19 Best Customer Service Training Ideas and Resources (2023)

Customers know they are entitled to excellent service.

So if you don't take good care of them, someone else will.

For this reason, upskilling your employees should be an ongoing process. There is never too much training in customer service and support.

But how to make the most of it? And how can you make customer service training an integral part of your company culture?

This article covers:

• Essential service skills you can develop through training
• The best service training ideas that are easy to organize internally
• Role play scenarios for your own practice
• The best customer service courses and programs
• Selection of quality customer training manuals and other materials

If you are interested in more general topics related to customer service, you can also check out:

• How to Handle Customer Complaints Like a Pro
• 6 steps to measure customer satisfaction
• 7 Ways to Provide Good Customer Service [With Examples]

Your customer support team can also learn by doing. Here is some helpful customer service training software that is completely free.

What is customer service training about?

Customer service training is all about improving the basic service skills of your employees. It is related to product knowledge, soft skills and interpersonal skills. The objectives of such training are to meet customer expectations and increase their satisfaction.

Royal training comes in all shapes and sizes. Some of the most popular options are:

• Online customer service courses
• Webinars and QA sessions
• Personal service training workshops.
• Customer Service Training Manuals and eBooks

Why is customer service training so important?

Some customer service training seminars are quite expensive. The average cost peremployee trainingnormallyvaries between $500 and $1,500. Also, training sessions can last up to several weeks.

So-

Why would an employer encourage an employee to take customer service training?

First of all, reducing customer churn is one of the top business priorities right now. And according to an Oracle report73%of customers remain loyal due to positive interactionswith customer service. In other words, training your team has a direct impact on customer retention.

Being on par in price and quality only gets you in the game. The serve wins the game.

Tony Alessandra

Director General del Assessment Business Center

However, customer service is not a natural conversation between individuals. It has some unique quirks and a very specific dynamic. Even highly communicative and empathetic people can make mistakes. Inadvertently!

For example, not judging is one of the most important rules of good service.

An agent should not say that something is good, bad, right, or wrong. Especially when it contradicts what the client says. When a guest tells you that their WiFi is slow, you should never say something like, "It's actually not that bad."

The customer is not always right. But they should feel that they are and that you are doing everything you can to help them. Otherwise, you're just wasting time arguing about things that aren't important. Winning a dispute means losing a customer. You should always tryput customer needs ahead of your own. Is calledcustomer focus.

Training in essential areas of customer service with simple exercises

What are the goals of customer service training? The ultimate goal is to make customers happier. However, to do this, your employees must learn the following customer service skills:

1. Bring a positive attitude

A simple smile can be your customer service representative's greatest asset. That doesn't mean you have to be playful or smile like crazy. But keeping a positive attitude is an essential part of the job.

You're serving a client, not a life sentence. Learn to enjoy your work.

Laurie McIntosh

Management consultant and customer relations expert

The attitude of your customer service representatives says a lot about your brand. Your customer service training should cover things like posture, language, and tone of voice. They all give little advice on hiring their agents. And the energy that your agents exude is contagious! Make sure it's not negative.

Customer Service Training Exercise:

• A customer wants a refund. However, he is not eligible for this. Try to explain it to him without using negatives like "no/no/no." Try to end on a positive note.

Keep reading:7 tips for a positive attitude in customer service

2. Listen to customers

Most people think that they are good listeners. However, customer service requires a special skill called active listening. It's not just about being quiet and allowing someone to speak. Active listening uses conversational techniques that involve both parties.

Trained customer service representatives know how to answer, paraphrase, and ask follow-up questions. Sometimes they need to clarify or summarize things that have already been said. While this skill comes naturally to some, being a good active listener takes practice.

Customer Service Training Exercise:

• Gather a list of typical customer complaints and then try to put them in your own words. Use the formula: "So, you have [describe the problem]. Is that correct?" Asking for confirmation shows that you are paying attention.

Keep reading:10 ways to better listen to customers

3. Cultivate empathy

Your customer service representatives should be able to read each customer like an open book. It is necessary to understand the client's position and feel his emotions. If your employees are having a hard time tapping into customer emotions, there's no need to panic. Empathy can be learned.

When you show deep empathy towards others, their defensive energy diminishes and is replaced by positive energy. Then you can become more creative in problem solving.

Esteban Covey

Co-founder of FranklinCovey

Empathy is one of the most important skills in customer service. Your customers' problems should be your account managers' problems. When an agent and a client can feel the same way, they can work together to achieve their common goal.

Customer Service Training Exercise:

• Play out a situation where Agent A pretends to be a client and Agent B tries to be the worst agent ever. But don't tell Agent A about Agent B's goal. Then ask Agent A what went wrong and how it should be made right. This exercise will help you understand the position of an angry customer.

Keep reading:7 Easy Ways to Increase Empathy in Customer Service

4. Improve communication

Customer service representatives need to be able to explain complicated things in simple terms. Good communication skills and the ability to share knowledge are crucial. What they say should be safe, well organized, and structured in a way that is easy to understand.

Be careful! Sometimes clear communication can seem too forceful. After all, it's all about focusing on the facts. But some customers may find it disrespectful or too direct. You need to find a way to deliver information in a way and at a pace that your customers can digest.

Customer Service Training Exercise:

• Think of a customer problem that needs a longer explanation. Divide your team into two groups. Have a group write a single email with instructions on how to solve the problem. Instead, the second group should write 3-8 live chat messages with instructions. Compare the results and discuss their effectiveness in terms of clarity.

Keep reading:15 tips for better customer service communication

5. Learn de-escalation strategies

Training for customer service agents is not complete without learning basic conflict resolution skills. For example, instead of always saying "yes, but," try saying "yes, and." Being defensive always increases the problem. Similarly, a customer service representative never tries to prove her point. Don't prepare rebuttals! Focus on being useful.

Other de-escalation techniques include presenting different outcomes and negotiating possible solutions. You can get more information on how to treatdifferent types of customersHere.

Customer Service Training Exercise:

• Find fun customer service training videos on YouTube. There are many great examples from the movies and from real life. Discuss the materials and try to analyze what went wrong and how the conflict could have been avoided or resolved.

Keep reading:7 conflict reduction techniques and how to use them

6. Expansion of knowledge

There are many important soft skills in customer service. But your customers won't be happy if your customer support team can't solve their problems. Emotional intelligence won't help you if you don't know what you're doing. And interacting with an unsuspecting customer service representative is not a great customer service experience.

One82%of customers expect to resolve difficult issues by speaking with an agent. That means you need to focus on having a handful of well-trained agents with great knowledge. Quality trumps quantity any day of the week, as no one wants to be handled by multiple agents.

Product training for youEcommerce Customer Serviceis just as important as empathy training activities. By understanding the ins and outs of your business and its products, employees can build better customer relationships.

Customer Service Training Exercise:

• Prepare a questionnaire with random questions about your products. Divide your employees into teams and make it a competition.

Keep reading:Why is product knowledge training so important for modern companies?

7. Increased efficiency

It is better to have few agents who know how to solve problems efficiently than many mediocre ones. Knowledge and efficiency are similar in this respect. Being able to resolve issues quickly empowers agents and pays off for your business in the long run. Effective customer service is equally important for large call centers and small businesses.

You can increase efficiency by using the right customer routing and customer service tools. It saves everyone's time and helps keep track of your team's performance. CRM software and live chat are just some of the solutions you may want to try. They can also be made into a great customer service training platform.

Customer Service Training Exercise:

• Add a live chat buttonto your website and use chat analytics to review the performance of your agents. After several months, ask your best agent to set up time management workshops for the rest of the team.

Keep reading:6 tips for more efficient customer service

7 Great Training Ideas for Internal Customer Service

No one is going to tell you what to include in customer service training. Every company faces different challenges. However, there are some good customer training games and exercises. You can try the ones you like best and customize them according to your needs. Use scenarios that are typical of your industry and frequent interactions with customers.

What would be the best customer service skills training technique? Take your pick.

1. The "no" game

This customer service training game makes "no" a forbidden word. Pretend to be a customer asking all sorts of questions. The other customer service representatives should respond without using them. Sometimes it takes a lot of creativity to find an answer!

The purpose of this customer service training activity is to avoid negative language. Every time customers hear the words "no" and "no," they feel like you're denying something. You can make it sound more neutral or even more positive by rephrasing things. It must be natural for an agent.

2. Peer reviews

You should try to review actual customer interactions with your support team. Some companies have made it part of their regular activities. and they act50%better than companies that have not implemented peer feedback sessions. There are even special tools for this, e.g.klaus.

Gather some transcripts of conversations with your customers. Share them with your team. Ask them to identify what went right, what went wrong, and what should be done in a given situation. Based on the results, you can build your internal customer service knowledge base for employees.

3. Role play

Role plays and scenario based activities are the main type of workshops you can do with your employees. It is also one of the most powerful. Customer service role-play training can take your team's problem-solving skills to the next level.

Consider training scenarios based on dealing with difficult or unusual customers.

Examples of customer service scenariosfor training:

• customer who swears
• Client trying to flirt with you
• Customer trying to trick you into giving him a discount
• Scammer or prankster posing as a customer
• Product user who keeps asking for obvious things

This type of training works very well with online tools. Sometimes it's hard to stay serious when colleagues have to role-play in front of each other. But with live chat, you can experiment with RPG scenarios anonymously. It's also easier to analyze chat scripts and provide feedback afterwards.

4. Crisis management

Divide your employees into two or more teams. Each team should receive the same description of a crisis situation. It should be a big problem with no easy solution. And it doesn't even have to be customer service.

Ask them to discuss possible solutions and create a plan. Then compare their ideas and ask them to justify their choices.

This exercise gives you a lot of information about the relationships between your employees. Observe who takes the initiative and is a natural leader.

5. Personality tests

HeCliftonFortalezasAssessments and other personality tests are fun and good for team building. It's a great opportunity to learn more about your team members and their talents.

Before sharing the results, try playing a little guessing game. Once everyone has their results, have team members try to predict what each other's dominant personality traits or talents are.

You can also use free personality tests:

• 16 Personalities - Free Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

6. Complaints prank

Have your customer service representatives come up with the most ridiculous customer complaints. Complaints must be related to your industry and be very specific. Most businesses get ridiculous customer inquiries from time to time. Try to make a list of these complaints and organize them.

Once the list is complete, try to estimate how likely the situations might be. Use these "absurd" customer requests for role-playing games. Focus on practicing the nightmare scenarios that could possibly happen. This customer service game is good preparation for the worst things that could happen. And some of them probably will!

7. Collaboration between teams

It is a good idea to organize a customer service workshop involving other departments. For example, you can invite people from your marketing or UX team to participate.

A job change can give your employees a new perspective. You will be surprised at the number of insights and insights this species has.cooperationgenerated. The different teams within a company are often unaware of the problems that other departments face on a daily basis.

Spending a day as a customer service representative can be an enriching experience for your designers or marketers. It will help them carry out their work in a customer-oriented manner.

Best Customer Service Training Programs (With Certificates)

Every business wants to provide excellent customer service. But organizing a training session can be tricky. If you just want to make sure that you or your team have covered the basics, there are many online courses available.

Here is a selection of great customer service training programs. You can access it online, but some also offer in-person training. Visit the websites for more information.

The Disney Approach to Quality Service (Disney Institute)

Disney's approach to customer service is legendary. The company is known for going the extra mile to keep its customers happy. If you want to learn from the best, enroll in a customer service training program put together by the Disney Institute.

HeTrainingincludes:

• Determine the current state of customer service quality in a company
• Design a customer service strategy to improve the customer experience
• Recovery from interruptions and failures in customer service

It is an on-demand course. The basic version costs between $1,500 and $1,750 and lasts for one day. It's not one of the cheapest customer service programs available, but it's worth it.

Customer Service Mastery: Delighting Every Customer (Udemy)

This Chris Croft course is one of the most comprehensive and practical customer service training courses online. Udemy has many other customer service courses, but this one is the absolute favorite.

Watch it to learn:

• How to Create "Customer Service Treats"
• How to Motivate Customer Service Representatives
• What are the main missed opportunities to improve customer service?
• How to increase customer loyalty and maximize your profits

It is 150 minutes long and the amount of knowledge that goes into the course is incredible. It costs $99.99, but if you are a new user, you can get a discount and buy it for $17.99.

Free Online Customer Service Training Course (Alison)

If you don't want to spend too much money, here is a good alternative. Alison's course has been prepared for beginners. You can cover the fabric in about 2 hours.

It consists of the following customer service training modules:

• How to understand customers
• Focus on customer needs
• call customer service
• Handling customer complaints
• Stress Management for Customer Service Representatives

The customer service course and training materials are free. However, to obtain an in-service training certificate, you must pay for the assessment and the physical/downloadable version of the certification documents.

Service Culture: New Perspectives on Customer Relationships (edX and Kyoto University)

This course seems to be a bit more academic than your typical customer service training seminars. But don't be fooled: it's very actionable and uses lots of real examples... straight from Japan. Yes. Coincidentally, it was prepared by Kyoto University.

"Service Culture" takes a broader look at customer service in the context of sociology and philosophy. If you want to know why the best sushi restaurants don't have menus, this is a class for you.

Contains almost 5 hours of video footage from the main workshop. There are also additional customer service exercises and resources. The course is free, but if you want to get a certificate, you have to pay $49.

Customer service training manuals and other resources

Transcripts of actual conversations with your customers are your best training materials. OughtAdd live chat to your websiteand start collecting them immediately.

• Get first-hand experience with customer service with Tidio

However, if you need something more general, here are a selection of customer service training guides and other helpful resources.

More customer service training resources:

• The best phrases and support quotes for all types of customer service.
• Dale Carnegie Quick Tips for Great Customer Service
• Chick-fil-A Customer Service Training Manual and Standards
• 15 Examples of Sensitive Customer Service Conversations
• HubSpot Customer Service Training Guide Template
• Lessonly's Free Customer Service Training Guide

key to carry

Some customer service representatives learn the required skills only by doing. As they gain more experience, they will know how to approach all kinds of customers.

However, some customer service representatives may require additional assistance. In-house product training or an online course is always a good idea. Still, you don't have to enroll in the most expensive training program to become a great customer service representative. There are plenty of free customer service courses, like the ones above.

The biggest benefits of all types of customer service training are:

• Better business results through increased customer satisfaction
• Better understanding of the products your company offers
• Deliver high-quality customer experiences
• Being able to help customers solve their problems more efficiently
• Learn more about yourself, your colleagues or employees

We highly recommend using Tidio to learn chat-based customer service. Regardless of whether you choose a short training course organized within your organization or a certificate program. With the app, you can experience dealing with customers first-hand in real time.