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Costs vary, but customer service training is well worth the investment.
Today, more than ever, a company’s success hinges on the quality of its customer service. How well your reps handle customer problems, complaints and other interactions is directly tied to your investment in employee training. A well-trained customer service rep can quickly, compassionately and accurately resolve customer issues, keeping a level head and leaving the customer happy with the outcome most of the time.
But do you need to break the bank to pay for a great customer service training program? Fortunately, there are training programs available to suit nearly every budget. Here’s how to find a customer service training program that offers the right balance of effectiveness and affordability for your business.
Customer service training typically teaches representatives to remain patient while being empathetic, flexible, accommodating and well-informed about the company’s products and services. The goal is to foster positive customer relationships that build loyalty and satisfaction.
How much you pay for customer service training usually depends on three things:
Customer service training costs can vary significantly depending on the format and level of interactivity. Here’s a general breakdown of average prices, from the least to most hands-on. Keep in mind that actual costs may vary by location and provider.
Here’s a more in-depth look at the various customer service training options mentioned above to help you evaluate the best solution for your business.
Buying customer service training materials is a cost-effective solution. You can keep these materials for repeated use with new employees. These resources may include videos, workbooks and audio recordings. However, they can quickly become outdated, and you’ll likely need to reinvest every few years.
Ask experienced employees what customer service elements and materials they believe the training should include, and incorporate their suggestions to improve the program.
Many companies use virtual customer service training for the following benefits:
Multiple corporate learning providers offer online courses for customer service training. The following are a few respected providers of online training courses for customer service professionals:
Customer service training software offers the same scheduling benefits as online learning, but also includes special features such as worksheets, quizzes, printable notes and interactive graphics. Many customer service software packages allow you to add company-specific information and customize your training with actual policies and scenarios that your reps may encounter.
“This is the perfect tool for customer service training if you find the perfect software,” said Mike Thompson, CEO of Learner Mobile. “The right customer service training software should be scalable, on-demand and customizable.”
Thompson shared an example of a makeup company using customer service training software that’s up to date on all the latest trends, even if the employee isn’t.
“Did Taylor Swift just wrap up a concert, and her eyeshadow look is going viral? Then your software needs to allow for near-instant content updates,” Thompson explained. “That way, when customers ask your frontline staff at the makeup counter about Swift’s look, the employees are prepared to answer with how to achieve it, and with which product.”
E-learning sessions taught by live instructors are frequently conducted via Zoom or other live video conferencing platforms. “Often referred to as ‘Huddles,’ this is where teams get together and go through the customer service training session with an instructor who is live and ready to field questions throughout the session,” Thompson said.
Virtual sessions give your company the flexibility of multiple locations, a lower price than in-person instruction and an engaging format. Participants can ask specific questions and receive answers in real time, and a live instructor can better maintain participants’ attention than an on-demand, pre-recorded video.
Customer service classes led by in-person instructors or consultants can provide up-to-date, industry-specific training. These classes provide materials and valuable training techniques like role-playing. However, they’re also the most expensive option. Having an actual person in the room leads to the highest engagement level, especially if the instructor is dynamic. Since this type of training typically takes at least half a day, it may generate some grumbling among employees.
Jared Koll, CX advisor at Outsource Consultants, noted that the effectiveness of traditional training depends on how it’s structured. “For training to work, it needs structure — good content, the right tools, regular QA,” Koll said. “It’s not just a one-off course. That’s why some companies choose to partner with outsourced providers who bring all of that to the table. You get the benefits of great training without having to build or manage the whole system internally.”
When evaluating the pricing and costs of customer service education and training programs, consider the following questions:
1. What is the value for the money? Does the customer service training program incorporate crucial elements that will make it worth your money? Courses should address listening skills, workplace conflict resolution, stress management and crisis communication strategies. “A lot of small businesses go straight to pricing: ‘How much is this course or platform?’” Koll noted. “But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The real cost includes how long it takes to train, how much time agents spend off the phones, and what it takes to reinforce that training after the fact.”
2. Is there potential for transfer of learning? Which training type will result in the best transfer of learning? Will your employees pay attention, digest and use the information as presented in training? If your employees don’t put the skills and techniques they learned into practice, the training is useless, and you’ll have wasted money.
3. What is the importance of customer service in your business? How critical is good customer service to your company? If you have few customer service interactions and can easily resolve most issues, you may not need to pay a lot for customer service training. But if you have a complex or expensive product and a relatively high interaction volume, your customer service staff needs highly developed skills.
4. Is there a critical customer service person? Consider giving one key employee in-depth customer service training. That employee can then develop a customized training program for subsequent hires.
5. Could you train an escalation team? An alternative route is to give in-depth training to your escalation team. When a complex problem or a particularly difficult customer appears, the issue can be escalated to this team for resolution. The rest of the customer service representatives can receive a more fundamental level of training.
6. Are there relevant cross-training options? Review cross-training options relevant to your business, such as implementing sales or technology skills.
Providing excellent customer service is a must, now more than ever. Customer expectations have never been higher, and companies that lack in this area will pay the price.
“Customers are, unfortunately, less likely to ‘forgive’ a small business for lacking customer service,” Thompson cautioned. “If a Walmart customer receives bad customer service, [they] still may shop at Walmart. Not so true with a retailer who might have 10 locations.”
Here are some of the benefits of customer service training:
Amanda Hoffman contributed to the reporting and writing in this article. Source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.
