To overcome problems you may need to train staff. You may identify areas where they lack knowledge or skills that is leading to a reduction in the quality of the products, service or delivery. You may also identify some basic training needs that apply to all staff members, such as the following.

• Customer service training.
• Telephone techniques training.
• Team building.

You may also need to consider what areas can be fixed by training and what areas no amount of training will fix, eg attitude or poor systems. It is important to know the difference, otherwise a lot of money can be wasted on training that will not solve the problem.

Mentoring may also be used to overcome difficulties in reaching customer service standards. Mentoring can occur on a one to one basis. Managers/supervisors might meet with those mentored weekly, initially for 15 minutes. Sessions might be fortnightly after the first few weeks and then eventually on a needs basis. Each administrative team member could have a ‘buddy’ in the customer service team, building a special relationship.