Many of my clients, who I have delivered customer experience or leadership training often tell me that they have tried training workshops or customer service programs before but nothing really sticks. Employees forget what they have learned, temporally perform the new initiatives, leaders stop holding people accountable, the enthusiasm fades and overall feel that the training program might have been a nice shot in the arm but not very effective over time.
Certainly, most HR and businesses have that same challenge. Usually, when a business, organization or department invests in new customer service training program or when the workshops happen, when new standards are written, when your leadership stands up and communicates why this all matters — there is a genuine shift. People are energized. The language is fresh. The new behaviors feel intentional and meaningful. In other words, all is good.
But that energy has a small shelf life and unless you understand what you need to do after the program, what are the next steps to keep the training going and actually follow up on the new training initiative, you will keep being surprised when the training runs out.
REASONS WHY YOUR TRAINING FAILED
What I have observed consistently across over 30 years of leading organizations, including Disney, and now coaching and training is that these three things happen.
- The new initiative and rollout create an awareness and communication of “WHAT” the organization wants from their employees. In other words, this is WHAT we want our employees to do as a result of the training.
- There are no systems in place, expectations written down, clarity of what good work is supposed to look like to help your employees “ACT OUT” the behaviors you want from the training.
- The actual behavior is not reinforced consistently, appreciated and rewarded, talked about often in daily stand-up meetings, one on one coaching sessions, onboarding new hires or while observing the staff at their job locations. What gets celebrated and everyone knows is a priority gets repeated. This part creates the culture you want that makes it stick.
Most businesses invest heavily in the first part by paying someone to deliver a training program, schedule a training day to kick off the initiative with balloons, refreshments, door prizes, giveaways and even give each employee a swag item, button, or t-shirt. However, there is very little investment with the next step. They deliver a fun, first-class launch and then provide very little follow-up or a reinforcement plan. Many then wonder why the culture has not changed a few months later.
HOW TO FIX IT! Three Things, Not Fifty
The most significant thing you can do after the training is to provide simple clarity. Creating a simple three to five must priorities from the training that matter most. After I conduct a training program or customer experience initiative with my clients, we defined three to five key moments every employee is trained and coached to do:
If it was a coffee shop it would be,
- Greeting the customer
- Taking the order
- Making the drink the right way
- Handing off the cup
- Saying goodbye
That’s it; Five moments. Every employee knows them, every manager coaches them, reinforces them, and every time they walk around the coffee shop they observe and experience them.
The simple specificity is the point. Nothing vague about it. When you observe your employees in the workplace you know exactly what three to five things determine a great customer experience. You don’t need to send out another email or another all-hands meeting to know where to focus. The clarity does the work.
If your team cannot tell you the top three to five priorities without looking them up, you do not have a communication problem. You have a clarity problem. And clarity problems are leadership problems.
The same principle works at any level of any organization, any new initiative in any industry. Pick three or five the things that matter most. Make them simple enough to remember. Reinforce them relentlessly. Then watch what happens to your results. I promise you they will be “MAGICAL”
If you are struggling with having to babysit your staff, wish your employees were more engaged in the customer experience, and would like to move your business forward, then contact me for a FREE Discovery Call and I will fix it. I will spend a few minutes diagnosing your business, and the engagement level of your staff and leaders. I will then help you strategize with all players on your team or business to come up with specific ways and examples to implement and carry out a better business customer experience that works best for you.
Just click the link to schedule your FREE Discovery Call: https://go.oncehub.com/DiscoverySessionCall Do it today so that you will be able to attract more customers, increase business as well as your employee engagement and never worry about it again.
John Formica is America’s Customer Experience Coach, team culture expert, keynote speaker, and Top 10 Global Thought Leader and Influencer on Customer Loyalty and Customer Experience. For information on customer experience evaluations and programs, leadership training, how to find and hire great people, affordable tailored training programs or to book John to speak at your next event, contact 704-965-4090 or visit our website at JohnFormica.com.