Since ages, customer service skills are so critical for businesses both big and small to get right because of its undeniable ability to help businesses and brands maintain their existing customers and acquire new prospects for their company.
Now effective customer service does never happen just by deputing one of your customer-facing employees on the front desk or at the phone and thereafter make them face the customers.
Therefore businesses must ensure that their customer service reps have the right skill sets to be able to encounter the most difficult and complicated of customers which is what that makes a big difference in establishing the credibility of your brand since according to a recent survey done by PWC it was found that more than 54 percent of consumers in the U.S. believes that customer experience at most companies needs improvements.
Hence to let you find and agree on what are the customer service skills that can help you to make the difference here is a list of the most important skills every customer service representative must always have for finding business growth.
Eight Most Essential Customer Service Skills
As a customer service representative, you should not just identify what is the problem and determine its solution. In fact, your customer service reps must understand their customers as the customers are human beings and have emotions that must not be neglected by your company.
Hence service reps must empathize with the customers (let them know that it is understandable that they are frustrated) and thereafter find out the problems and provide a solution, but most essentially with a human touch.
It is needless to say how important it is for your customer service reps to understand your brand’s products and services so that they can efficiently and quickly provide a solution to the issues faced by the customers without having to look them up as ask others for a solution.
This is where an easy to use CRM comes to use, as it not only helps in providing all the interactions that the customer had with your brand, but it can also help the support rep to find out the solution to frequently asked customer-related issues by providing answers stored in the system’s knowledge-base.
Always remember a knowledgeable employee will help put even the most agitated customers at an ease.
Ensure that your customer reps spend reasonable time to actively listen to what your customers need. Hence, never let your reps just assume solutions based on the problem until they understand the issue entirely by listening to them intently, since listening to your customers can go a long way in making them feel more loyal to your brand.
Irrespective of if your service reps are using a robust and popular CRM like Salesforce or any other Salesforce Alternative CRM platforms used by startups and small businesses, time management should be one of the most important customer service skills that need to be understood and nurtured by many.
Therefore, use business growth technology solutions that can help you access that your service reps are spending the appropriate time with each customer and also perform their admin works that go along every day.
Now, this may be one of the greatest challenges customer service reps face at work. Since if you did not get enough sleep, or have a sick child at home or someone cuts you off on the road on your way to work, it can be really difficult to put that all aside while you are on the job.
Nevertheless, as soon as you pick up the phone or face a customer it is best to keep all that personal stuff aside since customers who are worried about their own problems never want to hear the agony and pains in the voice of the service reps when they want a solution to their pain points and issues.
Hence, let patience be your best friend and instead of getting irritated with your customers let them know what you can do for them and thereafter wait patiently as the ultimately de-escalate enough to have a civil conversation.
Additionally, even though at times it may seem tempting to talk with a customer who is similar to you as a friend, never relax your tone and language around them because ‘they get it’. Instead always maintain professionalism at work, especially with your customers, since it helps in building the reputation of your brand.
If your business is using easy to use CRM platforms, which are mostly Omni-channel business growth tools there are a number of ways to respond to customers nowadays.
Therefore irrespective of whether you are using enterprise-level robust software like Salesforce or any other Salesforce Alternative CRM software whenever your customers get in touch with a concern or a comment over email, social media, chat or phone, make sure that you respond to them quickly.
Now the timing of your response may change depending on the channel that your customer is using, for instance, while a chat or email conversation must be replied to immediately, comments on social media platforms can be attended to within a couple of hours.
Being authentic with the customers in pain is a very important element in providing world-class customer experience to the consumers of your offerings.
We say this since there is always a very big difference between “putting on a happy face” and being yourself to exude a positive vibe and attitude towards your customers.
Hence, never be fake, but rather put up the nicest version that you have in front of the customers so that they feel happy with your services and come back for more.
Therefore we reiterate that you must put your personal struggles aside and wear a smile that will, in turn, help you to embrace a positive attitude. You may be surprised, but your actual mood may change for better once you do so.
Finally, the ability of a customer service representative to work with their bosses, teammates, and others is also one of the most important skills required for providing world-class customer service to the consumers of your offerings in order to find the complete skill set needed for satisfying the customers.
Conclusion
A study done by American Express Bank revealed the uncomfortable truth which indicates that more than 33 percent of the consumers in the U.S. would proactively consider changing brands and companies after only one instance of poor service.
Hence there is nothing more fearful in today’s competitive markets if businesses have to lose one-third of their customers because of a grumpy or misinformed customer service representative.
Nevertheless using an easy to use CRM which can be Salesforce or any other Salesforce Alternative CRM platform is one business growth solution that can make all your customer service reps more efficient by putting all information pertaining to the customers at their fingertips while automation found in most easy to use CRM will also help businesses save money and time and thereby predict consistent revenue growth.
