There are no secrets when it comes to customer service. Most people like a smile, eye contact, and a pleasant demeanor. It’s no secret that people like being listened to. It’s not surprising that people appreciate empathy. There’s no magic to being nice.

None of these things are a mystery. So, why in the world would you want to spend money and employee time, both of which are valuable organizational resources, to develop outstanding customer service skills when customer service is a basic act?

Customer service can easily be taken for granted and slip through the cracks and customer service training is rarely a priority for most companies. But even if your organization or industry isn’t considered to be customer service focused, the basics of customer service still matter. The basic principles of listening and empathizing always hold power, no matter the organization.

Will Customer Service Training Make a Difference?

There are many reasons to say “no” to investing customer service training. It costs money. There’s no guarantee the people who go through the program will follow-through on what they learned. And it takes time, a precious commodity in and of itself.

At the same time, there are undeniable benefits of customer service training. Well developed customer service skills, which ultimately comes down to highly developed communication skills, can be a real competitive advantage. Here are some statistics to help illustrate this point:

• According to Harris Interactive, 60% of consumers say they often or always pay more for a better customer experience.
• According to the 2014 Parature State of Multichannel, 65% of 1,000 consumers surveyed said they’ve cut ties with a brand over a single poor customer service experience.
• According to a NewVoiceMedia study, U.S. brands are losing approximately $41 billion each year due to poor customer service.
• Consumers who are satisfied with customer service interactions are 4x more likely to repurchase than those who are dissatisfied.
• By 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator.
• 80% of client/customer complaints about an organization cited ‘poor communication’ as the root cause. Approximately 70% of client/customers who do complain will do repeat business if you resolve their issue… That increases to 96% if you resolve it promptly and to their satisfaction. Bonus: They are more likely to refer your business to others.
• Top rated customer service brands score high in Trust and Forgiveness (This brings us back to the Three Pillars of Exceptional Communication, and in particular, the Trust pillar. How is it that well-developed communication practices allow this trust to occur with greater frequency?)

The ROI of Customer Service Training

Here’s a simple, formulaic example of how customer service programs ultimately pay off:

Lee Huang, a principal at Econsult Solutions in Philadelphia, made this economic argument when guest lecturing at a course I teach at the University of Pennsylvania’s Organizational Dynamics program.

Let’s say you run a hotel that has 200 rooms and your annual occupancy rate is 70%. That’s 51,000 room nights per year. If your average nightly rate is $100 (an affordable hotel rate indeed) and your hotel invests $10,000 in a customer service training program that covers 100 employees—which amounts to $50 per person—what would be a justifiable ROI?

Well, if your recently trained employees have even moderately better interactions with your hotel guests, it’s safe to assume that some of those 51,000 plus guests will tell someone about their positive experience, as happy customers tend to do. And if, as a result, 100 additional rooms are booked over the next year, which is only a .2% gain, then the training paid for itself.

Let me repeat that: a paltry .2% gain is all that’s needed to start seeing a return on your investment. Wow!

Not only that, good customer service tends to build upon itself, and the return will keep on coming.

Simply put, improved customer service has tremendous benefits for a company.

Customer service only goes as far as the people who are going to carry out that customer service program. Although the principles behind remarkable customer service are basic, the skills required to carry them out are typically underdeveloped.

Most people are quite aware that other people like to be listened to. However, if you look back at your formal education, how many of your classes were solely dedicated to listening? Or empathy? My guess is none.

That’s why developing fundamental communication skills is a must for anyone in customer service.

I continuously return to the Three Pillars of Exceptional Communication: Trust, Emotions, and Reason. We can only create the type of customer service culture we’re striving for by recognizing how our communication practices are impacting others. Pay attention to the levels of trust people experience with us. Understand how our communication generates an emotional experience in others.

Recognize how our communication allows others to experience us as being reasonable and rational, or conversely, unreasonable and irrational.