Customer Service Fires

Is Your Company Training Firefighters or Arsonists?

In the business world, one of the most talked about concepts is customer service.  Great customer service can help a business be successful while bad customer service can burn and destroy customer relationships and future profits.  One of the most important, and often overlooked components in achieving great customer service is employee training.  Is your company training firefighters or arsonists?

As all of us know, firefighters are responsible for putting out fires.  They are trained in spotting potential hot spots and dealing with them.  They also work to prevent fires.  Arsonists, on the other hand, set fires often with the goal to destroy and damage buildings and property.  When it comes to your customer service training, does your company train their employees to be firefighters or arsonists?

Training employees to see what conditions create fires and keeping an eye out to prevent fires is important.  Preventing fires is key, but sometimes they will happen.  When they do, successfully trained employees will utilize tools and skills to put out the fire quickly.  A firefighter carries more equipment than an arsonist and spends far more time in training.  Their training, tools, and skills are critically important because sometimes it can mean the difference between life and death. Dealing with fires quickly and effectively is the key to success and limiting loss.

​An arsonist, on the other hand, rarely needs more than a match and something to help enhance the flame or ignite it.  It doesn’t take much training to become an arsonist.  In fact, it is often a lack of training that creates employee arsonists. Employees that are not trained properly or that lack the supportive tools to deal with customer service fires often help fan the flames of discontent, not only with your customers, but also in your business environment and in other employees.  

​Potential hot spots or flare ups with customers are common.  They are often ignited by incorrect expectations, lack of communication, miscommunication, or bad attitudes on the part of the employee or the customer.  Very often a spark is created and then depending on how the situation is handled either the potential flames are put out quickly or they are fanned into a larger fire that can burn the bridge between your company and the customer.

© 2016 Natalie Dyess

---