What Exactly Is Customer Service?

Customer service is a type of job and skill but is also an integral need of organizations. It is the job of the professional to keep the customer hooked and happy. Also, training and telling employees of the decorum to be kept with the customers. This ensures a good experience that the customers could have with the whole brand. Thus, it has many qualities to be taken like listening well, empathy, communication making customer relations, and the overall health of the company better. Customer relationship management should also be a part of a well-developed organization.

What Skills Are Required For It?

The prominent skills in customer service are the study of behaviors and the ability of handling them proactively. This is useful as you would know and understand old customers and gauge out new customers and their behaviors too. For example, if you are VT (Virtual Assistant) for a tech company and your customer needs help with troubleshooting and fixing the errors at home then you would need to implement a set of different skills of customer service for your customers.

Top 5 Customer Service Skills & Example

Active Listening: You listen to the needs of your customer and understand them before it arises. For example, creating platforms for your customers to contact you easily such as social media private messages on WhatsApp or having a representative on the front lines whether you sell both products and services. Another example is of Mediacom phone number helpline which provides 24/7 available customer service with ready to help representatives at all times and not the grouchy ones but greatly trained professionals who understand your needs.

Adaptability: For example helping your customers adapt to new products or services. Such is the case mostly in services like a spa service that uses a different type of oil or has a knowledge basis for customer to self-service such as “how-to” guides for better adaptions.

Attentiveness: Pay attention to detail of customers for example a customer who is not feeling well, so find them a place to sit and get them something to drink. Small actions go a long way.

Conflict resolution: Fast resolution of the issues your customer may be facing such as sensitive issues like a customer cannot seem to understand how a gadget works or the internet is down etc.

Creativity: You can use creative means to please the customer like putting goodies in the bag before checkout or a bar of chocolate for the kid in the bag.

Dependability: Make your customer feel they can depend on you such as giving them reminders of their next appointment at the dentist by the dentist management. Knowing when to schedule or reschedule if they are busy.

Effective communication: Make your customers feel good but not omnipotent that they may do as they please for example product damage and then asking for replacement while threatening.

Empathy& Friendliness: Be kind to the customer and show gratitude and respect for them coming to you.

Knowledge of your product or service: Understanding one’s products will bring a good impression and sell your product effectively. For example, a customer will go to the seller who is more knowledgeable about how a gadget works A to Z and not the other seller who knew nothing of what they are selling.

Reading cues both physical and emotional: It is vital to know your customer because they have come to you for a reason. Explore the deeper subconscious of what your customers found with you. For example, some customers may go back to the same place for food not because it has good food. It is not the main service “food” but good memories, the ambiance that made them feel just like they did, maybe on a first date or the first day they met their lovers or something like the time when someone lost their loved ones they used to visit with. If you do this, it means you value your customer and they are important to you.

Other Things To Improve Cs

One can have a knowledge base to help the customer help them self-service and resolve the issues. There will also be a lot of communication going on and a timely response will be needed. You will need to be clear and concise and explain it well so it is easy to understand and implement. You will also need to empathize and understand the customers feeling no matter how stressful the day had been and it was not the customer’s fault either.

Your attention and patience will also be required to help the customer through and this is in many cases such as at restaurants where the customer may not get the right order and not be calm about it. All situations require the customer representative to deal with it but with patience and humbleness. Lastly, it will require the knowledge of the personnel’s products or services to deal with and resolve the issue and make the customer happy.

How To Improve Cs?

• Direct feedback from customer
• Training the representatives well
• Check feedback reports & data insights from customer
• Innovations in customer service like AI learning

To Conclude

To understand customers is a talent too and to be proactive is being on top of your game. Customer service if done well can make you drown with wonders and it also can break you if a wrong word gets out, so play smart not hard.