Over 93% of employees agree that receiving regular, on-the-job training is key to delivering better customer service, according to Sitel's 2019 "Future of Work and Employee Learning" study. Customer service training programs shouldn't be an afterthought in your customer experience (CX) strategy. Learning and development leaders have the opportunity to optimize learning pathways and messaging in the learning management system.
How to unlock superior CX results with an LMS
Learning in the flow of work still matters. Over 72% of employees agree they would be more likely to complete training courses if they were available on-demand, according to Sitel.
Today, L&D leaders should capture the opportunity to bring self-serve resources into the digital age. Your LMS should help both internal and external learners proactively access customer information anytime and anyplace.
While there's a clear business case for tailored, self-serve training, it's also important to establish consistency. Some of the world's best-known CX brands use LMS technology to unify messaging. Optimizing for what's possible in your LMS can streamline customer service training programs.
Provide tailored modules
No one benefits when you paint customer service solutions with a broad brush. An LMS offers the opportunity to create highly individualized training modules according to a learner's job or a customer's persona. If these tailored modules support tailored service, your satisfaction metrics could rise. Three-quarters of millennial consumers expect personalized interactions, according to Forbes.
Sandals Resorts provides 120 hours of mandatory, core customer training to hires, Forbes also reported. Learners may complete over 800 hours of additional training depending on their role, such as modules on supporting guests with disabilities or resort guests with children. An LMS offers an opportunity to build tailored modules off your core training to build expertise among internal and external learners.
Unify messaging
Customer service training programs should unify messaging across audiences, including employees, partners and other learners. This message should align with your brand's promised experience, such as excellence or familiarity. Customer feedback drives customer experience at tech company Slack, who encourages customers to communicate through the app, social media or email. Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield still works with his customer service team to analyze and respond to all social media product mentions, per CNBC.
Unified, purpose-driven messaging brings together content designed for a variety of learner audiences. More importantly, this message can help learners make the right decisions when they're navigating real-world customer interactions.
Blend learning strategies
An LMS is capable of hosting multiple resources and pathways for blended learning, including interactive role-playing or scenarios. Blended customer service learning is an opportunity to enrich learner engagement with collaboration or feedback, such as tools to evaluate video or interactive content.
Beauty brand Glossier teaches employees to be "devoted to the customer" via learning experiences that encourage collaboration, according to Forbes. Employees can sign up to shadow colleagues in other work capacities to enrich first-hand customer knowledge. LMS tools for discussion and feedback can help learners collaborate across functions to better understand customers.
Engaging diverse learners with customer service training
Organizations that provide a memorable, valuable customer experience are able to convert customers into loyal brand advocates, according to Forrester. Providing exceptional customer service training programs can help a diverse learner population provide the best CX possible, each and every time. An LMS is key to create a unified, blended training strategy that improves employee and customer engagement.
