At short notice I have been asked to deliver a workshop to examine the issues around changing the focus of IT technical specialists to increase the customer service. My initial thoughts are to introduce an exercise/game to demonstrate how their behaviour impacts on the customer and his perception of the service delivered. It needs to be suitable for a mixture of nationalities and of short duration. Help - any ideas?
Julie Dunn
4 Responses
Customer Service Exercise for IT Specialists
Leave the specialists to do there job. Simply ask them to be civil when responding to any questions etc. if that is not possible send in a UN envoy, the job will get done eventualy but at the end of the day everbody will be happy.
A pennith…
Julie,
You fail to add wheter your specialists are internal facing or external, frequently there is a perception that internal customers (other depts) do not require such a high level of service as external custs or say consumers.
Usually we all behave as consumers and dont lower our standards just because we are dealing with an internal IT dept. Perhaps you have a starting point there.
If you want delegates simply to ‘examine issues’ then why not give them a pamphlet to read or debate, or why not match thier preferred style of communication and simply send an e-mail with the issues?
Techies are great problem solvers finding the right communication level is frequently the issue.
Good luck
something a little more helpful
I am currently researching ‘customer service training’ in general, for a job interview. However there is mention of an exercise on this site. Look at ‘any answers’ for 11th March 02.
Let them lead..
I have had a similar experience to this and I have learnt that before you can get specialists to be more customer focused you must first look to see if there are any underlining issues that may cause barriers to the transition. When you start the workshop you are likely to be faced with some hostility from those who are against any form of change, they may be a little defensive as for some they will feel that the service they provide is fine as it is. You will need to start off with asking them why they think they are there at the workshop, how they feel their behaviour may impact on the service, how they feel they can improve the service they provide to their customers (internal or external). How well do you know the service? Will you have time to pick up scenarios for role plays?
You can set up some role plays(with customers that reflect the mixed nationalities)to see how they react to the different scenarios then get their colleagues to give feedback as I find that specialists are more likely to take the advice and accept constructive critism from their peers rather then someone who they may feel has no clue about their job role or their working environment.
Hope this help.Good luck!