
Experience Action
How do we do this customer experience thing anyway? Join award-winning customer experience (CX) expert Jeannie Walters as she answers real questions from overwhelmed leaders! Let's turn ideas into ACTION! From company culture to employee experience (EX) to customer service, Jeannie wants to help you demystify the process for enriching the customer experience. With over 20 years investigating the best and worst in CX, this international keynote speaker has heard it all... and now she's here to give you the answers you need! You won't want to miss an episode! Do you have a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail!
Experience Action
Inclusive Communications and Training
What if your training methods could bridge cultural divides and turn challenges into opportunities for growth? Join me, Jeannie Walters, as we unravel the complexities of creating an inclusive and accessible customer experience that caters to the diverse needs of your team. This episode contains insights into overcoming literacy and tech barriers with empathy, transforming potential roadblocks into pathways for success. We'll explore the power of visual aids, adaptable communication methods, and the recognition of individual learning styles to craft an environment where every team member feels valued and empowered.
Throughout our discussion, we'll delve into practical strategies to ensure your training programs and SOPs resonate across cultural and linguistic backgrounds. By embracing the unique challenges of each team member, we can design initiatives that not only acknowledge diverse viewpoints but also harness them to enhance customer experiences. Whether you're developing new procedures or refining existing ones, discover actionable steps that turn ideas into impactful actions, paving the way for an inclusive workplace culture that thrives on diversity and shared success.
Resources Mentioned:
Experience Investigators Website -- experienceinvestigators.com
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie on LinkedIn! www.linkedin.com/in/jeanniewalters/)
Experience Action. Let's stop just talking about customer experience, employee experience and the experience of leaders. Let's turn ideas into action. Your host, Jeannie Walters, is an award-winning customer experience expert, international keynote speaker and founder of Experience Investigators, a strategic consulting firm helping companies increase sales and customer retention through elevated customer experiences. Ready set action.
Jeannie Walters:When it comes to customer experience, one size definitely doesn't fit all, especially when you're leading a diverse team with different strengths, challenges and talents. Today, we're tackling a question about how to create inclusive, accessible processes and training that truly set everyone up for success. Let's dive in.
Listener Question:So I recently quite joined a new company as the customer experience manager and then I've been looking at how the process would be and how to structure. I've been writing on SOPs and planning out my way to ensure that this process and structures are in place. But my issue is the people that are supposed to carry these things out. Some of them are not quite literate, so how do I go about it?
Jeannie Walters:All right, I know that might have been a little difficult to hear, but essentially, the question that we're talking about today is how do you develop customer experience, standard operating procedures and training materials that ensure inclusivity and accessibility, especially when literacy or other barriers might impact your team members' ability to really deliver on that experience. It's a great topic to explore and it's something that I think many of us probably grapple with and don't always know exactly the right way to handle it. Let's start with empathy and context. When in doubt, this is something I remind myself, when in doubt start with empathy. What would it feel like to me if I wanted to succeed and I had a barrier in the way? And, of course, when we talk about literacy, that could be things like certain abilities, right, neurodivergence, understanding, comprehension, all sorts of things. So, while we're using that in a very blanket term, I want you to really consider that people that you know that you might be assuming are handling these things well, they might have certain challenges as well. We all do so. Let's start with that empathy and context. We recognize that you know what these barriers are part of being human. We all have our own challenges. We all have our own life experience and our cultures and everything else. That's how we frame the world.
Jeannie Walters:So if we are looking at things like reading and writing as the only way to communicate around these procedures, processes, training, all of those things, then we have to think of things like language and are we able to, you know, really make sure that we're speaking in a language that everybody does understand? There could be barriers around tech familiarity. Are we positioning things in a way that maybe aren't accessible to everybody because of the technology or because of their comfort level with the technology? We also might have some things going on with cultural understanding and norms. There are certain ways that we interpret language that can be different. There are certain things around culture and assumptions that we want to make sure we are acknowledging. So our goal within this idea of showing empathy and context, is to show up where somebody is.
Jeannie Walters:So, first things first, keep it simple. If you have a long list of SOPs, as we like to call standard operating procedures, if you have a long list of those things and it's like the old binder that you used to get with all the pages, people most likely are not going to read that and really consume all that information, internalize it and know what to do. So replace these long text instructions with some visual help. So things like icons can be very helpful. Flow charts, process charts, infographics those types of things can really help people interpret the information.
Jeannie Walters:Now, regardless of our backgrounds, our culture, our language, all of us interpret information differently. Some of us are more visual learners, some of us really require auditory to learn, some of us are really interactive. We need to get our hands in it and do it. All of us have all three of these ways of learning. So I always encourage people to think about what are the senses that maybe we aren't using. I've mentioned before how, in doctor's offices, sometimes they call your name, but there's no visual cue of when it's your turn, and so if somebody has issue with hearing, then they might not know when it's their turn because there's no other way to do that. Same thing happens in airports. They're very, very loud, and so if they're only using announcements to get information across, it's very easy to miss that.
Jeannie Walters:We want to make sure that we're using visual, audio, whatever we can get, to really help people internalize the information. So look for things like video walkthroughs. How can you make sure that you are showing somebody how to do something, not just telling them, not just relying on them to read this information, but show them? And I like to remind everybody to connect with the why. If we're only talking about process and procedures and we're not really explaining why we have these, it's very easy for people to kind of disengage with that information. But if we tell people, if we follow these procedures, we know that it will make a more efficient workplace and everybody will be able to get their jobs done easier, faster, more conveniently. Not only that, we know it provides a better experience for the customer, so it's going to be a win-win. We have to really articulate that over and over again. We also want to look for ways to engage them in the moment, because if we're relying on people to just understand our standard operating procedures and have those moments in time where they have to remember or recall exactly what to do, that's not exactly fair either. So what I would say is look for the moments where you can guide them within the context of the actual scenario. So that means things like step by step guides, that can be very helpful. Color coding, using icons that type of thing can really help people understand when to apply things. And then I really like when it is within the moment.
Jeannie Walters:Now we worked with a client who had a lot of restaurants, a lot of fast serving restaurants and, of course, in the back in the kitchen there are all sorts of things to remember. How much of this goes in a salad, what do we do to get this out to the customer, all of those things. And so what they really thought through was how do we do this in a way that at the station, we are giving them exactly the information they need? Well, if it's a lot of information and you don't want to put everything up there in charts or posters or things like that, we have tools now. Use QR codes. Somebody can scan it right there, say okay, that's right, that's how much I have to put in, or that's the next step in this process. Whatever it is, but keep it as simple and contextual as you possibly can to help people really connect with the information they need when they need it.
Jeannie Walters:Proactive, hands-on training, interactive training that can all help too, because if we are again relying on people just to consume information and know exactly what to do with it at the right time, that is not fair. That's not what happens with humanity. We get very distracted. We have things going on. Maybe we read something, we understand it, but then we don't have a use for it for three months. We can't be expected to recall all the details of that. So really look for hands-on interactive training. Apprenticeship, shadowing, that type of thing but also role-playing scenarios can be very, very helpful when you're practicing in a safe environment.
Jeannie Walters:Games or simulations or rewarding people when they follow these things in the moment as well, can be really great. There was a grocery store that was having trouble with their shelves getting all messed up and they realized that they had a lot of their workers would be going to stock shelves or going through the store and walk right past it, not even realize it was a problem. So they started hiding certain things in the shelves. It was a little icon and essentially, when somebody walked by and proactively straightened out a shelf, if they found that thing, then they would get a little reward. So there are all sorts of ways to add fun and gaming and all sorts of ideas to this, so that it's not just about you must understand our procedures. It's about we're all in this together. We want to recognize you for a job well done, and there are certain things that we want to be standard. We want protocols. There are processes that are very, very important.
Jeannie Walters:Checklists are another thing that sometimes can help. It sounds so simple, I know, but checklists have been found to be incredibly effective at getting people to understand and do things again and again and again. There was actually a study years ago with doctors and what they realized was checklists helped them more than anything else when it came to making sure that everything was ready in an operating room, making sure that certain procedures were being followed. Checklists can really help. There are all sorts of ways to do this. Now, with technology, you can do it with your phone, you can have reusable things, so it's not necessarily paper on a clipboard. It's really about making sure that, to get through to that next step, things get unlocked based on the checklist.
Jeannie Walters:And then I also like peer-to-peer training. This is because sometimes, when things come from on high as standard operating procedure from the boss, it's easy for people to think, well, yeah, you don't understand. You don't understand what it's like here and why that's a cumbersome process and why we shouldn't do that and all those things. So, leveraging peer-to-peer training from the beginning meaning, as you're developing these procedures, invite people in who are the ones who will have to deliver on it and say will this work? What can we do? Let's try this out. Let's run a pilot program, let's do some A-B testing, whatever it is, but bring people into the process. Once you have that peer group, then they can help you actually train and get others involved. That can be incredibly effective as well.
Jeannie Walters:And then there are things like looking for plain language. Make sure that we're not overcomplicating things. Make sure we're not using acronyms all the time that we assume people understand. Make sure that we are looking at can we make this easier for multilingual teams, if you have them. Make sure your digital content is ADA compliant and that's here in the United States. Really, that's about making sure that you have the right kind of accessibility for the communication that you're using digitally. It's a great way to just check in and see are we being as inclusive and accessible as we can be.
Jeannie Walters:And then, of course, when people do this right, when you see certain results because people are following these standard operating procedures, it's time to celebrate. Let's make sure we are celebrating those small wins. We are celebrating the big wins and everything in between. These are important. When we talk about procedures and processes. Those are important for many, many reasons. We have to make sure that the people we're asking to execute those actually are also involved in the why, that they understand that this is because when we do these things well, we all win. We all do better, we have an easier place to work, we have better camaraderie, we have better customer experiences that lead to better results. So keep weaving in that why. Your customer experience mission statement is a great way to do that. So I hope these ideas encourage you to really think about how inclusive and accessible are you being with your procedures, your processes, your technology, your tools and your training. The more inclusive we can be here, the more that we can make it a place that people like working, that they feel competent and comfortable in their role, that they know they are contributing. Because, as we've said, CX is a team sport. We need everybody involved, so make sure that you are committing to being as inclusive and accessible as you can be.
Jeannie Walters:Great question. I love this question. Please keep your questions coming. Askjeannievip is where you can leave me a voicemail about anything and guess what? I want to hear about your small wins. So please let us know what's going well for you with customer experience this well. What are your challenges? What are some of the things that maybe you've overcome or you have an idea for our listeners? We would love to hear those things and share those with our listeners as well. In the meantime, thank you so much for being here. Don't forget to check out our Learning Center at experienceinvestigatorscom. Thanks so much for being here and I'll talk to you again soon To learn more about our strategic approach to experience. Check out free resources at experienceinvestigatorscom, where you can sign up for our newsletter, our year of CX program and more, and please follow me, Jeannie Walters, on LinkedIn.