Teaching Customer Service
Many volunteers are asked to greet the public, wait on clients or customers, assist paid staff in welcoming people to an organization. Much of what they do is "customer service" in orientation. Here are some ideas around which you could organize a training session on working with the public.
- Be attentive the minute a client appears. Acknowledge the person, even if you are on the phone. No personal phone calls while on duty.
- Look the person in the eye, with friendly thoughts in mind, and smile.
- Tell the person your name and ask how you can help them. "Hi! My name is Nancy. What can I do to help you?"
- Be proud of the service you offer to each person who visits and the way you serve them.
- If you must make someone wait, explain why.
- If you cannot do what the person requests immediately, tell them what you can do for him/her.
- Keep your promises. Do what you say you will do and don't get distracted.
- If someone calls and you must help them later, be sure to make a note of it and return the call - promptly!
- Check in with the person to make sure their needs are being met and he or she is not being overlooked.
Typo-Free Handouts and Easel Paper Corrections
Handouts are pesky animals. They can be your best friend or an embarrassment of typographical errors. The same goes for writing on the easel paper in the training room. Here are some tips to cope when the mistake is in your handout or on the easel pad.
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Most volunteer
programs have a strong training component to prepare people to do their
work. There is an infrastructure with sign-up sheets, registration mechanisms,
databases to record who has attended what training, criteria to select
trainers, methods to evaluate training, and a certificate of completion.
Those are tasks completed in any training department, whether for paid
staff or for volunteers. 
If your organization has no training department, this could be a function of the volunteer program. Recruit volunteers who are interested in helping organize training for paid staff. Then set up a separate, but parallel system similar to the system with training volunteers, but unique to paid staff needs. Be sure to keep careful records including the time expended by volunteers and attach a price tag to it.
This provides a visible service to the entire paid staff and administrators. Paid staff now have personnel records of training, both on and off site. There is likely to be more cohesion in the types of training provided. It positions the manager of volunteers closer to the administrative leadership of the organization. It is also wise to create a paid staff advisory committee as the training "service" of the volunteer department is set up.
Seek an experienced and respected volunteer to provide leadership to this effort and offer it as a promotion. Help the individual recruit a team of people to assist with the design of systems and processes. The leader should work with the advisory group, with the idea that at some point the manager of volunteers is merely supervising the volunteer. There will be a flurry of work initially, but it is likely to level out to a manageable level after a few months.
Quarterly reports on training for volunteers and paid staff should be presented at all staff meetings. The new "service" from the volunteer department should be in the Volunteer Program Annual Report.
This
idea is a potential win-win for everyone. Administrators have a clear
vision of where and how training dollars are being spent, paid staff
have a consistent method of signing up and registering for training,
there are records for individual personnel files for people to use as
they compete for promotions or seek new employment, and the volunteer
department is the place to go for a specialized service.
Interested in more information on training? Check out our online bookstore for Training Techniques in Brief, authored by Stan Smith and The Great Trainer's Guide by Sue Vineyard.
| Interested in assessing volunteer and
staff relations in your program?
Looking for help from an expert? Get help with one of the Volunteer Program Evaluation Series. |
COLLEGE PROGRAMS ON NONPROFIT AND VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT
Close to 200 colleges and universities offer academic programs on nonprofit and volunteer sector management. They are usually master's degree programs, but not always. American Humanics sponsors undergraduate programs, as well. If you are looking to push out the professional development window, consider taking a course at one of these colleges. A full list resides at http://pirate.shu.edu/~mirabero/kellogg.html. Thank Roseanne Mirabella, of Seton Hall University for keeping up with this list.
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