5 Ways to Tie Customer Service Training to Measurable Business Results

Imagine your next review session. You’re sitting in your boss’s office, going over your accomplishments since your last review. Picture your boss’s reaction as you describe the measurable business results you produced for the company as a result of the customer service training you implemented. Employee turnover was reduced, customers were happier and bought more, and department costs went down. Can you see the raise in your next paycheck?

Many a training manager, customer service manager, or customer support manager calls us to inquire about our customer service training programs. When we ask what specific business results they want to improve, a surprising number say they don’t have anything specific; they know something isn’t quite right in the customer service department, but they’re not sure what. After training, when we check back to see how things went, they have nothing to report other than the training was really good and everyone liked it a lot. When they visit their boss for their next review, these managers can report that they did the customer service training like they were asked to do. No nice big raise for these folks!

So here are 5 ways to tie customer service training to measurable business results (aka, 5 ways to get a raise).

1. Survey your customers before and after customer service training to see if they’re happier with the service you provide. By measuring before and after training, Blair Freer at Teletracking was able to show an increase in the amount of very satisfied customers from 25% to 75%. Talk about a measurable improvement!
2. Measure something internally before and after training to see if you can reduce costs. You can measure average handle time, reduced escalation rates, improved first call resolution or one of many other call center metrics. By focusing on call resolution during their customer service training, for example, the field service team at Motorola was able to show a 56% improvement in resolution time pre- and post-training. A giant cost savings for the company!
3. You don’t measure? Interview the course participants in the weeks and months after training for anecdotal evidence. One rep at Colgate Oral Pharmaceuticals reported a $16,000 sale one week after training—a huge up-sell given that most of their products sell for 2 cents apiece. She said that the success was directly related to the training she received. A few examples like this will help you make your case.
4. Survey employees to see if they’re happier and more confident in their ability. Improved employee satisfaction equals improved customer satisfaction and that usually translates to lower turnover. This reduces the cost of hiring and training new employees.
5. Track improvements in call monitoring scores. For example, if reps weren’t listening to customers, how much have scores related to listening improved. If the training was focusing on teaching customer support reps to cross-sell, have they been making more offers? More offers translate to more sales. Have you added in some customer engagement messaging? How often are reps fitting the message into their calls?

Try these 5 ways of tying customer service training to measurable business results. You’ll have hard data to take to your next review session. Can you see that raise now?