How are your team thinking about customers? 12 questions to ask…
How are your team thinking about customers? 12 questions to ask…
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.
Our Resources
Discover our free downloadable tools, checklists, guides and eBooks, designed to help you and your people thrive at work.
Checklist and guide: Phrases to listen out for and eliminate from customer service responses
Our simple Checklist and guide will help you to determine whether your teams need more help in understanding how to respond positively, constructively or empathetically.
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Information Guide: How to ensure long-lasting impact from training
We know that strategic, all-encompassing embedding support is essential for achieving long-term behavioural change and success from any significant training investment. Use our information guide to ensure you are considering all aspects of the training experience to gain maximum benefit from your investment in training, whether it be a focus on your culture, a transformational […]
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Assessment tool: Do your people have an Optimal Mindset?
Use our checklist assessment tool to find out whether your teams are displaying a positive, motivated and optimal mindset in their day to day activities and whether they are equipped to deliver great service, collaborate with others in the team and contribute to excellent outcomes every time. This will help you to gain invaluable insight […]
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Checklist: Do your people demonstrate Ownership & Responsibility?
Use our Assessment tool to find out whether your team members clearly demonstrate ownership and responsibility in their interactions with customers and colleagues. Is this consistently demonstrated? Do they need a reminder? Or is it something that needs to be developed? Having a clear understanding will allow you to gain invaluable insight and plan to […]
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Assessment tool: 12 Questions to ask your customer service team
How are your team thinking about your customers? Use our 12-question assessment tool to keep 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. Build this assessment into your team meetings, or 121’s and gain important […]
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Guide to assess your listening skills
If you pause to reflect for a moment, consider how well do you truly listen? When we assess listening skills on our programmes, senior executives to the frontline participants tell us they realise they could do better. They become aware that they could substantially enhance and build on their listening skills so that we have […]
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Assessment Guide: Management Training Needs
Do your managers have what it takes to be exceptional leaders who influence and inspire? Use our Management Training Assessment Guide to gauge your managers’ self-awareness, self-management and communication skills; their proficiency in advanced listening and questioning techniques; and their overall potential to be exceptional leaders who value diversity within their teams and can flex […]
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eBook – How to Excel at Customer Complaints
How are your customer service teams handling the feedback and complaints that come their way at work? Do they welcome them as opportunities to showcase their skills as confident and capable customer service advisors, always happy to rise to challenges with a positive and solution-focused mindset, determined to do their best every time? Or is […]
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