I Am Easily Distracted And Don’t Know If I Have Time To Focus On Training—And, Ooh, Shiny!
Interruptions at work can be a huge issue. Did you know that if a person is interrupted at work, it can take 10 to 20 times the duration of the interruption to recover and get back to their previous task? Sometimes the length of the interruption isn’t even related to the time a person is distracted. Research shows that after any interruption at all, it can take a worker an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to work. Since they’re already switching tasks, they might get up and use the restroom, grab a snack, and chat with a coworker on the way back to their desks.
Jonathan Spira, author of Overload! How Too Much Information Is Hazardous To Your Organization, is quoted writing in the Washington Post, "Interruptions are responsible for 28 billion wasted hours a year, a loss of almost $1 trillion to the U.S.economy." It’s not your reps’ fault. People don’t deal with task-switching and multitasking well—even if they think they’re natural multitaskers. People who switch from one task to another tend to lose time as their brain switches from one set of tasks to another. They can lose even more time if a task, like navigating a new course or trying to remember a login for an LMS, is unfamiliar or complicated. Training shouldn’t be an isolated activity. Ideally, training should be something your team gets right when they need it, and right where they are—in their CRM or whatever platform they use on a daily basis.
How To Stop Interruptions From Damaging Your Training At Work
By using integration and short, micro-bursts of training, you can keep your workers engaged in their tasks and serve them quick, relevant training right in the flow of work.
For example, SAP Litmos Training’s integrations allow workers and managers to access training modules simply by clicking on the SAP Litmos Training tab. When a member of your team needs to learn something relevant to the task at hand, they can just click over to the LMS, take the training they need and get right back to work without having to multitask. This keeps them on task, and by serving up regular microbursts of training on relevant topics, you will know that your employees are meeting your expectations.
The Importance Of Customer Service
A customer is having trouble with one of your company’s products or services. What’s their first move when they can’t solve a problem on their own? They contact customer service. Whether they’re answering phones, chatting online, or showing up in person to fix problems, your customer service team is the face of your business. Your customer service representatives need to know everything there is to know about your product, should represent your organization’s values and culture, and need to be able to calmly and politely handle some of your most stressed out, unhappy customers. It’s a huge responsibility, especially when you consider that poor customer service is likely to send many of your customers packing.
Dealing With Customer Service Complaints
No matter your business, customer service is one of your products. Most unhappy customers won’t let you know they’re going to take their business elsewhere. They’ll simply leave, according to research. Only about 1 in 26 complain to the company, but that doesn’t mean disgruntled customers aren’t complaining. They are; 13% of unhappy customers complain to others, both in person and online. That kind of bad publicity is hard to overcome. You have to stop it before it starts by providing exceptional customer service. Do that, and you’re likely to be rewarded; research shows that 95% of consumers will stay with a company because of a positive customer service experience.
While every employee in your organization is tasked with providing an excellent Customer Experience, no workers shoulder that responsibility more than your customer service team. It’s a high-stress job, and just as customer churn can take a toll on your business, so can employee turnover. It’s in your best interest to alleviate complaints about training by making it engaging and valuable, and by making sure your reps have the tools and support they need to do their jobs well. The eBook The Top 5 Customer Service Complaints About Training will help you achieve just that! Your customer service team supports your customers. It’s vital to your business that you support them in turn.
