Kymm’s Express Training Plan

The purpose of a training needs analysis is to identify performance requirements and the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed by the company to achieve the requirements. J, a training consultant, has a meeting with D, the Human Resource Representative, E, the Customer Service Manager and L, the Customer Service Supervisor to determine training needs. In the initial meeting, J, is conducting a preliminary needs analysis. He begins to understand a little more about the department on an organizational level which consists of, what the company’s strategy and goals are, and how training (if any) has been handled in the past. In building this training plan, there will be several key parts that are a must have when building a customer service team.

Begin by emphasizing the mission and purpose of the department and the training.

MISSION: Stress the importance of creating a universal customer service culture by beginning with upper-level management and actualizing this goal among all staff including frontline personnel. The framework for the customer service culture at Kymm’s Express includes learning what the customers wants; implementing steps to provide for those wants; equipping frontline employees with training, information, empowerment, and motivation; and monitoring success through customer and employee feedback mechanisms.

PURPOSE: To provide excellence in customer service through a positive and friendly attitude to all customers and employees through this comprehensive training plan. This plan reaffirms that Kymm’s Express will serve its customers with excellence. It outlines our responsibility to work with customers to improve the practical value of the information and services that it provides, as well as improving the delivery mechanisms used to distribute these. This plan reminds Kymm’s Express employees of the importance of interacting proactively with customers, identifying their needs, and integrating these needs into program planning and implementation.

It seems as though the current customer service representatives have received an informal training. When an organization does not spend the time to fully train their employees the consequence is poor service. To make sure that your employees succeed, there needs to be a set of expectations and or goals in place. This non-training method, L could use to develop her employees. Employees want to see how their work contributes to larger corporate objectives, and setting the right targets makes this connection explicit for them, and for L, as their supervisor. Goal-setting is particularly important as a mechanism for providing ongoing and year-end feedback. By establishing and monitoring targets, you can give your employees real-time input on their performance while motivating them to achieve more which can result in monthly and or quarterly incentives. Doing a monthly recognition program for the representatives that has the highest number of sales and positive customer comments and or Award quarterly bonuses for top sellers or make the bonus performance based; for example, you can give bonuses for answering the most customer calls or returning the most emails.

State the goals that are going to be accomplished once this training is completed.

Goal #1: Achieve Higher Levels of Customer Satisfaction: One of the many findings discovered during the Training Needs Analysis was frustration among the Customer Service Representatives. Some were concerned that there’s not a standard policy or resource to follow that describes in great detail how to pinpoint the core customer problem and either resolve or forward it to another for resolution. Concerns have been raised about their level of training and adequacy in dealing with difficult customers. Since a conclusive correlation exists between lack of skills training and knowledge, our training will target developing usable customer service skills to employees which will result in increased job performance.

Goal #2: Create a Uniform Customer Service Policy: We will create a standard Customer Service policy tailored specifically to the Kymm’s Express mission statement. We will mass produce these so that each employee receives his/her personal copy during training. In addition each Customer Service Representative station will be required to have a copy to provide quick reference for customer service representatives.

Goal #3: Develop Customer Service Procedural Guidance: We will provide training that equips customer service representatives with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that will increase product knowledge, maximize problem-solving resources, and provide exceptional customer service to the Kymm’s Express base. We will develop a ready reference customer service procedural guide; make it readily available in the system of each workstation that will provide immediate direction to customer service representatives to effectively identify a customer’s concern and the process to most efficiently resolve it.

Based on the needs analysis and design of training that was previously stated, there are many methods of training that can be added to the plan for Kymm’s Express. To adequately provide quality training that maximizes the customer service representatives potential for improved performance and retention, the length of this training should not exceed seven business days to complete. The training should be done in a non-call center location with access to computers, so that it will allow the customer service representatives the ability to dabble with the system in an offline function. However, if the location is not available it is also ideal to train on the floor. This way it will give the reps more real-life experience of the customer service environment. This will not only equip customer service representatives with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that will increase product knowledge, maximize problem-solving resources, and provide exceptional customer service to the Kymm’s Express, but all of these methods of training gives employees motivation to start the job.

It is to be said that people learn more efficiently if they learn hands-on, rather than listening to an instructor. However, this method might not be for everyone, as it could be very stressful. On the Job training consists of coaching, mentoring, job rotation and job instruction technique. Coaching/mentoring gives employees a chance to receive training one-on-one from an experienced professional. Coaching will help to identify weakness and focus on areas which need improvement while mentoring focuses on attitude development. While the customer service reps are conducting on the job training with their supervisor they will be learning the Customer Service Policy, and its use on the floor as well as, how to navigate through the customer service procedural guide. Generally on the job training is more cost effective. However, it is less disruptive to the business. Customer Service Reps will be training with equipment that they will become familiar with on an everyday basis. On the Job training should be given to employees after completing a week of simulation and on-the-job training, and completion of a simulated comprehensive exam. All in all on the job training should be an everyday process to be done on the floor, due to everyday changes.

Many avenues exist to train employees. The key here is to match the needs of the business with the different training methods. Assess each training method implemented in the organization and get feedback from trainees to see if they learned anything. As I am positive that these methods are very effective methods to build the customer service department, the results may deem otherwise.

References

• Gallo, Amy. “Making Sure Your Employees Succeed.” HBR Blog Network (2011) October 30, 2013 http://blogs.hbr.org/2011/02/making-sure-your-employees-suc/
• Iwan, Lee. “Top 10 reasons for poor customer service and theirsolutions.” Lee Iwan
• Accumulated Experience (2007) October 30, 2013 http://leeiwan.wordpress.com/2007/11/13/top-10-reasons-for-poor-customer-service-and-their-solutions/