6 Techniques for Building Customer Rapport

The third Thurs­day of every new quar­ter we focus spe­cial time on get­ting to know our cus­tomer. In fact, this spe­cial day is named “Get to Know Your Cus­tomer Day.” For our first install­ment on this day for 2014, we thought we’d dis­cuss the art of com­mu­ni­ca­tion with our customers.

We know that as Cus­tomer Ser­vice Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, or should we say good com­mu­ni­ca­tion, is the end all and be all of our jobs. It means cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion, a new sale, a repeat sale, cross sale, and word-of-mouth adver­tis­ing for the clients we serve.

While we rely heav­ily on our scripted responses for usual inquiries and con­cerns, every call that we take from a cus­tomer is an oppor­tu­nity to build rap­port, com­mu­ni­cate more effec­tively, and impact our bot­tom line.

Have you looked at your rap­port build­ing skills lately? Here are six tips to keep it up there with the best of them:

Use the customer’s name.

A basic, first step to “per­son­al­ize” ser­vice to indi­vid­ual cus­tomers is to use their name through­out the entire call. There is a dif­fer­ence between say­ing “Hi, what can I do for you today?” and “Hi, Jodi, what can I do for you today?”  This gives the cus­tomer an instant feel­ing that she is being attended to, and that some­body is lis­ten­ing, even if she prob­a­bly knows that she may be the nth cus­tomer you han­dled that day. She will appre­ci­ate being treated like a per­son, not a ran­dom caller.

Say please and thank you.

Some things never go out of fash­ion. Basic courtesies/pleasantries in com­mu­ni­ca­tion is one of them. Cus­tomers appre­ci­ate that.

Explain your rea­son for say­ing no.

While we all want to please the cus­tomer and give them what they need, and some­times even want, we can only bend back­wards up to a point. Do not over promise. Say no if you must; but, there is a way of say­ing no with­out being offen­sive, or with­out mak­ing the cus­tomer feel that he is being rejected. Politely and clearly explain why you are say­ing no, and stand by it. You can­not flip flop with no’s, because you might be giv­ing the false idea that you are pur­posely short­chang­ing them.

Show your inter­est in the customer’s needs.

First things first: Lis­ten. I mean REALLY lis­ten. This is most impor­tant when deal­ing with an angry cus­tomer, com­plain­ing over unmet expec­ta­tions. Allow him to let it all out, while tak­ing the time to fig­ure out how you can respond when he is done. Apol­o­gize, at least for the fact that he feels the way he does. Ask ques­tions. Clar­ify his con­cerns. Cus­tomers want you to take their side, and you can build rap­port, even in a not so ideal sit­u­a­tion, by lis­ten­ing and mak­ing them feel your sincerity.

Be empa­thetic to the customer’s feelings.

Tak­ing per­spec­tive, or look­ing at some­thing from the other person’s stand­point, does a lot in build­ing rap­port between a cus­tomer and a cus­tomer ser­vice rep­re­sen­ta­tive. Address­ing a customer’s con­cern comes from under­stand­ing that con­cern. Try to put your­self in the customer’s shoes. Own his/her prob­lem. Then armed with what you know and the options avail­able, come up with the appro­pri­ate response.

Let the cus­tomer know his or her options.

The cus­tomer made that call that you’re han­dling now because he wants a solu­tion. But some­times the solu­tion that he wants may not always be pos­si­ble. If what he wants, or what he think he needs is not pos­si­ble, tell the cus­tomer what options are avail­able to him, and give advise on the best course of action. That’s being an advi­sor, and cus­tomers appre­ci­ate that.

The point of all these is build­ing rap­port with our cus­tomers. This facil­i­tates good com­mu­ni­ca­tion, which, in turn, results in a dis­tinct brand of ser­vice that cus­tomers will always seek and go back to.