Customer Service Training for Employees in IT: 3 Key Takeaways

What do you want to accomplish with customer service training for employees? Maybe you had an incident where an employee made mistakes in handling a customer issue. Perhaps your boss complained to you about poor customer service from one of your team members. Sometimes, it’s an internal customer service issue between coworkers who just can’t seem to get along. Maybe you just want to raise your team’s already good customer service to a higher level.

There are many reasons to provide customer service training for employees. Regardless, you must clearly identify your goal(s) for the training at the very beginning of the planning process. Knowing your goal(s) allows you to define a clear path from where you are today with customer service to where you want to be tomorrow.

Here are three key takeaways for your employees in a customer service training program.

Establish Expectations

Your customer service training for employees should clarify your expectations of their workplace behavior. How do you want your people to treat customers? How do you want them to treat you? How about how you want them to treat each other? What do you want them to say about the company in public? What do you hope for in their social media posts? (Unless you require them to sign non-disclosure agreements, you probably can’t control what they say or post about the company in public and on social media, but you might be able to influence it.) How do you want them to accomplish the tasks of their jobs?

Provide Tools

Customer service training can provide employees with powerful tools they can use to handle difficult customers, resolve conflicts, and improve communication, among other skills. In much the same way that an electrician’s toolkit might include pliers, a voltmeter, and electrical tape, a customer service toolkit includes tools to improve listening skills, emotional intelligence, stress management, and more. Consider asking your team for input on the skills that would be most helpful for them in their jobs.

Improve Relationships

Whether you’re a small managed service provider, a technical support department for a manufacturer, an internal IT department, or any other type of IT organization, part of your long-term success is based on the relationships you establish and nurture.

Talk with your team about how they must build and nurture both long-term relationships, such as those with ongoing customers, with coworkers, and the community, plus short-term relationships such as those with end-users who call in with support issues. Emphasize how their actions in a short-term relationship can affect the company’s long-term relationships. Talk about how one person’s words and actions reflect on all people in the company.

Benefits of Customer Service Training for Employees

Many companies and IT departments use customer service training for employees as part of the onboarding process for new hires. That immediately sets the expectation for the new employee. It makes a loud statement that your company is committed to employee growth and development. For existing employees, this type of training can help overcome long-standing bad habits, build a stronger team, and reinforce existing good behaviors.

These three key takeaways of establishing expectations, providing customer service tools, and improving relationships are big benefits of customer service training for employees in nearly any department or 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.