{"id":1083,"date":"2015-05-05T11:48:18","date_gmt":"2015-05-05T11:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/csm210469\/?p=1083"},"modified":"2022-10-21T13:22:51","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T13:22:51","slug":"12-reasons-why-customer-service-training-fails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/12-reasons-why-customer-service-training-fails\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Reasons Why Customer Service Training Fails"},"content":{"rendered":"

costJohn Tschohl believes that most of the money and time companies spend on training is wasted.<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Manager\n

The majority of companies use outdated training ideas and boring training methods. Customer service training that is poorly presented goes in one ear and out the other. It\u2019s no wonder employees don\u2019t change their attitudes or behaviors after they attend a badly presented training session.<\/p>\n

After working in the training field for more than 40 years, I\u2019ve seen 12 key reasons why group training fails:<\/p>\n

1. Large groups<\/strong><\/p>\n

You can\u2019t have a good group discussion if 100 people are in the room.<\/p>\n

Try to limit training sessions to 15 people so everyone has a chance to participate. If the group size is larger, most employees will not participate and hence will not change their behaviors or learn new skills.<\/p>\n

2. A small number of people dominate the conversation<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s natural in groups for three people to speak up while everyone else stays silent. Facilitators must call on everyone in the room to participate. If people don\u2019t talk, they won\u2019t buy in to the training goals.<\/p>\n

3. Stupid games<\/strong><\/p>\n

People don\u2019t like role-playing games. Games and exercises have to do with something that builds success as a team. People need to be actively involved in the exercise.<\/p>\n

4. Complicated training materials<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the material is not easily understood, it will not be implemented. Make sure the information is easily comprehended. Test the material on several small groups. Make adjustments and then roll out the final version to the entire organization.<\/p>\n

5. Facilitator dominated<\/strong><\/p>\n

Facilitators should be seen and seldom heard. They should steer the conversation, but they should not dominate the discussion. They should ask leading questions of the participants and make sure everyone talks at some time. The facilitator is a juggler. He\/she needs to keep the conversation going. The more discussion there is, the more likely attitudes and behaviors will improve.<\/p>\n

6. Lectures<\/strong><\/p>\n

Remember how you fell asleep when boring professors spoke in college? Your employees are no different. Lectures are not an effective way to get people to change their attitudes and beliefs.<\/p>\n

7. Irrelevant Information<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the material is not relevant to their jobs, people will not accept the information. They want ideas they can use immediately.<\/p>\n

8. Bad physical environment<\/strong><\/p>\n

Learning can\u2019t take place if people are not comfortable. Invest in a room that looks pleasant and professional. It sounds basic, but make sure the room is well heated or cooled and has comfortable seats. Offer refreshments. Add audio and video presentation equipment. Make sure there aren\u2019t any outside distractions, such as noise.<\/p>\n

9. Not offering enough training sessions<\/strong><\/p>\n

If training isn\u2019t offered regularly, skills won\u2019t be learned and attitudes will not change. Consider offering training every four months. Companies need to reinforce and refresh training every few months with something new. A one-shot program will have one-shot results.<\/p>\n

10. Repeating the same training programs and materials<\/strong><\/p>\n

A child can watch the same program 50 times, but an adult can\u2019t watch the same training materials twice. Companies need to bring in new trainers who have new information and different teaching styles. Companies should also invest in new training materials to spice things up.<\/p>\n

11. Not having supplemental training materials<\/strong><\/p>\n

People learn by using a variety of techniques. Good training techniques require that discussions be supplemented with videos and reading materials that can reinforce the message. The old saying, “A picture is worth 1,000 words” is even more relevant in today\u2019s video age.<\/p>\n

12. Not taking today\u2019s young people\u2019s learning styles into mind<\/strong><\/p>\n

The vast majority of workers are young people. They learn differently than previous generations and they get bored easily. Look at the games they play on their phones. They want to be entertained. If the training isn\u2019t entertaining, you lose the participation.<\/p>\n

Customer service training costs money and takes time. If you do it right, then training is a wise investment.<\/p>\n

About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n

John Tschohl, the internationally recognized service strategist, is founder and president of the Service Quality Institute<\/a> in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Described by USA Today, Time, and Entrepreneur as “customer service guru,” he has written several books on customer service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is really most of the money and time companies spend on training wasted?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[52],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1083"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35920,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083\/revisions\/35920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}