I ask that question of next week’s Business901 podcast guest, Shep Hyken. Shep is a customer service expert, professional speaker and bestselling author who works with organizations who want to build loyal relationships with their customers and employees. He is also the creator of The Customer Focus program which helps clients develop a customer service culture and loyalty mindset.
An excerpt from the Podcast:
Shep Hyken: Very successful. There’re some great companies out there that are doing a great job that you would not even know they’re outsourced. They’re properly trained. And, people were outsourcing to India, the Philippines or some other foreign country. If the company’s willing to spend the money and do it right, they’re going to have their outsourced companies, they will pay to make sure that they get, that they deliver a good experience and that these people that work they’d get great training.
I almost feel like we’re going full circle going back to the online, on-demand training that I have. I have clients that outsource their customer service to a call center, and they will say, “We will not use you unless every one of your people are certified in the customer focus” which is my course. I’m flattered that they feel that way. I do believe that just simply taking the course isn’t enough. They have to take the course and use what’s in there, and it needs to be nurtured a bit, but that’s a pretty cool thing. You can actually, as a company say “I’ll use your services on the condition that your people are properly trained, which by the way, I will pay to make sure they’re properly trained.” By doing that, they’re becoming an extension of my company, not some subcontractor that’s just something I’m just offloading.