Customer Service - Retail
Using Technology for Retail Customer Service Training
Technology is the way of the future for retail companies to improve themselves by quickly and effectively training their employees on mandatory customer service skills. Here are a few suggestions on how a company like Wal-Mart would be able to use technology to its advantage for improved customer service training for its employees.
Incorporating Virtual worlds such as Second life into training:
Second life is a virtual world where users can create their own avatars. A company such as Wal-Mart could use this virtual world for many types of training and holding meetings. For the purpose of customer service related training a company could purchase land in the virtual game that is roughly the size of the workplace and have it created to resemble the workplace that is accessible to the public (not including the areas that are off limits to the public in real life for safety concerns). This resemble can help train customer service workers who need to know where everything is in the workplace by playing games. The boss could have scavenger hunts in the game that the workers must find things such as items or where to go for certain locations, in other words commonly asked questions by a customer. Furthermore it could be used to show when merchandise has been moved around the store and where they are now located.
The access to the virtual work could be prohibited to computers inside the work place in order to guarantee the virtual people in the world are actual associates for safety and privacy concerns.
Skype or similar technology
This type of technology based training can be used for a wide variety of customer service training. Companies can take advantage of this training by hiring people who are fully knowledgeable on how to deal with difficult customers. Workers can be able to use this interactive video to work on their customer service skills such as learning how to handle a difficult customer, learning how to sell items better, practice makes perfect.
For example, Wal-Mart can designate a certain amount of time that an employee must use this interactive video. On the screen will be another stranger to the person who will interact as a customer and ask questions that relate to the store, such as where a product might be or a return policy. They may purposely act angry for common reasons as the store is out of stock of something or a product has malfunction to give the associate practice in dealing with unhappy customers. After the associate is finished with the situation the trainer on the other end of the screen can inform the employee how they did and where they can improve.
Management does not always have the time to train one on one with their employees and it would be difficult for both management and the associate to find a time that both works best for them. Furthermore, the associate may feel more comfortable with the manager than with the trainer on the screen. This lack of comfort makes the situation more realistic and the person on the other screen can be more informative and better knowledge at training the associates. Also, the use of technology saves the trainer time from travelling to the store which also helps Wal-Mart save money and provide faster, better, and more efficient training.
Interactive Video
Interactive video can be better than using quizzes or tutorials. The company can use an interactive video to play out an entire day of an associate or even from the customer’s perspective. It can be set in story format where the associate follows the story of either another associate or customer where both interact at the work place in certain situations. The associate in watching the video will have options to click throughout the story that will cause the result of the story to change depending on which option they pick. It can show the associate how all their actions can change the outcome and what are the right choices to pick for the best quality customer service which will make the associate and customer happy.
Ipads with training Video games/Aps in the training Room
Some employees get bored reading over and over the same material at work in the break room. Others don’t have their phone on them and want something entertaining to do while they take their break. Leaving Ipads in the break room that secured to a table so they are not stolen with aps on them related to training is another solution for using technology for training purposes. Make competitive games that have high scores where an associate can put their name on the high score in order to win a prize to encourage playing the games.
Interview
What training tools have you found to be the most effective for the different generations (baby boomers, gen X, gen Y)?
Hands on training is always the most effective method of training for all generations. The best way to train someone is show them first hand and have them do it.
What is the greatest obstacle you have faced while designing a training or development program? What types of solutions did you come up with?
At Wal-Mart your career is your path. We love to develop people, but they need the individual motivation to get there. The biggest obstacle is time constraints and having enough time and people to allow us to spend one on one time to develop others.
How do you accommodate those with disabilities when training?
We use a “fitness for work” program to find out what the individual is capable of and create a work plan to accommodate them and their abilities.
How important do you think Training and development is in shaping the business?
At Wal-Mart we believe it is “our Wal-Mart” we want our employees to take responsibility and control of our business. We want to make sure we are developing our people to grow and strive with the business.
If you had one piece of advice, what would you say about training and development?
You need to drive your own training and development. If you want it, it is yours to obtain. The individual needs to have the motivation and dedication to achieve their goals. We can teach and train our staff endlessly but if you don’t have the drive, you won’t achieve it.