How is your training department faring in these economic times? Are you as secure as you were five years ago? Today companies are under pressure to reduce expenses as much as possible. Once again many training departments are coming under scrutiny.

Recently, I was asked to develop a program for a local company. During our first meeting I questioned them about using their own training department. The response was quick and to the point. "Our training department can't deliver what I need. They won't customize the program; everything is a package program. And they charge too much."

My client is in line management. Unfortunately what he expressed was not unique to his company. I have heard these comments all too often from line managers. If training departments are going to survive, they will need to act as real service organizations.

Before we look at the nature of service organizations, let's define some terms---specifically quality and service. Can you have good quality without good service?

Most people see quality and service as the same thing. Actually they are not the same! In reality you can have good quality and not have good service.

By quality, I'm referring to tangible, concrete things, the things that can be touched, measured, built, etc. By service, I mean the interactive process of delivering that product, the relationship.

Consider this example. You've just ordered from your favorite fast food restaurant. The place is very clean, the order filled quickly and accurately, the waiter smiles pleasantly. But, as he brings your order, he wipes a runny nose on his sleeve. Chances are that you may not eat the meal. The quality was there--burgers properly made and delivered. But the service was not! The relationship was damaged by the runny nose.

This dilemma exists in training. We may develop a high quality program (handouts, A/Vs, etc.) but have a poor delivery. That delivery includes more than the platform skills. It includes how we offer the program, how we handle registration, how we confirm attendance, how we handle our phone calls, and pushover. It means that you are really interested in solving their problems and helping them be successful. You view them as partners, as the source of your income, as customers.

To help you focus on changing to a service organization, imagine that tomorrow your total training department is no longer a part of your company. It is now an independent company that sells training to your previous company. What would you do differently? How would you treat them? How would you treat each other? Spend some time thinking about these questions? It will be a catalyst for beginning the change.

Here's a suggestion to help you begin: Before you can go anywhere, you need to know where you're leaving from. To start, describe where you are now. Focus on our (internal) customers. This means that we must know who the customer is! Is it the trainee, the trainee's boss, our boss, or someone else? The outcome of the program will vary depending on the answer.

Here are some focusing questions to help you:

• Who are my customers? Be as specific as possible.

• When was the last time I talked to a customer?

• What do they want/need? How do I know?
• What products and services do I offer? To which customers?
• What do they think of each product or service?

• How easy is it to do business with me?

• How do I do business?

• What are my OTSUs (Opportunities To Screw Up)?

• How do my customers view me?

• What do I know about my customers' business?

To be service oriented, we must:

Uncover their needs (or expectations). We've all done needs analysis in our mining career. Customers often can't tell you exactly what they want. Our job is to discover what their real expectations are.

Develop customer friendly systems. How hard is it to do business with you? Are you willing to customize a program? Are you easy to reach on the phone? Do you return your phone calls? How much advance notice do you give for your programs? Your systems must be designed with the customers' comfort in mind not your own. If it's hard to do business with you, they won't!

Have a sense of business (and how the business works). Many internal training departments have moved to a charge-back system. This is an effort to show a profit or justify training. If you are charging back, you must be competitive with the outside world. Customers are reluctant to pay more for a packaged program internally when a similar external program costs less. Find out what your competition is doing, and keep your pricing in line.

Have a marketing mentality. Begin to view every customer contact as a chance to find out what they want and need. Good service organizations are constantly marketing, looking for changes in attitudes, needs expectations, etc. Remember that needs do change over time. What your customers wanted today they may not want tomorrow. Here's a tip: revamp you program evaluation sheets! They can be an excellent source of information about customers' needs and expectations.

Have a service mentality. "Customers don't care how much you know until they know how much you care!" Having a service mentality doesn't mean being a door mat or a thousands of other small details that affect the outcome.

We usually rush to create a service vision and then re-engineer from there. My advice, based on experience, is to analyze your current organization in depth before creating anything or making major changes.

Businesses are realizing that service is one of the keys to survival in these competitive times. Is it one of the keys to your survival within your company? Think about it.