Peer to Peer Magazine

17 WWW.ILTANET.ORG BEST PRACTICES In determining appropriate recognition, if any, many law firms look at support and training trends by reviewing help desk tickets months aer they were put in. Others go with their gut as to how well their employees are doing. Having immediate feedback could change that strategy for the beer. As with any business initiative, cost is a concern, but the increased efficiency seen with continuous feedback can benefit the boom line. Rewarding those who develop greater skills, increase knowledge and give superior service can benefit both the company and the customer for lile money — perhaps a few dollars for a cup of coffee. Of course, even small costs add up, so your rewards system could require that an employee get five or more high ratings to receive a reward. And recognition-based awards such as a choice parking space, a certificate or a long lunch can be just as effective for virtually no cost. Provide Stellar Service The training team is oen the face of IT in an organization. Many end users look to them as experts on everything — even areas that fall outside their primary responsibilities. This oen puts the trainer or support technician in a challenging position. Burnout is not uncommon. Imagine a firm with enthusiastic trainers and support employees who are eager to learn from the feedback they are provided daily, not just once a year at review time. A rewards-based feedback system may be just the ticket for building beer customer relationships, liing training team morale and energizing trainers to provide stellar customer service. P2P Improved Satisfaction and Continuous Feedback How did Canary come up with this approach? It applied the principles and soware of a survey product called Stella Connect (by StellaService), which recognizes that, at many companies, the phone never stops ringing for those in support/training. While the workload may be taxing, the goal of the team is always to provide a positive experience for customers. This can cause a spark of excitement, satisfaction or eagerness. Usually, however, once the call ends, that spark typically goes out. By sending an immediate follow-up email with a picture and short bio, it does three special things for the customer: » It humanizes the brand. » It presents gamification and rewards. » It allows for posting to social media. The Stella Connect soware enables support/ training team members to see immediate feedback on their screens throughout the day. For people like the service agent I spoke with at Canary, she knows immediately when she is doing a great job and when she needs to improve. For training managers, this means their trainers can operate in a culture of constant learning and performance improvement. The feedback and recurring themes provided by the surveys can also help training managers understand how best to support their team members with targeted training. While talking with my colleagues about this support/training experience, it became clear that some of them had strong views on rewarding employees. One group insisted that the reward for being a good employee is one's paycheck. Others felt that rewarding top-notch employees with perks is a great way to boost morale and reduce turnover. What do you think? Building a Stellar Training Team: Insights From a Lile Yellow Bird MICHAEL BLIX Michael Blix has spent the past 20 years in legal and corporate technical training management (10 of those years as a technical trainer). He has focused his career on being an advocate for both the end user and the organization. Michael often writes about things that he discovers and wants to share with others. Contact him at mb@michaelblix.info. Require that an employee get five or more high ratings to receive a reward. Should top-notch employees receive perks? Take a poll at www.surveymonkey.com/r/ MCWVVY9

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