Exceptional customer service is often the key to long-term business sustainability. But it’s one thing to commit to quality service, and another to provide it consistently.
When faced with customers bringing external problems and frustrations to service calls, having a skilled, motivated, and properly trained customer service team that is consistently meeting customer expectations and solving pain points is a necessity.
Great customer service training can help equip your team to handle difficult calls, efficiently resolve issues, and even convert brand skeptics into loyal customers. Here’s what to include in your customer service training, and 19 ideas to help you get started.
What is customer service training?
Customer service training refers to the curriculum and programming used to help your customer service representatives resolve customer issues and provide a quality customer experience.
It includes both new employee onboarding and ongoing training and development for existing employees. For example, you might have a standard new hire onboarding training and also hold semiannual training sessions with your entire customer service department.
Customer service training topics
- Policies and procedures
- Product knowledge
- Communication skills
- Problem solving
- Crisis management
- Point-of-sale system
Good customer service training programs include a wide range of topics—from how your products work to how to manage an irate customer’s call. Consider covering these customer service training topics in your sessions:
Policies and procedures
Effective training starts with making sure your employees are oriented to your customer service standards and support processes.
To respond to a customer request, your team members need to understand your service expectations and the parameters around actions like offering a refund or a policy exemption. Devote some time to your customer support handbook, your company’s core values, and your customer communication guidelines.
Product knowledge
Deep knowledge of your products or services can help your customer service agents respond to customer queries. In addition to providing your team with product documentation, devote training time to product and service details.
Consider providing information about key features, common customer problems, frequently asked questions (FAQ), and recommendations on troubleshooting approaches.
Communication skills
Good communication skills can help your customer service representatives identify customer concerns and leverage service interactions to build loyalty. Training your team in specific written and spoken communication skills can help them communicate and identify the tone and language best suited to a specific customer interaction.
Problem solving
Customer service frequently involves complex customer problems—and there’s no handbook or training that can cover every situation your customer service agents will encounter.
Instead, you can help your customer service reps develop their critical problem-solving skills and make sure they have access to the strategies and resources they’ll need to provide solutions for a variety of situations, from returns and exchanges to product malfunctions.
Crisis management
Customer service reps’ responsibilities include dealing with frustrated or even angry customers. Conflict management training can help them productively de-escalate conversations and communicate effectively with empathy and care, which can protect your company’s reputation and even turn frustrated customers into loyal advocates for your brand.
Point-of-sale system
Training on your POS system helps staff handle customer payments smoothly. Teach team members how to ring up sales, give discounts, process returns, and fix common system problems. Regular practice helps employees work faster and keep lines moving.
Best customer service training ideas for retailers
- Use training mode for quick onboarding
- Train staff on a mobile POS
- Teach how to use customer profiles
- Avoid saying “no”
- Teach stress-reduction techniques
- Use small-group role-playing
- Mock customer calls
- Use recorded calls
- Conduct personality testing
- Incorporate DEI training
- Engage other departments
- Shadow senior team members
- Hold live demonstrations
- Host product knowledge games
- Make competitor calls
- Host lunch and learns
- Invite customer service experts to teach
- Use secret shoppers
- Offer refresher training
The customer service training process can involve a mix of instructor-led training sessions, small group activities, and other customer service initiatives. Here are training ideas to help you get started and keep your reps engaged:
1. Use training mode for quick onboarding
Shopify's POS system makes training new staff easier with dedicated profiles that have "Training" mode. This lets new team members practice using the system without worry. They can learn how to handle sales, returns, and customer questions in a safe way that doesn't affect your real store data.
New staff learn faster, feel more confident, and make fewer mistakes when working with real customers. Plus, your team can get up to speed without the stress of making costly errors.
2. Train staff on a mobile POS
Let your staff move around the store instead of staying stuck behind a counter. Show your team how to help customers anywhere in the store, check if items are in stock, and take payments on the spot.
With Shopify’s Tap to Pay, any smartphone can take card payments without extra equipment. This freedom to help customers wherever they are cuts down on long lines, makes shopping more pleasant, and gives your team more chances to connect with customers.
3. Teach how to use customer profiles
Help your team give better service with Shopify's unified customer profiles that keep all customer information in one place. Staff can easily see what customers bought before, their contact info, and what they like. This helps them talk to customers more personally and suggest products they will actually want.
Make sure your team checks these profiles before helping customers. This kind of personal touch makes customers feel valued and more likely to come back to your store.
Tecovas built custom UI extensions in Shopify POS that display customer buying habits and preferences at checkout, enabling staff to recommend specific boot styles or complementary accessories like socks or shoe care kits based on past purchases, while also offering complimentary boot shines and drinks to enhance their "radical hospitality" shopping experience.
4. Avoid saying no
Customer service representatives can’t grant every request—but a skilled agent avoids saying no, or variations of negative responses like, “We can’t help you with that.” Guide your team members to respond to customers in a way that de-emphasizes the negative and focuses on the positive—what you are able to do for them.
For a training exercise, consider creating a customer service script that includes a series of requests that the agent is unable to grant, and include response options. The objective is to keep the conversation moving forward in a constructive way and provide helpful information while affirming the customer’s point of view without giving negative responses.
If you are able to satisfactorily address a customer’s pain points and solve their problem, you can be better positioned to differentiate yourself against the competition when it comes to excellent customer service.
5. Teach stress reduction techniques
Customer service reps are on the front lines of your business, and that means they deal with a unique kind of workplace stress. From resolving complex issues on the spot, to navigating difficult customers, to answering the same question for the hundredth time, the emotional weight of the job can be exhausting.
In fact, 41% of employees report high stress levels while 47% of employees in the US and UK say work is their primary source of stress.
Simple strategies like regular check-ins and recognition for hard work, and proactive support like stress management training, mental wellness resources, and open-door policies can help keep stress levels in check and contribute to a healthier, happier workplace.
6. Use small-group role-playing
Effective customer support training programs engage their participants. One way to boost engagement is to have your customer service employees role-play conversations.
Split your team members into groups of two and provide each team with two prompts containing common customer queries, such as, “I can’t figure out how to integrate the platform with your website. Can you help me?” or, “How can I get a refund?” Have one employee play the customer and the other portray the customer service role. When the mock call is finished, switch roles.
When all teams are done, have a discussion with the full group in which team members share challenges, outcomes, and questions.
7. Mock customer calls
Mock calls are one of the oldest training techniques, and for good reason: they work. These practice sessions help support reps perfect their messaging, sharpen their pitches, and strengthen their objection-handling skills.
Whether it's explaining a new product feature or justifying pricing to a new customer, mock calls create a low-risk environment in which reps can refine their approach, receive constructive feedback, and continuously improve their performance.
8. Use recorded calls
When calling customer service departments, it’s not unusual to be informed that a call is being recorded for quality and training purposes. Recorded calls can be a beneficial training resource because they give you the opportunity to analyze responses to a variety of customer situations.
Select both routine calls and special cases to give your team a sense of what different customer complaints look like, and challenge reps to think through the more difficult situations.
Consider compiling a quality assurance checklist so each team member can assess whether the interactions during the recorded calls are following the company best practices and meeting the customer’s needs.
9. Conduct personality testing
Personality tests are questionnaires designed to analyze individual traits. Typically, they group individual test-takers into categories and provide insights into how individuals in each category respond to specific stimuli.
Examples include the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and Enneagram personality tests. They can help your customer service representatives understand their fears, motivations, and behavioral patterns. Increasing self-awareness can support emotional intelligence, which can improve both customer relations and dynamics within your company.
10. Incorporate DEI training
Customer service representatives interact with customers from a wide range of demographic backgrounds. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training can help your team members embrace language and communication practices that are welcoming, affirming, and accessible to people from a variety of backgrounds and create an inclusive retail experience.
11. Engage other departments
Engaging employees from marketing, sales, product development, and other departments can provide your team with a fresh perspective on the customer service process.
Review service calls together to gain additional insight into responses to customer service interactions, and consider cross-training to learn about customer experiences across departments. Taking these steps can help you troubleshoot common issues and develop best practices that can be shared with other departments for a more seamless customer experience, whether online or retail.
Knowing how your customers interact with and experience your products can also help you improve product offerings or refine sales and marketing efforts.
12. Shadow senior team members
Pair new or inexperienced team members with well-trained agents, and have the newer team members “shadow” their senior counterparts for a day—from service calls to departmental meetings.
Leave time after each training call and throughout the day for the mentor and mentee discussions. This type of ongoing mentorship can help newcomers learn from their more experienced peers—and senior customer service agents can improve their own skills through intentional reflection and feedback.
13. Hold live demonstrations
Leverage the skills of your most experienced customer support reps by having newer team members listen in on live calls or watch live chats. Having a group observe in real time how senior agents handle the best and more difficult (or irate) customer interactions offers valuable lessons in active listening and responses.
When the call or chat ends, encourage feedback. For example, ask your employees to identify what the service representative did well, or note any moments when the team member might have provided a different response instead. Seizing these opportunities can build reps’ confidence and improve levels of customer satisfaction.
14. Host product knowledge games
Customer service training games are a fun and lighthearted way to motivate employees and boost engagement. Consider hosting a quiz show to test your team’s product knowledge.
Design “Jeopardy!” or other trivia-based questions, then divide employees into teams and have them compete to show off their knowledge. You can even provide prizes like gift cards or company merch for the winning team.
15. Host lunch and learns
Lunch and learns are low-cost, high-impact informal sessions that allow employees to share knowledge, skills, industry insights, or best practices, and develop valuable skills—especially in support roles, where explaining complex topics is part of the job. They're also a great way to strengthen team relationships in a relaxed, low-pressure setting.
Support agents, for example, can sharpen their communication skills by presenting de-escalation tactics or product walkthroughs, which translate directly into better customer service. When thoughtfully executed, lunch and learns make learning feel natural and fun rather than another corporate obligation.
16. Invite customer service experts to teach
Want to level up your customer service team? Bring in the experts. Whether they’re industry experts, customer service leaders, or successful entrepreneurs, they come with firsthand knowledge, proven strategies, fresh perspectives, and real-world stories that help your reps sharpen their skills and rethink their approach.
Hearing from industry leaders or top-performing customer service pros gives reps a fresh perspective on what it takes to provide exceptional support. These speakers don’t just share tips—they create opportunities for networking and mentorship, helping your team grow beyond their day-to-day tasks. Look for insightful, dynamic, and engaging speakers who will make your employees feel motivated and equipped to deliver exceptional service.
17. Make competitor calls
Closely follow the competition by engaging members of your team to call a competitor’s service line and ask the customer service agent a few questions about product features and request more information.
Have the caller take notes on the service representative’s tone and ability to answer customer inquiries, and about the follow-up information provided. Then, have them provide a rating for each rep along with supporting commentary.
Incorporating this into your market research and competitive analysis can help you gain a better understanding of the customer’s perspective, and learn from the competition’s approach.
18. Use secret shoppers
Whether hired professionals or undercover employees, mystery shoppers give you an unfiltered view of how your team interacts with customers, uncovering strengths and weaknesses in real time.
The goal is better service and results—not catching employees off guard. Patterns observed over time through secret shoppers help retailers identify gaps in service that might be overlooked internally, and uncover training opportunities through which to share constructive feedback.
19. Offer refresher training
As your retail strategy, product lineup, and company policies evolve, so should your team’s knowledge. Regular refresher courses help reinforce best practices, troubleshoot common customer service issues, and align your reps with how your brand wants to communicate with customers.
💡Pro tip: Use Shopify training checklists and guides to help your team stay agile and ready to tackle new challenges.
Improve your customer experience with these staff training ideas
A poor customer service experience will stop 43% of shoppers from making a repeat purchase from a brand. That's why effective staff training is crucial for building customer loyalty and driving repeat sales. The right combination of training strategies and technology can transform your customer service from good to exceptional.
Shopify POS makes training easier by providing one intuitive system for all retail operations. Features like Training mode let new staff practice risk-free, while complete customer profiles and mobile checkout capabilities help them deliver personalized service from day one. Plus, you can extend your capabilities with specialized tools for scheduling, payroll, and team management—all building upon the same platform that powers your core retail operations.
Customer service training ideas FAQ
What are the 5 most important skills in customer service?
The five most important customer service skills are:
- Active listening
- Empathy
- Patience and understanding
- Problem solving
- A friendly and helpful attitude
What type of training is needed for customer service?
Customer service training should cover hard skills—like product knowledge, company goals, and policies—and soft skills, like active listening, problem solving, and conflict resolution that shape customer interactions.
How do I create a customer service training plan?
Follow these steps to create a customer service training plan:
- Assess your team’s training needs by identifying knowledge gaps and skills gaps.
- Set clear training goals and objectives.
- Assess the available resources for your training program.
- Determine the most suitable training method for your team.
- Develop a training curriculum.
- Set a training timeline.
- Establish how to measure effectiveness (success metrics and benchmarks).
What is the most important factor in customer service training?
Focused, practical learning content that meets your support team and business's needs is the most important factor in customer service training. When reps know exactly how to handle issues, they resolve problems faster, boost customer satisfaction, and feel more confident in their roles.
