I have worked in customer service for over 10 years and have experienced the best and worst possible scenarios when dealing with a customer. Recently, I earned my Customer Service Manager-Advanced Certification through the Customer Service Institute of America. Not only did I learn all the different aspects in customer service, it taught me how important certification is. Becoming customer service certified demonstrates that I have gained the knowledge and skills in customer service and can perform the best practices in my current employment.
What makes customer service certification so important to your employer and yourself?
- Boosts morale for your employee - If a company invests money for an employee to take a certification course, it demonstrates how important that employee is to them. Taking this certification course makes me want to provide better customer service on behalf on my employer to pay it forward. This sense of value can go a long way for any employer.
- Clients will have greater confidence in your business- having an employee who is certified signifies that the company holds their employee to the highest professional standards. Your customer will feel more secure knowing that they are working with a certified individual.
- Encourages professional standards- Certified employees learn from their training the importance of adhering to certain professional standards. Your employer will become more confident in you and your team’s ability to meet industry benchmarks. Certification prepare employees to better deal with day-to-day challenges.
One major thing I have really taken away from this certification program is that when you have a successful team, not only is the staff more productive but it trickles down to a happy customer.
Good customer service starts with the team that is behind it. If the culture is right, other factors like great customer service or building a long-term brand will happen on its own. Teamwork is important in the workplace as it brings people together from different backgrounds and levels of experience. If you have a team full of unhappy people producing unhappy service, it will deteriorate the company profitability and you will lose your customers.
So how do you create a great team? At AH, we have a set of core values that we live by. Once you develop your core values, you should hire, train, and motivate your employees based on those core values and everything will fall into place. An empowered customer service team, where employees have specific responsibilities and feel that they are making a contribution will soon translate to the customer satisfaction.
If you are currently working in customer service or have employees that are working in customer service, I strongly encourage certification. Not only will it benefit the company as a whole, it will benefit your professional career.
