Court Staff Receiving Customer Service Training

The over 700 court staff island-wide who interact with the public daily have begun to benefit from a series of customer service training workshops being undertaken by the Justice Training Institute (JTI).
The announcement was made by Director of the JTI, Audrey Sewell, during an interview with JIS News.
According to Mrs. Sewell, the series of training workshops will focus on building the self esteem of employees as well as to develop other key areas.
“One of the main objectives is to enable staff to practice specific behaviours in everyday activities that enhance their self esteem, because before you can deliver quality customer service you have to feel good about yourself and accept yourself in a positive way so we are looking at building self esteem and as such they will be able to respond to difficult customers in an assertive, caring and responsible way,” she emphasized.
Additionally, Mrs. Sewell noted that the training will help the court staff to better relate to both internal and external customers in a professional manner.
“We want to help them relate ethically and professionally to customers’ needs and expectations, appreciate the value added effect of team work in enhancing personal and organizational effectiveness because to deliver quality customer service we have to work as a team since no man is an island in service delivery,” she informed.
The JTI Director also added that the training will “improve their interpersonal communication so they can apply it effectively in relating to internal and external customers and to synergize and deliver excellent quality service internally and externally.”
According to Mrs. Sewell, the series of workshops commenced last week from July 15 to 17 at the Ministry of Justice with 25 persons drawn from different courts.
“One workshop lasts for three days. Our intention is that everybody will eventually be trained so this is just the beginning,” she pointed out.
The second training session started on Saturday, July 19 at the Versailles Hotel in May Pen, Clarendon, and will continue on July 26 and August 9 at the Bridgepalm Hotel in Toll Gate, Clarendon, with 20 participants. The third training will take place on July 23 to 25 at Alhambra Inn in Kingston with 25 participants.
Meanwhile, the JTI Director noted that it was her expectation that at the end of the island-wide training the public will be satisfied with the quality customer service they receive from court staff.
“We are striving to ensure that at the end, the public will be satisfied with the quality of service that is delivered to them. The public is demanding better customer service because they are more aware of what their rights are so they have been speaking very loudly and we would want to see a reduction in the number of complaints we receive from time to time.all in all better customer service being delivered,” Mrs. Sewell stated.
Additionally, the JTI Director explained that a number of mechanisms will be put in place to ensure that the lessons taught are transferred to practice.
“We are building in a monitoring mechanism as a follow up and it’s not to punish anybody but rather to work with them to ensure that what we teach in the classroom setting is transferred to the workplace because that’s where it really matters. Training is all about a change in behaviour so we have to work with them to ensure that the changes we are seeking to bring about are translated to their performance,” she disclosed.
The monitoring mechanism will take the form of questionnaires that will be given to supervisors, employees, and members of the public.
“We have a follow up questionnaire that we will give to their supervisors to give us feedback and to say if there is any area that needs further interventions and we will also try to get feedback from the employees themselves who have been trained and feedback from the public to see how effective the customer service experience has been,” she pointed out.
Mrs. Sewell further explained that the idea for the customer service training stemmed from recommendations made by the Justice Reform Task Force.
“The justice system underwent a comprehensive review and some recommendations were made in terms of building capacity of the staff within the system.and so one of the recommendations was that the staff should be trained in areas of customer service especially those in the courts who interact with the public on a day-to-day basis. Under the Modernization and Reform Programme the Ministry has mandated that comprehensive customer service training should be conducted,” Mrs. Sewell informed.
Participants will be selected from courts including the Supreme Court, Family Court, Resident Magistrate’s Court, Traffic Court Civil Court and the Coroners Court and will receive certificates of participation from the JTI.