Making sure your customer care staff is well-trained requires more than just putting the right customer service information in front of them. You must also present the information in such a way that your employees absorb it in the same way you want them to demonstrate it; and you need management to exemplify the same level of dedication to and enthusiasm for customer service that you expect from frontline staff.

Of course, you won't get anywhere without the right source material. Even the best, most well-rounded managers and owners need to depend on other sources of expertise from time to time, so there's no shame in pursuing outside sources of information or even bringing outside experts in to make sure you're offering the best in customer service. Some possible ways of acquiring training for customer service staff and management include:

1. Educating customer support staff with online information;

2. Using outside consultants to improve customer service;

3. Addressing the technical aspects of customer service training.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Make use of online customer service tools and resources

Many customer service experts, including consultants, motivational speakers and authors, offer free online resources to market their services and materials. If using this free information doesn't quite cover your needs, you can also find group training programs online, conducted by established customer service training professionals, at a lower cost than flying in a consultant.

I recommend: Business Training Works offers online customer service courses for groups. Check out their free course outlines and other resources to decide whether their service is right for your business. Myra Golden also offers extensive online customer service training tailored to all levels of customer care staff, from frontline employees to back room management.

Hire a consultant to analyze and improve your customer care system

Sometimes it takes fresh 'outside' eyes to see the obvious flaws in your customer care training and implementation. Hiring the right consultant to handle your customer service training can introduce innovative ideas and a new approach to bring your employees on board.

I recommend: Select a customer service consulting firm, like Eric Fraterman's Customer Focus Consulting or JoAnna Brandi's Customer Care Coach, that specializes in teaching customer service solutions at all organizational, management and staff levels.

Get training for the technical aspects of customer service management

There's a human side to customer service and then there's a technical side. While general consultants can help with fine-tuning basic technical issues related to customer service, ensuring the proper use of customer care software and other high-tech tools requires specialized training.

I recommend: Neocase and Noble-Amcat both offer training services to ensure that your staff and management practices are fully integrated with their customer service software and call center applications.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Be well aware that customer service outsourcing means letting go, to a degree, of outsourced staff's training and management; this is one of the prices you pay in return for lower costs, more flexible hours and potentially higher call volumes.

Your best source of additional revenue is the customers who are already doing business with you. Learn how to better serve them and you'll spare yourself the trouble and expense of constantly trolling for new prospects. Manage these relationships wisely and you'll be able to:

1. Track the buying habits of your customers
2. Detect trends so that you can tweak your products or services accordingly
3. Decrease sales and marketing costs
4. Increase customer retention

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Invest in technology to help manage your customer database

CRM software can help you keep track of customer buying habits, cross sell more effectively, and target your marketing dollars. And costs have come down in recent years as more vendors focus on the small- and midsize-business market.

I recommend: Comparison shop with this list of the top 12 CRM software packages. See destinationCRM for some guidelines on choosing the right system. For a CRM software primer, got to SmallBizCRM and read up on the difference between hosted and traditional CRM software. At BuyerZone, you can get free software quotes. Finally, see if free CRM software can work for you.

Create a loyalty program to reward your best customers

All customers are not created equal. Once you've identified your best customers, pamper them with special offers, exclusive discounts and personal communication.

I recommend: For ideas on how to create specific kinds of programs, go to Microsoft's Small Business Center and Business Know-How.

Communicate frequently and meaningfully with customers

Keep your company's name on your customers' radar screens by sending out newsy emails or newsletters about your company. Selling is secondary here; the main goal is to keep in touch.

I recommend: If you can't manage frequent email blasts in house, check out Constant Contact, an email marketing company that caters to small businesses. For $15 a month, you can send out unlimited emails to up to 500 contacts. Or visit Vertical Response, another email marketing company that boasts low prices.

Develop a consistent policy for solving customers' problems

You can have the best customer service policies in the world, but once in a while, you're going to make mistakes. How you deal with them is the true test of your mettle.

I recommend: Create a written "service recovery" policy and distribute it to all employees, empowering them to assuage angry customers in a consistent and predictable way. For some good guidelines, go to The Small Business Advocate and The CEO Refresher.

Teach your employees about the lifetime value of a customer

All of your CRM efforts will be for naught if you aren't also teaching your employees about the value of great service and empowering them to deliver it.

I recommend: Go to CRMGuru to read about the employee/service connection.

Measure the effect of customer relationship management

You need to know which efforts are generating increased revenue, motivating employees, and delighting customers.

I recommend: For tips on measuring CRM, read these articles on CRM Guru and CRM Knowledge Base.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  When you invest in CRM software, don't overspend on technology you don't need, but make sure that whatever system you choose is scalable as your business grows.
• •  When communicating with customers, don't always default to email; there's also huge value in a hand-written note.
• •  Keep all customer information you gather absolutely confidential and make sure customers know you're protecting their privacy.
• •  Remember that you can't expect your employees to treat your customers any better than you treat them!

Even online businesses can't eliminate human interaction from their business plan; do business for long enough and some sort of customer care will be necessary, whether it's fixing botched transactions or answering customer questions. For businesses in which employees have face to face contact with customers, good customer service is even more critical, often making or breaking your company's fate.

Having a solid foundation in customer service basics lets both customers and employees feel confident that transactions, interactions and questions will be handled smoothly and appropriately. As a savvy business owner or manager, do the following when focusing your attention on building a solid customer service foundation:

1. Improve customer service based on technical needs and consumer feedback;

2. Learn from customer support experts;

3. Consider your options carefully before outsourcing customer service.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Implement effective customer service solutions

The number one principle of customer support is to listen, listen, listen. While meeting the technical needs of your customer support staff is important--after all, if you can't receive help desk requests, hear your customers or see what they've typed, you can't help them--it's just as important to make sure you're soliciting and receiving feedback from your customers so you know how best to serve them.

I recommend: Capterra can help you find customer service software to cover your customer support department's technical needs, but having feedback from your customers is necessary to feed the "human" angle. Naomi Karten of Karten Associates offers articles and advice on soliciting useful customer feedback.

Tune in to the best sources of customer service information

There's no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to customer care. Listen to expert advice about how and why top-notch customer service will benefit your business; nothing inspires more customer loyalty than the knowledge that properly caring for your clients is your top priority.

I recommend: While you can (and perhaps should) hire an expensive consultant to train both you and your employees in the basic principles of customer service, you can also get a free education online. Motivational speakers, like Shep Hyken, regularly publish articles and tips about providing effective customer support, while Customer Service Manager.com (CSM) provides numerous resources explaining why customer service matters above all else.

Get the skinny on customer service outsourcing

Customer service outsourcing refers to the practice of subcontracting long-distance customer service duties (over the phone or Internet, for example) to a third party, frequently in countries where low-wage labor is abundantly available. Outsourcing is a double-edged sword with definite advantages--and disadvantages--for a business.

I recommend: BuyerZone explains when customer service outsourcing might be a good idea, while Jeffrey Pfeffer, writing for CNNMoney.com, identifies how customer service outsourcing might cost you business instead of saving you money.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Customer service management equates to employee management. The best way to inspire your employees to take a genuine interest in customers' welfare, to smile and to listen and tend to their needs, is to demonstrate the same attentiveness in your attitude toward employees.

If you're considering a career as a customer service representative, you might find it helpful to become familiar with customer service key terms. From knowing what a call center is or how and why outsourcing is used to understanding customer relationship management and average handle time, you'll find there are many customer service practices and systems that you should become comfortable with if you're going to work as a customer service agent.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Call center

Typically, a call center refers to an area in a company where the customer service department is situated. The call center houses the customer service representatives who, receive incoming calls from a company's customers.

I recommend: iBrand Solutions provides an extensive definition of what a call center is and how one operates.

Queue

When customers call a company's customer service department or call center, they are usually placed in what is called a queue. This refers to a line of calls that is held and answered in order.

I recommend: Diagnostic Strategies explains call center queues, including the different types, such as multiple, disjoint and joint queues.

Call tracking

Call tracking is vital to customer service departments. Call tracking allows a company to keep track of number of calls, resolutions and even customer satisfaction. Many customer service centers utilize a call tracking program to improve satisfaction.

I recommend: Right Now Technologies describes a call tracking system and how call tracking is used to improve customer service.

Customer relationship management (CRM)

Customer relationship management (CRM) refers to a system in which a customer service center strives to better understand and service its customers. Through training and software systems, CRM can be developed for the customer service department of any industry.

I recommend: Find a detailed description of CRM, how it is organized and what it is used for at CIO.

Average handle time (AHT)

How long a customer service representative or agent is on the phone with a customer is called average handle time (AHT). AHT reflects how long is takes to resolve a customer's request or complaint. This helps a company establish department staffing.

I recommend: Find a brief description of AHT at TechTarget.

Outsourcing

Sometimes a company cannot handle a large number of customer service calls on its own and will outsource customer service. This refers to using an outside company, in some cases companies even located outside the U.S., to handle the flow of customer service calls.

I recommend: Get a thorough explanation about how and why to use customer service outsourcing as well as the pros and cons at icustomerserviceoutsourcing.com.