Customer Service Rules

It’s Sunday night and I am in the Big Smoke. Johannesburg again!


Tomorrow will mark the start of my first ever training session. I am nervous as there is much riding on this training course. The two people who brought me onto the project have taken some big chances on both using me as a facilitator, as well as the cost, which is high. They have much to lose if this course goes wrong. The 16 candidates on the course represent the top layer of middle management, so this is a high profile intervention. If we are going to fail, we are going to do it spectacularly.

Then there are my own shortcomings. In my own business, I describe myself as a Management Consultant, and yet for the last couple of months I have been immersed in designing a customer service training course. I have never considered training to be one of my strengths, instead have been far happier to criticise classroom training as being incredibly boring. And yet here I am on the verge of delivering a two day intervention, compiled by myself. I have much riding on my performance, from the state of my ego, to my reputation, which is everything in a one man consulting business.

I wonder if I have taken too big a risk.

Nervously, I push myself through the facilitators guide for the last time, then head on over to my bed for the beauty sleep that is going to refresh and invigorate me. Instead I toss and turn all night. My plan to go for an early morning run is ditched as I try and make the last moments with my pillow count.

All too soon, I am in the training venue with the Learning & Development Specialist. I have an hour left to prepare and there are already a number of candidates in the room, furiously punishing their emails. I see the reference guides for the first time and they look awesome. Thankfully, I had enlisted the assistance of a graphic designer friend of mine and it has made all the difference.

Somewhere I summon up the facilitator ‘me’ and launch into my new role. Smiles and laughter erupt. I relax, and start to enjoy myself. Aki, who I described a couple of posts back, has a slot during the morning. He is a ball of energy and fun, and steals the show. By the time we sit for lunch, I hear a couple of the Learners already commending the training.

Two days fly by. Some of the creative methodologies which seemed way out there in the planning stage; really pull it all together. At its close, the course is rated highly, which is a huge relief. This is not just a rating of my performance but rather the team that pulled it all together both in the design and implementation.

I learn so much in this short time. I break a number of my own boundaries. I even start to look forward to the repeat of this intervention in a couple of weeks time.

Who would have known?