Internal Customer Service Training

When companies look to improve customer service, too many organizations make the mistake of focusing solely on external customer service. Measuring and analyzing how could we get better at identifying and meeting the expectations of our customers & users...Trying to identify tips and techniques that can set us apart from our competition are all very important.

But, the mistake that is too often made is the direction of our improvement focus. Instead of just focusing externally, let’s also look internally on how we identify and meet the expectations of our internal customers – our colleagues and coworkers. What type of service are we providing to our internal customers? In too many cases, external customer service delivery is negatively impacted by internal miscommunication, poor internal coordination or simply put “the left hand not knowing what the right hand needed or had promised to the customer!”   

Robert Townsend, founder of the Avis Corp. (the “We Try Harder” people) understood it completely. He said “If you’re not directly serving a customer, you damn well better be supporting the someones who are!” Too often we find that we are the ones who are shooting ourselves in the foot. The old comic strip “Pogo” said it best in one of their strips – “We have identified the enemy – and the enemy is us!” We’ve all had those situations where lack of internal coordination or communication created self-imposed hoops that we had to jump through to meet external customer’s deadlines or expectations. On the drive or ride home we sadly shake our heads and say to ourselves - “Sometimes, we are successful in spite and despite of ourselves.”   

At Proven Training Solutions, we’ve developed a program entitled “Seamless Internal Customer Service training that helps you overcome the 5 most common obstacles to improved and seamless internal customer service.

The 5 common obstacles Proven Training Solutions can help you overcome are:

      1)    Increasing internal communication by opening up your internal communication climate so when people do talk they can really be open & honest …especially about work status or deadlines.

      2)     Tearing down silos & barriers that exist between departments and/or people to increase work and work effort transparency so communication and information can flow horizontally through your organization.

  

      3)    Making employees more accountable & responsible for meeting due dates, deadlines and communicating. As the old saying goes, when no one’s accountable – no one’s responsible.  

      4)    Helping employees better understand their role and the role of internal customer service in the ‘big picture’ of the customer service process.

      5)    Resolving personality conflicts between key players by improving people’s interpersonal skills and situational awareness.

You can learn more about our Seamless Internal Customer Service training by viewing this video www.youtube.com/watch?v=PehZdp7O2qU or visiting our website at http://www.proven-training-solutions.com/customer-service-training/internal-customer-service-training/

Below is our overview video from the YouTube page:

You can reach us at 1-800-403-5456 to find out how we can customize our training solutions to meet your needs. 

Benefits Participants Can Receive From Management Training Seminars

Whether one is managing a small team or a large organization, effective management plays an important role to be able to succeed. This is the reason why constant refinement of management skills are necessary, and one way to do that is to attend management training seminars. Good thing is that there are lots of management training seminars and coaching programs available today. In fact, this is one of the programs that Proven Training Solutions provides.

What are the specific benefits participants can get from attending management training seminars? Well, there are a few which including the following:

• Learn skills necessary to become an effective leader (enables management to motivate employees to deal with clients effectively, to dedicate ideal time to accomplish a project, and to learn to value the essence of timeliness and deadlines)
• Develop improved management level decision-making with the help coming from coaches’ inputs as well as from other participants who have knowledge on how to make a management level decisions
• Improve skills of managing different types of employees and clients
• Learn to effectively delegate tasks to employees, so that resources (such as time and money) are not wasted
• Learn to help employees understand the value of accountability and responsibility
• Learn how to enhance core values, establish a more concrete mission, vision, and goals - helping employees to navigate down the path towards established goals
• Learn to effectively conduct (accurate and fair) performance evaluations for employees, so that they can become more effective workers
• Learn the skill of building trust and confidence among members of the team and/or organization 
• Learn management strategies to help employees improve their communication skills with colleagues and management
• Improve the skills on giving constructive criticism as well as impose disciplinary actions legally and safely

Proven Training Solutions - Reputable Provider of Management Training Seminars

PTS has been providing training and coaching programs for newer supervisors and managers from different industries for years. Through management training seminars and other business management training programs, businesses achieve improved relations with their employees and customers.

Interested in PTS programs? Send a message today at info@proven-training-solutions.com

Call us for inquiries at 1-800-403-5456

If you are interested in Internal Customer Service Training, read more on the internal customer service training page.

How an Internal Customer Training in Arlington, VA Can Help Your Business

Many employees are trained to deliver good service to external customers. However, dealing with their internal customers (such as employees, stakeholders) is still a challenge even these days. This is partly because institutions tend to focus more on their external customers, when in fact internal customers should be given the same level of interest as well.

There are compelling reasons why businesses should improve their internal customer services some of these are the following:

• It maintains an ideal environment for workforce, needed to deliver efficient services - a high level of service and support should begin from within the organization; when employees are happy, they are able to emulate it for external customers
• A good working relationship within an organization is key to a high level of productivity, service or product quality and efficiency - necessary to create external customer loyalty. 
• Internal customer service is a good training ground for enhanced external customer service - once your employees’ customer service skills are already polished inside your company, no doubt they are able to provide such high level of service to external customers with ease.

Internal customer service training, Arlington VA

There are a number of customer service training service providers you can ask for help to improve your employees’ skills on delivering a high level of service for internal customers. If you are in the Arlington, VA area, you might be interested in working with Proven Training Solutions. Our company has been helping businesses with an array of training solutions, which include internal customer service training.

When working with PTS for your internal customer service training, we will cover different areas for internal customer service improvement, including the following:

• Understanding service perceptions and why they should be managed
• Giving assessment on each employee’s needs as a customer
• Understanding the elements of excellent service
• Handles common service problems in ways to satisfy customers
• The importance of teamwork within an organization and breaking the invisible barrier of compartmentalization

The success of your business, regardless of the industry you belong to, greatly depends on the quality of products or services you give to your customers, and your internal employees play an important role for that. Pay attention to your internal customers’ needs, the same way you address your external customers’.

Read more on the internal customer service training page.

Watch an overview of our internal customer service training below:

Tips for Creating and Strengthening Relationships with Remote Employees.

A few months ago, on the blog, I gave tips for businesses managing teleworking employees.

Today, I would like to address both the managers of virtual employees and the telecommuters

themselves. This includes those of you who are working from home, as remote employees.


Members of a Virtual Team:


1. Be dependable and reliable. Make sure you are taking this job as seriously as you would

if you were in the physical office. Meet the deadlines set out for you by your manager. If

you are unable to meet the agreed-upon deadline for your project, make sure and keep

everyone involved apprised of the situation, and where you are on the project.


2. Make sure you know what your management expects. Clear communication is key

when you are working remotely. Make sure expectations and deadlines are understood

by both parties involved so there are no surprises. If you aren't clear on your boss's

expectations, speak up.


3. Get to know your colleagues. When you are working on a project with others, take time

to get familiar with those you will be working with. You won't have the same

opportunity to get to know your peers as you would if you worked in an office together,

so do a little research (either on social media or by sending them a get-to-know-you

email) so you can see where they are coming from. You may also want to take a minute

or two to find out a little about them on the phone. It's important to create a

relationship with those on your virtual team.


4. Talk when you need to. Technology is great! Being able to email and message people is

a very efficient way to communicate. But sometimes things can get lost in translation

and emails can be ambiguous. If you are dealing with a topic that can be easily

misunderstood, or one that is complicated, you will want to pick up the phone rather

than shooting off an email.


5. Don't get lost. If you can arrange regular progress reports and stay in regular

communication with your boss, you won't fall off his radar. Be assertive and proactive so

that you will not get overlooked, as can happen when you aren't in their proximity daily.


6. Keep up to date on technology. Make sure you are proficient in the latest hardware and

software that will be needed for the job. You don't want to slow down the team by

being the person who always needs to ask how to do things. If you don't know how,

take some time to learn.


7. Research cultural differences and take them into consideration. Because you are

working remotely, your colleagues may be from different countries, have different

backgrounds, and different cultures than you. You want to be sensitive to the cultural

differences of your colleagues. You may want to invest in sensitivity training (Proven

Training Solutions offers this).


Virtual Team Managers:

1. Make sure your expectations are clear. Are your directions and expectations clear?

Ensure that your remote employees are aware of your what you expect regarding

deadlines and work completed.


2. Use virtual meetings as a tool. You will need to become a master of communication and

be able to manage virtual meetings so that your team can effectively communicate.

3. Hire the right people. Some qualities that make people well-suited for remote work

include: above average communication skills, ability to work on their own, being self-

starter, and great organizational skills. List these qualities when posting and

interviewing for the position. You want to make sure that the person ( or people ) you

hire are suited for the job.


4. Make your orientation face-to-face. Once you've hired the right person, it's time to

train them. Take time to meet with your new employee in person if possible. Meeting in

person can make a difference in the quality of your working relationship.


5. Be sensitive to cultural differences. Invest in cultural sensitivity training. Research the

country and culture of your new employees if they live in a different country than you.

This will help you inadvertently offend your new employee and will also help your

relationship grow.


6. When you commit - see it through. It can be extremely frustrating for an employee

when the manager procrastinates. If they have to wait at length for you to make a

decision or to get back to them with the information they need to complete a project, it

could hurt your relationship. Commit to following through on  your commitments to

your remote employees.

These days more people are teleworking than ever before. I have noticed a dramatic increase in the demand for training in this area. Hopefully managers find these tips useful and can keep them in mind when managing their off-site employees.

Proven Training Solutions provides training for managing virtual and remote employees in DC area including Washington, Virginia and Arlington.