1. Product expertise
The most skilled customer service representatives are well-versed in the operation of the items sold by their company. Ultimately, if they don’t fully understand your product, they won’t be able to assist clients when they encounter difficulties.
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For example, during their first or second week on the job, all new Help Scout staff receive training in customer assistance; this is an essential part of our employee onboarding process.
As stated by Elyse Roach of Help Scout, “having that solid product foundation helps you build an understanding of their experience so that you can become their strongest advocate in addition to ensuring you’ve got the best tricks up your sleeve to help customers navigate even the most complex situations.”
2. Performance abilities
Your team may occasionally encounter individuals that you will never be able to satisfy.
Sometimes uncontrollable circumstances (like a client having a rough day) will intrude into your team’s regular support schedule.
Basic acting abilities are essential for any excellent customer support representative to keep their regular upbeat demeanor when interacting with just unpleasant folks.
3. Effective time management techniques
On the one hand, it’s beneficial to be patient and give them a bit more time so you can learn about their requirements and difficulties. However, the amount of time you can spend with each client is limited, so your staff must focus on efficiently delivering what consumers want.
When they can’t assist a client, the greatest customer service representatives can swiftly identify this and refer the consumer to someone who can.
4. The capacity to read clients
In order for your staff to interpret consumers’ present emotional states, it’s critical that they grasp a few fundamental behavioral psychology concepts. According to Emily Triplett Lentz:
“When a client signs their support email with “PhD,” for example, I very seldom use a smiley face. It’s not that academics lack humor; it’s just that 🙂 isn’t going to make you look credible to someone who has spent five years dissecting the utopian overtones in autobiographical writing from the eighteenth century.
Positive customer interactions are greatly enhanced by the ability of the top support representatives to observe and listen for tiny cues regarding a client’s personality, patience level, and overall mood.
5. Resilience
This personality type is described by several metaphors, such as “keeps their cool,” “staying cool under pressure,” and so on, but they all refer to the same quality: the capacity for certain people to maintain composure and even influence others when things become a bit frantic.
The top customer service representatives understand that they must maintain their composure in the face of an irate client. Actually, it is their responsibility to make an effort to be the “rock” for clients who feel like their present issues are causing the world to collapse.
6. A goal-oriented concentration
Giving staff members unrestricted authority to “wow” consumers doesn’t necessarily provide the results that many organizations hope to see, as several customer service specialists have demonstrated. This is because it deprives workers of objectives, because consumer satisfaction and company objectives may coexist without leading to subpar service.
Businesses may assist their staff develop policies that provide them ample latitude to manage consumers on an individual basis while simultaneously providing them with priority answers and “go-to” remedies for frequent issues by utilizing frameworks such as the Net Promoter Score.
7. Capacity to deal with unexpected events
Customers will occasionally throw curveballs at your team. They’ll ask for something that isn’t addressed in your business policy or respond in a way that surprises everyone.
It’s advantageous to have a team of quick-witted individuals in these circumstances. Better still, seek for those who will proactively draft guidelines that all parties may refer to going future.
8. Resilience
Call it what you will, but delivering the type of service that people talk (positively) about requires a strong work ethic and a desire to go above and beyond what is necessary.
When it came to serving someone, some of the most memorable customer service tales ever—many of which had a significant influence on the company—were crafted by a single person who refused to merely follow the script.
9. Capability to close
In order to effectively seal a deal with a client, a customer service expert must be able to affirm consumer satisfaction—or as near to it as possible—and give them the impression that everything has been (or will be) taken care of.
Customers want to be confident that every issue they had was fully remedied, so make sure your staff understands that the last thing they want is to be ejected before all of their concerns have been addressed.
10. Compassion
The capacity to comprehend and experience another person’s emotions is known as empathy, and it may be more of a quality of character than a talent. However, we would be negligent if we did not include empathy here because it is a skill that can be developed.
Indeed, if your company evaluates candidates on their capacity for customer service, it would be difficult to find a more important competency than empathy.
This is due to the fact that showing a consumer some consideration, care, and understanding will go a long way—even if you are unable to give them precisely what they want to hear. A support representative’s capacity to relate to a client and formulate a message that moves the conversation in the direction of a better result may frequently make all the difference.
11. A systematic manner
In service, hurry leads to waste. Hiring thoughtful, meticulous employees will help you fulfill your clients’ demands.
Firstly, they will ensure to address the core of an issue before responding. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to solve a problem with a “solution,” only to have it completely fall short of the real one.
They will also proofread. If a well-written response is littered with errors, it loses much of its appeal as a problem-solving tool.
Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, it indicates that they will routinely follow up. Nothing makes a customer service representative more proud than receiving a message that says, “Hey! Do you recall the bug you discovered that I mentioned we were investigating? We have since corrected it. You’ve just gained a lifelong, devoted customer.
Important aside: The most skilled recruits can take regular beatings without losing their meticulous elegance.
The support staff must be particularly adept at avoiding internalizing the urgency and possible wrath of disgruntled clients, since they are frequently entrusted with the difficult chore of tidying up other people’s mistakes. Rather, they are adept at maintaining composure and a steady, guiding hand.
12. A readiness to acquire knowledge
Despite being the most universal ability on the list, this one is also among the most crucial. After all, developing one’s abilities as a customer service professional starts with having a willingness to learn.
Your team members must be willing to learn everything there is to know about your product, to improve their communication skills and recognize when it is acceptable to defer to authority and when it is best for them to forge their own path.
Individuals who do not strive to enhance their work, whether it product development, business marketing, or customer service, will be surpassed by those who are prepared to make personal investments in their abilities.