Why a customer service program
is important
Your customer service representatives have unlimited access to
your customers, products and equipment, yet they’re largely considered dispensable and are treated as such. This is the wrong
approach. You can’t personally know who your regular customers
are or what their preferences entail, but your employees do, so it’s
important to retain them. Investing in customer training and rewarding them with a pay increase upon completion of the course or offering another benefit, such as time off, makes for a more enthusiastic
employee.
“Companies tend to have poor tracking of the link between training and turnover,” says Robert Smith, senior vice president of marketing and membership for the American Management Association,
a professional development firm. “Companies measure only financial or operational aspects and don’t know the money they’ve lost in
employee turnover on the employee’s knowledge and training.”
Although many customer service positions are considered entry
level, giving the employee the option to advance within the company will be an incentive for the employee to stay and can help you
reduce employee turnover, which on average costs businesses 20
percent of the employee’s annual salary to replace.
“If you have different levels of customer care positions in your
business, those who are working at the lowest level get bored easily because their job entails performing simple tasks,” Bodea says.
“These positions are filled by the newest hires and have a 20 to 60
percent turnover rate. If employees make it to the highest tier, they
are very valuable and may not be with the company if not provided
the opportunity to advance.”
You may see investing in customer service training as a luxury in
today’s economy, but experts warn that not doing so could lead to
your company’s demise.
