishing the objectives.
The objectives need to be specific and measurable. Here are examples of both good and bad objectives:
| Bad Example | Good Example |
| Improve our customer service | Raise our CSAT scores by 10% |
| Speed up ticket resolution | Lower our average ticket resolution time by 15% |
| Improve follow up | Implement a system to always check back with the customer 24 hours after ticket resolution |
Notice how the good examples are specific and measurable, while the bad examples are general and not really measurable.
Clear Benefits
Tied closely to the objectives, the idea of clear benefits is about asking yourself why you’re doing the training. What do you hope to achieve? What will your customers get out of a training program for your staff? What will the company get out of it? What about the individuals going through the training? What will they get out of it? What about you? What will you get out of it after your team completes the training?
The benefits are harder to measure than the objectives, but they could include improved customer retention, better teamwork, a better work environment, or more referrals. As with objectives, be clear about what your want to accomplish and evaluate every aspect of the training as to whether it will help deliver your desired benefits.
IT Customer Service Training Programs That Work
Nearly anyone can learn to improve their people skills and their customer service skills. A well-thought-out training program with clear objectives, presented in a polished manner by a relatable trainer can change hearts and minds while delivering measurable results for your company.
Next Level IT Customer Service Training
Enroll your team now in Compassionate Geek IT online customer service training so they can work together, get things done, and take care of customers.
