It’s all well and good to pontificate about “the customer comes first” or “deliver outstanding service,” but often it’s hard for your team members to wrap their heads around what that really means. You can say these things until your jaw muscles are sore, and post all the customer service rules you want on their cubicle walls, but only a small percentage of the teaching will stick.

I come from the school of learning by doing. When you see something firsthand or participate in the activity, retaining such information is exponentially higher. Training people this way gives them a situational context for reference. They can articulate and remember the concepts you’re teaching much better than if you talked their ears off in a classroom. If you want them to retain the information, let them live the lessons. It’s like telling a kid the stove is hot. They kind of understand the concept “hot,” but they don’t have context. Let them touch it, and they’ll never forget the definition of hot, let alone the event.

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