Page 16 - sept-oct 2021

...continued from page 9 ing their CSRs will be closer to 50% to 60% Internal-
ly here at EDP, employee training is a priority and
the customer who calls and says, “I smell gas ” we require all CSRs to complete PERC’s Office
The CSR should never tell the customer not to Personnel course as part of the onboarding/train-
worry, according to Laney, as this might give a ing process and before they take customer calls
false sense that everything is okay “The customer unsupervised ”
should be instructed to evacuate the house or “Small independents are not as likely to
facility until it has been checked out by a profes- have a formal, documented process, but the ma-
sional and the situation is remedied ” jors most definitely do,” Laney said. “I think that’s
Laney commented that often propane beginning to change as well as training resources
middle managers and field managers “retrain” become more accessible and more task-based
CSRs to cut corners in handling concerned cus- and as more authorities having jurisdiction require
tomers to not disrupt their workflow. “Propane it ”
company owners need to make sure this is not Kelsey Bright, director of customer service
allowed to happen by having all staff members at ThompsonGas, agrees that training customer
fully understand company protocols for handling service representatives in all aspects of safety is
customer safety matters and the dangers that critical “We have a variety of regular training
could ensue when shortcuts are taken ” classes for our CSRs on handling emergency calls
“It is important that a CSR be able to It is so important that we not become compla-
handle an urgent safety concern and not have to cent,” Bright told BPN “It has been important that
have the customer wait for a higher level manag- customers have had a way to stay in touch with
er to return a call,” she said “Also, telling a cus- us on all concerns during the pandemic ”
tomer to ‘just Google it’ is never a good idea It is “One of the most difficult things to get
a red flag that a company is not safety-focused across is why we have and use a scripted safe-
or prepared ” ty message on priority calls,” Laney explained
In a discussion with BPN after the webinar, “Some of the best CSRs are friendly and person-
Laney estimated the likely percentage of com- able They know their customers and take care
panies training CSRs effectively across the retail of them, so a scripted message seems unnatural
propane industry. “Just five years ago I would and robotic That’s why it’s essential to practice
have said maybe 20% of propane companies these calls and reinforce the importance of pro-
were investing in training their CSRs adequate- viding the entire safety message ”■
ly This need has been championed by me and
many others such as John Hansen, Mike Walters,
Eric Kuster, and Stuart Flatow, and it has gained a
lot of ground ”
“There is a growing awareness in our
industry of how critical a CSR is to the handling of
priority calls The Propane Education & Research
Council (PERC) has a new Office Personnel: Safe-
ty and Sales for Customer Service Representatives
training course now in the Learning Center that
makes this training more accessible than ever be-
fore By the end of the summer, I think the number
of propane companies that are adequately train-

16 Alabama Propane Gas Association | September / October 2021