Upskilling Customer Service Agents: Part Two, The Personal Guide

Lines have been drawn. Many organizations who do not view Customer Service for the strategic differentiator that it is are taking extreme cost-cutting measures. Organizations who know better are investing: upskilling their service talent in ways that will pave the future. Now is the time to elevate the customer experience in a distinctive way.

But what does this “elevation” path actually look like? This three part series will highlight several of the most critical skills for customer service professionals over the next five years, and offers guidance on how to foster them within your team.

• Part One: The Knowledge Curator
• Part Two: The Personal Guide
• Part Three: A Community Co-Creator

In part one, we covered agents as “knowledge curators.” These exceptional individuals are capable of collecting, organizing and sharing knowledge in a way that makes the service team “smarter with every customer interaction.” Now, we layer on the second essential skill: using this knowledge to create remarkable outcomes.

Part Two: The Personal Guide

Resolving tickets simply is not enough. The scope and nature of Customer Service work is evolving into something bigger. It’s no longer about fixing an issue, though this may be a part of a larger whole. It’s about fulfilling a promise to the customer. It’s guiding the customer to “their definition of success” to use language from Building A Story Brand.

Christina Sheehan, associate director at Crate and Barrel, is someone who understands the power of a personal guide. I recently saw her on a panel, discussing how she views sales as a natural extension of service. "Our goal is to help them build a home with purpose,” she said. Crate and Barrel is removing traditional organizational barriers to better serve the customer.

Frankly, it’s not about sales, or service, or marketing, or fulfillment or any other team the business made up. These groups (should) be organized for one purpose: to most effectively generate value for the customer and the business. So often we get in the way of the real objective due to “in the box” departmental thinking.

Do you think a service agent for Crate and Barrel terminates a customer interaction as soon as an issue is resolved, such as a broken vase showing up in the mail? No. It’s not about the broken vase. It’s about “building a home with purpose.” This is what a Crate and Barrel service agent is equipped and empowered to do. They will start with ensuring the vase is taken care of, and then strategically morph the conversation to a place of mutual value.

Consider the implications of this for your organization. Are your service workers given the data, training, skills and support to ensure “the promise” is executed? Or are they still stuck in “broken vase” mode?

We want our service agents to think like a personal guide. Someone who seeks to understand the customer’s objective (beyond the surface level question they may have asked) and paves the way to meaningful outcomes.

So, how do we help our agents to make this type of leap?

Freedom to be their best

It starts with giving them permission. I’ve been to dozens of service centers. What I (generally) find, are exceptionally capable frontline agents who are being held back. Now there are a lot of reasons for this, and some of those are good reasons, especially in heavily regulated environments. But there are a fair number of not-so-good reasons, like a leader who is exerting unnecessary control, inertia and general “business as usual” behavior.

Holistic support

There are many supporting functions that may need to change before this transition to “personal guide” is possible. Everything from workforce management, to quality, to HR will need to be on the same page in terms of the strategic evolution this represents. If the evolution is not made “in sync” it will simply cause confusion and frustration. Don’t just tell the agents about this personal guide concept. Pave the way for them to be successful.

Digging deep for the truth

We need to give our agents two things:

1. Give them access to more information. Information not just about the business, but about the customer they are serving. How do they think, what are their challenges, and what is going to happen next?
2. Help them learn. Give them time to research and study. Give them tools. Hold them accountable to using time and energy for this type of growth.

In Conclusion

For most, this is a very different way of thinking about our Customer Service workers. But it’s the right way to ensure a rich and meaningful career for these folks that we care so much about. It’s also the right thing to do for the business. Organizations who can embrace the power of the personal guide will be in position to gain significant market share — earning loyalty from both customers and top service talent alike.

Stay tuned for the third and final part of this series!