Is your learning path a mission toward the best customer experience?

Have you thought about ways your learning paths support your customers?

Sometimes we don’t connect the dots between what our employees are learning and the experience we expect them to deliver to customers.

When it comes to learning, it’s important an organization tie its business goals with employee education. This can’t be just about process or understanding new technologies, this has to connect to the overall customer experience. Some learning paths don’t seem to be bridging that gap for employees.

For example, one hospitality organization had a learning path titled “Become a Customer Service Superstar,” which included courses and materials on the technology around checking in a guest, who to call and what to do if someone complained, and more. And yet, there was no content to support the learner really understanding what the customer experience was SUPPOSED to be.

Reinforcing the customer experience mission should be a part of any learning path for employees.

Aligning your learning path with the customer experience

How can you ensure your learning paths are connected to the overall customer experience you are looking to provide?

Here are a few ideas, whether you have the content available today or are creating it!

• Know your customer experience mission.

Every single person in an organization is responsible for a great customer experience. But that’s only possible if every single person knows what that experience is supposed to be.

A great example of this is how the Ritz-Carleton summarizes their ideal experience for both customers and employees. “We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.”

This simple phrase helps everyone remember the type of service expected, not just saying “we provide great service,” which can be interpreted many ways.

Determine your customer experience mission and align your business goals and learning goals to it.

• Consider if additional content is needed to connect the skills and learning to how it impacts the customer.

We can’t blame employees who don’t understand how their role connects to the customer if we never tell them how it connects!

For example, an accounting team member might not consider their role “customer facing,” so they might not believe their role impacts customers. However, there are lots of ways that role certainly could impact the experience – both in good and bad ways.

If learning paths offer skill training without customer context, it might be worth adding some insights on how this is all connected.

• Look for learning moments via customer anecdotes.

We often discredit anecdotes as insignificant data, but a customer story can be very powerful. Find ways to turn those customer stories, in their voice if possible, into learning moments. With microlearning and the opportunity to share education in just a few minutes, those anecdotes can do a lot to reinforce skills and behaviors you want to encourage.

Customers can be the best teachers!

But we have to be prepared to listen and learn from them first.

Next time you are working on learning paths, ask yourself, “does this really help our customers? Will these skills and lessons support our customer experience mission?” If not, use these ideas to connect your learning paths with an amazing customer experience for learners and end customers alike!