Customer Service Success

Customer service jobs are demanding for many employees. Stressful customers and situations need customer service workers who perform well under pressure. It is important to remember a few key techniques to stay calm and make the business operation a satisfying experience for every customer. Providing outstanding customer service can be trying at times, but good service is a skill that can be practiced and perfected.

Working as a Team

Businesses are organized by departments, but that doesn’t mean a department with limited customer interaction shouldn’t be trained in customer service tactics. Customer service jobs require knowledge and courtesy. If one member of the team fails to be helpful, then the whole team and business looks bad. By working as a team, employees can share service or product knowledge and provide tips on working with customers from all angles.

Working as a team also means customers are never left with questions or concerns unanswered. Team work in customer service jobs means a readiness to transfer customers to someone with special areas of knowledge or experience. Likewise, it is up to the other person to pick up the phone or meet with the customer in a timely and respectable manner.

Putting the Customer First

Putting the customer first may be difficult when there are other tasks to perform, but it is the first rule of customer service jobs. Customer first means putting aside other tasks to help find the solution to the customer’s problem or answering customer’s questions because they expect their needs will be met in a timely fashion. Customer first policies may not always seem profitable, but the point to good service is to build customer loyalty.

Positive employee-customer training is the first step for customer service jobs, but basic customer-pleasing decision making is important too. Discount cards, coupons, gift cards and other ways of apologizing for inconveniences are ways to demonstrate the customer’s importance.

Active Listening

Customers are familiar with sales pitches and receiving general answers. That is why customer service jobs that actively listen to customers can be so refreshing. When customers are not limited to a circular automated phone system and customer representatives are free from time constraints, customer service ratings grow.

Active listening is a tool to help businesses get the heart of what customers are asking or saying. If a customer is having a problem, but is poor at expressing the problem, then it takes a strong, active listener to infer what the customer is trying to communicate. Over the phone, this means asking a number of pointed questions and carefully identifying and navigating through the conversation. In person, active listeners have the benefit of using body language and facial expressions to communicate with customers.

Excelling at customer service jobs means being ready to do more than what is expected or required. Patiently listening while a customer talks, guiding customers to a product – rather than giving them in-store directions, and providing a service free of charge can be small, yet meaningful ways to improve customer relations and succeed in a customer service job.