5 Customer Service Training for Government Employees Ideas

There are many ideas regarding customer service training for government employees. Customer service training enables employees to make positive customer experiences. These positive experiences often translate into increased customer retention and client acquisition rates. As a government-appointed HR professional, grow your institution by implementing a robust training program that increases customer satisfaction. You can also utilize business knowledge base software for training and to improve customer satisfaction. Read on to discover five customer service training for government employees ideas.

“Road Trip” Game

A training activity “game” called Road Trip is a great way to increase employee’s agreeableness. Start by splitting into groups of two to four and have them decide on the three best items to bring on a road trip. They should have a relatively short amount of time to decide, and ask them to share answers when it runs out. Next, ask for more specifics and details. For example, if “clothes” was an answer, make them specify the type of clothing. Now, start a second round similar to the first, but specify a destination for the road trip. This way, the differences in planning for a known destination and unknown destination are highlighted. This demonstrates to employees that being on the same page regarding goals significantly increases teamwork and collaboration. Surely, the “Road Trip” game demonstrates the importance of collaborating on the same goal.

“Standards, Please!” Game

“Standards, Please!” is another training game that highlights the importance of setting and following service standards. Start by lining everyone up on one side of the room, and explain that the goal is to reach the other side. But, employees must adhere to your suggestion to do so. For example, you can tell everyone wearing stripes to take two steps forward. After giving about three of these instructions, move some people from the very back to the very front, and vise-versa. From here, continue the game until someone reaches the goal. After the game, have a discussion about service standards, and ask employees to name some benefits of well-defined standards. This way, these well-defined benefits are highlighted by their absence during the game. Absolutely, the “Standards, Please!” game demonstrates the benefit of high-quality service standards.

Reflective Listening

Reflective listening is another activity idea that helps employees reach the same page as customers. Often, it consists of including what people have said in responses. For example, if a customer calls and says there was a billing error, the employee’s response should include “I understand there was a billing error.” This way, customers feel heard, significantly impacting the quality of their customer service, especially when dealing with frustrating or time-sensitive issues. To grow reflective listening skills, split employees into groups of two and simply have them take turns responding to each other in a reflective manner. Certainly, reflective listening enables employees to diagnose and remedy issues faster, and reassures the customer.

Cross-Training

Cross-training employees to expose them to new situations is an additional customer service training idea. Sometimes, employees must interact with other departments to fulfill customer service requests and inquiries. If they have little to no knowledge of that department’s day to day operations, employees often have unrealistic views of the department’s functions. Often, this negatively impacts customer service results. However, cross-trained employees typically have a better understanding of how to navigate the processes and functionalities of other departments. Additionally, make sure other departments cross-train with the customer service department. This way, other departments learn about the inquiry-navigating process. Remember, diversity training programs are important as well. Definitely, cross-training all employees maximizes their efficiency in solving customer problems.

Role-Reversal Exercises

There are several exercises that reverse the roles of customer service and customer, enabling employees to put themselves in customers’ shoes. Start by providing a specific product or service to be reviewed, and have staff members experience it. From there, ask staff to review the experience. Ask questions such as “what worked well,” “how can it be improved,” and “who else needs to be involved?” Next, bring everyone together and go over the responses to identify the activity that would impact customer service the most. This way, employees see their service from the opposite perspective, encouraging them to improve their customer-facing attitude. Additionally, they’ll think about how they can apply the insights gained from this activity into their specific customer service roles. Of course, role-reversal exercises enable significant customer service attitude improvements.

There is a myriad of customer service training for government employees ideas. One idea involves a road trip game that demonstrates the importance of collaboration and teamwork. “Standards, Please!” is another game that highlights the importance of service standards. Reflective listening significantly impacts customer service inquiry response times and reassures customers. Ensure employees are cross-trained with other departments to maximize their customer service efficiency. Finally, role-reversal exercises put your staff members in the customers’ shoes, allowing them to experience their service from the other side. Anti-harassment training is also valuable for staff members as well. When searching for customer service training for government employees ideas, consider the ideas described above.