Helping organizations succeed through customer service performance and leadership

NEWS & EVENTS

April, 2011:  RetailTrack Mystery Shopping & Consulting joins MSPA

Belding's sister division, RetailTrack, has joined the Mystery Shopping Providers Association - an international body promoting best practices in the mystery shopping industry.  We're all very excited! 

Call for World-Class Customer Service Trainers!

Belding Skills Training & Development only uses its own highly skilled, certified trainers to deliver our award-winning customer service training programs around the world.  We, and our clients, have extraordinarily high standards for the calibre of people on our team.

We will be holding a new certification session this February for people interested in becoming a certified Belding World-Class Customer Service trainer.  It is a one-week, intensive certification program. If you are interested, and would like to learn more, contact us at info@beldingskills.com.  To see what we expect of our trainers, you can view our basic Certificatioin Criteria here.

Nov 29, 2010

Belding wins 2010 WOW award for customer service training program!

Belding Skills Training & Development has won the prestigious WOW Canadian Award for Training Excellence for 2010. The annual award is presented by the Canadian Society for Training & Development (CSTD) during their annual conference.

Belding won the award for a unique multi-level, year-long customer service improvement program created for Halifax Shopping Centre. The program, entitled Together We’re More, included training, motivation, and recognition for employees and retailers who went the extra mile for their customers. Halifax Shopping Centre went the extra mile too, handing out $10,000 in prizes to the best of the best.

“It was an exciting project from start to finish,” said Margo Ratcliffe, Belding’s Director of Training. “Halifax Shopping Centre was amazing to work with. They understand how important customer service is to the success of retailers, and made a huge commitment to them. We built the program, and they really took a leadership role in making it come to life.”

Some of the elements included:

- RetailTrack Mystery Shops of all stores – with prizes for the best performing stores
- WOW! Cards handed out by managers for top performers
- Customer Feedback Surveys – with prizes for stores who customers felt offered the best service
- Eight different World-Class Customer Service workshops for retailers, put on my Belding’s customer service trainers.
- Ongoing web-based activities, email tips, newsletters and quizzes

Shaun Belding, CEO, said, “Sometimes we take for granted just how hard customer service is in a retail environment. Retail employees are having to deal with hundreds – sometimes thousands – of people each week. It requires a lot of energy, skill and commitment to be consistently good. This program helped give them the skills, and recognize those who really stepped up.”

September 20, 2010 is Learn at Work Week!
What are you doing to promote workplace learning?

Ottawa Region News Story, June 28, 2010:

Customer Service More Important Than Ever

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!

 Shaun Belding's newest book just released in the UK and North America!

Learning @ Work Week begins September 21st!

Great Video on a Customer Service failure:  United Breaks Guitars!

World Training Conference Coming to Canada!
The Canadian Society for Training & Development (CSTD)is hosting the 2009 IFTDO World Training Conference.  It is an absolute must attend for anyone remotely involved in training & development.  Here's the link:
http://www.cstd.ca/ProfessionalDevelopment/Conference/tabid/222/Default.aspx

Belding certifies 10 World-Class Customer Service trainers
Belding Skills Training & Development has certified 10 trainers for delivery of its award-winning World-Class Customer Service program.  "This was our first official certification program," said Shaun Belding, CEO of the Belding Group of Companies.  "We've always had a strong network of very skilled trainers, but we wanted to begin formalizing the process."

The trainers selected for the certification process came from a field of over 100 applicants.  The process itself was an intensive week-long event which tested the applicant's training skills, attitudes and the degree to which they embraced the principles of World-Class Customer Service.  Not all of Belding's existing trainers were able to attend the certification program, conducted in October, but it is expected that they will complete the program when it repeats in 2009.

"We are very excited," says Belding, "These are outstanding individuals who are passionate about customer service, and remarkably skilled trainers.  Our goal is to have the absolute best customer service training force in the world."

Customers are fighting back
A survey conducted by Harris Interactive has found that instead of being apathetic when customer have a poor customer service experience, they are now fighting back in a number of ways - many of which could directly influence a company's bottom line.  The study showed that 81% will stop doing business with a company because of a negative customer experience, and 69% will decide NEVER to use that company again.   74% of consumers tell others about their poor treatment, and 20% have posted negative feedback online or to a blog.

Customer retention a 'priority' during downturn in the face of the current economic downturn
Companies are choosing to prioritize customer retention at the top of their list. 34% of companies have rated it their main current concern, while only 8% are focusing on customer acquisition, according to a survey of European businesses by predictive analytics software firm SPSS. The result is a dramatic turn-around from previous years, when 40% of businesses rated customer acquisition as their main concern.

Customer service is money in the bank
A study sponsored by The Hartford has found that two in five consumers have switched their financial services provider because of poor customer service. The study also found that 38% of respondents will stop doing business with a financial firm as a result of poor service, while 76% said good customer relations was the key reason behind their choice of provider.

New research commissioned by workforce management expert Kronos suggests that 84% of shoppers are frustrated with queues at pay points and 74% of shoppers would actually leave a store without making a purchase if queues are too long.

ICBC awards 22 collision shops for customer service
The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) has announced that 22 of its accredited express repair shops have won AutocheX Premier Achiever Awards for excellence in customer satisfaction. The winners were recognized for achieving customer satisfaction ratings of 98.8 per cent or higher.

Small Business Research Board study says small businesses will concentrate on human resources and customer service to improve operations
Small business owners and managers in the U.S. confirmed they expect to more heavily focus on issues related to customer service and human resources to improve their operations the next 12 to 24 months rather than continue making significant investments in automation and technology, according to the latest Small Business Research Board (SBRB) study.

Superior customer service imperative during economic downturn
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.  With continuing economic woes, applying quality initiatives to customer service areas must show return to gain management buy-in. "Use great service to help establish a premium for product opportunity in a downturn."

Changi staff commended for customer service
SINGAPORE. Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) honoured 18 frontline airport staff for outstanding customer service at its Annual Airport Reception held at Changi Airport.

GREAT LINKS

The Belding Group Customer Service Report

February 2011
January 2011
September 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
September 2010
July 2009
June 2009
March 2009
February 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008

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