Customer Service Skills and Techniques-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about the Plan for Training Zeller Company Employees On Customer Service Skills and Techniques. Answer: Introduction Zellers company is a retailer store founded in 1931 offering variety of household products to its customers in Canada. During the years the company has acquired and merged with other companies to increase its market share across the country. Currently the company is having more than 350 stores and more than 600 employees. In recent times a number of customers visiting the stores have been frustrated over a number of issues attributed to poor customer service. Training needs assessments Through brainstorming and survey techniques a number of customer related problems was identified among the employees located in several Zeller stores. The survey across the CBC market showed that the retailer was having the country worst customer service. Some of the negative customer service activities and practices included: untidy stores, arrogance of employees, slow service, lack of knowledge of the products, and non-availability among the staff to help. Zeller Company identified the need to train the employees on customer service related skills and abilities. The training needs identified include: technical trainings, customer service, product knowledge, professional ethics, and communication/ presentation skills. The management of the company identified the training needs to be suitable during the organization normal operations (Huber, 2014). Training design The training design is based on coming up with a design for training needs for Zeller customer service training program. The training design and development will involve selection of training methods, content, materials, testing methodology and evaluation metric (Fink, 2016). The first step in the training design will be to identify training objectives that will facilitate the training program (Kremer, 2006). Table 1 shows the summary of training objectives for Zeller employee customer training program. Table 1 Zeller company training objectives By the end of the customer service training the employees should be able to: a. Appreciate and employ several customer service skills, techniques and abilities b. Understand the need of knowing product knowledge in work environment c. Communicate with customers in a professional manner The second step in training design is ensuring that employees are ready and trainees are motivated (Hurwitz Hurwitz, 2013).Readiness and motivation of the employees can be achieved by involving them in pre-planning and explaining to them the importance of holding the trainings and benefits that would accrue from it. In addition the training group will need to identify the principles of learning for the training. The Zellers customer service training principles of learning identified and expected results can be summarized in table 2. Table 2 Principles of learning Principles of learning Results Knowledge of the result Trainees will understand feedback from their performance Transfer of learning The trainees will apply what they have been trained to work context Overcoming interferences Trainees will eliminate barriers of work performance through training knowledge and skills gained Part of design training is sourcing the trainer. Zeller Company will source a trainer externally who will be guided on the needs and policies of the company. Outsourcing externally of the trainer is to increase confidence and credibility of the training process (Armstrong, 2010). Training delivery It is the process of choosing the training methods and schedules to be employed during training sessions (Huber, 2014). A formal off the job training will be used this is by choosing an external training ground out of the employees job environment. Reason for choosing off job training is to keep away any form of job distractions and increase trainers concentrations. The training method employed will be a blended learning delivery method involving use of live classroom instructions supported with other teaching aids like manuals, e-learning materials. The methods were chosen to increase trainer-trainee interactions in respective of the organization level (Armstrong, 2010). Evaluation training It involves a process of establishing whether training needs have been met through trainings (Cummings Worley, 2014).IT Evaluation of training program is a suitable method to determine if training activities have met the goals set during needs assessments. Evaluation is done based on four levels of reactions, learning, behavior and results. Several tools and techniques are employed to test the four levels (Kremer, 2006). The Zeller employee training program will be evaluated using Kirkpatricks four levels of trainings in table 3. Table 3 Training evaluation Level of evaluation Tools/techniques used One-evaluating reactions (trainees views on trainings) Surveys (questionnaire/interviews) Two-evaluating learning (any improvement in skills/knowledge) Administering written tests Three- evaluating behavior (any changes in behavior after trainings) Collecting data from customer feedbacks Four-evaluating results (is there improvement in performance) Feedbacks and company performance records References Armstrong, M. (2010). Human resource management. London, England: Mc Graw Hill. Cummings Worley. (2014). Human resource management and planning techniques. Chicago: Cengage Learning. Fink, A. . (2016). How to Conduct trainings for employees: A Step-by-step Guide. Beverly Hills. CA: Sage. Huber, G. (2014). . Facilitating employee trainings and contributions to organizational knowledge. . Creativity and Innovation Management, 10(3), 23=68. Hurwitz Hurwitz. (2013). Personal, Team, and Organizational Development. In Leadership is Half the Story: A Fresh Look at Followership, Leadership, and Collaboration. University of Toronto Press, 10(4), 23-78. Kremer, M. (2006). Schools, teachers and training outcomes in employment sectors. Handbook of the economics of education, 2, 947-1017.