customer service training

What is the best method for customer service training: asynchronous or synchronous?  

The companies must focus so much on their services now because the competition is stiff. Customer service is integral to such services because the business is affected once they are not pleased.

Why can’t customer service training be asynchronous?

The customer service agents must know that the customers on calls might be irritated, but even then, they must be nice.

The customer service training for agents cannot be asynchronous because they have a lot of queries to be answered, so a trainer must be with them when they are reading the training stuff.

Query solving sessions can be scheduled later, but the customer service agents might be busy with their jobs.


Here are the following situations when synchronous customer service training can help:

  1. Organize weekly webinars:

    Since the e-learning sessions of the customer service agents must be synchronous, weekly webinar sessions can be held on an LMS (Learning Management System) where they can be guided on how to proceed. For example, a trainer, industry experts, and senior workers can explain the various situations in which the customer needs to be appeased. Send emails to customer service agents about such webinars to correspond and come up with some questions.

    The instructors can also hold such sessions once the agents have responded to the branching scenarios quizzes included in the LMS. Then, if the staff has chosen wrong answers, they can be shown the compiled results and the repercussions.

  2. Enlighten customer service agents:

    A company has so much at stake in an online call because the customers form the most critical impression about your company. Hence, the customer service agents cannot be slow, e.g., when a buyer needs a replacement product because he has received a defective product, the agent should know the product line. If he does not, the customer is not too pleased and may use the Cancel option to file a product return.

    Moreover, if a customer asks for a replacement, the customer service agent must also know whether the former still has enough time left for the eligible replacement since the purchase. Hence, a weekly quiz can also be posted on the LMS for customer service agents on how they respond to a particular situation.

    Such agents can also be given pop quizzes about which they have no prior knowledge.

  3. Show the demos of irritating customers:

    The instructors can show how the customer service task is done by preparing an act. They can ask someone else to play the confused customer. The whole act is entertaining if subtitles and background music are included. It is also helpful if along with the act-based video the employees are also given some resource links. Resource links to PDF documents on the LMS might prove tedious, so it is better, that the customer service agents are shown infographics or comic strips for better retention. The instructors can use anecdotes during webinars, so that customer service agents learn from the latter’s experience.

    The videos containing the task-based acts can also be animated, where there can be varied kinds of customers portrayed. And these customers should be the types, the service agents do not know how to deal with, like chatty customers who want to talk even after the problem is solved, and the agent cannot disconnect the line. Other annoying customers hate every solution suggested to them because they are bossy. Such customers want to be treated exclusively, and hence it is best to connect them to a senior. Another set of irritating customers is those who file for product returns when the time limit is over.

    Also, dealing with new customers can be challenging because they need instructions on using a product. Although companies might have prepared onboarding product videos, they sometimes cannot understand.

  4. Dealing with new customers:

    The new customers require some guidance and heads-up because they are not acquainted with the product. They might ultimately discard your product in the trash can once the customer service agents don’t help them. So, the agents must have complete knowledge about the usage of the product to detect where a new customer might be going wrong. Once they don’t get the required help, such newbies shun your product, but not before badmouthing about it to everybody else.

  5. Be aware with the company’s return policies:
    Although customer service employees might have all the resources, they must be given knowledge about compliance rules. For example, they must be aware of the company’s policies regarding returns and replacements so that none of them is violated because heavy fines are levied if they are.

In the end:

Apart from customer service training, it’s also essential to see that such staff are pleased with their work schedules because when they are burned out, they are not in their best moods to attend to customers. So instead of them working more, even on holidays, you get technology like chatbots that can answer routine questions. When the customer service agents work more in their jobs, they are likely to switch, costing you experienced resources.

He was a German psychologist who is known for discovering the forgetting curve. According to this curve, the biggest decline in memory happens within 20 minutes, and then 1 hour.