While the achievement of significant cost reductions and high levels of productivity are both very important to every Shared Services organization, there is no disputing the fact that customer satisfaction is also a critical success factor to the overall health of the operation.  However, in the traditional back-office process areas typically found in Shared Services, the focus on the quality of the interaction with the customer, whether internal or external to the company, has not been a priority at many companies.  Some reasons for this may include:

1. It is more difficult to measure customer satisfaction than cost or productivity levels.
2. Customer service training has typically not been a part of the core curriculum of training provided to Shared Services employees.
3. This type of training may be more applicable to some roles vs. others.
4. There is a lack of commitment by Shared Services leaders to prioritize this type of training.

While these roadblocks to rolling out this type of training are both valid and significant, the benefits of providing customer service training have been well demonstrated at a number of Shared Services organizations that have taken the necessary steps to develop and implement this important aspect of their overall Shared Services employee training.

Recently, the Peeriosity membership was polled regarding the type of customer service training provided to Shared Services personnel and the extent to which it is carried out within the organization. Looking at the results from the first iPolling^TM question, 56% of the surveyed companies have implemented customer service training within their Shared Services operation, with another 6% that have approved doing so.  Interestingly, 27% have not considered implementing this type of training for their team members.

The results of the second iPolling^TM question were also very enlightening; with specific customer service training provided to all Shared Services employees at 50% of the companies that deliver this type of training.  For 36% of the companies, this training is provided just to employees of a specific process area, such as Purchase-to-Pay or Order-to-Cash, not to the entire Shared Services organization.  Finally, 14% only offer this training to front-line Shared Services team members that are dealing with customers on a frequent basis.

Regardless of the approach taken to implement this type of training, this is an important aspect of the overall Shared Services training curriculum that should be properly addressed by all companies to one degree or another.

What is the status of providing customer service training for the Shared Services team at your company?  Is it time to make this a higher priority for your management team?

Who are your peers and how are you collaborating with them?

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 “iPolling^TM” is available exclusively to Peeriosity member company employees, with consultants or vendors prohibited from participating or accessing content. Members have full visibility to all respondents and their comments. Using Peeriosity’s integrated email system, Peer Mail^TM, members can easily communicate at any time with others who participated in iPolling.