Customer service involves the qualities and behaviors that enable brands to address customers’ needs and promote a positive experience. In general, communication and problem-solving are key components of good customer service skills. It also includes “soft skills,” such as active listening and reading verbal and nonverbal cues, and other interpersonal skills that foster successful customer relationships.
In this article, we discuss the definition of customer service, why it is important, its types, and essential skills.
What Is Customer Service?
Customer service professionals are responsible for addressing consumer needs and ensuring they have a good experience. It also requires a variety of skills, including active listening, empathy, problem-solving, and communication. At every level, there are numerous jobs that use customer service.
The true essence of the term “customer service” is to satisfy a customer on all fronts, but these practices have changed a lot. This is because businesses are offering self-support services for customers to help themselves.
Additionally, providing quality services to its consumers is now a great way for businesses to build a competitive advantage. Note that approximately 90% of firms or businesses now compete in the market with consumer service as their stronghold. It has the utmost importance for any business.
Note that:
- Customer service is the support provided to customers before, during, and after they buy your products.
- Additionally, it is required that excellent consumer service should be proactive, and competent.
- Add relevant customer service skills to your resume by scanning keywords in job listings and weaving them into the skills and job experience sections of your resume.
What Are The 4 Keys To Quality Customer Service?
“Good customer service” refers to the quality and timeliness of the assistance provided by a business to its customers. If your job requires you to provide excellent service, it’s important to know four key aspects of good customer service. Effective and efficient service is often:
#1. Be proactive:
Instead of waiting for customers to reach out to you, it can be helpful to offer help or recommendations before they ask or contact you first if you’re aware of an issue.
#2. Personalized:
One of the components of great customer service is the ability to identify who your customers are and what they want. In order to find out what your customers need, you can ask questions, use social media, and conduct surveys to gather valuable insight.
#3. Convenient:
Give your customers several options for getting the service they need so they can reach out using their preferred channel of communication. You can communicate directly with customers via social media, chat, email, or phone, as well as in-person and over the phone.
#4. Competent:
It’s important for you to be very knowledgeable about your company and the products and services it provides so you can appropriately help your customers as issues arise.
Note that most brands and companies can offer a variety of support options, including live chat, email support, self-service like FAQs, interactive voice systems, classic phone support, social media support, web commerce support, and on-site support.
Why Is Customer Service Important?
For many businesses, people working in customer service roles or using its skills are the human face of the company. These companies depend on staff members who can engage customers in constructive conversation, fostering loyalty and a positive reputation.
Therefore, if you are in a consumer representative role, which is common in tech industries, then your success might be attributed to your ability to provide positive experiences to customers. Learning and developing the traits that make a strong customer service worker, paired with on-the-job experience, can help you advance in your role.
What Are 3 Important Qualities Of Customer Service?
#1. Active listening:
Active listening is essential for understanding customers’ feelings, wants, and needs. It also involves paying attention to the customer’s body language and tone and waiting until they’re done speaking.
For example, a customer calls to complain about a product they purchased that isn’t living up to their expectations. By listening to them, you can identify if they mean to purchase a different product, and you can help them make an exchange.
#2. Transparency:
When customers reach out for support, they do not want to wait a long time before getting attention. If your customer representative team is quite busy, let customers know how long they should expect to wait. These days, businesses make use of the callback system, which ensures customers don’t have to wait on hold.
Therefore, you should make use of an AI chatbot that tells customers how many people are ahead of them in the queue and how long they will likely wait for help.
#3. Interpersonal Skills:
When your job revolves around dealing with the public, you need to make sure you can, well, deal with the public. Interpersonal skills such as communication, positivity, flexibility, and responsibility create a winning relationship with customers. They establish trust and improve customer communication.
So when you hop on a phone call with an aggravated customer, you’re able to clearly and calmly explain how to resolve their issue. Note that humor also helps.
What Are Customer Service Job Responsibilities?
A customer service representative’s job description should include a list of key responsibilities, many of which are similar from job to job. But because each company operates a little differently, those responsibilities may be unique to customer service representative duties at your company.
For instance, if customer service representatives are required to provide a daily call log, it should be noted in the job description. If customer service representatives also communicate with other departments such as sales, marketing, and quality assurance, then they should include those responsibilities in the job description.
Some of the more common duties of customer service representatives include:
- Listen to customers’ concerns, issues, and questions.
- Resolve customer concerns and provide the best answers possible.
- Keep a positive attitude and respond calmly to customer complaints.
- Set up new customer accounts.
- Attract new customers by positively promoting the product and company.
- Recommend possible products to meet the customers’ needs.
- Refer issues and questions to managers if necessary.
- Prepare reports and reviews by gathering data collected.
What Are The 7 Qualities Of Good Customer Service?
A customer service representative must be well equipped with skills and qualities such as:
#1. Patience
Patience is a virtue and a necessary characteristic for customer service representatives. Note that a company’s customers can be of various types, and not all of them are equally educated. As a result, the representative must be patient when dealing with such clients, as frustration on their part can frustrate a customer or a potential customer.
#2. Empathy
Generally, customers contact customer support when having difficulty with a product. A customer service expert should show empathy and show that they are aware of the troubles a buyer is having. They are not only aware, but they are also determined to find a solution as soon as possible.
#3. Attentiveness
When your customers are speaking, it is critical that you pay close attention. For instance, it occurs frequently that a customer has a question but is unable to come up with the precise word or sentence to express it. However, if you pay close attention to what your customer is saying, you might be able to figure out exactly what they need.
#4. Provide Clear Communication
Customer service is all about clarity in communication. Representatives should be very careful and precise with their words. A single word can create mass confusion. For instance, “free battery change” generally means no charges for services. However, a customer may interpret it as “no charges for the battery.”
#5. Have Knowledge of the Product
Customer support agents without product expertise can be disastrous for a business. They must be familiar with their respective brands’ policies too. For instance, not all phone-producing companies provide a one-year warranty, so if you sell for those brands, you must be familiar with their policies.
#6. Possess Collaboration skills
Working with different teams or departments is frequently required to respond to a customer’s question.
So you can work with the marketing team if it manages your social media accounts and connects with the customer. Agents need to be excellent collaborators because providing good customer service is a shared responsibility.
#7. Be Well-tempered Customer Service Rep
Customers occasionally find it difficult to communicate in writing. Sometimes customers become tense out of frustration. Customer representatives should have the emotional stability to remain composed and friendly throughout any interaction, even when they believe the customer is being impolite.
How Do You Deal With An Angry Customer?
While unfortunate, encountering a rude and unhappy customer is frequently unavoidable. When a poor customer experience occurs, it is never too late to mitigate the damage, and certainly never too late to take on the lessons learned.
Therefore, a business with a growth mindset can use an angry consumer to improve its product and build a better relationship with them.
What Questions Are Asked In A Customer Service Interview?
The following interview questions are the top ones used to get the information needed by brands to hire top talent in that field.
#1. How would you define good customer service?
#2. What appeals to you about this role?
#3. What’s the best customer service you’ve ever received? Why?
#4. Can you share an experience you had with poor customer service?
#5. Is there a difference between customer service and support?
The questions above will help brands find candidates who share their underlying beliefs about the role customer service plays in an organization. Good candidates should be able to explain why consumer service matters and contributes to success.
How To Be A Good Customer?
Here are ways to be a good customer:
- Know your needs. Before leaping, make sure you know what you need!
- Do your research on the product.
- Get to know who you’re working with.
- Come prepared with your facts.
- Read the user manual first.
- Take the advice given by the customer rep.
- Keep your attitude in check.
- Be patient.
CUSTOMER ADVOCACY: Definition, What They Do, Salary, Program & Marketing
IDEAL CUSTOMER PROFILE: Example, How to Create It, Difference & B2B
CUSTOMER SERVICE REP: Meaning, What They Do, Skills & Resume
FIRST CALL RESOLUTION: Definition, Benefits, and Guide To FCR
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