I recently spent 3 days in a customer service department that was gearing up for a huge new residential municipal contract. Management was smart to realize that there would be a big increase in calls from customers with questions about their service. They did a great job of hiring seasoned customer service people who understood the basics of customer service, but they didn’t think through the training process. They did not have the equipment or materials ready, and they didn’t consider the amount of hands-on coaching that would be needed to have everyone ready to handle this new contract. The new hires were thrown into chaos and began to question their decision to take the job. The veterans were unraveling because the new people were in their way and the manager was being pulled in too many directions to lead the team effectively.Here are a couple of tips to help you plan effectively.

Choose the right person to lead customer service. There are some key skills that a customer service supervisor or manager needs to effectively manage the department. They include:
1) An understanding of call volume and how to prepare for fluctuating call volume caused by holidays and billing or collections calls, for example. He or she should have a love for data including calls per hour, per day, per CSR and the abandonment rate, and should be able to gather this data without hand-holding.
2) The ability to do everything a CSR is required to do, but better. I was working with a customer service manager in hopes of giving her some pointers on coaching her CSRs. I asked if she would mind taking a few calls so I could see how she maneuvered both a conversation and the computer system. It became apparent that she did not know how to use the computer system at all when she called out to a CSR for direction on what to do. You can’t manage what you don’t understand.
3) A hands-on approach. Delegation is great, but when a manager delegates too much, control is lost and so is respect.
4) The right balance of authority and kindness. Customer service representatives are generally more emotional by nature. They need a leader who can bolster them up when calls are crazy, provide clear expectations for which they are accountable and show care for them personally.

Choose the right person to do the training and coaching. Just because someone is a supervisor or manager it does not mean that she is going to be effective at training or coaching people. When a manager is not gifted at training, this crucial responsibility is often thrown into the laps of other CSRs. I frequently speak to new hires who say they have been trained by everyone in the department. Each day they sit with someone new and observe how things are done. Most will say that they notice each person does things differently. Based on that they decide to come up with their own way, too. In the end, no one is doing anything the same way which creates mistakes and dissention between co-workers. A trainer must:
1) Be able to model the right way
2) Have minimal data entry errors, good attendance and great Tooty scores
3) The ability to explain the why behind things so the CSR will understand
4) Have a great attitude

Provide an excellent customer service manual. The importance of this manual is the equivalent of a brochure that a sales person would provide to a potential customer. You wouldn’t give a photocopied brochure with outdated and confusing information regarding your services to a prospective customer and you shouldn’t provide that to a new employee. I happened to be there on the very first day of employment for a CSR. He was given a binder, some dividers and a pile of papers. It was his job to organize his own customer service manual. As I looked through it with him, I was embarrassed. Copies were unreadable, old information was scratched out and some documents had the old company name! Your manual needs to be able to answer any question a CSR would have on pricing, services offered, use of your computer system and more. New information should be going into it monthly.
Invest in a couple of coaching headsets. A manager or new CSR should be able to listen to both sides of a conversation for training purposes. The best option has a switch that allows both people to wear a headset. Another easy solution is a splitter which you can get from Radio Shack and plug an extra handset into it.
As you are growing your company, remember to also evaluate your customer service department so that your customer experiences excellent service on all fronts.