A knowledge gap in a customer service team can be detrimental to a business's reputation and overall customer experience. When a customer service representative lacks the knowledge to answer a customer's enquiry, it can result in frustration and dissatisfaction. In this article, we'll explore some actionable strategies businesses can use to reduce knowledge gaps in their customer service team and provide a superior customer experience.
I'm sure this is not a shocking first step! However, many business don't have clear, measurable goals for their customer service team. Hewlett Packard are known for the common phrase, "what gets measured gets fixed". If you have some concerns about your cx team's knowledge, then the best place to start is set a few clear goals that address your concerns and are measurable.
Here are two examples of great goals you could set for your training program:
- Within 6 months, 75% of new users will be successfully completing the 90-day onboarding sequence.
- Within 3 months, 2/3rds of active users will have tried our newest feature.
Implementing a comprehensive training program can help ensure that customer service representatives have the knowledge they need to provide effective support. By providing training on products, services, policies, and procedures, businesses can reduce knowledge gaps and provide a more consistent customer experience.
Here are a few of our top tips for creating a strong training program:
- Have a documented process for your team to follow and reference
- Ensure you have someone accountable for the team's success - i.e. who is tracking progress?
- Keep the training in bite sized chunks - lower the barrier to entry and make the training short, sharp and simple
Encouraging continuous learning can help customer service representatives stay up to date on industry trends and product updates. By providing access to training resources, industry news, and peer forums, businesses can help customer service representatives stay engaged and informed.
There are some great free tools that we love to use to keep our team up to date:
- Often if you have any software (i.e. a CRM or Helpdesk) they will have loads of free training material - use it!
- LinkedIn offers a whole suite of free training material
- YouTube is a deep network of excellent training and how to guides
Providing access to knowledge management tools can help customer service representatives quickly find the information they need to answer customer inquiries. By having a centralised database of information about products, services, and common issues, customer service representatives can reduce response times and improve the overall customer experience. This will often require some form of helpdesk software. If you are at the stage and size where this might be an option for you, have a look at our Zendesk page.
Using technology to automate support processes can help customer service representatives focus on higher-level inquiries that require more specialized knowledge. By automating routine tasks such as ticket routing and response templates, businesses can reduce the workload of customer service representatives and ensure that inquiries are handled efficiently.
Encouraging collaboration and knowledge sharing can help reduce knowledge gaps by allowing customer service representatives to learn from each other's experiences. By creating a culture of collaboration and knowledge sharing, businesses can foster a sense of community and ensure that customer service representatives have access to a wide range of expertise.
Being able to train your customers takes a big burden off your customer service and support teams. With fewer general questions to answer, they can focus on more technical inquiries and work on more value add projects.
Training customers is valuable for clients at all stages – starting with their initial purchase and continuing with everyday usage. Customer training uses multiple formats, like:
- On-boarding materials & quick start guides
- On-demand training materials
- Knowledge hubs
- Instructor-led demos or classes
- Certification courses
Finding the right balance of these formats will help you achieve your customer training goals for both new and long-time customers.
Not every step is right for every business, but this guide is a great starting place for supporting your customer service team in closing the gap in their knowledge and improve your overall customer satsifaction. For more articles on how to enhance your customer experience, click here.
For more information, see additional resources or talk to an expert by clicking here.
