What I Tell New Trainers the First Chance I Get

We work with a lot of interns and young trainers looking to be great coaches. They come in with expectations of learning lots of anatomy, physiology, and biomechanics to become great in the field. While that’s certainly part of it, they are always surprised by what we cover right out the gate, i.e. the necessity of really good customer service . This necessary foundation is so simple that everyone skips it, and yet it really is a difference maker professionally. It's the most important part of interacting with other humans, yet is rarely seen, making it so delightfully refreshing when you do find it. People skills are not inherent and you can learn and add them to your arsenal.

So pull up a chair, and learn how to be a better trainer, and professional, in three easy steps. Do you do these things already? These are the things I wish were taught in schools. So BEHOLD! The secrets that aren’t really secrets at all: 

Respond quickly to messages

If you get a text or an email- respond. It’s offensive to many of us to send a message and then get no response. It implies that the person doesn’t care about the problem, or worse still, doesn’t care about us at all! People take it personally. Now, I’m not saying you should stare at your phone waiting to jump on it if it vibrates. But replying promptly is ALWAYS appreciated, and getting it out of the way means you don’t have to keep it in your head and keep the anxiety of an uncompleted task in your brainwaves. Even if you don’t have time to solve the full problem, just send out a quick note like,  “Thanks for the message, I’ll be able to get you an answer in 3 months!” It goes a long, long way. I’ve never annoyed anyone by answering promptly, but I’ve annoyed lots of people over the years by being too slow. We all know it, if you wait till you have time, you never have time. So just get it out of the way and score some professional points while you’re at it. 

Remember names

It’s a cliche joke about how bad we are at remembering names, but it’s really not that hard if you try. Trust me, just try. If you don’t try, you won’t be good at it, see? Some easy tricks are to use the name as much as you can in conversation. You can even make it a joke, and tell them that’s your trick to never forget. “How you doing Bill? Have a good weekend Bill? Aw man, Bill you sure are an interesting guy Bill.” Also don’t be afraid to ask. It’s ok to say, “I’m sorry, remind me of your name? I want to make sure to get it right” If the other person has forgotten yours, they will probably appreciate the reminder themselves. You can be good at this, I promise it’s not hard. I used to make it a point of pride to memorize the names of my entire NPTI class of 15-20 students all on the first day. It became a fun game for me, and for them to quiz me, and it always drew me in to learn more about each of them. 

Take a real interest in who you are talking to

Another human is an amazing thing. This person has had a life experience completely different from your own with different events, perspectives, lessons, joys and sorrows. Imagine another person as a magical animal emerging from the forest to speak with you for a moment, only to return to the forest never to be seen again. This connection of consciousness is a magical thing (not to get too weird on you) and having an appreciation for that makes small talk much more interesting. What can you learn from this person? What lessons do they have that could change your life? You know in your own head just how interesting you are, even if you don’t talk to anyone when you leave the house. Isn’t this true of other people too? No one likes to be spoken too like a task or problem to be solved. If you get a chance to have a conversation with someone you will be much more interested and engaged if you really try to learn about the person, and see the light behind the eyes. You’ll enjoy it more, they enjoy it more, and hey, you just might learn something.  

You’re doing a good job when your clients are happy to see you

We tell interns on Day 1, if no one wants to be around you for free, they are not going to want to pay for the pleasure. Being polite and professional is easy to learn, but hard to implement. It’s easy to forget when we are tired or not in the mood, and we’ve all been there. But remember when you’re in a professional environment like training, your client has literally paid for your time. Bringing these three things to the table, I contend, is literally the least you can do. The fact that they are so rare professionally means you will stand out the clearer and your clients just might like you a little more too.