| "Caring for the customer"
by Dan Michaluk
PrimeCustomer Care, online, 2001, 18 hrs., PrimeLearning.com®
(917-210-8173, www.PrimeLearning.com®), $450 per user
per year; $8,100 per 100 users per year. Other resources:
mentoring, discussion boards, chats.
PrimeLearning.com® offers a comprehensive rundown of
customer service best practice in PrimeCustomer Care.
The content itself is strong, but the package needs
to be implemented carefully if its to deliver better
on-the-job performance.
PrimeCustomerCare comprises 11 Internet-based courses
that address a range of customer service issues. The
first six courses help students grasp the business context
of customer care by defining customer service, stressing
its personal and business benefits, and introducing
key concepts.
The remaining five courses introduce best practices
related to key customer service skills: face-to-face
communication, telephone communication, Internet communication,
complaints, and difficult customers. PrimeCustomerCare
is written by consultant, author, and customer service
expert Terry Gillen and co-developed with Gower Publishing
Ltd., a publisher of business and management best practices.
Each course is broken into two or three units that
follow a logical and predictable sequence: a short audio
introduction, a statement of learning objectives, key
content, and a short audio recap. Each unit is composed
of "slides" containing concise text, graphics, and audio
clips. Learners absorb the content by reading about
best practice, reading or listening to positive and
negative vignettes, and answering multiple-choice or
drag-and-drop questions.
Additional customer service resources (a glossary,
job aids, and a behavioral assessment) are provided
but are not integrated into the course content. Upon
completing each course, learners are invited to take
a short quiz.
The eLearning System supports and augments
the courses. Learners are encouraged to complete a 33-question
pre-assessment to generate a recommended learning path.
In addition to following the learning path, they may
also access learning events, live chats, and discussion
forums related to customer service. If learners require
individual support, they can send inquiries to a personal
mentor by email and will receive a response within 24
hours. After completing the learning path, learners
take a mastery test to assess their progress.
PrimeCustomerCare includes a wealth of knowledge.
Giller captures a nice sample of the current best practice
in customer service, concisely explaining important
and timely topics such as customer relationship management,
value chain management, and moments of truth. He also
covers all the important elements of customer service
that are timeless: listening, communication, and generating
alternative solutions for example. The content in courses
overlaps, but the key messages are always consistent.
Although the content is current and relevant, it is
not presented in a manner that will help learners turn
newly acquired knowledge into better on-the-job performance.
For example, Engage Difficult Customers (the strongest
course in PrimeCustomerCare) includes the following
learning objective: "Identify the five guidelines for
handling unreasonable customers." By commenting on positive
and negative vignettes and quizzing, the learner on
appropriate practice, the course does an excellent job
of communicating a five-point model for handling unreasonable
customers (listen, check reasons, explain restrictions,
offer alternative, repeat response).
But there are no learning activities that help learners
apply the model. Although Engage Difficult Customers
is one of two courses that include an interactive case
study, the exercise is cursory (with only three decision
points) and too simple to support on-the-job application.
Successful navigation of the scenario requires only
a basic understanding of the five-step model. A better
outcome would result if learners were required to perform
rigorous analysis of a complex customer service problem.
Learners of any technical ability will find PrimeCustomer
Care easy to use and the customer service content easy
to digest. Navigation is simple and consistent across
courses. The writing is concise, clear, and without
unnecessary jargon. The service vignettes are accessible
because they capture everyday examples of good and poor
service. The delivery, however, is not highly interactive.
Aside from the three or four short questions in each
unit, learners are simply reading text and listening
to audio.
Currently, learners will also not derive great value
from the live chats, discussion forums, and learning
events. I checked the PrimeCustomerCare chat room three
separate times on three separate days. The chat room
technology has potential: it loads quickly and is intuitive
to use. But the rooms were empty on each of my visits.
Similarly, the discussion forums were underpopulated,
with the most recent (of 19) posts being made one year
earlier than my test. The only scheduled learning event
was over one year out of date.
Recommendation
PrimeCustomer Care will help service representatives,
sales representatives, and employees indirectly involved
in service delivery identify the benefits of customer-centricity
and good and bad customer service behavior. In order
to derive maximal value from this offering, use it as
a primer in conjunction with activities that help learners
apply their knowledge on the job, i.e., mentoring, custom
built application exercises, or action learning. Those
purchasing PrimeCustomer Care should also create an
implementation plan that directs the intended audience
to the most-relevant parts of this broad offering and
considers innovative ways to motivate use of the PrimeCustomerCare
chat rooms and discussion forums.
Dan Michaluk (dan.michaluk@cloudbreakcompany.com)
is a principal of Cloudbreak, a company that helps organizations,
consultants, and technology vendors implement change.
Cloudbreak is based in Toronto, Canada, and Tempe, Arizona.
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