News: Customer Service/Care
Customer service training vital in today's economy
20 November 2007
In today's service-led economy, customer service training is becoming increasingly important to businesses.
Martyn Sloman of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) believes that skills in this area can allow a firm to define itself against the competition - making customer service training vital.
Speaking to Personnel Today, he said: "It's an area where business need has quickly driven training provision and that's really thanks to customer expectations and competition.
"I think there has been a huge change for the better in customer service in the UK over the last few years and training is becoming very widespread."
Of course, different customers have different expectations of service, but often this is just a matter of context, and knowing how to deal with different situations - which can be learnt.
"The traits required are very trainable, and they are so important now because customer services are becoming an absolute business imperative," Mr Sloman continued.
A recent study by American consultancy Novations Group found that 64 per cent of human resources managers had reported a rise in the demand for customer service training.
