Michigan Works!
Blazing Service Creates a Culture of Customer Service and New Business Opportunities
Situation
Michigan Works!, nationally recognized as the largest and most progressive workforce development association in the country, was established in 1987 to foster high-quality employment and training programs for employers and workers in central Michigan and the upper Michigan peninsula. When this workforce leader decided to offer a customer service training program to support the local business community, they needed a flexible, best-practices solution that could be quickly and easily adapted to multiple businesses, and also provide customer service certification for job seekers.
Solution
Blazing Service, NetSpeed Learning Solutions’ customer service training, which develops customer service skills, helps increase customer satisfaction, and improves customer retention, turned out to be the right choice. With a combination of proven techniques, a blended learning approach and a soup-to-nuts curriculum, Michigan Works! was able to quickly complete the train-the-trainer program and begin offering Blazing Service to businesses and job seekers almost immediately. The multi-faceted, six-lesson curriculum instills learning through a lively, interactive experience that incorporates a host of learning tools, such as a facilitator guide, Power Point slides, props, exercises and built-in follow-up opportunities, According to Deb Doyle, Director of Operations, the program provides everything a facilitator needs to execute an engaging and relevant training session. Participant workbooks and follow-up tools, such as the electronic newsletter, help insure that learning is instilled.
Result
Doyle reports that the program has helped build customer service skills within their own organization while providing an important tool for local workers and businesses. “The word is out, and businesses are interested,” says Doyle. “I can’t say enough about the curriculum. There’s not a business in the United States that doesn’t require good customer service skills. Blazing Service has proved itself. It’s a great program, and it works.”
XO Communications
Customer Service Initiative Creates a Customer-centric Culture
Situation
XO Communications, a leading provider of telecommunications services to businesses and carriers, offers a broad portfolio of network and IP services through a unique combination of nationwide metro and wireless networks. The company serves over 90,000 customers across 75 major metropolitan areas within the U.S., and earns over $1 billion in annual revenue. When their 2008 Sales and Operations Summit resulted in an initiative to differentiate their business from the competition by offering spectacular customer service, they turned to NetSpeed Learning Solutions to help them launch a program that would not only provide cutting-edge customer service skills, but also establish a dynamic, customer-centric culture across their entire company.
Solution
XO Communications selected Blazing Service, NetSpeed Learning Solutions’ customer service training, which develops customer service skills, helps increase customer satisfaction, and improves customer retention. “With a disbursed workforce and offices spread out nationwide, we already use web conference delivery extensively, so Blazing Service, with its 90-minute online modules and web-based reinforcement tools was a natural choice for us,” says Jean Clark, Senior Program Manager – Customer Care. Blazing Service’s content focuses on interpersonal skill development and problem-solving techniques. Each session builds upon the last, and material is delivered in manageable bites so that information can be absorbed and skills practiced before new content is added. The program comes with a variety of tracking and measurement tools to help administrators monitor deployment and measure the impact of training. “The way the program is structured and the relevancy of the content is especially exciting for us. It focuses on life skills, helps employees get to know themselves better, and teaches the basics of how to relate to others. We’re getting feedback from across the entire organization that people are excited about this, actively applying what they learned, and they’re using it not only with our customers, but with their own internal customers, too.”
Result
“As a result of the training, we now have a common language to use when we speak about service excellence,” says Clark. The impact of Blazing Service has been so powerful within XO Communications that they’re rolling it out to the entire company, not just their service departments. “The company culture is changing because our employees feel like we’re investing in them. They realize that this program not only helps them do their jobs, but it improves their resume, too.” Clark also reports that use of Blazing Service has resulted in significant training cost savings. “We’ve drastically reduced travel and training costs. And with the train-the-trainer program and a two-year site license, we’ll be able to train our entire company for a nominal per-person cost.”