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Customer Service Training: Building Confidence and Communication Skills

 

The True Reason Your Client Service Training Isn't Working: A Brutal Assessment

 

Forget everything you've been told about client service training. Following two decades in this industry, I can tell you that 90% of what passes for professional development in this space is total nonsense.

 

Here's the uncomfortable truth: your staff already know they should be nice to customers. They understand they should smile, say please and thank you, and handle complaints quickly. The gap is is how to handle the emotional labour that comes with interacting with difficult people constantly.

 

Back in 2019, I was working with a major telecommunications company here in Sydney. Their service scores were dreadful, and executives kept throwing money at standard training programs. You know the type - mock conversations about saying hello, learning company procedures, and endless sessions about "putting yourself in the customer's shoes."

 

Absolute nonsense.

 

The real issue wasn't that staff didn't know how to be polite. The problem was that they were exhausted from absorbing everyone else's negativity without any strategies to shield their own emotional state. Here's the thing: when someone calls to vent about their internet being down for the third time this month, they're not just upset about the technical issue. They're livid because they feel powerless, and your staff member becomes the target of all that pent-up emotion.

 

Most training programs totally overlook this psychological aspect. Instead, they focus on superficial skills that sound good in principle but crumble the moment someone starts yelling at your team.

 

The solution is this: teaching your people psychological protection strategies before you even touch on client relations skills. I'm talking about relaxation techniques, psychological protection, and most importantly, permission to disengage when things get too intense.

 

With that telecommunications company, we started what I call "Emotional Armour" training. Rather than focusing on scripts, we taught team members how to recognise when they were taking on a customer's negativity and how to psychologically distance themselves without coming across as cold.

 

The changes were dramatic. Service ratings scores increased by 35% in three months, but more importantly, staff turnover decreased by 50%. Turns out when your team feel equipped to deal with problem interactions, they really appreciate helping customers fix their concerns.

 

Something else that annoys me: the obsession with fake positivity. You know what I'm talking about - those workshops where they tell employees to "constantly display a upbeat tone" regardless of the context.

 

Absolute rubbish.

 

Clients can detect artificial cheerfulness from a kilometre away. What they truly want is genuine attention for their situation. Sometimes that means admitting that yes, their problem genuinely is awful, and you're going to do whatever it takes to help them resolve it.

 

I recall working with a major store in Melbourne where leadership had mandated that every client conversations had to begin with "Hi, thank you for picking [Company Name], how can I make your day wonderful?"

 

Actually.

 

Think about it: you call because your expensive product broke down three days after the coverage ran out, and some unfortunate employee has to act like they can make your day "wonderful." It's ridiculous.

 

We ditched that approach and substituted it with simple genuineness training. Train your team to actually listen to what the client is explaining, recognise their problem, and then work on real fixes.

 

Service ratings improved instantly.

 

After years in the industry of working in this field, I'm certain that the biggest issue with support training isn't the learning itself - it's the unrealistic expectations we place on service people and the complete absence of systemic support to address the fundamental problems of poor customer experiences.

 

Address those problems first, and your customer service training will genuinely have a chance to work.

 

 

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