Tailor-made customer-oriented communication training for a company in the logistics sector

Customer focus in logistics: is it necessary?

The logistics sector is, of course, very broad. From simple road transport to shipping containers and air shipments, logistics expertise is a discipline in itself. We, as the “recipient,” often do not stop to consider how complex the process is to ship, for example, a stone BBQ from Italy to Belgium. From customs documents to various forwarding companies, the success of this sector stands or falls with the communication skills of the employees. After all, customer-oriented communication is not just about talking to end customers, but also partners, suppliers, other branches, and so on.

The CX challenge? Providing training in customer-centric communication with lasting impact.

In early 2024, I received the following request via word-of-mouth: 'Sarah, we are looking for a partner who can support our customer service and internal sales with customer-oriented communication techniques and tips regarding both internal and external communication. Can you help with this?'

My first answer when we receive questions about customer-oriented communication training is always: “No, we don't do standard courses. But tell me, what exactly is the challenge you are seeking a solution for? :-)"

The same applied to this client, where the following questions, among others, arose:

• We have a number of new people / young people on our team and would like to support them with the right skillset.
• We notice that “the customer” is different than, say, 10 years ago, and we would like to provide our people with the right tools for this.
• Logistics is an always-on sector, often hitting deadlines, which means stress sometimes takes over. Can we ensure that this phenomenon has little or no impact on the quality of our communication?

Those who have known me for a while know that I quite often champion communication skills as a fundamental prerequisite for a good customer experience. Despite my initial 'No', I was therefore immediately enthusiastic about supporting this team with the above, and I was happy to propose our customized customer-focused communication training .

Why Customerry does not believe in standard customer-focused communication training.

A standard training course focuses on “what is customer-oriented communication” plus a number of basic skills. That is not wrong; however, customer-oriented communication means something different in *every* organization. In one organization, they want emails addressed informally (using "you") to be answered within 4 hours. Another says within 2 working days when using the formal "you" (using "you"). Company X adheres to values such as being personal and to-the-point, while at company Y, transparency and honesty are particularly important.

Two simple examples to demonstrate that you must first determine what “customer-oriented” means within your organization and how this should then translate into new desired behavior from your employees. If you don't do this, standard training courses will have little to no impact because your people cannot make the leap from the theory to “what does that actually mean for me, in my job?” At Customerry, we therefore do things differently, with the step-by-step plan below.

Communicate more customer-focused in 3 steps

Step 1: Listen and make choices.

After an intake meeting and an assessment of the budget and approach, we start with a half-day workshop for the management team. The objective? To clarify what “customer-focused communication” should mean within this specific company.

To this end, we facilitate several exercises that force you as a management team to think and, above all, to make choices. Starting from the organization's values, we determine, on the one hand, what is and isn't acceptable in communication. On the other hand, we ensure uniform agreements throughout the entire organization. What an email should look like, when the customer (or colleague) can expect a response, how we answer the phone, and so on.

Using the information from the first workshop, I go back to the drawing board and design a customized customer-oriented communication training course. It consists of 4 major components:

1. Customer experience basics, tips & tricks
2. Working in a customer-oriented manner within our company
3. Customer-oriented communication skills
4. Dealing with difficult situations

The content of the sections and how long we spend on each one depends on, you guessed it, the needs of the organization. :-) However, every section is always covered.

Step 2: train, practice and coach.

With clear content and tailored exercises, we start training the requested teams in small groups of a maximum of 10 people. We always choose a (substantial) day of training as the format, allowing us to truly immerse people in all facets of customer-oriented communication and ensuring there is sufficient time for effective practice.

Since 2023, we have been using our Serious Noses Mat for this, a tool that ensures you move frequently during training, provides instant feedback, and helps you remember learned techniques better. Simply put: you learn better when your body can move in between.

A customized customer-oriented communication training consists of 30% theory and conceptual frameworks, and 70% practice, testing, and discussion. Preferably at an off-site and inspiring location, so that we can completely set aside our day-to-day tasks for a while. For these sessions, the client themselves provided a very original off-site location, namely VR . base in Mechelen. We were warmly welcomed, with a delicious lunch and snacks in between. That, too, is an important part of the training: a pleasant setting with plenty of space and fresh air.

In this first phase, we trained a total of more than 30 employees. Curious what they have to say about our training day?

Step 3: Feedback round and discussing next steps

During such a training day, I always note down a great deal of feedback “from the floor” to pass on to management. Supplemented with areas for improvement that I observe from a customer-oriented perspective, I incorporate all this information into a half-day workshop as a follow-up.

We discussed how the training went and the impact that has already been made. In addition, I provided the management team with a clear overview of previously operational matters that still need to be addressed, ranging from a telephony system issue to clarifying the customer journey for internal employees, to give just one example.

The result of the exercise? Greater understanding among the various departments and a more uniform communication approach throughout the organization, plus a customer-oriented action plan for the future. Incidentally, a bonus of this type of investment in your employees is that it also always benefits knowledge sharing throughout your organization!

Working with Customerry on customer-centric communication: what did that yield?

A valid question, which we prefer to let the customer answer themselves:

Finally, who is the customer in this case?

Good question. Sometimes we have clients who are wildly enthusiastic (as you can read in the quotes) but who do not allow public references due to compliance rules. This company is one of them. Did you know, by the way, that discretion is a Customerry core value and that we are happy to sign an NDA at your request?