The 5 Core Customer Service Gompetencies

Gommunication - Understanding how to communicate using verbal and non-verbal techniques. Listening skills and interpreting body language.

Ingenuity - Anticipating customers' needs and exceeding their expectations.

Critical Thinking - ldentifying problems and developing quick solutions using creativity and logic. lssues include conflict resolution, negotiation, and troubleshooting.

Planning - Preparing, organizing and managing daily tasks and projects.

Teamwork - Constantly improving interpersonal skills; collaborating with co-workers.

learning moves out of the classroom and into the workplace.

Here's an example of how blended learning works. A branch manager wanted her team to internalize a customer service philosophy. She gathered her staff together and they shared personal stories about poor customer service they'd received from their own experiences. They analyzed each story to identify the areas of incompetence and discussed what the service reps could've done differently.

Next, the manager instructed each staff member to write a customer service slogan on a card. She collected all of the cards and read each one, and the group discussed them. Eventually, staff members collectively created their own customer slogan. In the process, they learned teamwork, initiative, creativity, empowerment and communication.

Customer service training needs to take place on two different disciplines. One discipline is about providing the technical information needed to sell products and services. The other focuses on the interaction with the customer. Both disciplines must be part of an ongoing learning program, so that staff members communicate a sense of competence and convey a helpful attitude to customers.

As a customer, when you go to a restaurant, a store, or any other retail business, you recognize the difference between a trained service rep and one that's been hired and told to "go help that person." It affects your overall perception of the company. You believe that a company that spends the time and money to train its employees must care about you as a customer. So it is with your customers. Don't fall into the old belief that customers have one set of expectations for retail and another, slightly-less-demanding set, for wholesale. In fact, along with the rise of big box building centers, your customers' expectations continue to climb.

If you want to thrive in this new decade, you're going to need to invest in a coherent training program for your company. Your customers deserve it. Now, go see if you can help that guy at the counter.

Trinity River Restarts Mill One Year after Fire

A little more than a year after Trinity River Lumber Co.'s mill in Weaverville. Ca.. burned to the ground, the company celebrated its new $20 million facility with an open house.

"We continue to get a lot of community support," said general manager Dee Sanders, who said that more than 200 people attended.

Before the Sept. 12, 2009, fire, which was sparked by a welder's torch, Trinity Lumber was the coun- ty's largest employer. Afterwards, some of the 140 employees worked on the re-construction and others worked offsite at the former Siller Brothers stud mill in Anderson, Ca.

Sanders said that production should begin with a single shift early this month, and he hopes to have two full shifts going soon after. With both shifts working, about 125 people would be employed.

Historic Oregon Mill Spared

Firefighters saved the historic Hull-Oakes Lumber Co. mill in

Dawson. Or.. when aDec.7 fire started around the flue of one of the two main boilers, where sawdust or wood waste had accumulated.

The two-story wooden building that contains the boilers is one of two original structures at the mill, which is the last commercially operated steam-powered sawmill in the U.S. The mill is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

"Damage was minimal to the structure itself. It was contained to the southwest corner of the building," said fire chief Rick Smith. "It was just charring of the structural members."

Two night watchmen discovered the fire and used water hoses to fight the blaze until firefighters arrived. An automatic sprinkler system was also activated. No injuries were reported.

Plum Creek Sells More Land

Plum Creek Timber Co.. Seattle. Wa., completed the third and final phase of a Montana forestland sale.

The Nature Conservancy and The Trust for Public Land paid $89 million for roughly 70,000 acres.

Trust Bestows Tax Incentives on Forest Businesses

Ecotrust CDE, a for-profit subsidiary of the nonprofit Ecotrust, Portland. Or.. has allocated more than $60 million in new-markets tax credits to four forest-related businesses in the Northwest.

The new subsidiary invests in forest businesses to create jobs and work toward long-term ecological restoration. Ecotrust said that more than 300 direct jobs and 500 indirect jobs will be created or saved through the investments, which are funded by a $3.5 billion tax-credit program recently approved Congress.

NewWood Corp. will use the money to reopen a 275,000-sq. ft. plant in Elma, Wa., that will produce a plastic-wood composite usable for fencing, pallets, crates, and fruit bins.

Ochoco Lumber, Prineville, Or., will refinance debt, expand sawmill operations, and build a wood-fuel mill at Malheur Lumber, John Day, Or.

ZeaChem Applied Technology will builda $40 million plant in Boardman. Or.. to convert wood waste from a nearby poplar mill into ethyl acetate to produce products such as ethanol.

Garibaldi Forest Management will acquire forestland in the Northwest, then restore it by removing invasive species and enhancing habitat.

Council Denies Requests to Open Up LEEDs

Wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council will continue to be the only kind qualifying for LEED points, after a motion to open it up to other certification programs failed to win a two-thirds majority from members of the U.S. Green Building Council.

Of the 965 members who voted, 557o voted yes,42Vo voted no, and 3Va abstained.

SPYING SFI; ilevel bv Weverhaeuser has begun stamping the Sf l Certified Fiber Sourcing logo on all lumber and engineered wood products and featuring the logo on product wrap, providing quick recogniton that all of its manufacturing facilities are certified to the fiber sourcing standard.

Although certified wood earns just one LEED point, Sustainable Forestry Initiative, American Tree Farm System, and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Systems are fighting to be included.

DOMESTIC SALES: Jerry Long, Michael Parrella, Janet Pimentel, Pete Ulloa, George Parden, Vince Galloway, Chris Hexburg, Matt Wright, Scott Crutchfield.

INTERNATIONAL SALES: Nestor Pimentel.

By Dave Kahle