- 1). Highlight the concept of awareness, an important aspect of customer service examined by Karen Leland in "Customer Service for Dummies." Start with this broad concept and work your way down to specific skills.
- 2). Teach awareness through hypothetical situations and storytelling. Have employees think of and relay their own experiences as customers, both good and bad.
- 3). Define the term "Excellent Customer Service" for yourself and/or your employees. Brainstorm terms, ideas, skills, and experiences that come to mind. Examine terms such as reliable, timely, personal, and memorable, as listed on AllianceLibrarySystem.com.
- 4). Show examples of good and bad customer service through role-play, and have employees compare and contrast. Be subtle rather than overly comic. Trust your employees to notice the minute details of good customer service.
- 5). Treat the "customer" as you would a friend when exemplifying good customer service through role-play. Be happy to see them and comfortable talking to them. Follow through with the customer to ensure that all of his needs and desires have been met to the best of your ability.
- 6). Have employees perform their own role-plays. First have them write and perform prepared skits showing both good and bad customer service. Then have one employee play a polite customer and another play a dissatisfied customer. See if employees can respond on their feet to both situations.
- 7). Periodically use "secret shoppers" to test your employees' understanding of customer service. Go over good and bad reviews to improve the quality of customer service for the whole team.
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