Upskill Employees for Happier Customers | Here’s How to Do It

Employee upskilling refers to upgrading an employee’s skills. It promotes continuous learning in the workplace by providing employees with development opportunities, helping them improve both their soft and hard skills.

Upskilled employees are able to find different and better roles within the company. Expanding their skill set boosts their performance, increases work satisfaction, and makes them feel valued.

One of the primary purposes of upskilling is adapting to changing technology and trends. Upskilling also helps companies cut back on costs. By increasing the skill set of their current employees, organisations can evade the hassles and expenses that come with hiring new employees.

One of the greatest perks of upskilling is better customer satisfaction and higher profits.

Before we get into the ‘how’, let’s look at some benefits that upskilling has, with respect to an organisation.

• Promotes a culture of learning
• Helps retain employees
• Promotes high productivity among employees
• Allows employees to be better prepared for emergencies

Employee Upskilling for Customer Satisfaction

Upskilling helps increase employee motivation and satisfaction as it takes away the feeling of stagnation, a primary reason for high attrition in organisations. Continuous learning helps boost employee morale and helps increase happiness and productivity.

This boost is ultimately also reflected in the overall work output and quality, which in turn leads to customer satisfaction. Employee upskilling also helps create a loyal customer base. BetterPlace provides you with the right upskilling programs for your blue-collared employees.

How to Upskill Frontline Employees?

The process of employee upskilling depends on the type of organisation.

For instance, if you are a digital marketing company, it will make more sense for you to train your employees about the latest marketing tools and apps. But if you are a services-based organisation, composed primarily of blue-collar employees, then polishing their customer service skills will make sense.

Employee upskilling for better communication skills

Most blue-collar employees need to deal with customers personally and on a daily basis. In such a case, they need to have excellent communication skills to understand the needs of customers better and address them in the best way possible.

Training them in soft skills like empathy and patience or teaching them to use the right words can go a long way in ensuring customer satisfaction.

Let’s say a customer booked a specific service offered by your organisation. After discussing with your field salesperson, the customer realises that the service does not solve their purpose and is upset about the loss.

Your employee empathises with the customer, and suggests another service, for the same price but better suited to their needs. This leaves the customer extremely happy and satisfied.

Employee upskilling for professionalism

It is essential for employees to maintain a good degree of professionalism in any situation. It helps them easily handle customers better and diffuse any form of tension, with customers or peers.

For instance, a customer has been waiting for one of the two deliveries from your company, and it takes your employee a few minutes longer to deliver the product.

The customer starts behaving rudely and lashes out. Instead of reacting, your employee apologises, stays calm and ensures delivery of the other product much before the actual time and date of delivery. This helps the customer calm down and leaves him satisfied with the service.

Employee upskilling for quicker turnarounds

Time has become an expensive commodity today. Today, people are busier than ever and therefore have less patience for delays in service. Employees have faster turnarounds when they are upskilled as it provides them with the knowledge, skills, and tools to handle things more efficiently.

Let’s say a young couple spontaneously decides to throw a party. They book a slot for house cleaning services, but need to get the job done quicker than it usually takes. Since the employee involved has recently been upskilled and trained in using the latest tools, they are able to meet this demand. This delights the customer and leads to great reviews for the company.

The digital age has enabled networking and information sharing. Customers are quick to review and share any experience they have. Better customer service from an upskilled employee will leave them raving, and increase your presence and credibility.

BetterPlace can help. Our upskilling services is tailored for your frontline workforce. You can now impart relevant training, learning, and development whilst improving productivity and business outcomes.

FAQs

Q1. How does upskilling benefit an organisation?
Employee upskilling results in higher productivity, leading to better work results and higher profit. It helps employees grow personally and professionally, while the organisation gains higher profits and a more extensive customer base.

Q2. What is the first step towards upskilling employees?
For organisations to derive the maximum benefits from upskilling, it is essential for them to first identify the skill-gap in different departments and map them out, i.e., ascertain where a specific department stands in terms of skill-sets that meet the current industry demands.

Q3. Why is upskilling crucial for blue-collar employees?
As blue-collar employees mainly deal with customers on a personal and daily basis, they need upskilling to provide the best service possible and better handle them to ensure maximum customer satisfaction.