Customer service training tips from the Apple Playbook
Apple is a global powerhouse—the brand is instantly associated with positive feelings from consumers around the world. A large part of that success seems to be not just their innovative products, but also their dedication to customer service.
Some of those killer Apple customer service training tips were recently leaked on the website Gizmodo, and included in their article entitled “How to Be a Genius: This is Apple’s Secret Training Manual.”
The Apple training manual is intense, to say the least. It does not just cover the basics of how to treat customers—it goes much deeper and focuses on components like how to master the psychology of interacting with a customer all the way to citing words that should never be used during the customer service experience.
While you may not be heading up the training efforts for a billion dollar company, there are takeaways from the Apple training manual that you could easily incorporate into your own training and eLearning.
The Focus
For Apple, customer service training is not so much about the technical aspects of what it is to work at Apple. Yes, technical ability is important, but their training tends to be just as much, if not more focused on communication.
Communication is a pivotal part of the Apple experience—and they are clearly a company dedicated to fostering excellent communication skills among their employees.
The Basics
A recent Forbes article covering Gizmodo’s introduction of the Apple customer service experience training highlighted some of the most important aspects of training that can easily be incorporated into eLearning training for any organization.
Here are a few of the top things to remember when developing customer service training eLearning:
- Foster an environment rich with feedback. Feedback is important to developing and honing top-notch customer service skills. During your initial eLearning development, provide means for feedback throughout coursework, and continue that into the “real-world” experiences of your employees. Simultaneously, you should strive to train your employees to not only be open and willing to accept feedback, but also to express their own opinions. During your eLearning development, empower your employees to have opinions based on their training, and provide them with opportunities to be decision makers during customer service interactions. You can provide the groundwork, but allow your customers to feel there’s a sense of flexibility to allow them to make the best decision in any given situation.
- Show your employees how to be a fan of your own products or services. This is something that starts with customer service training—really let them know what your organization is all about, why you are great, and why they should be proud to serve as a representative. This is something Apple is very reliant on—their employees are enthusiastic Apple users themselves,