Ask James Caan: How to persuade stores their customer service needs work

Small business agony uncle James Caan on customer service training.

Dear James

I see myself going into the training business, where I would have sessions with a company’s employees on various topics.

I have worked in a lot of jobs so I am not sure where to concentrate but, with 15 years’ experience in retail, I think customer service may be an option, training retail employees. What are your thoughts?

Jan

As with any business idea, establish how much of a market there will be for your services. I would advise you to start locally.

You will probably encounter the problem of many managers insisting they don’t have an issue with customer service, so you must check whether this is true.

Use the internet and social media to gauge customer opinions about a particular store. If their service has been criticised, you can then show the managers that there is a need for your service.

Even the ones that agree they have a problem will probably say they can do it in-house, so this is where you need to display your credentials.