How are your team thinking about customers? 12 questions to ask…
24th March 2023
How are your team thinking about customers? 12 questions to ask…
24th March 2023
If you lift the lid on your customer service team today, to listen to exactly what they think about the service they provide to your customers, what would you hear? Understanding the current mindset of your people and their thoughts and feelings towards the service they provide and the challenges they face, is vital to identifying the training, development and tools they need to become excellent service-givers. As we push forward into recovery after the past 18 months, you may well find that their thoughts and their challenges have changed over time, which in turn could affect the customer experience they are delivering.
As a customer services leader, you of course want to continuously cultivate, monitor and shape customer service behaviours. To do this effectively you first need your finger on the pulse of what your people are thinking and feeling about their interactions with customers and whether they truly feel equipped to give great service.
At MGI Learning, our customer services training is based on the principle that “everything you think, feel, say and do is either a service or a disservice to yourself and everyone around you”. Thoughts and feelings affect communication and action – ultimately, it’s this language and action that the customer hears and sees, defining the customer experience throughout their interaction with the service professional. The aim of course, is for every customer interaction to be an excellent one from the outset, where the customer feels the service-giver has taken ownership and responsibility for finding a solution and they feel satisfied, even if the outcome is not exactly what they had asked for initially.
12 questions to ask your customer services team
One of the best ways to gauge how your customer services people are feeling about the service they provide and the challenges they face is by simply asking them some focused questions. After 20 years of improving customer satisfaction for organisations through effective customer service excellence training, we know exactly what to ask to get the insight you need – insight that is hugely valuable to creating the future plan to equip your people with everything they need to consistently deliver excellent service. We’d like to share these with you as a resource that you could build into your team meetings, or 121’s and take action on the knowledge you have gained.
- What is the most satisfying customer service situation that you have dealt with this month? What happened and what did you do to make it successful?
- What is the most frustrating customer service situation that you have dealt with this month? What happened, what did you do and what was the outcome?
- What is the best and worst thing a customer has said to you this month? How did you respond and what was the outcome?
- Describe your greatest success in handling a customer complaint this month?
- Identify a customer service situation this month where perhaps you could have improved the way you handled it. What could you have done differently and what outcome would you have liked to have seen?
- What is the most difficult customer enquiry you regularly have to deal with?
- Which are the most enjoyable or satisfying interactions you have with customers? What makes them enjoyable for you?
- What situations have you experienced where you have had to say “no” or give disappointing news to a customer and what do you say to the customer in those scenarios?
- Who do you rely on within the organisation to help you provide excellent customer service and who do you support to give excellent service? Are there any improvements that can be made in the support given?
- Which services that you give to customers would you like to improve and why?
- Are there any customer service situations that you encounter where you do not feel you have the required information or authority to respond positively? Where could you find the information that you need and who do you need help or authority from?
- What aspect of the service you give to customers are you most proud of? Why does it make you feel proud?
Listening to the answers your team give will give you great insight to how they are feeling about their roles, the service they provide and also into their capability to deliver excellent service. Your new or confirmed insights could guide your training programmes and coaching so each of your team members continue to grow in confidence and capability in engaging with customers in a consistently superior way. The key to success of any training programme is the collective use of the skills, where everyone is on board, sees the value in the new skills and trusts others to use those skills to do a great job. Making sure you follow up any training with activities that help embed the new skills into the team, through refresher training, learning resources, video teach, team huddles, practical application and leading by example will cement the positive impact any programme brings.
For more information, take a look at our customer service excellence training programmes.
Read our latest articles
Explore our latest blogs, written on topics to help you and your people thrive at work.
Navigating business transformation: two human elements to drive successful change
At MGI we understand how important it is for organisations to develop robust change management strategies to deal with ongoing organisational changes and challenges while empowering their people to thrive through change. In its Top 5 Priorities for HR Leaders in 2024, Gartner identifies Change Management as priority number 4, noting that preparing for and […]
Discover
Empowering Employees, Elevating Business: The Transformative Power of Customer Service Training
Customer Service training which equips people with the ability to handle any customer service interaction in a positive, solution-focused manner while also being clear when we are unable to do exactly what the customer wants, should have broader benefits beyond improving customer satisfaction scores. Of course, you want to ensure that any service training you […]
Discover
How well equipped are your Customer Service teams to handle complaints and feedback?
Is everyone in your organisation’s customer-facing roles equipped with the required skills and knowledge to effectively manage complaints? The points listed below will help you to assess how prepared they are and any gaps that may exist to inform you of any training that you might need to put in place. Do your team […]
Discover
Building a Business Case for Training: 5 Considerations to Secure Stakeholder Support
When presenting the case for budget approval for customer service training, you want to be as sure as you can that the outcomes from that training really stick and that any programme will deliver improvements in business results. To contend for budget against other spend, senior teams are looking for as much certainty as possible […]
Discover
6 steps to show empathy in customer service
Being skilled in demonstrating empathy opens the door to positive collaboration with customers which could otherwise be closed if we missed the opportunity. It starts to lay the important foundations for building customer satisfaction by showing that we care, can be relied on and trusted and are committed to finding solutions to customers’ issues. […]
Discover
10-step formula for successful complaint handling
Capitalising on the fact that complaints provide an excellent opportunity to learn and develop stronger, more collaborative relationships with customers gives a strong rationale for ensuring our teams are well equipped to handle these situations. Our proven formula for handling complaints has given thousands of service providers around the world the confidence to positively manage […]
Discover
Connect with us
Ready to discover what we can do for you?