Why Having Fewer Options Leads to Better Service

Sheena Iyenger and Mark Lepper set up an experiment in 2000. They wanted to see how adding more choices affected consumer behavior.

Their experiment was conducted in an upscale grocery store called Draeger's Supermarket in Menlo Park, California. The store was known for having a large assortment of products such as 250 varieties of mustard.

Iyenger and Lepper experimented with an in-store sampling booth with two variations. One variation offered 6 different varieties of jam. The other offered 24.

The display with 24 varieties of jam attracted more customers with 60 percent of passers-by stopping at the display compared to only 40 percent of people stopping at the display with just 6 varieties.

Surprisingly, people who encountered the display with just 6 varieties of jam were five times more likely to make a purchase than people who encountered 24 varieties.

It turns out that offering fewer choices can be good for business. Here's how. 

Fewer Options = More Sales

A recent furniture shopping trip revealed how easy or complex a buying decision can be. 

My wife and I found two furniture stores that offered sofas we liked. One was Living Spaces. They really did service the right way and we ended up buying a sofa and a love seat from them. (A recent blog post described other ways that Living Spaces does service right.)

One of the biggest differentiators between the two stores was the number of options available.

Living Spaces had a much larger selection of sofas. However, their helpful salesperson narrowed it down to just a few choices once we described what we were looking for. Each choice had a simple one-page sales sheet that visually depicted the various size and configuration options. Making a choice was easy.

The other furniture store overwhelmed us with choices. One sofa that looked promising had a complex code book full of possible configurations. Even the salesperson struggled to decipher it all. There were six different options for the arms alone. It was too much.

Like the jam experiment, limiting options helps Living Spaces sell more.

Fewer Options = Lower Costs

Costco is famous for keeping its costs low and passing on those savings to its members. One of the ways it does this is by offering fewer options than its competitors.

The graph below shows the approximate number of individual items sold at Costo and its two major rivals, Sam's Club and BJ's.

Data Source: iStockAnalyst

Notice that Costco has 24 percent fewer items than Sam's and 46 percent fewer items than BJ's. Having fewer items allows Costco to rely on fewer employees to maintain inventory in it's stores. It also enables the chain to negotiate better deals from its vendors and offer lower prices to its customers.

Fewer choices haven't hurt Costco's service. The chain leads the American Customer Satisfaction Index for specialty retailers with an 84 percent rating.

Fewer Options = Better Operations

Last year, I wrote a post called Why McDonald's Customer Service Sucks in Three Charts. 

One of those charts depicted the proliferation of menu items at the chain. The menu had grown 365 percent since 1980.

Data Source: Fortune

The staggering number of menu items causes a lot of operational problems as employees struggle to keep up with so many options. One study found that 12 percent of McDonald's drive-through orders contained an error.

Compare this to fast food champ In-N-Out. They're consistently rated extremely high in both customer service and food quality. One big difference? The In-N-Out menu contains just six items.

Solutions

One of my favorite customer service books is Uncommon Service. It describes the need for trade-offs. A business can only be really, really good at something if it's willing to be not so good at a few other things.

This book provides a great lesson in simplicity.

If you want to delight your customers, offer great prices, and make your operations run like a well-oiled machine, you need to sacrifice selection. 

Your customers, and your employees, will appreciate it in the long run.

The Magic Phrase That Will Get You Better Service

As customers, we sometimes run into a wall.

That wall is a customer service employee who either can't or won't solve our problem. It's clear they want us to just accept defeat and go away. They try to end the conversation by quoting policy, citing impossibilities, or simply saying "No."

I've discovered a magic phrase that cuts through this obstacle.

At a restaurant, it helped convince a server to remove an improperly prepared entree from the bill. I used it to get a cable company representative to credit my account after a service interruption. The phrase helped me talk a customer service agent into manually delaying an online order so a shipment wouldn't arrive while I was traveling.

Even when this phrase doesn't work, it still helps. More on that in a moment.

Here's the phrase:

Is that something you're empowered to do?

The phrase does two things. First, it requires you to be specific about what you want the employee to do for you.

If you're being tactical about it, you'll make sure your request is reasonable. Asking a restaurant to comp a poorly prepared meal that you can't eat is reasonable. Asking them to comp your dinner companion's meal too may not be.

The second thing this phrase does is it eliminates any confusion about empowerment. As I noted in a blog post earlier this year, one reason employees aren't empowered is they don't stop and think about what they really can and cannot do.

Asking this closed-ended question lets you know where you stand.

If an employee replies, "Yes, I am empowered," then the only reason they would refuse a reasonable request is because they don't want to do it. I've found that most try to help when they suddenly realize they can help.

If the employee replies, "No, I'm not empowered," then you're wasting your time arguing with the employee. In fact, it's a little unfair to continue badgering them about something they have no control over.

This is where the phrase works even when it doesn't. Here's a recent example:

I had purchased a couple of wine refrigerators. After completing the sale over the phone, I received an email from the sales rep asking me to sign a lengthy terms and conditions sheet. Many of the terms and conditions were contrary to the terms she had described to me when she booked the sale.

It felt like a classic bait and switch. For example, the sale rep told me the cost of shipping was included in the price of the refrigerators. The terms and conditions sheet clearly stated that shipping was not included.

I emailed and asked her to change the written terms and conditions. She replied and told me they couldn't be changed. So, I called the company and spoke to her manager. He told me the same thing -- the written terms of sale couldn't be changed.

That's when I asked him my magic question. "I'd like to purchase these refrigerators, but only if the written terms match what your sales rep quoted me over the phone. Is that something you're empowered to do?"

The sales manager told me no, he was not empowered to do that.

Further discussion was now pointless. The magic phrase had saved me the continued aggravation of getting stonewalled by a sales manager who couldn't help me. Instead of arguing, I politely ended the call and then called another company that sold the same products. 

This time, I encountered a sales rep who was able to sell me the same refrigerators under favorable terms for a lower price. 

Inside Perspective: Interview With FCR's Jeremy Watkin

A few weeks ago, I published this post highlighting ways that the size of a company or individual team could impact service quality. The surprising conclusion was that small and large companies generally fared equally well, while mid-sized companies struggled the most.

Jeremy Watkin, Head of Quality at FCR, was kind enough to give me some insight into how his company tries to maintain a boutique feel even as it continues to grow. FCR is a leading contact center outsourcer with 1,400 employees spread over six contact centers in Oregon. One of the more interesting things that FCR does is limit the size of its contact centers to approximately 300 employees. 

Last Thursday, Watkin joined me for a Google Hangout interview so we could go a little more in-depth into some of FCR's best practices.

Highlights

Here are a few highlights from the interview.

Team Within a Team

FCR creates teams of employees (called colleagues) to serve individual clients. This helps maintain a small-team feel even as the organization itself continues to grow. The biggest challenge here is keeping a low supervisor to colleague ratio. FCR generally strives for 1 supervisor to 15 colleagues, but their rapid growth can sometimes inflate that ratio to 1 to 20 or higher.

Growing Pains

Data from customer service software provider Zendesk shows that mid-sized companies generally provide poorer service than small or larger organizations. There isn't clear data to explain why, but Watkin offered a good theory. He suggested that mid-sized organizations are generally small companies that have grown past the point where they can manage things informally, but they don't yet have the standardized systems and processes that large companies have in place.

Employee Motivation

Watkin mentioned that 62 percent of FCR's workforce is comprised of Millenials. This makes it important for FCR to respond to the unique challenges of motivating their colleagues. Watkin said they frequently draw from the principles outlined in Daniel Pink's book, Drive. (He also wrote a great post on this topic for FCR's blog.)

The interview lasts just under 30 minutes. It's interesting to gain Watkin's first-hand perspective on keeping things small, even as an organization grows.

Who You Are Is How You Serve

Two recent customer service experiences stood out for opposite reasons. One was good while the other was poor. They both reminded me that we put a bit of ourselves into every service interaction.

Let's start with the bad one. 

The Bad One

Take a look at the picture below. The car on the left is parked well over the line. The car on the right is mine. I can't get in because the car on the left is too close to my door.

Photo credit: Jeff Toister

I was parked outside a coffee shop. I went back in and started asking customers if they owned the car that was blocking me in. It felt awkward interrupting people's conversations, but they were all gracious and kind. 

Several customers expressed empathy. They'd been there too and knew how it felt. Unfortunately, none of them owned the vehicle.

I went back out to the car. There were other stores around, so perhaps someone was running a quick errand and would be right back out. No luck. 

But, I did spot a few clues. There was a lot of paraphernalia in the other car that indicated this person worked in the coffee shop.

I went back in and asked a barista if one of the employees owned the vehicle. She asked around. Yes, one of the employees did. 

We walked out to the parking lot so she could move her car. When we got to the car she said, "Sorry, I was in a hurry." It was an insincere apology and an excuse wrapped into one.

Could this person really go back to work and deliver outstanding customer service? It's hard to imagine someone so inconsiderate would suddenly become gracious, attentive, and helpful when she punched the clock.

The Good One

Here's a confession. Every Fall, I spend a lot of Saturdays in a bar.

My wife, Sally, graduated from Texas A&M. She helps organize a weekly college football watch party for Texas A&M alumni (called former students) in San Diego. It's a great way to meet new people, reconnect with old friends, and have some fun while watching the game.

Our watch parties are held at McCarter's Bar & Grill. We've had the same server for every game this year, Savannah. She gets a lot of help from her co-workers, but she's the primary person who looks after our group. 

It's hard work. Savannah is a whirlwind of activity taking drink orders, food orders, refilling water glasses, clearing dishes, etc. She's always smiling and never loses her cool. 

I still can't figure out how she keeps track of everyone's tab when we're all grouped together and constantly mingling. 

Someone in the club bought Savannah a Texas A&M t-shirt. She wears it on game days to show her support. It makes her look like she's part of the team since many of us are wearing the same shirt.

The games typically last four hours, so we've gotten to know Savannah a little. The genuine, friendly person who takes care of our group is who Savannah really is. She's authentic.

And, I must add, McCarter's is lucky. Savannah happily does the work of three people. 

Who Are You?

A lot of customer service is fake. 

Interactions are scripted. The are rules that govern the types of emotions we express, even when we aren't really feeling them. We're expected to fight our natural instincts and graciously serve that offensive, unreasonable customer because they are a customer.

Behind that facade is something real. We put a bit of ourselves into every encounter. Hopefully, we're like Savannah. Or, we can earnestly aspire to be that type of person.

There's probably a reason I don't know or don't remember the name of the barista who blocked my car door. Definitely don't be like her.

New Research Reveals Why Customers Hate Call Centers

Nobody likes calling customer service.

The list of gripes is a mile long: confusing phone menus, intolerable hold times, and a lack of agent empowerment all annoy us.

New research from Mattersight reveals a few specific reasons why customers are dissatisfied. What's surprising is it's not a poor product, service, or policy that's at the heart of the problem. It turns out the heart itself is feeling ignored.

Finding #1: Customers don't want to call

It's easy to get confused by channel preference data.

Microsoft's 2015 U.S. State of Multichannel Customer Service report revealed that the phone is still the most popular channel. Their survey shows that 81 percent of customers use the telephone to contact customer service on a regular basis.

At first glance, it seems like customers actually do want to call you. Otherwise, another channel would be more popular, right? Here's where Mattersight's data provides some additional perspective: 

Only 28% of customers call customer service as their first attempt to solve a problem.

This means that most customers who call start somewhere else. Microsoft's study found that 57 percent of customers start online, but customers might also try another channel like email, chat, or social media. They end up calling when they can't solve their problem on the first try.

Smart companies work to prevent calls by providing better service through other channels, particularly self-service. This keeps their customers happy and allows them to serve customers more efficiently.

Finding #2: Customers are already upset

Calling customer service can feel like navigating an obstacle course. Think about all a customer has to go through just to get someone on the phone:

1. They experienced a problem.

2. They couldn't resolve it without calling.

3. They had to navigate through an annoying IVR system.

4. They had to wait on hold.

Mattersight's study revealed this is a major problem:

66% of customers are frustrated before they even start talking with a customer service representative.

This frustration makes the customer service agent's job a lot harder in several ways:

• People instinctively want to argue with or flee from an angry customer.

• A customer's negative emotions can be contagious.

• Angry customers are more judgmental and less open to ideas. 

Smart companies realize the best strategy for working with upset customers is to have fewer upset customers. They work on identifying and fixing root causes rather than deploying their customer service agents as human punching bags.

Finding #3: Customers aren't happy after the call

Call center agents routinely overlook their customers' emotional needs. Here's another stat from Mattersight that sums it up:

75% of customers have felt frustrated after talking with a customer service representative, even if their problem was solved.

Serving emotional needs is the real secret sauce in customer service. Unfortunately, we tend to focus so much on solving the problem that we miss out on helping the customer feel better.

A 2011 study from Bain highlights a terrific example. They looked at Net Promoter Scores for airline passengers who experienced a flight delay or cancellation. The data revealed that the way the issue was handled had a much heavier influence on their rating than the event itself.

Solutions

All of these findings revolve around attending to your customers' emotional needs. Here's a short video that gives you a glimpse into that way that tending to emotional needs can make a difference.

Manage upset customers like a pro from Working with Upset Customers by Jeff Toister

So, what can you do to make calling your company a better experience for your customers? Here are three suggestions:

First, give customers fewer reasons to call. Relentlessly search for icebergs and fix those problems. Improve the quality of your self-service options so customers can solve issues on their own.

Second, make it easier for customers to call. Remove or reduce barriers like clunky phone menus and long hold times. Consider adding a callback feature like Fonolo if you routinely have large spikes in call volume.

Third, train your agents to serve their customers' emotional needs. You can use the Working With Upset Customers training video on lynda.com. You'll need a lynda.com subscription to view the entire course, but you can pick up a 10-day trial here.

On Thanksgiving, Give Thanks to These Unsung Service Heroes

While most Americans are enjoying Thanksgiving dinner, retail employees in stores across the country will be hard at work. That's because a long list of retail stores will be open on Thanksgiving.

Those hardworking employees deserve our thanks. In many cases, they have no choice but to work the holiday. 

There are other customer service employees who deserve our thanks too. They're the unsung heroes of Thanksgiving (and other holidays). Here are just a few we should give thanks to:

Thank you to the airline employees, airport workers, and security personnel who make Thanksgiving travel possible. Likewise, much appreciation is due to gas station attendants, convenience store employees, fast food workers, and coffee shop baristas who allow millions of Americans to take a road trip to see their families.

Thank you to the hotel associates who make our families feel at home when there's not enough room in our actual home. 

Thank you to the chefs, servers, bussers, and other restaurant employees who feed so many people who'd rather not prepare a big feast or know they'll never do it quite as good as their favorite restaurant.

Thank you to the homeless shelter employees, social workers, and volunteers who help feed less fortunate families on Thanksgiving.

Thank you to the movie theater employees who give us all an outlet when we still want to spend time with family, but also want to get out of the house.

Thank you to the football players, officials, team employees, television employees, and stadium workers who all make it possible for us to watch football while we relax in the living room. Football may just be the one thing we actually have in common with some of our family members.

Thank you to the EMTs, hospital employees, police officers, and other emergency workers who come to our aid when we overdo it on turkey or get into an accident because the roads are so crowded.

Thank you to all of the people I forgot to mention for not getting too upset that I forgot them. You know I didn't mean it. I appreciate you too.

So many people will be working this Thanksgiving. If you should require their service, I hope you will treat them with kindness and respect. Thank them for all that they do to make it possible for so many of us to enjoy this day.

Alaska Airlines Nails Social Listening

A few weeks ago, AT&T stumbled into an #icmichat Tweet chat. It's a weekly Twitter chat that revolves around contact centers and customer service. 

Someone mentioned a poor AT&T experience, which generated a series of automated Tweets from AT&T's @ATTCares account. 

The got trolled for their efforts.

It was an ironic example of how not to practice social listening. Someone on AT&T's social care team evidently got the message because the automated automated Tweets have stopped happening. 

Today, I get to point out a good example. Alaska Airlines provided a textbook example of social listening during this week's #icmichat.

We were discussing how airlines will sometimes match competitor's frequent flyer status in an effort to get them to defect. I mentioned that Alaska Airlines had recently done this for my wife. Another participant asked how to go about it.

Knowing Alaska Airlines is on top of social media, I sent this Tweet:

@NancyJami This is too easy. Oh @AlaskaAir #custserv genie: How should Nancy apply for a status match? #icmichat

— Jeff Toister (@toister) November 17, 2015

Within minutes, Alaska Airlines sent Nancy Jamison a direct message:

@toister @AlaskaAir Wow. that was quick. They messaged me. Customer delight! #icmichat

— Nancy Jamison (@NancyJami) November 17, 2015

That was a great move since it established a personal connection and answered Jamison's question directly. Next, they followed up to let everyone else know how to do it too:

@toister @NancyJami We'll need a copy of 1)Drivers License 2)Current member card,front/back 3)Latest mileage statement reflecting staus. 1/2

— Alaska Airlines (@AlaskaAir) November 17, 2015

@toister @NancyJami email can be sent to Elite.Flyer@AlaskaAir.com ~Angel

— Alaska Airlines (@AlaskaAir) November 17, 2015

Their approach was fast, helpful, and friendly. Angel, the Alaska Airlines customer service rep, also took an extra moment to show a little non-automated personality:

@NancyJami @toister😇

— Alaska Airlines (@AlaskaAir) November 17, 2015

This is the type of Twitter support that companies should strive for. I won't lie to you - getting here isn't easy. There's a lot of time, effort, and planning that goes into it.

Here are a few resources to help you explore how your company can nail Twitter like Alaska Airlines:

• Twitter's Guide to Customer Service

• Training Video: Twitter For Business

• Alaska Airlines Twitter feed

Does Size Matter in Customer Service?

Take a moment to think about where you get better service. Is it generally from bigger companies or smaller ones?

The argument for bigger companies is they have more resources. That's what allows a company like Amazon to automatically refund the cost of an on-demand movie when their computers detect the playback quality wasn't up to par. 

The argument for smaller companies is they're more personal. Chances are you know a few people by name who have served you for years - the person who cuts your hair, the owner of your local dry cleaner, or a waiter at your favorite family restaurant.

So, does size really matter?

The answer might not be what you think it is. This post explores some data that suggests some surprising conclusions about the impact of size on service quality.

Zendesk Data

I asked the good folks at Zendesk if they could help me with some data. They had revealed some insights about service quality by company size in their original Zendesk Customer Service Benchmark report. That report was released in 2012, so I wanted to see the latest trend.

Zendesk provides customer service software, which means they have access to reams of aggregate data on actual customer service interactions. They were able to look at their clients' customer satisfaction ratings and group them by company size.

Here's what they found:

Source: Zendesk

The data shows that large companies have the best service, followed by the smallest organizations. Mid-sized companies have the worst service.

The big question is why? One possibility is employee engagement. 

Employee Engagement

There are quite a few studies that show a correlation between service quality and employee engagement. A 2012 research report from the Temkin Group shows that employees in smaller companies are considerably more engaged than in large companies.

The chart below shows the average percentage of engaged employees (moderately engaged + highly engaged) by company size:

Source: Temkin Group

The data helps explain why smaller companies generally provide better service, but it doesn't explain why Zendesk's data shows that large companies provide the best service.

One explanation is that Zendesk grouped companies into different categories than the Temkin Group. Zendesk's data separates companies with 500 - 4,999 employees and 5,000+ employees, while the Temkin Group's largest categories are 100-1,000 and 1,000+. 

It could be that employees in companies with 5,000+ employees are more engaged than in companies with 1,000 employees. (Personal note: I doubt it.)

Another explanation is that engagement isn't the sole driver of customer service quality. Other factors play a role such as the product, processes, and policies. Big companies tend to do this better than mid-sized companies, which can sometimes experience growing pains. Small companies are often small enough to continue operating informally.

Still one more explanation is team size.

Team Size Matters

There's some anecdotal evidence that suggests the size of a team can have an impact on service.

Let's go back to the Temkin Group data on employee engagement. Teams in small companies tend to be small because there aren't a lot of employees in general. Work teams tends to grow as employee counts grow.

Why is this important? A lot of great customer service comes from teamwork. Teamwork comes from creating strong relationships, which is hard to do in larger groups. 

Look at how many relationships are created as a team expands from 2 employees to 10. 

• 2 = 1 relationship
• 3 = 3 relationships
• 4 = 6 relationships
• 5 = 10 relationships
• 6 = 15 relationships
• 7 = 21 relationships
• 8 = 28 relationships
• 9 = 36 relationships
• 10 = 45 relationships

A team with 100 employees has a whopping 4,950 individual relationships between all it's members. Here's the formula if you want to do the math on your team:

# of Relationships = (x-1) * (x/2) where x = the number of people on your team.

But, what about large companies? In very large companies, it's not uncommon for employees to form tight relationships with people on their work team while employees in other departments or locations remain relatively anonymous.

For example, Amazon lives by what CEO Jeff Bezos calls the Two Pizza Rule. The idea is that teams shouldn't contain more people than you can feed with two pizzas. That generally works out to about eight people.

Inside FCR's Small Team Approach

FCR is a U.S. based contact center outsourcer. They have 1,400 employees who are spread out over six contact centers in Oregon. Part of their strategy is limiting the size of their contact centers to approximately 350 employees.

I asked Jeremy Watkin, FCR's Head of Quality, for some insight into why the company has so many small centers. 

He gave me a few reasons. The first was practical. "If you look at our centers, they all have a very similar feel.  They are typically in an old warehouse, department store, or grocery store space and we use every square inch."

The second was strategic. Locating their contact centers in small Oregon towns gives FCR access to a strong labor market while keeping costs relatively low. However, being in a small town also means that there are only so many potential employees to fill those jobs.

The third reason is culture. FCR is deliberately trying to create a strong, customer-focused environment where people enjoy a collegial atmosphere. In fact, colleague is FCR's name for employee.

Watkin told me that people coming from larger contact centers are usually surprised when they join FCR. "At FCR, they feel like people know their name and that they matter."

Interview With Jeremy Watkin

I wanted to learn more about FCR's approach to team size. Thankfully, Jeremy agreed to let me interview him via Google Hangout. I hope you can join us.

• Date: Thursday, December 3 2015
• Time: 10:00 am (Pacific)
• Coordinates: Google Hangout

We'll be discussing how team size can impact customer service. Jeremy offers a unique perspective since he led the customer service function in a company with less than 50 employees before joining FCR.

Jeremy Watkin is the Head of Quality at FCR, the most respected outsource provider. He has more than 15 years of experience as a customer service professional.  He is also the co-founder and regular contributor on Communicate Better Blog.  Jeremy has been recognized many times for his thought leadership.  Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn for more awesome customer service and experience insights.

Why We Need Less Marketing And More Customer Experience

Like most pet owners, I go out of my way to care for my dog.

She's a ten-year-old mutt that I've had since she was a puppy. She's a big girl, weighing just under 80 pounds. This means I make regular visits to the pet store to buy a lot of food, treats, and poop bags. I can only imagine how much I've spent over her lifetime.

There's a pet store that's just five minutes away from my house. I don't go there anymore because it offered a consistently poor experience. 

It wasn't just the customer service that was poor. It was the entire experience. Annette Franz has this handy definition of customer experience on her blog:

(a) the sum of all the interactions that a customer has with a company over the course of the relationship lifecycle and (b) the customer's feelings, emotions, and perceptions of the brand over the course of those interactions.

Someone in marketing had a new bright idea every week. They'd change the layout so frequently that each visit felt like walking through a maze. They frequently got rid of popular products because they thought they could sell a similar product under their private label for a better margin.

Now, I drive to another pet store that's fifteen minutes from my home. I literally pass the old store on my way there. The new store had a much better experience.

At least it did until Tuesday.

I went in for three items. This store usually gives you the option to get your receipt via email. I like that. It's one less piece of paper to clutter my pocket before I eventually throw it away. 

Not Tuesday. On Tuesday, the only receipt option was paper:

This monstrous receipt was for three items. It's 58.5 inches long in case you're wondering - nearly five feet tall.

Someone in marketing is responsible for this. They took away the convenient email option and replaced it with a file-clogging wad of coupons and promotions. I'm not interested in any of them. 

This isn't a customer service problem. The friendly cashier made the best of the situation when the receipt started printing and just kept going and going. We joked about it. I think she was a little embarrassed. She apologized for the hassle.

I'm sure a marketer thought this was a great idea. You can just imagine one of those creative sessions. Someone suddenly gets a devilish look in their eye and said, "What if... nah. It's too outlandish."

Someone else chimed in and said, "C'mon, Craig. We're brainstorming here! There are no bad ideas! What are you thinking?"

So Craig screwed up the courage to spit it out. "What if we gave every customer a giant receipt full of coupons? It could be like five feet long. It would be so outrageous that customers would think they were getting punked!!"

Actually, Craig, there are bad ideas.

No customer experience professional would have gone for this. One look at the awkward interaction between customer and cashier while the receipt printer spewed out coupons like a broken skee ball machine and they would have realized it was a crummy idea.

Those coupons might earn the pet store a few extra bucks. The marketers will take credit for that. It might also cost them a few customers. Whose fault will that be?

How To Prepare Your Team For Customer Service Training

So, you're ready to send your team to customer service training. The big question is whether or not your team is ready.

Chance are, they aren't.

A 2010 McKinsey & Company survey revealed that approximately 75 percent of training programs failed to measurably improve business performance. A lack of preparation is one of the biggest culprits.

This post will get to the heart of the problem and explain what you can do about it.

Why employees are unprepared for training

I frequently volunteer to facilitate an open-enrollment customer service class for nonprofit organizations. Anyone can sign-up and I never know who will be there until the day of the class. As participants arrive, I like to ask them why they signed up for the training. 

Here are the top three reasons:

1. They were told to be there.

2. The class looked interesting.

3. The class gave them credit towards a certificate program.

That's a pretty uninspiring list of reasons to sign up for a class. Unfortunately, most of the employees who come to customer service training aren't really sure why they're there. 

My experience in the corporate world suggests this is pretty much the norm.

Very rarely does someone attend because they're trying to solve a specific problem. It's unusual for someone to read the course description and work out exactly what they hope to learn.

That’s a big miss, because learning is fundamentally about solving problems.

The fault rests not on the employees, but on their manager. Here are some common mistakes managers make when they assign people to take training:

• The problem is not clearly defined.

• The training does not clearly address the problem.

• Employees don’t know what they’re expected to do with the training.

• Employees aren’t explicitly told what they need to do differently as a result of the training.

• There are no plans to discuss the training before or after it occurs.

It’s no wonder so many employees are confused when they attend training! Some think of it as an interruption to their “real” work. Others feel they’re being punished for doing something wrong. Still others look at training as fun “recognition” without considering how they should implement what they learn.

If you want employees to do a better job learning, you need an action plan.

How to create an action plan for training

A simple action plan can help you maximize learning by ensuring that nothing slips through the cracks. My go-to planning tool is the one-page Workshop Planner.

Here's a short video that explains how to use this worksheet. I've also provided more detailed instructions below. The planning process should take no more than one hour.

Step 1: Identify Your Purpose

It's important for employees to know why they're attending training. That's pretty hard to explain if you can't clearly articulate this yourself. So, start by answering these three questions:

1. What are the Expected Outcomes?

2. What is the Existing Performance?

3. What are the Cause(s) for the Gap?

Enter the answers in the boxes at the top of the worksheet:

Now, it's gut check time. Do you really need customer service training? 

Training is typically responsible for just 1 percent of performance. I can think of at least six ways to improve customer service without training. You should only schedule training if you really need it.

Still aren’t sure? This video tutorial can help you decide. The video includes a hands-on exercise with a live training class. You can download this worksheet to follow along.

Is this a training issue? from How to Design and Deliver Training Programs by Jeff Toister

Let’s say you do the analysis and you definitely need training.

Setting clear and measurable objectives is crucial. Don’t skip this step or do it half-way. A goal such as “improve customer service” is generic and confusing. There’s no way to tell if you’ve accomplished it.

You can use this primer to create solid learning objectives.

Step 2: Identify Pre-Training Actions

The bottom two-thirds of the worksheet is laid out in a grid.

You’ll notice there are percentages listed at the top of each column. These were offered by Jack Zenger, Joe Folkman, and Robert Sherman in a 2005 article in TD magazine called “The Promise of Phase 3.” The figures are rough estimates of the learning impact of each phase. While there’s no hard data to support their claim, it anecdotally I’ve seen the results.

Use the grid to create a list of action items for participants, their supervisor(s), and the trainer. Start by thinking about what participants need to do to prepare for the training. 

At a minimum, participants should be able to answer three questions:

1. What's the training about?

2. How will this class help me do my job?

3. How can I apply what I've learned back on the job?

Next, determine what the participants' supervisor(s) needs to do to make sure that happens. Typical actions include announcing the training to employees and coaching them to ensure they can answer the three questions.

Finally, determine what the trainer needs to do to help the supervisor(s) prepare prepare. For example, my clients typically ask me to provide them with a class description and possibly some pre-work they can share.

Step 3: Identify Training Actions

Now it's time to set a few expectations for employees while attending the training event. These are typically very few. Examples include:

• Being fully present

• Engaging with the content

Next, move down the column to decide what the employees' supervisor(s) need to do to ensure that happens. For example, supervisors often need to make scheduling adjustments to maintain operational coverage while employees participate in training.

Finally, decide what the trainer needs to do to support this. My clients typically ask me to make the training engaging and ensure it supports the learning objectives we agreed upon.

Step 4: Identify Follow-up Actions

Don't wait until the training is over to decide how employees should implement what they've learned. Create a plan now to make sure it happens.

Start by deciding what participants should specifically do to implement their new skills. Then, decide what the supervisor(s) should do to ensure it happens. Here are a few examples from recent training classes:

• Call a team meeting to ask employees how they applied what they learned.

• Coach employees one-on-one to see if they're using their new skills.

• Survey employees to identify which skills they've tried.

Finally, determine what support the participants' supervisor(s) need from the trainer. With my clients, I typically hold a follow-up meeting 30 days after the training to check-in with leaders and see what help they need to sustain their progress.

Learn More

You can see an example of a workshop planner being completed here.

Prepare employees for training from How to Design and Deliver Training Programs by Jeff Toister