Focus Magazine - Fall 2016 - 13

DIRECTIONS Dawn Brehm The Art of Customer Service How often do we as trainers stop and think about our customers? I magine this all-too-common scenario: You're in a retail store or restaurant, and things aren't going well. Maybe a server has given you the wrong order, or a clerk has a negative attitude. You make the best of the situation, but you're also inwardly wondering what happened to good customer service. What does a less-than-optimal interaction in a retail store have to do with training? Customer service is as much a part of the training world as it is in any business. So ask yourself: How oen do we as trainers stop and think about our customers? Yes, I mean customers. Our learners are in fact customers of our departments, with "customer" defined by Webster's as "one who purchases a good or service." Our learners may not use cash to purchase our services, but they use the currency of their time, their attention and their implementation of the concepts we teach. Ultimately the value placed on what we bring to the table is displayed in the interactions our learners have with their customers, the healthcare providers, as well as the wellness they bring their customer's customer, the patient. Out of the concept of customers comes the idea of customer service. Excellence in customer service is a phrase that is thrown around by many companies and departments. In fact, it is so vogue, that Forbes.com named 2016 "e year of the customer." Several of the concepts apply to how we operate in learning and development departments. Customers are smart: ey compare you to others they have interacted with and become advocates or detractors or silently grumpy. Many of the learners we work with are not new to the industry and our oﬀerings are not their first rodeo. Can we challenge ourselves to provide a more innovative and engaging learning experience than the last one they participated in? Will that experience result in the customer - or learner - becoming an advocate for our department and oﬀerings? What will they say to their colleagues who are slated to attend the next session? We know we have succeeded when customers let us know that our programs have helped achieve their goals. Conversely, we have to be aware of "customer service fails," which are also our personal learning opportunities. Whether we're tracking success or failure, it starts with hearing what learners say. Listening is a critical skill, as any trainer knows, and it's an important one to help us excel at customer service. We can provide surveys, smile sheets and maybe even ROI impact analyses, all of which most frequently serve as aer-the-fact quality checks. But how about the upfront listening? Do we really ask the customer what knowledge they need to better serve their healthcare practitioners? Or do we force the curriculum we deemed necessary for the program? Do we listen "between the lines" to really hear the needs, even the ones they may not clearly articulate? Are we open to the feedback? ere needs to be positive answers to all those questions, of course. Anyone in sales knows listening is a critical skill. Anyone in sales training needs to have the same mindset. We're all on journeys to serve our learners, companies and customers. Having an open mind and a curious nature, wanting to learn from your peers and pick up a new idea, is the first step on the road to making a diﬀerence. ■ Dawn Brehm is executive director of LTEN. Email Dawn at dbrehm@L-TEN.org. FOCUS | FALL 2016 | www.L-TEN.org 13 http://www.Forbes.com http://www.L-TEN.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Focus Magazine - Fall 2016