What are the most popular early years settings with the longest waiting lists? Usually, those who compete not only on costs and quality of childcare provision but also on customer service. Good customer care is no longer an optional extra in the current childcare market, and training to bring this about makes sound business sense.
Staff training in customer care is a challenge, however. Managers have to tackle the long-held attitudes of existing staff and convince the newly-qualified that parents and children are customers, and private childcare settings are businesses operating in a competitive marketplace.
Equally, managers need to appreciate that training can only be effective when it is part of a management commitment to a customer-centred approach throughout the setting.
Good customer care is far from simply providing clear and adequate information, verbal and non-verbal, to users. It demands best practice in safety, care and education provision for children as well as providing the reliable, consistent and affordable service that customers want.
To provide good customer care, nursery managers need to:
- demonstrate good customer service in their own practice - and that means spending time with customers
- make it an integral part of the ethos of the setting by embodying it in policies, practices and procedures
- carry out regular customer satisfaction surveys or other forms of market research, such as focus groups
- include customer service issues in team meetings and planning
- actively seek customer-friendly staff when recruiting
- have a good induction programme and ongoing staff support
- provide regular and ongoing training for all staff, including those with no obvious customer service role
- consider offering staff customer service NVQs
- carry out staff appraisals and set customer service targets
- reward and encourage staff publicly and privately for good customer care, especially when it goes beyond routine tasks
- not tolerate poor customer service
- keep customer service as a 'live' issue, otherwise it will be neglected.
Only when such systems are in place can training begin.
Training content
Training content will vary from setting to setting, but it should focus on service standards and priorities identified through customer satisfaction surveys and cover:
- Knowledge and understanding
- The extent of the service you are providing. What is it? Where does it start and end?
- The importance of customer service to both staff and the setting
- What customers expect
- Who customers are
- Anti-discriminatory practice
- Service agreements and standards
- Both external inspection and self-assessment
- Continuous monitoring and evaluation of service.
Skills development - Communication strategies and skills: face to face, written, telephone
- Communication both verbal and non-verbal
- Assertiveness, persuasiveness
- Practical strategies on improving performance
- Handling complaints
- Dealing with angry or aggressive customers
- Meeting specified standards for performance
- Action planning.
Format of training
The starting point for customer care training should be a customer satisfaction survey which, together with everyday informal interactions, will provide a baseline from which to work. This type of information should be confidential and undertaken sensitively - it can seem threatening to staff members, especially in small-scale settings.
Questionnaires will vary. They may focus on specific areas or be more broad-based starting points, such as the example (left). However, it is essential that all questionnaires are tested before they are circulated to parents and carers, to ensure that they are clear and provide the information you seek.
Share the results of the questionnaire with staff at appropriate levels. Now you can begin to plan your training sessions and evaluation.
