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Best Business Practice – Structured Training Concepts

Structured training is a holistic training concept. It relates to the essential requirement for development of skill sets and upgrading training systematically, addressing corporate skill needs and ensuring effective development of productivity initiatives. This is perhaps the most effective corporate training methodology for all forms of business.

Structured training basics

Structured training is actually a basic business practice. Staff are progressively trained in-house, increasing their value as employees. However, in-house training can only go so far. At the professional training level, the value of structured training increases greatly, providing whole new skill sets.

Structural training can systematically upgrade a workforce, and greatly improve business efficiency and commercial capabilities. A sales force of comprehensively trained people will naturally outperform a sales force of people with varying levels of skills, knowledge and experience.

The holistic training concept

Holistic training uses levels of training as a basic measure of organizational needs. This is effectively a business plan for training. It’s extremely valuable to employers as a working model of skills requirements, and can be used to predict future needs. As an organizational tool, it can also be used to provide important incentives for employees and a performance monitor in terms of training issues.

For example, these are some of the fundamental forms of training required in any organization:

  • Leadership training
  • Management training
  • Sales training
  • Customer service training
  • Personal performance training

A simple check and tabulation of Human Resources records will provide a snapshot of the current state of training, which can be compared against corporate needs. These should also be compared to the Personal Development Plans of individual team members. As you can see, these are all critical areas of training for any organization. In practice, the levels of training of staff at all levels are often very different. Staff may underperform simply because they’re not fully trained.
Business performance may deteriorate over time through loss of trained staff, notably in sales, leadership and customer service.

The holistic approach eliminates these disparities, as well as working towards the required training standards. This methodology is extremely thorough, and provides employers with valuable current information regarding their training needs.

Structured training in practice

Structured training is a “belt and suspenders” approach to corporate training at all levels of an organization. It can help employers set priorities and plan ahead for business expansion, taking into account the skills levels and expertise required. As well as helping in succession planning, it also provides a range of benefits by assisting team members in keeping on top of the task in their current position and all of the associated motivational benefits.

Most employers opt for professional external training with properly certified trainers as standard practice. This is a particularly effective way of managing skills requirements, ensuring comprehensive skills training, improving productivity and the knowledge base of the organization.

Measuring success

Best practice corporate training is a fully measurable process in terms of cost benefits and performance. Multi-skilling is a good example. Multi-skilling, which is a purely training-based paradigm, is so highly regarded in the employment market due to its clear superiority and efficiency over ad hoc skill levels. Organizational performance invariably benefits from the higher skill levels and improved employee capabilities provided by structured training.

Transformation Through Training

Words can be very powerful as everyone knows. They have moved nations to war and encouraged the discouraged. Words can also be transformational and that is the purpose of the words used in a company training program. The words are meant to transform company managers and staff into leaders who can help insure the success of the company.

These are not just buzz words which are meant to be read and forgotten. The transformational words used in a training session lead to the development of additional effective word use throughout the organization. Managers learn to use words to empower staff. Staff use words to create customer loyalty.

The flow of words through the organization can move departments to be cooperative or they can create divisiveness. Words can inspire employees or wound customers. The assembly of words can create a highly effective organisation able to handle change in a productive way.

Business training uses words that inspire individuals to develop their talents, makes strategic planning possible, addresses complex customer issues, and improves overall company productivity. The best words spoken are spoken right in the business too. On-site training only makes sense, because people can learn and implement training concepts in the company where current fortunes lie and future possibilities are developed.

A Corporate Culture of Success

Training employees in their place of business makes it possible to not only develop the skills of managers and staff, but it clearly establishes a corporate culture of success. When a company proves it values the abilities of its organizational members to create a profitable result by encouraging training and education, personnel are motivated to do what it takes to support the corporate mission through personal leadership skills.

On-site training offers many benefits over off-site training. For example, the training is cost effective and makes it possible for a greater number of personnel to participate. Mini-training and self-paced training provide all the opportunities needed to gain the right information. It is much easier to use situational training which teaches managers and staff hands-on decision making techniques. The participants are able to more easily apply learning to their particular working positions.

In Australia, the government is such a big supporter of training that company personnel can get accredited non-traditional training which leads to certificates of success or degrees. The instructors can structure the training session in a way that is the least disruptive to the business and yet the most effective for participants and the organisation itself.

In other words, training personnel will result in personal and business success. Personnel training can lead to new behaviours which enable a company to improve its ability to compete through customer service.

Training Leaders

The ultimate goal of training is to create leaders. This does not mean there will be only ?bosses? and no ?followers?. It means personnel get the tools they need in the way of training and education to make the right decisions no matter what job they are performing. The right decision is the one that supports the mission of the company.

Today?s workplace is a highly stressful environment. By providing regular training to managers and staff, you can change that environment to one that is ready to meet those stresses in a productive manner leading to improved sales and profitability.

The right words can make all the difference in the customer world.

Importance of Ongoing Management and Staff Training

When you talk about the people in an organization, it refers to everyone at every level from the Chief Executive Officer to the mail room worker. It is the people who accomplish the tasks necessary to fulfil the mission of the organization. Unfortunately, it is also the people who can become the barriers to progress unless they buy into the mission of the organization and understand their roles in achieving success.

But just as important is the fact people must be trained to do their jobs the right way and with an understanding of how their job fits into the overall scheme of things. Dysfunctional organisations are often unable to build quality business environments because they have one basic and critical flaw: lack of people unity due to lack of training.

This is true for the top, middle and line managers and for the staff doing the day to day customer work. When you read about the principles of project management, you discover that one of the first principles that must be addressed is the matter of governance and control. But how do you teach these important principles?

It all comes down to leadership training. The CEO must learn to lead the entire organization and be prepared to handle conflict along the way. The middle managers must be prepared to supervise the front line staff in a way that supports the mission of the organisation. The staff that have the most contact with customers need to understand how their jobs support the organization and how their treatment of customers is one of the most important factors determining overall profitability.

Unifying Themes

You see people draw organisational charts that show who answers to who by position within different functional areas. It begins with the CEO and the arrows normally flow downward through the levels. Instead of drawing a traditional organisational flow chart, you can draw a training flow chart. On this chart, the mission of the company would be at the top, and the arrows would flow through the various levels such as management training, sales team training, customer service training, and business training.

On the training flow chart though, the arrows would flow in a circle from top to bottom and back up to the top again in a circle. Training people to become business leaders within the organisation is an ongoing process which relies on constant feedback. This constant feedback takes the form of effective communication within the organization, communication between the organization and its customers, and a flow of training information that keeps people attuned to the organizational mission and how their jobs fit within the big picture.

Never Working Alone

One of the most important principles the people within a company must learn is that they are never working alone even if they work alone. This may sound odd at first, but an organization has to operate as a whole. Even the customer service representative working alone in an office answering customer complaints must always operate with a business mindset that he or she must do the job in a particular manner in order to help the entire company to succeed.

Management and staff training is an important and critical function if a company hopes to become and remain profitable. Without proper training and leadership development, people tend to create mini-kingdoms within the workplace and then rule to their own advantage which may or may not be to the advantage of the business. Teaching people to be leaders within their own company roles is how you can build a strong and well developed organisation that is able to flourish through all economic times.

CORPORATE TRAINING FUNDAMENTALS ? TRAINING TOMORROW TODAY

The big changes in employment practices, job designs, business practices, demands for skills and the rise of the New Economy has created a massive demand for formal training and core competencies. Training and upgrading of skills is now a fundamental part of global corporate reality. The foreseeable future includes clear demand for strongly focused, integrated management training. Training strategies basics Training is an investment in the future to produce both immediate and long term results. Each stage of training is part of a continuum of skills development. That function is now absolutely essential in modern training. Constant upgrading of skills in response to new markets and technology is the norm in all professions, and training is the key to creating full skill sets. Strategic targeted training in different fields creates a multiple future career options. The benefits of this strategic training apply throughout a person’s career, and create the foundations of ongoing career development. Modern training allows for planned development of a very wide range of professional skills, and when integrated with management training expands job and professional career mobility. Sales and customer service training Sales and customer service training are major employment market issues, and formal training in these areas is very much in demand across business sector. The demand is based on the emerging need for advanced skills as products and customer interfaces become more complex. Formal sales and customer service training is now the benchmark standard in many industries, notably the consumer and finance sectors. The training provides a vital link with corporate and management goals and priorities, ensuring much higher levels of efficiency and top performance in these vital areas. Team training Teamwork is critical to productivity at all levels of business, and team training is now a major focus of employer training schemes. The “team” questions are now standard in all job interviews in every profession. Team training provides strong corporate skills and clear bases for career development. The trainee progresses up
the career scale, taking on new roles in teams and learning more about team roles, relationships and ultimately progressing to team leadership and management.
The benefits of team training are holistic, developing personal skills at an individual level and enhancing team functions. Leadership training Leadership is a demanding role, requiring a range of advanced skills which only formal training can guarantee. In career and corporate terms, leadership training is a classic example of “training tomorrow today”. The leaders in training of today are the leaders of tomorrow. Their training is the basis of the intellectual capital and professional management skills of the future. Leadership training embraces a wide variety of skills such as: Performance management
Negotiation skills
Creative problem solving
Communication skills
Team building
Leadership training creates the skill sets of future leaders. It also creates the knowledge base of the future on multiple corporate, personal, and professional levels. The leaders of tomorrow will develop their concepts and initiatives from the skills they learn today.

Corporate training fundamentals ? Training tomorrow today

The big changes in employment practices, job designs, business practices, demands for skills and the rise of the New Economy has created a massive demand for formal training and core competencies. Training and upgrading of skills is now a fundamental part of global corporate reality. The foreseeable future includes clear demand for strongly focused, integrated?management training.

Training strategies basics

Training is an investment in the future to produce both immediate and long term results. Each stage of training is part of a continuum of skills development. That function is now absolutely essential in modern training. Constant upgrading of skills in response to new markets and technology is the norm in all professions, and training is the key to creating full skill sets.

Strategic targeted training in different fields creates a multiple future career options. The benefits of this strategic training apply throughout a person’s career, and create the foundations of ongoing career development. Modern training allows for planned development of a very wide range of professional skills, and when integrated with management training expands job and professional career mobility.

Sales and customer service training

Sales and customer service training are major employment market issues, and formal training in these areas is very much in demand across business sector. The demand is based on the emerging need for advanced skills as products and customer interfaces become more complex.

Formal sales and customer service training is now the benchmark standard in many industries, notably the consumer and finance sectors. The training provides a vital link with corporate and management goals and priorities, ensuring much higher levels of efficiency and top performance in these vital areas.

Team training

Teamwork is critical to productivity at all levels of business, and team training is now a major focus of employer training schemes. The “team” questions are now standard in all job interviews in every profession. Team training provides strong corporate skills and clear bases for career development. The trainee progresses up
the career scale, taking on new roles in teams and learning more about team roles, relationships and ultimately progressing to team leadership and management.
The benefits of team training are holistic, developing personal skills at an individual level and enhancing team functions.

Leadership training

Leadership is a demanding role, requiring a range of advanced skills which only formal training can guarantee. In career and corporate terms, leadership training is a classic example of “training tomorrow today”. The leaders in training of today are the leaders of tomorrow. Their training is the basis of the intellectual capital and professional management skills of the future.

Leadership training embraces a wide variety of skills such as:

  • Performance management
  • Negotiation skills
  • Creative problem solving
  • Communication skills
  • Team building

Leadership training creates the skill sets of future leaders. It also creates the knowledge base of the future on multiple corporate, personal, and professional levels. The leaders of tomorrow will develop their concepts and initiatives from the skills they learn today.

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Training in the experience economy

What is The Experience Economy?

You might have heard of the term ?the experience economy’ when looking into <a rel="nofollow" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/outgoing/article_exit_link']);" href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.iperform.com.au/

Top Ten Tips To Build a Superior Service Culture

Top Ten Tips To Build a Superior Service?Culture

Another Customer Service Training Article from Ron Kaufman

 Top Ten Tips To Build a Superior Service Culture

1. CREATE A UNIQUE SERVICE PHILOSOPHY

Promising to provide ?excellent service? is no longer enough for your customers or your staff. Excellent at what?

Excellent service in a hospital is warm and caring, but that?s not what you want at a computer store or car wash. Some restaurants are fast and inexpensive, but that may not be what you want when you go out for dinner.

The Japanese have twenty different words for ?quality? – each with a different meaning: durability, craftsmanship, design, efficient use of materials, packaging, presentation and more. Your customers have as many different words and meanings for ?service?.

Find out what version or style of service your customers VALUE most, and then match your service philosophy to meet their needs.

* * *

2. CONSTANTLY EXPLAIN AND PROMOTE YOUR SERVICE PHILOSOPHY

Build it into your Mission, Vision and Values, your newsletter, training, recruitment, orientation and rewards program.

Singapore has been working for years to upgrade service skills and uplift the service mindset in the nation. There is even a national movement called ?GEMS: Go the Extra Mile for Service?.

But service providers also need uplifting goals and a motivating rationale. So we wrote the ?Singapore Service Champion?s Pledge?.

Take a look at http://www.UpYourServiceSingapore.com

You are welcome to adapt this Pledge for yourself, your group or your organization.

* * *

3. HIRE PEOPLE WHO ARE COMMITTED TO YOUR SERVICE PHILOSOPHY

Everyone must be committed to live your service values every day.

UP Your Service! College has three core values. You can read them at www.UpYourServiceCollege.com

As the College grows, Sim Kay Wee coached me to insist on new staff alignment with these values. He warned that high-performers who are not aligned with the values can damage your reputation and hurt the morale of your team.

So what do you do with a high performing salesperson or brilliant technician who behaves contrary to your values?

You help them change, or let them go.

* * *

4. ORIENT YOUR NEW STAFF TO SUPERIOR SERVICE

Texas Instruments conducted an experiment to measure the impact of new staff orientation. One group got the usual induction: workplace rules, employment benefits, office equipment, passwords.

A similar group received the same, plus two months of occasional meetings with service leaders, top customers and senior managers.

Twenty years later the two groups were compared. The second group scored higher in every category, including positions, promotions, pay, longevity and contributions to the company culture.

Make the early investment. Make sure new staff experience the best of your service culture in action during their first months on the job. Buddy them with your best service providers. Introduce them to your best customers. Take time to mentor, manage and motivate the new service players on your team.

* * *

5. CONTINUOUSLY TRAIN AND RETRAIN YOUR SERVICE TEAM

When you train someone to use a software package, they tend to get better over time. When you train someone in a technical procedure, their performance will improve the more they use it.

But why does ?customer service training? tend to wear off? Why do customer service workers need continuous training and retraining?

Because providing customer service requires that you work with other people, not only with software and procedures. Other people can get angry, or be in a bad mood, or simply not appreciate your efforts and the service you provide.

That means ?wear and tear? on the service provider. That?s why top service organizations continuously train and retrain their team members and support them with a robust service culture

* * *

6. RECOGNIZE AND REWARD SERVICE PROVIDERS

In a strong service culture, ?recognition and reward? must come frequently from the company. Why? Because it doesn?t come very often from the customer.

A service provider who calms an angry customer, listens patiently to his complaint and acts quickly to resolve the issue surely deserves appreciation. But how often does an angry customer say, ?You did a great job of calming me down and taking care of my needs. Thanks for such great service!? (Answer: Not very often.)

Recognition is a powerful form of reward. Salespeople respond to financial incentives. Product engineers work hard to prove a new technology. But most service people are ?people people?. Personal recognition from their managers and peers means a lot.

Recognition can be given many ways: in private or in public, in person or in writing, with or without a physical or financial component.

Recognition can be given to external service providers, for most customer compliments, extra-mile efforts, best service recovery.

Recognition can also be given to internal service providers, for most improved department, most helpful colleagues, best effort to upgrade service, systems or standards.

Recognition can be given to others, too; best service from a supplier, most appreciative customer, most helpful and responsive government agency, most supportive family members at home.

Want your team to give better and more creative customer service? Then get better and more creative with your service recognition and rewards!

* * *

7. BRING THE VOICE OF YOUR CUSTOMER INTO YOUR ORGANIZATION

In a strong service culture, everyone understands what customers need and value. They know what customers want to achieve; their hopes, dreams and ambitions. They know what customers want to avoid; their concerns, anxieties and fears.

Excellent service providers know that all customers are not alike. And they know what each type of customer prefers, and their priorities, in different service situations.

This deep understanding of customers does not happen by chance. It comes from bringing the voice of your customer deeply into the organization, and bringing members of the organization frequently to your customers.

Customer contact should start from the very beginning. Southwest Airlines involves loyal customers in their staff selection process. Singapore Press Holdings sends new staff to interview customers during their management orientation program. Emirates Airlines invites new and old customers to participate in company activities, staff service awards and other special events.

Customer complaints and compliments are the real-time voice of your customer. These outspoken comments should be heard throughout your organization.

Singapore Airlines publishes customer compliments and complaints in every issue of their monthly newsletter. Compliments boost morale and remind everyone what actions must continue. Complaints are even more carefully read! Every staff member reads each month what must be changed, updated or improved.

There are more ways to bring the voice of your customer into the body of your organization. * * *

8. CREATE

Providing Superior Customer Service with a Retail Point of Sale System

If you are a mid-sized chain store with as few as three or as many as fifty locations, then it is time you looked into getting a retail point of sale system. Having real-time knowledge regarding your stock on hand, in receiving, on order or transferring from one location to another will furnish you with the information needed to make the best business decisions. A real-time retail point of sale software system can give you access to information that allows you to accurately replenish stock levels and immediately react to fast selling items or items that are not selling. This allows you to instantly respond to customer requests, because you will have accurate information at your fingertips.

Perhaps you have looked into retail point of sale systems and found that they are so high-priced and bulky that you felt you were better off without them. That may be the case for some suppliers, however, there are some highly regarded companies who not only have a sophisticated product, but have figured out how to offer it at an affordable price. Rather than high prices and long-term contracts, these retail point of sale system suppliers help you minimize your upfront costs by working on a pay-as-you-go system. This allows you to easily budget and plan for your expenses, which is important in today’s volatile economy.

Such systems include the rights to software use and updates, maintenance of both software and hardware, as well as technical support. Nothing is worse than paying for an expensive system only to find out that the technical support will cost you extra! Having minimal hardware rather than paying for an on-site server that requires extensive employee training and technical support is definitely something that your business will appreciate. Being able to use your existing Internet accessible PCs, your current barcode scanners or credit card swipes is the goal. Seamlessly transitioning your existing tools into an integrated retail point of sale system is the way to go.

Perhaps mobile access is what you really need. Many such systems can be accessed from virtually anywhere, whether you are on-site, at a tradeshow, at home or on vacation. You can have a virtual retail point of sale terminal for field based sales and mobile locations as long as you have an Internet connection and a browser. Never again will you have to worry about not being able to be on-site when a shipment comes in or when a customer has a special request. It is all available to you wherever you may be. This allows you to truly keep your finger on the pulse of your business.

Using a retail point of sale software system supplier whose system is easily installed will have you up and running quickly and efficiently. Knowledgeable professional trainers will give your employees instruction based around your company’s busy schedule. Let the supplier manage your system and worry about such things as security access, virus protection, upgrades and backups. With quick and simple training and installation as well as unlimited technical support, you will have the peace of mind you need to press full speed ahead as you manage your company with the real-time retail point of sale information you need to be most productive.

retail point of sale