Essay on Effective Methods of Staff Training in Customer Service
In his research, Tumbat (2011) considers the importance of introduction of customer emotion management into the regular practice of customer service employees. Basing on Hochschild’s study of emotion management (2003), the author presents his own deepened understanding of clients’ emotional involvement into the process and their emotion display in contacting service department representatives. Applying ethnography methods, Tumbat (2011) shows that customer emotion management is crucial for understanding customer choices and general performance by customer service staff in co-constructing possible service experiences. Author’s ethnographic findings argue with the postulation of a commonly asymmetric emotional correlation between customers and service personnel and provide evidence that clients can also actively keep emotion control. Therefore, one the most important approaches to personnel training should lie in teaching the foundations of emotion management and ways to involve customers into the management by heart (Hochschild, 2003).
Sidorko, E.P., & Woo, E. (2008). Enhancing the user experience: Promoting a service culture through customized staff training. Library Management, 29(8-9), pp. 641-656.
In their research, the authors aim at highlighting a row of initiatives and innovative approaches focused at improving customer service quality and personnel qualification on the example of a major university library. One of the approaches described is the customized staff training package, intended to improve customer’s experience of communication with the service staff. The results of this method were tracked for a period of six years through the biannual user survey in an attempt to identify any possible improvements in performance or in customers’ perceptions of this performance by customer service. The survey really showed some improvement in customers’ perceptions of staff performance, but most dramatic increase was fixed after a row of workshops conducted by library staff at self-initiative conditions. Though it is now difficult to correlate the results produced by customer-involvement workshops, the research by Sidorko & Woo (2008) offers a unique perspective for applying and further testing of a range of training methods aimed at improving the customer experience with the staff and staff understanding of these experiences.
Gwinner, K.P., Bitner, M.J., Brown, S.W., & Kumar, A. (2005). Service Customization Through Employee Adaptiveness. Journal of Service Research, 8 (2), pp. 131-148.
Nowadays, one of the growing tendencies is the appearance of customization strategies which are aimed at providing customers with products and services that are selected and crafted individually. In the context of service quality, the responsibility for customization typically rests on forces of customer contact employees. However, only several marketing scholars (e.g. Lin & Darling, 1997; Seymour & Sandiford, 2005; Schwepker & Hartline, 2005) consider the significance of the issue of adaptiveness of employees to these roles and think over the ways how customization behaviors can factually be encouraged through training. Focusing at organizational behavior and corporate psychology approaches, the authors of the research identify qualifications of two dimensions of employee adaptive behavior (interpersonal adaptive behavior/service-offering adaptive behavior) and then empirically test them. The results of the research show that the main focus in further training and retraining of customer service staff should be thus directed at increasing employees’ degree of customer knowledge, developing the knowledge on personality predispositions and natural motivation. According to Gwinner et al. (2005), this would positively impact the adaptation capabilities in interpersonal style of communication and in actual offering of services.
Daly, A., Grove, S. J., Dorsch, M. J., & Fisk, R.P. (2009). The impact of improvisation training on service employees in a European airline: a case study. European Journal of Marketing, 43 (3-4), pp. 459-472.
The authors of the paper aim at examining the value of improvisation training for service employees, and using acting schools approaches prepare employees for performing their roles during their direct interaction with customers, on the example of employees of a regional Irish airline Aer Arann. The researchers apply case study methodology in order to fully understand the relevance and impact of improvisation training for such goals. The investigation subjects were 7 cabin crew personnel representatives of Aer Arann who were hired not long ago; and the data needed for the case study were collected from them at 3 different times. Daly et al. (2009) study demonstrates that the participants of the research 1) enjoyed the improvisation training process, and 2) found it valuable in terms of preparation for performing their roles in the air service. One of the key findings by the group of researchers is that the newly hired employees strongly recommended that this helpful type of training should be introduced into the regular training program of the airline. In particular, the participants considered that the improvisation training enhanced their confidence, adaptability effectiveness, reaction and spontaneity, as well as psychological comfort in handling unpredictable situations successfully. Still, the given case study focuses on only the example of a single company generalizing the obtained data. Besides, only seven employees were tested in conducting the improvisation training, as well as further assessment activities. However, the case study of improvisation training approach enabled the researchers to gain significant insights for further utilizing of improvisation training in commercial training programs. The research not only links theory and practice through showing the efficacy of “framing service as theatre” in the real world context, but also basing on service theatre literature (Matthews &, Falconer, 2002; Hochschild, 2003), reveals the details for applying improvisation training as a method of preparing customer service employees for the difficulties they can face at their workplaces.
Moneycorp benefits from innovative approach to customer-service training: Personal development plans provide data on key performance areas. (2011). Human Resource Management International Digest, 19 (6), pp. 14-16.
The research describes the insights of a 12-week training program for branch managers and cashiers which eventually helped Moneycorp to advance customer service quality in a sector of operations in foreign exchange and retail currency outlets placed in a number of UK airports. The study explains in details that the key to producing the experience involvement for trainees was interaction, thus, the company applied such methods as a) group games, b) personal presentations, c) guest speakers, d) video mystery shoppers, e) role-play, f) on-site individual coaching, as well as g) personal-development time. The research result show that the pilot group created a 10% boost in sales turnover. This proves that the program could be an excellent return on investment and put the company in much stronger competitive position (Prager, 2003), especially in conditions of external factors like recent economic recession or airline bankruptcies and decreasing passenger amounts. On a whole the authors come up to the idea that the introduction of a personal-development plan supplies companies with significant data on key performance spheres, which provides transparency in motivating personnel to go beyond their previous achievements up to the top performers (Monk & Ryding, 2007; Wieseke et al., 2011).
