Train customer service skills faster with 5-5-5

Imagine a customer service training program for your team.

Most managers I talk to picture a big, annual program. It might be a formal class where everyone gathers for a half-day or a series of self-paced courses that take hours.

The all-at-once approach creates a lot of problems.

  • Low retention. Reps never remember all that's covered.

  • Too long. Full or half-day workshops disrupt your operation.

  • Bad timing. Employees don't get any training at all if they're out sick, on vacation, or hired after the annual program.

There’s a better way to do it.

The 5-5-5 approach helps you build your team’s skills by spending as little as 15 minutes per week developing your team.

Graphic that reads: "Train customer service skills faster with 5-5-5. By Jeff Toister, The Service Culture Guide."

The advantages of weekly training

The 5-5-5 training approach uses a weekly cadence to develop your team one skill at a time.

Weekly training is far more effective than a single annual course.

  • High retention. Employees learn and master one skill at a time.

  • No disruption. Short, weekly trainings won’t disrupt your operation.

  • Perfect timing. Ongoing training ensures no employee is left behind.

Imagine building one skill per week for an entire year. That's 52 opportunities to get better!

How the 5-5-5 approach works

The 5-5-5 training approach focuses on one skill per week. There are three steps that each take as little as five minutes.

This means you can deliver world-class training in just 15 minutes per week.

Step 1: Prep (5 minutes)

Take five minutes to plan one small, quick hit training. Focus on the smallest unit of skill possible, such as greeting customers.

  1. Identify the topic

  2. Create a five-minute lesson

You can subscribe to the Customer Service Tip of the Week to receive a weekly training tip to share with your team.

Some managers look for specific opportunities for improvement. For example, a contact center manager I know planned a weekly quick-hit training around reducing escalations.

Step 2: Deliver (5 minutes)

The next step is to deliver the training to your team. It should be short and sweet since you’re focusing on just one skill or technique.

Save time and minimize disruptions by incorporating the training into an existing team meeting or discussion. Some teams meet in person, others meet virtually, and a few that work different shifts engage in lively discussions via Slack or Teams.

You can use the Tell-Show-Do approach to deliver the training.

  1. Tell: Explain the technique and why it’s important.

  2. Show: Demonstrate the technique or share an example.

  3. Do: Have employees go back to work and try the technique with customers.

Weekly training often feels informal.

The contact center leader shared the top escalations with the team. Everyone spent a few minutes brainstorming solutions that might prevent an escalation from occurring. The team quickly generated a list of techniques to try right away.

Step 3: Follow-up (5 minutes)

Follow-up with the team to check-in on your employees to see how they're doing. Offer coaching and encouragement to help them continue building and refining the skill.

That's it!

Conclusion

You can still do larger annual or semi-annual workshops to bookend these efforts. But the real learning happens in those weekly quick hits.

Use the 5-5-5 approach to do it weekly, one topic at a time.

Training Plan for Phone-Based Customer Service

This plan will help you train employees who serve customers over the phone.

It guides you through the Phone-Based Customer Service course on LinkedIn Learning. Make sure your team has access to LinkedIn Learning before you begin.

Phone-Based Customer Service focuses on essential phone skills:

  • Building rapport

  • Exceeding expectations

  • Solving problems

The course is ideal for anyone who serves customers over the phone. This includes contact center agents, customer support representatives, and office receptionists.

This training plan uses a unique approach to training videos.

It divides the lessons into short segments, spaced out over four weeks. This approach maximizes learning and application while minimizing the disruption to your regular operations.

This guide covers:

  1. Resources Required

  2. Preparation

  3. Pre-work

  4. Week 1: Kick-off

  5. Week 2: Building rapport over the phone

  6. Week 3: Exceed expectations over the phone

  7. Week 4: Solve problems over the phone

Resources Required

You'll need these resources to use this training plan.

  1. Access to Phone-Based Customer Service for all participants. (via LinkedIn Learning)

  2. The exercise files from the course.

  3. Workshop planning tool (free download).

Contact LinkedIn Learning for pricing and subscription options if you don't already have access.

Estimated time needed: 1 hour per week

  • Group activities: 30 minutes per week

  • Individual learning: 30 minutes per week

Prepare for Training

Get ready for the training by preparing yourself and your team.

Step 1: Create a training plan. Use the Workshop Planner to create an action plan.

  • Identify a goal for the training

  • Decide how to prepare your team

  • Create a plan to help the team use their new skills

Use this how-to video for more details:

Step 2: Announce the training. Tell your team about the training and what to expect. Address three questions for participants:

  1. What is the training about?

  2. Why is it important?

  3. How are employees expected to use what they learn?

Keep your announcement simple. Consider sharing it in a team meeting. Follow-it up with a short email that contains the pre-assignments.

Step 3: Schedule team meetings. You'll be meeting with your team once per week for four weeks. Each meeting should take 30 minutes.

Step 4: Share pre-work. Share the pre-work with your team. I've included that in the next section.

Pre-work

Ask participants to complete two short assignments before the first meeting.

Assignment 1: watch these videos:

  1. Phone service still matters

  2. Understand the phone's unique challenges

Assignment 2: Complete page one of the Learning Plan worksheet that's included in the course's exercise files.

This includes:

  • Discussion questions

  • Learning objectives

Week 1: Kick-off

The initial meeting should set the tone for the course. Start by reviewing the overall goal for the training that you identified on the Workshop Planner.

Next, discuss the following questions:

  1. How is this course relevant to the team?

  2. What are some opportunities to apply new phone skills?

  3. What are some unique challenges when serving customers over the phone?

It's helpful to share a few best practices for getting the most out of this course:

  1. Watch just one video at a time.

  2. Complete the activity that goes with each video.

  3. When possible, try using what you learned from the video before moving on to the next module.

Assignments for next week: Ask your team to watch the following videos and complete the activities described in each one. Videos with an activity at the end are marked with an "A."

  1. Develop the perfect phone greeting (A)

  2. Create personal connections (A)

  3. How to fill dead air (A)

  4. Manage holds and transfers

  5. Control the call with friendliness

  6. Complete the quiz at the end of Chapter 1

Week 2: Building rapport over the phone

This week's theme is building rapport with customers.

Rapport is a process of getting customers to know, like, and trust you. Start by reviewing the week one assignments.

Discussion questions:

  1. What impact does your phone greeting have on customers?

  2. What is one way that you build personal connections over the phone?

  3. How have you filled dead air?

  4. Describe one takeaway from the holds and transfers module.

  5. What is one technique you can use to move the call forward while still being friendly?

Assignments for next week: Ask your team to watch the following videos and complete the related activities.

  1. Tune out distractions

  2. Listen over the phone

  3. Use advanced communication techniques (A)

  4. Deliver moments of "wow" (A)

  5. Complete the quiz at the end of chapter 2

Week 3: Exceed expectations over the phone

The focus is understanding customer needs so you can consistently meet or exceed their expectations. Start by reviewing the week two assignments.

Discussion questions:

  1. How can you tune out distractions?

  2. What are examples of listening techniques you use to understand customers?

  3. How have you used visual references when communication with customers?

  4. What is one opportunity you've had to delight a customer?

Assignments for next week: Ask your team to watch the following videos and complete the related activities.

  1. How to express empathy (A)

  2. De-escalate angry calls

  3. Friendly follow-up (A)

  4. Stay focused while you work (A)

  5. Create your action plan (A)

Week 4: Solve problems over the phone

The final week is focused on service recovery. Start by reviewing the week three assignments.

Discussion questions:

  1. How can you express empathy with customers?

  2. What techniques have you used to de-escalate angry calls?

  3. How can you apply the friendly follow-up technique?

  4. What have you done to stay focused at work?

  5. What is your top takeaway from the course?

Remind participants that they can earn a certificate for their LinkedIn profile by doing the following:

  1. Watch all the videos

  2. Complete the chapter quizzes

This how-to guide provides additional help with accessing certificates.

Conclusion

It helps to go back to your original goals for this training and note the team's progress.

Your employees should show improvement in their phone skills, but it's likely they also have areas for continued growth.

Set aside time to provide each person with coaching and feedback. You can also give them weekly reminders from the Customer Service Tip of the Week.

How to become a customer service trainer

I'm an accidental customer service trainer.

One day, I was working in customer service as a retail associate. The next day, my boss asked me to train. No materials, no facilitator's guide, no nothing. Figure it out.

I've now been a customer service trainer for more than 30 years. I love it.

Today, I talk to a lot of people who want to become customer service trainers. My goal is to share from my experience.

I'm going to share three steps you can take right now to jumpstart your career as a customer service trainer.

Whether it's part-time or full-time, these steps will help you build the skills and experience to do it right.

Step 1: Become a customer service expert

You have to be an expert to train others.

Imagine you wanted to become an airplane pilot. Naturally, you'd want a flight instructor who was really good at flying planes.

The same is true for customer service. You have to be really good at serving customers if you want to train others.

Experience is the best teacher.

My first customer service encounter ended in disaster. I couldn't answer a basic product question. The customer got angry and stormed out of the store.

I hadn't been trained on our product or what to say to a customer. At sixteen, I didn't yet have the poise, experience, or common sense to say the right thing.

But I so badly wanted to do better.

From then on I made a point to learn as much as I could about our products so I could answer questions with confidence. I learned how to better respond to questions I couldn't answer, such as "I'm not sure, so let me go find out for you."

You've had those experiences, too.

Learn from them. Experiment with different approaches. Try like heck to do better the next time.

Some things will work. Others won’t. Keep trying!

You'll eventually improve. Those hard-learned lessons will be gold when it’s your turn to train someone else.

There’s another reason to grow your skills. A great customer service trainer must have an unquenchable thirst for continuous improvement. This is how you start.

There are many resources that can help you. For example:

Step 2: Build informal training skills

Most trainers start informally. Helping someone else grow provides a wealth of experience.

My first training opportunity came when my boss at the retail store asked me to help train a new employee. I loved it.

I sought out every opportunity to train over the course of several years in various jobs. This included mentoring new hires, facilitating short training sessions, and putting together training programs on my own.

It was all done informally. I didn’t know much about the science of adult learning, but I discovered what worked and what didn't. Eventually, I landed a full-time training position based on my experience.

You can do the same thing.

Look for opportunities to develop your informal training skills. It might be in your current job or part of a special assignment within your company.

You can also develop your training skills through volunteering with a nonprofit organization in your community.

Here’s a secret I’ve learned after training thousands of employees: informal training is more important than formal training.

Employees learn more from coaching, feedback, and mentorship than they do from content delivered in a formal program.

Step 3: Develop formal training skills

The final step is to learn specific skills that will help you become a better trainer. This includes the ability to put together a training session and deliver it.

There are a few ways to do this.

Join your local ATD chapter. ATD is the Association for Talent Development, and it’s where trainers go for professional development. Many have mentor programs that pair you with an experienced trainer who can help you grow. Find your local chapter.

Take a train-the-trainer course. If you have access to LinkedIn Learning, try How to Design and Develop Training Programs.

Create a personal development plan. Use the Individual Development Plan worksheet as a guide. LinkedIn also has a great career explorer tool that can help you identify the specific skills you need to build.

Conclusion

I hope you love customer service training as much as I do. It feels great to help someone build the skills necessary to delight the people they serve.

There are three big steps to becoming a customer service trainer.

  1. Become a customer service expert

  2. Develop informal training skills

  3. Build formal training skills

Good luck! I'm rooting for you.

Customer Service Foundations Training Plan

This training plan is for customer service managers and trainers.

It helps you use the Customer Service Foundations course on LinkedIn Learning with your team. Make sure everyone has access to LinkedIn Learning before you begin.

Customer Service Foundations focuses on the three essential skills:

  • Rapport

  • Understanding (includes listening)

  • Solving (includes serving upset customers)

The course is ideal for people new to customer service. It also helps experienced customer service pros refresh their skills.

This training plan uses a micro-learning approach. Micro-learning divides the lessons into short segments. It makes training easier to schedule and improves retention.

Here's what this guide covers:

  1. Resources Required

  2. Preparation

  3. Pre-work

  4. Week 1: Kick-off

  5. Week 2: Building Rapport

  6. Week 3: Exceeding Expectations

  7. Week 4: Solving Problems

Graphic featuring a profile photo of the author, Jeff Toister. He is wearing a blue shirt and sport coat and is smiling at the camera. The graphic reads, "Customer Service Foundations, Facilitator's Guide."

Resources Required

You'll need these resources to use this training plan.

  1. Access to Customer Service Foundations for all participants.

  2. The exercise files from the course.

  3. Jeff's workshop planning tool (free download).

Contact LinkedIn Learning for pricing and subscription options if you don't already have access.

Estimated time needed: 1 hour per week

  • Group activities: 30 minutes per week

  • Individual learning: 30 minutes per week

Preparation

Get ready for the training by preparing yourself and your team.

Step 1: Create a training plan. Use the Workshop Planner to create an action plan.

  • Identify a goal for the training

  • Decide how to prepare your team

  • Create a plan to help the team use their new skills

Here's a how-to video:

Step 2: Announce the training. Tell your team about the training and what to expect. Address three questions for participants:

  1. What is the training about?

  2. Why is it important?

  3. How are employees expected to use what they learn?

Keep your announcement simple. Consider sharing it in a team meeting. Follow-it up with a short email that contains the pre-assignments.

Step 3: Schedule team meetings. You'll be meeting with your team once per week for four weeks. Each meeting should take 30 minutes.

Step 4: Share pre-work. Share the pre-work with your team. I've included that in the next section.

Pre-Work

Ask participants to watch the videos listed below before the first meeting.

Some videos have an activity at the end (marked with an "A"). Those activities should also be completed. Many of the videos have downloadable exercise files that go with them.

  1. Keeping your customers happy

  2. Creating your customer service learning plan (A)

  3. Defining customer service

  4. Identifying your customers (A)

  5. Making a difference for customers (A)

  6. Avoiding burnout by staying focused (A)

Suggestion: It's a better experience to watch just one or two videos at a time. That also makes it easier for employees to fit the videos into their busy schedules.

Week 1: Kickoff

The initial meeting should review the pre-work. The focus is on the value of outstanding service.

Discussion questions:

  1. What does outstanding service look like?

  2. Who are our customers?

  3. Why should we try to provide outstanding service?

  4. How will you earn a thank you letter from a customer?

Assignments for next week: Ask your team to watch the following videos and complete the related activities.

  1. Connecting rapport to outstanding service

  2. Implementing techniques that build rapport (A)

  3. Starting a conversation (A)

  4. Enhancing your likability (A)

Week 2: Building Rapport

This week's theme is building rapport with customers. Rapport is a process of getting customers to know, like, and trust you. Start by reviewing the week one assignments.

Discussion questions:

  1. When can we build rapport with customers?

  2. How can we build rapport with customers?

  3. What questions can we use to break the ice?

  4. How can we make it easier for customers to like us?

  5. Have you earned feedback that matches your thank you letter?

Assignments for next week: Ask your team to watch the following videos and complete the related activities.

  1. Uncovering customer needs

  2. Actively listening to customers (A)

  3. Identifying emotional needs (A)

  4. Managing expectations (A)

  5. Going the extra mile (A)

Week 3: Exceeding Expectations

The focus is understanding customer needs so you can consistently meet or exceed their expectations. Start by reviewing the week two assignments.

Discussion questions:

  1. How can we actively listen to our customers?

  2. How can we uncover our customers' emotional needs?

  3. What can we do to manage customer expectations?

  4. How can we go the extra mile?

  5. What skills have you used to build rapport in the past week?

  6. Have you earned feedback that matches your thank you letter?

Assignments for next week: Ask your team to watch the following videos and complete the related activities.

  1. Taking ownership of problems (A)

  2. Empathizing with customers (A)

  3. Preventing negative emotions (A)

  4. Defusing angry customers (A)

  5. Anchoring your own attitude (A)

  6. Expanding your influence (A)

  7. Becoming a customer advocate (A)

Week 4: Solving Problems

The final week is focused on service recovery. Start by reviewing the week three assignments.

Discussion questions:

  1. What was a problem you solved for a customer? (How did you do it?)

  2. How did you help an upset customer feel better?

  3. What are ways you can help customers avoid getting upset?

  4. How did you build rapport with a customer in the past week?

  5. What did you do to understand your customers in the past week?

  6. Have you earned feedback that matches your thank you letter?

Conclusion

Ask participants to watch the final course video and complete an action plan to implement new skills from the course.

Participants can earn a certificate for their LinkedIn profile by doing the following:

  1. Watch all the videos

  2. Complete the chapter quizzes

  3. Pass the exam

Here’s a how-to guide if you need help accessing certificates.

Why customer service trainers should avoid learning styles

I bet I can diagnose your learning style with three questions.

  1. Where do you sit when you attend an in-person meeting?

  2. What do your eyes do when you're explaining something?

  3. How do you take notes in a training class?

It was a fun trick I discovered as a new trainer. I usually got it right to the mild amusement of my learners.

Years later, I was chastened to learn my hocus-pocus wasn't real.

Learning styles don't exist. Even worse, using learning styles can have a negative impact on your customer service training.

I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I made. In this article, I'll answer three questions:

  1. Are learning styles a myth?

  2. What is the danger of using learning styles?

  3. How can you make training more effective?

Are learning styles a myth?

Yes, learning styles are a myth and do not exist.

Multiple research studies have debunked the learning style theory. They have shown that tailoring instruction to participants' learning preferences does not improve learning.

Examples include this one and this one.

Reading scientific studies isn't everyone's idea of a fun time. This 15 minute video gives you a summary of the research and even shows you an informal experiment.

What learners really have are preferences when it comes to how they learn.

That was how my little trick worked. What I was really doing was identifying how they preferred to learn, not which method of instruction works best.

It's these preferences that create danger.

What is the danger of using learning styles?

Danger lurks when you attempt to apply learning styles. Your learners will learn less if you try to adapt to individual preferences.

The most obvious danger is that learning styles don't exist. Someone who prefers listening, for example, doesn't actually learn better if you focus on explaining concepts rather than showing them visuals.

Diagnosing individual preferences is also a challenge. There are multiple models. Diagnostic tools tend to be inconsistent and inaccurate.

There's another, bigger problem.

You need to experience some discomfort in order to learn something. Trainers catering to learner’s preferred methods of instruction unwittingly help participants avoid learning.

Imagine you are delivering a training module on listening to customers. The exercise involves having a short conversation with another person and remembering the main idea of what they talked about.

Should you allow participants who feel they are visual learners to sit out the activity and just observe?

Observing might make them more comfortable, but it wouldn't be effective training. Ultimately, listening skills training needs to involve listening.

What about people who prefer hands-on activities? Should you avoid demonstrating a service procedure and just allow them to muck around until they get it right?

Of course not! Some learners might be anxious to dive in, but everyone still needs to understand the goal before they practice.

At some point, learners need to lean into that discomfort.

It's up to you, as the trainer, to guide them through this perilous stage of learning so they can rise to the challenge and come out the other side with renewed confidence and skills.

Avoidance is not a learning strategy.

How can you make training more effective?

There are proven approaches that can make your training programs far more effective. Here are a few examples:

Multi-modal

People tend to learn more when information is delivered in multiple ways. This is regardless of individual learning preferences.

That's why the class tell, show, do method works so well.

  • Tell: Explain the concept (Auditory)

  • Show: Give participants an example (Visual)

  • Do: Ask participants to practice (Kinesthetic)

Let's go back to that video from earlier. Use this link to cut to a scene where you can see participant learning improves across the board with a multi-modal approach.


Accessible Design

Some of your learners might have disabilities that make learning more difficult. For example, I have ADHD, which makes it extremely difficult for me to sit still and focus on long lectures.

Designing learning with accessibility in mind can make it easier for everyone to learn. Most people struggle to learn from long lectures, not just people with ADHD.

Here are a few tips:

  • Use a multi-modal approach

  • Make graphics large, clear, and legible

  • Give clear and simple instructions

  • Provide ample time for activities

Some learners need additional accommodations. It’s a good idea to engage participants directly to understand their needs when they request extra assistance.

Context

Consider the context of how skills will be used when designing training. The closer the training fits the actual work, the better it will prepare participants to do the job.

For example, try training:

  • Listening skills by having learners practice listening

  • Observational skills by having learners observe

  • Procedural skills by having learners practice the procedure

Respect Preferences

Adult learners tend to prioritize their comfort over learning. That means trainers must do a high wire act to balance between challenging people enough to learn something new, but not so much that they'll opt out of learning.

It helps to respect individual learning preferences so long as they don't interfere with learning. Here are a few ways to do this:

  1. Let people sit where they want

  2. Encourage people to take notes as they wish

  3. Give people options for completing activities

  4. Provide opportunities for self-paced or self-directed learning

Conclusion

While learning styles don't exist, your learners do have preferences. Do your best to make participants feel comfortable while still challenging them to learn new skills.

This short video from my LinkedIn Learning course, Instruction Design: Adult Learners, provides a short overview of learning styles.

How to convince managers to reinforce customer service training

You're a customer service trainer.

You care deeply about helping employees develop customer service skills. It bothers you when employees' managers aren’t nearly as invested.

These managers take a "fix my people" approach. The manager delegates customer service training to you and expects you to do all the work. They fail to reinforce the training and employees quickly go back to their old habits.

It's a broken model.

This problem plagued me for years until I found a solution. It's a simple worksheet that you use to complete an action plan with the employees' manager before training.

Let's take a closer look at the process. You’ll be able to download the worksheet at the bottom of this post.

Meet with Managers

Ask the employees' manager to join you for a one-hour planning meeting. If more than one manager is sending employees to training, ask all of the managers to attend the same session.

You can schedule separate sessions with managers as a backup if you're unable to get them all to attend at the same time.

What if managers won't attend the planning meeting?

As an external trainer, I have the luxury of turning down the business. I simply won’t take a job where the manager refuses to do their part because I know the training is likely to fail.

You might not have the ability to turn down the training request, especially if you are an internal employee. Here are a two alternatives:

  1. Offer to reschedule the training for a time when the manager has more bandwidth.

  2. Use the manager who doesn't attend as a control group for an experiment. Compare their results to the managers who do attend the meeting.

Now, let's walk through the worksheet and the meeting flow.

Step 1: Confirm objectives

Start by filling in the informational boxes at the top of the worksheet. This information is usually set before the training is scheduled, but it helps to make sure you and the manager are on the same page.

  1. Workshop name and description

  2. Audience (who is attending training)

  3. Learning objective(s)

The learning objectives section is an opportunity for the manager to explain what they hope the training to accomplish.

I recommend focusing on two things during this phase of the discussion:

  1. Making the objectives specific and measurable

  2. Ensuring the objectives can be reasonably accomplished with training

Here’s a sample worksheet:

The training program was for customer service agents at a home repair company. Agents handled initial customer calls, set appointments, alerted customers when technicians were due to arrive at their homes, and kept customers updated on projects that required multiple visits.

The rest of the worksheet is laid out to focus on the participant first, then the manager or supervisor, and finally the trainer.

Step 2: Before Training

The next step is to create an action plan to prepare participants to get the most out of the training program.

Box 1: Start by asking the manager what participants should do before the training program so they're fully prepared. Keep it simple—you want any pre-work to be quick, focused, and easy to complete.

At a minimum, I recommend making sure participants can answer three questions:

  1. What is the training program about?

  2. Why are we doing the training?

  3. How will I be expected to use what I learn?

Record these actions in Box 1.

Box 2: Now, ask the manager what they will do to ensure participants complete the action items listed in Box 1. Write those down in Box 2.

Typical examples include:

  • Announcing the training in a team meeting

  • Sharing any pre-assignments with participants

  • Meeting one-on-one with participants to review learning goals

Box 3: Finally, ask the manager what support they need from you, the trainer, to prepare their participants for the training program.

This might include sharing a flyer, short video, or some other marketing material the manager can use to promote the upcoming training with their team. Write those actions in Box 3.

Here’s a sample from the home repair company:

Step 2: Training

This next phases focuses on what the participant should do during training to get the most out of the learning experience.

Box 4: Ask the manager what they'd like participants to do during the training. Common responses include:

  • Be fully present

  • Actively participate

  • Connect the training to their daily work

Write these down in Box 4. Remember to keep it simple. Just a few reminders will do.

Box 5: Next, ask the manager what they will do to ensure participants fulfill the items listed in Box 4. Here are a few typical examples:

  • Adjust schedules so participants can attend

  • Address the team at the start of the training so they know its importance

  • Participate in the training to set a positive example

Write those actions in Box 5.

Box 6: Finally, ask the manager what they expect from you during the training. The most common responses include:

  • Facilitate effectively

  • Make the content relevant

  • Create opportunities for interaction

Write those actions in Box 6.

Here’s a sample from the home repair company. Notice the actions are straightforward. You don’t need a lot of steps to create a solid action plan.

Step 3: After Training

This section is used to craft a plan to help participants implement what they learned in training. It includes a reinforcement plan that is driven by the manager or supervisor.

Box 7: Start by asking the manager what they'd like participants to do to apply what they learned in training. The response is often simply, “implement the new skills.”

It's helpful to tie this back to the learning objectives that you discussed at the start of the meeting.

Write those actions in Box 7.

Box 8: Next, ask the manager what they will do to reinforce the training and ensure participants apply what they learned back at work.

I've been really impressed by what managers come up with here. A few examples include:

  • Observe employees using the new skills and offer feedback

  • Reinforce the new skills in team meetings and one-on-ones

  • Demonstrate the new skills to serve as a role model

Those actions go in Box 8.

Box 9: Finally, ask the manager what support they need from you to help reinforce the training. This usually includes a request for support materials and reminders.

Fun fact: my Customer Service Tip of the Week email was born out of one of these discussions.

Record those actions in Box 9. Your action plan is now complete.

Here’s an example of the completed Workshop Planner for the home improvement company. The entire plan was created in just one hour.

Resources

Here are the resources you need to use this Workshop Planning tool the next time you organize a customer service training program.

Download the tool here:

Watch a short video on how to use it. This video comes from my LinkedIn Learning course, How to Design and Deliver Training Programs.

The 3 Essential Customer Service Skills (and How to Grow Them)

You want your team to grow their customer service skills.

The challenge is finding the right skills to focus on. There seems to be a million different ideas out there. Which ones are the most essential?

My advice is to focus on three fundamentals:

  1. Rapport

  2. Understanding

  3. Solving

These skills are the foundation of consistently great service. Each of them has endless permutations and combinations, so they can be adapted to any situation.

I'm going to show you what each skill entails, why they're essential, and how you can train yourself or your team to master each one.

Rapport Skills

Building rapport is the process of getting customers to know, like, and trust you.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines rapport this way:

1. a friendly, harmonious relationship

2. especially: a relationship characterized by agreement, mutual understanding, or empathy that makes communication possible or easy

Think of your favorite place to be a customer. It could be a restaurant, salon, or a store. There's a good chance the employees there use rapport to make you feel great.

Rapport is more than just being polite or nice. True rapport must be genuine.

Why is rapport essential?

Rapport makes customer service easier. It helps customers become more:

  • Trusting

  • Willing to listen

  • Forgiving of mistakes

My research shows that customers are 2-3 times more likely to give higher ratings when then know an employee by name.

How to grow your rapport skills

Most of us have a good foundation of rapport skills. These are the skills we use to make friends and build relationships with people outside of work.

The key is identifying and using these same skills with customers.

Here's an exercise that can help. Watch the short video below. There's a scene that starts 35 seconds in which shows a brief customer service interaction. See how many of these techniques you can identify the employee using:

  • Making the first move

  • Smiling

  • Offering a warm greeting

  • Using positive body language

  • Calling the customer by name

  • Conveying enthusiasm

  • Demonstrating interest

If you're an introvert like me, you might need a little help getting a conversation started. The Five Question Technique is my go-to move.

It works by identifying five possible questions ahead of time. Each question should be designed to put customers at ease and get them talking about themselves.

This short video shares some examples.

Understanding Skills

Customer service is about helping people. That makes it essential to understand exactly what help people want and need.

Listening is a big part of understanding your customers. Merriam-Webster defines listening this way:

to hear something with thoughtful attention : give consideration

Understanding skills also include reading comprehension.

Email, chat, and text are all popular forms of customer service communication. Your ability to read and understand these messages is critical to outstanding service.

Active listening, as the name applies, means participating in the conversation. The goal is to learn more about your customer:

  1. How they feel

  2. What they need

  3. How you can serve them

Here's an example of great active listening.

A software customer called the support department to ask if the software had a particular feature. It didn't, but the customer service rep used active listening to dig deeper.

He asked the customer clarifying questions to understand why she wanted that particular feature. Once he understood the customer's true purpose, he was able to suggest a better way for the customer to accomplish her goal.

Why is understanding essential?

Understanding helps us discover what help customers want and need.

Each customer is different. They have different personalities, needs, and expectations. Many don't communicate their needs clearly.

Empathy is a part of understanding customer needs. It's the process of being aware of and understanding another person's feelings. That’s important because a big part of customer service is helping customers feel better.

How grow your understanding skills

Like rapport, most of us already use understanding skills in our personal relationships. This active listening exercise will help you identify some of those skills you naturally use.

  1. Find a partner. It could be a coworker or even a friend.

  2. Ask them to tell you a story. It could be about anything: their weekend, an upcoming vacation, or whatever else they want to talk about.

  3. Listen carefully for the main idea of the story and why you think it might be important to the storyteller.

  4. At the end of the story, give the storyteller a recap of what you heard. Ask your partner to tell you how close you came.

  5. Finally, reflect on the specific skills or techniques you used.

Do you tell your partner that you’ve included them in a customer service training exercise? That’s completely up to you. For them, it could just be a fun conversation.

This short video contains two additional exercises to help you build your understanding skills:

  1. Identify the real problem

  2. What's my job?

Solving Skills

Our ultimate goal in customer service is to help customers. It starts by getting people to trust us through rapport and then understanding their needs.

Now, it's time to solve their problem.

Here's an example from Osprey, a brand I really love. I wanted to find a new backpack, and the Osprey rep quickly diagnosed my needs and made a recommendation.

Jennifer made it look effortless, but look carefully at some of the skills that were needed:

  • Rapport. (Okay, that opening line was probably scripted.)

  • Understanding. Jennifer quickly diagnosed my needs.

  • Solving. A lot of product knowledge was required to make a great suggestion so quickly. (The Raptor 10 turned out to be perfect.)

Why is solving essential?

Solving often involves helping customers feel better and restoring trust if a promise was broken.

Here's an example:

My wife and I used to own a vacation rental cabin. One winter, our propane service missed a delivery.

This was a huge breach of trust.

It was a cold winter and our cabin was fully booked with guests. We had just 10 days left of propane. If the tank wasn't filled in time, our guests wouldn't have propane to heat the cabin or cook meals.

This created a huge emotional problem: worry.

We worried about…

  • the consequences of running out of propane

  • having a negative impact on our guests

  • the cost of relocating guests to another cabin

  • getting a bad reputation and negative reviews for a poor experience

  • spending extra time trying to solve the problem

That’s a lot of needless worry that could have been prevented with better solving skills. It ended well, but not without a great deal of effort. You can read the rest of the story here.


How to grow your solving skills

Start with the end in mind. Visualize yourself helping customers achieve their goal and making them feel better. One exercise that helps is the Thank You Letter challenge.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Imagine you delighted a customer.

  2. Write a thank you letter to yourself from that imaginary customer.

  3. Read your thank you letter each day for 21 days.

  4. Try to receive that same feedback from a real customer.

The hardest part is sticking with it and remembering to read the letter each day. If you’d like, I’ll send you a daily reminder.

The combinations for building your solving skills are endless, but these three short videos will give you a great start.

This first video focuses on taking ownership. This means accepting responsibility for finding a resolution, even if you aren’t personally responsible for solving it.

The next video focuses on empathy.

Empathy bridges across multiple skills sets.

  • Rapport can make customers more willing to open up about their feelings.

  • Understanding can help you discover and understand their feelings.

  • Solving skills can help you take action to help customers feel better.

Serving angry customers is one of the most difficult parts of customer service.

This final video shares some proven techniques for defusing upset customers and helping them feel better.

Conclusion

Think back to all the great customer service encounters you've had. It could be service you've received or service you've given.

Chances are, those three skills were on display:

  1. Rapport

  2. Understanding

  3. Solving

You can build these skills in just 10 minutes per week with my free Customer Service Tip of the Week email.

Each tip focuses on one of those three core skills. The emails are free, and anyone can subscribe.

4 ways to train customer service skills without awkward role playing

Why do we subject employees to role playing?

Managers often request it for customer service training, but participants don't like it. Here are just a few comments from a discussion on LinkedIn Live:

  • "It's always awkward and stressful."

  • "The interactions are just not natural."

  • "It's unnerving."

It would be one thing if role playing was a highly effective customer service training technique. It's not.

I'm a customer service trainer who has trained thousands of employees, and I can tell role playing doesn't work.

There are alternatives that improve training without making your participants feel uncomfortable. Here are four that your participants will like better.

Why is role playing ineffective?

Let's take a moment to cover why role playing doesn't work for customer service training. As a trainer, I've used role playing in the past and have seen its limitations.

The first one is participants don't like it.

But there’s an even bigger reason. Role playing slows down learning. That's because a role play scenario requires participants to split their attention between two tasks. One is the skill they are trying to practice and the other is the character they are playing.

Here's an old video from the archive that shows what happens when people try to do more than one thing at once:

What can you do instead? Here are four techniques that work much better.


Option 1: Discrete skill practice

This option narrows your focus to one specific skill. Participants can practice the skill in a realistic manner without having to pretend to be a character.

This option works well for skills that are easily isolated. For example:

  • Greeting customers

  • Reading customer emails

  • Using positive tone and body language

Below is a short video from my LinkedIn Learning course, Customer Service Foundations. You can use it to help your team practice using appropriate tone and body language.

The video includes an explanation of how to use the skill. There are demonstrations at :31 and 1:25 in the video to illustrate what the technique looks like in action.

After watching the video, have your team practice using positive tone and body language while responding to typical customer requests.

Option 2: Walk-through

A walk-through is like a role play scenario played at half-speed without the unnatural acting.

Use it to walk through the steps of a service interaction. Pause to cover what to do and say at various steps in the process and have participants demonstrate each skill.

Walk-throughs are great for any situation that follows a standard procedure:

  • Receptionists greeting office visitors

  • Contact center agents answering customer calls

  • Valet parking attendants delivering customer vehicles

You've probably done a walk-through if you've ever been a cashier.

  1. The trainer walked you through the steps to ring up a transaction.

  2. You were coached you through several transactions with live customers.

  3. The trainer eventually left you to work on your own after you demonstrated a reasonable level of proficiency.

You likely had to call for help a few times when you encountered something unexpected, but generally you started getting faster and more accurate as you worked.

Option 3: Simulation

Simulations give participants a chance to practice their skills in a realistic way without playing a character. They can just be themselves.

There's a growing range of software solutions that provide simulations for customer service training. Those can be great, but there are also low-tech ways to run simulations.

Think of other situations where you could use the same skills. For example, active listening is an essential customer service skill. It’s also a skill that’s really useful when you’re just having a conversation.

Here's a simulation you can use to help people build their active listening skills by having a conversation.

  1. Place participants in pairs.

  2. Ask one participant to tell a story for 90 seconds.

  3. Give the second participant 30 seconds to recap what they heard.

  4. Debrief by asking pairs to describe the listening skills they used or observed.

Option 4: On-the-Job Practice

Daily interactions with real customers provide some of the best customer service training. You can learn something from each one and find ways to constantly improve.

Here's how to practice specific skills on-the-job:

  1. Select one specific skill to work on.

  2. Practice using the skill while serving customers.

  3. Pause and review how well it worked.

  4. Decide what adjustments, if any, to make.

  5. Apply the adjustments while using the skill with more customers.

My Customer Service Tip of the Week email provides you with a weekly suggestion for on-the-job practice. You can try the tip yourself, or share it with your team.

For example, one tip is using the Acknowledge and Refocus technique to defuse upset customers:

  1. Acknowledge the upset customer's emotions

  2. Refocus the conversation on finding a solution

After a week of practice, customer service reps can become quite skilled at using the technique. You can then introduce a new technique to practice the following week.

Take Action

Ditch the awkward role playing activities for customer service training. Your employees don't like it and it's not effective.

Try one of the four alternatives instead:

  1. Discrete skill practice

  2. Walk-throughs

  3. Simulations

  4. On-the-job practice

Here are some additional resources:

  1. Subscribe to the free Customer Service Tip of the Week email

  2. Watch the LinkedIn Live discussion on role play alternatives

How to create service culture training

You want to build a service culture. Naturally, you think of training.

This guide shares everything you need to know to get started. It includes step-by-step instructions for designing and delivering your training program.

I've also included my best advice on who should do this training and when. And, I'll also explain why you should never hire an external trainer to deliver the training.

What is service culture training?

Before diving in, let's identify exactly what "service culture training" means, starting with these definitions:

  • Culture how people in an organization collectively act.

  • Service Culture: a culture where employees act in service to customers.

  • Training: helping employees build the knowledge, skills, and abilities to do their jobs.

Put them all together:

Service culture training is a process for helping employees know how to act in service to customers.

This goes deeper than a few tips, tricks, and best practices. Service culture training helps employees understand your organization's unique culture.

That means service culture training must always be specific to your organization. Let’s talk about how to build a program that’s customized to your needs.

Defining objectives

The first step in building any training program is to define your objectives. What do you want employees to know and do after completing service culture training?

Clear training objectives help you do a few essential things:

  • Focus the training on what's important

  • Eliminate unnecessary fluff

  • Ensure people are actually learning

At minimum, your employees should be able to answer three questions after completing the service culture training program:

  1. What is the customer experience vision? (more info)

  2. What does it mean?

  3. How do I personally contribute?

You might have additional objectives that focus on other elements of your service culture. Examples include:

  • Upholding the brand promise and other guarantees

  • Writing to customers using the brand style guide

  • Following service standards when assisting customers

I like to use the A-B-C-D model to create clear, observable learning objectives:

  • A = Audience: who is being trained?

  • B = Behavior: what do they need to do?

  • C = Condition: how will I assess their ability?

  • D = Degree: how well do they need to perform to be fully trained?

Here’s an example:

Customer service reps [audience] will share three examples of how they contribute to the mission [behavior] during an in-class discussion [condition] with 100% accuracy [degree]

Toolkit --> Learning Objectives Worksheet

This short video provides some additional guidance:

Creating a training plan

A training plan is like the blueprint a construction team uses to build a house. It helps you visualize the entire process and make sure the plan is sound.

One shortcut is to use a previous training program as a template.

Think of something else you had to train everyone to know or do. It could be a new process, updated software, or anything else that employees had to incorporate into their daily work.

You can save time by following that plan to design your service culture training.

What if you don't have a template?

That's no problem. Just keep it simple. I really like to use the Tell, Show, Do approach to create straightforward training.

  • Tell: Explain what you want employees to know, and why.

  • Show: Share an example so employees can see the concept in action.

  • Do: Have employees demonstrate the knowledge or skill.

Key point: Incorporating the "Do" portion in your learning design gives you an opportunity to observe whether or not employees understand each concept.

Page 10 of The Service Culture Handbook Toolkit contains a template you can use to create your training plan.

Get the Toolkit --> Service Culture Handbook Toolkit


This short video provides more information and ideas:

Reinforcing the training

Training is use it or lose it. You must reinforce the service culture training or employees will quickly forget what they learned.

Think back to when you were in high school.

You probably had a locker that required a combination to open. At the time, you could open it in seconds without even thinking.

Now, imagine you're standing in front of that locker today. The combination is still the same. Could you open it?

Most of us couldn't.

You can use the 70-20-10 rule to reinforce service culture training so employees don't forget about what they learn.

The term "rule" isn't entirely correct. It's really more of a broad guide that explains how employees develop the knowledge, skills, and abilities they use at work.

70% = Daily Work

Most learning comes from our daily work, so it's important that processes, procedures, and policies align with the service culture training.

Let's say your company has a brand style guide. It includes a section on writing to customers in your company's brand voice.

Employees probably won’t follow the guide if you introduce it in training and then never mention it again.

But what if you aligned their daily work to match guide? Here are a few ways you could do that:

  • Re-write email templates to match the brand style guide

  • Update the quality assurance process to include adhering to the guidelines

  • Re-write knowledge base articles so they follow the brand style

All of this would make it easier for employees to follow the guidelines in their daily work. You could even assign these as projects to various employees to help reinforce their knowledge.

20% = Boss or Mentor

Leaders have a huge impact on employees' understanding of the service culture. The best leaders talk about the culture a lot.

Here are a few ways to help you talk about the culture more often:

You also have to walk the talk. Remember that you serve as a role model for your employees.

Guide --> 7 ways leaders can model great customer service

Who should deliver service culture training?

Your service culture training should be facilitated by an internal employee. This could either be a leader or a training professional who works for your company.

It should not be an external person like me. Two reasons:

  1. You know the culture better than anyone

  2. You will have much more credibility than an external person

That doesn't mean you can't tap externals resource for help. There are two specific ways an external trainer can help you.

  1. Review your plan. Contact me for help with this one.

  2. Design the training. I recommend Idea Learning Group for design help.

When is the best time for service culture training?

One of the easiest ways to sink a service culture training initiative is to launch it before it's ready. Make sure you complete all of the above steps before you start.

The final step is preparing your employees. You want them to begin the training excited about the culture and ready to help it grow.

This involves careful messaging and a clear plan.

  • Do employees know why you are doing the training?

  • What do employees need to know before they attend?

  • What will employees be expected to do with what they learn?

Planning Tool --> Workshop Planner

Here's a short video that shows you how prepare your team.

Conclusion

Service culture training is essential for any customer-focused organization. It helps every employee understand exactly what's expected.

Here are two resources that can help you continue your journey:

My top six lessons learned from serving customers

Where did you learn your customer service skills?

There's a good chance many came from experience. You might even remember specific customer interactions that taught valuable lessons.

Sure, you might have taken a class. Perhaps you had a good boss or mentor. Yet those lessons often didn't sink in until you tried them out with a customer.

That's my story.

Many of my customer service skills can be traced directly to customer interactions. Here are six of my favorites, starting with the first customer I ever served.

Lesson #1: Know your product

My first customer service encounter ended in service failure.

I was 16 years old and had just started working at a retail clothing store. It was 15 minutes into my first day when the person training me went on break, leaving me by myself in the men's department.

A customer approached and asked if we carried a particular product. I had no idea since I hadn’t yet been trained. Nervous and inexperienced, I struggled to respond and the customer stormed out of the store.

It was a terrible feeling.

I vowed never to let it happen again and immediately tried to learn everything I could about our products. Just two months later, my product knowledge was improved so much that I was asked to help train a new employee.

That first experience was the motivation for my career in customer service training. Here's the rest of my first customer story.

Lesson #2: Care about the questions you ask

Just a few days into my first job, I developed the habit of approaching every customer and asking, "How are you doing?" Every customer reflexively answered "Fine," until one customer changed the script.

"I'm terrible!"

All I could muster in response was stunned silence. Before I could gather myself, she added, "Well, you asked!"

I realized I hadn’t cared about the answer. It made me wonder how many other times I might have missed something important when I asked a routine question without caring about the customer’s response.

The experience taught me to care about the questions I asked.

Just a few days later, another customer came into the store. I greeted her with, “How are you?” and she admitted she was having a bad day. This time I was prepared, and I was able to help her leave the store feeling better than when she arrived.

Lesson #3: Be a customer advocate

One of my favorite customer service lessons came from a customer who said to me, "Sometimes you have to bend a few rules to make it happen."

That was in response to me saying, "I'm just following the rules."

I was an account manager for a uniform company. The customer wanted to order some items embroidered with his company's logo, but he wasn't happy about the two-week lead time I had quoted.

My response reflected my inexperience. Just recently, my boss had chided the department for not following proper procedures and I was anxious to avoid getting in trouble. That influenced the way I responded to the customer's request for a faster delivery.

His comment stopped me in my tracks. It made me realize I didn't add any value to the relationship if I couldn't help my customer achieve his goals. I needed to be the customer's advocate.

It took extra work and a lot of creativity, but I found a way to get the customer's order out in a week instead of two. My customer was pleased and I managed to avoid breaking any rules that would have displeased my boss.

Lesson #4: Apologize deeply

"You shouldn't have to experience this."

The words blurted out of my mouth. A customer had called, upset about receiving the wrong item. I saw past their anger and empathized with the inconvenience it was causing them. Frankly, I was embarrassed it had happened.

"I'm really sorry about the mistake. We need to do better. I'm going to make sure we send you the correct item."

Something amazing happened. The customer instantly went from red to green. Their frustration evaporated and suddenly they were trying to comfort me!

"It's okay," the customer said. "These things happen. I really appreciate your help."

I had just discovered the magic of a real, heartfelt apology. It turned out it wasn't a one-time fluke. The technique worked again and again. Customers calmed down and became more cooperative nearly every time I gave a heartfelt apology.

Would you like to know the secret? Here's a short guide to making better apologies.

Lesson #5: Don't trust the system

"Did you even look at it?"

The customer had previously ordered a very expensive item that had arrived damaged. The initial call came to me, the customer service manager at a catalogue company that sold antiques and collectibles from Eastern Europe.

I promised to send him a replacement, but the replacement arrived damaged, too. His words burned me with embarrassment because I had trusted our system and hadn't checked his order.

My mistake was assuming it was a one-off error and not checking to find the source of the problem. If I had, I would have discovered our entire inventory was damaged.

From that day forward, I never assumed that a problem was a one-off occurrence. I dug into the root causes until I could find the source and be assured it wouldn't happen again.

I've lost count of how many service failures that saved.

Lesson #6: You matter

It was going to be my last day. I was working as a contract trainer, facilitating onsite workshops for clients on behalf of the company that hired me.

I was feeling frustrated and unappreciated as I set up the training room for what I expected to be my last class. My plan was to give the client a great workshop and then tell the contractor that I was done.

The contractor wasn't great. Its training materials were poor and their client service was rotten. This put me in an awkward position as their representative, since I was the one serving upset clients. I did the best I could with the limited materials and was careful to avoid disparaging the contractor.

Just before my class started, one of the client's leaders pulled me aside. She told me that she was very unhappy with the contractor, but appreciated all of my effort to consistently deliver great workshops.

Then she handed me a thank you card and a gift certificate to a local restaurant.

My spirits suddenly soared! I hadn't realized that my extra effort was noticed by the client. Now I realized that it really did matter.

That experience inspired one of my favorite customer service training exercises called the Thank You Letter Challenge. It works by imagining a thank you letter you'd hope to receive from a customer and then trying to receive a real version.

Conclusion

Customers can teach you many valuable lessons about service, if you're open to learning them. What lessons have customers taught you?