Employee Education

Here's an interesting article from the American Quality Mall web site.

While the article is aimed at retailers, the principles apply to any organization that deals with customers. (That's every business, isn't it?) Baldrige category 3 is about customer focus. Does everyone in your company know who the customer is? Do they know what the customer wants? Remember, customers can be both external and internal.

How much do you spend on training? Is it the right training? Has everyone in your company who interacts with the external customer received telephone training? This is critical. As the saying goes, "you only get one chance to make a good first impression." It's always been my feeling that the operator who answers the phone can do more good (or harm) to a company than anyone else.

You can spend a ton of money trying to attract new customers. If your people don't know what to do with the customer, then a lot of that money may be wasted.

Categories: customer, training