Customer experience success, as we define it, is about living up to the promises made to customers AND delivering business results for your organization. (If you haven’t yet, we recommend a CX Mission Statement and CX Success Statement to help you define success.) This type of success relies on super customer service. Yet we often hear how that ONE special person delivered for customers in ways that felt above and beyond. Let’s talk about how to capture that magic and extend it throughout the customer journey.
Related Article: CX Mission Moments: 3 Ways to Turn Words into Actions
There are superheroes in your organization
They handle customer issues with ease and understand how to juggle many tasks at once. They turn an angry customer into a loyal fan. They find ways to improve processes. They are always learning, often setting THE example for others, and typically happy to do their jobs.
These people have natural strengths, but they’ve also learned tools and tips through experience. Are you capturing that knowledge to share with others? Or when your superheroes move on to other roles, is that knowledge moving on with them?
Your best people have skills to share with others!
To really leverage the skills and expertise of your best people, you need to identify what is that “special something” that sets them apart. It’s easy to fall into a false narrative of “that’s just the way Jane is” and think there’s no way to train to it. But what if there is a way to share that magical pixie dust with others in your organization?
Sure, Jane follows the rules, but she also adds her own ideas and ways of doing things. Those little “extras” are what you need to identify, train to, and celebrate!
Superheroes need many skills
Think about how many skills anyone who serves customers must possess.
They must have strong skills in:
- Communication
- Organization
- Empathy
- Time management
- Problem-solving
- Living the mission of your organization!
Your superheroes probably have a solid mix of these but are definitely strong in one or two.
Jane might excel at communicating in a patient and compassionate way. She might be the right person for the job when delivering hard news to a customer.
Joe might excel at properly recording everything in your Customer Management System (CMS) or be great at using those records to set up his day according to the most important tasks at hand.
Johnny might be sufficient enough at those things, but he has taken the mission of your organization to heart in everything he does. He’s the guy who brings up, “is this really the way we want to treat our customers?”
These superheroes are easy to rely on. You know they’ll handle most situations in the right ways, and you can throw your toughest cases at them. But what about everyone else on the team?
Train the rest of your team on the skills of Jane, Joe, and Johnny
Once you’ve identified what it is that makes Jane and company so great at what they do, it’s time to share that with the team!
Set up learning paths according to those who need the training in those specific areas to become superheroes! These can be a mix of virtual and in-person training. If you know Sally would be more successful if she were a little more like Joe, her learning path should focus on time management and organization, but also explain the WHY of investing the time to keep those records.
Better yet, include your superheroes in creating the learning paths. Invite them to go through the training and offer ideas on what to add or edit, based on their real-life experiences.
3 Steps to Build Your Team’s Superpowers
1. Identify superhero skills
Identify what those skills actually are by observing and interviewing your superheroes.
Make note of specifics, like how Jane changed the suggested wording of the script to better serve a specific situation. Ask Jane how she handles specific, challenging situations with customers. She will most likely have some examples to share that really highlight her behaviors and actions. Many superstars create unique workarounds for systems or processes that create obstacles for customers. Pay attention to those!
Ask Joe about how he keeps the CRM system so accurate. He probably has some unwritten rules he follows – like using 90 seconds after a call to update or batch updating at key parts of the day.
Watch for how Johnny operates when he brings up questions about the customer and the mission. How would he empower a new person to think as he does?
There will be some unexpected findings here. Be prepared to have an open mind and take a lot of notes.
2. Develop a curriculum around these skills
Develop a curriculum around these skills for others, using your superstar input and examples. Ask your superhero to provide feedback and ideas during the development.
Don’t forget to add these lessons to your ongoing support documentation and do your best to “teach” your Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to respond in similar ways.
It can be especially helpful to create a Service Code for your organization. Leverage your learnings from your superstars!
3. Identify which team members would benefit from these specific learning paths
Ask your superhero to help you deliver and execute the first programs. Ask your learners for feedback along the way, and then monitor their success after learning.
OK, there’s a fourth step, too. Keep improving!
Determine how to measure success. Do you have goals for specific feedback metrics you’d like to improve? What about employee retention or engagement? And how will all of this impact your business results?
Related Resource: Get our FREE CX Success Statement Workbook
While it may seem obvious, we often neglect to pay attention to the WHAT of our superheroes. This alone will improve your organization’s learning success!
It’s a tall order to create a team of superheroes, but by intentionally paying attention to what makes your superheroes WHO they are, you can create the right education for the right team members to make your own team of guardians of the customer service galaxy!
Jeannie