When products, prices, and services are increasingly homogenized, differentiation often comes down to customer experience.
One customer experience survey discovered that nearly half of consumers say it’s more important than price when determining which brand to buy from.
It can also be the factor that pushes potential customers out the door.
One analysis found that 61 percent of customers will switch brands after a bad experience, making engaging and connecting with customers from the first interaction more important than ever.
In this environment, it’s unsurprising that 92 percent of companies say that soft skills are more important than hard skills when evaluating new hires.
Soft skills are also in short supply. Employers frequently struggle to find employees with the right soft skills, and many employees feel unrefined in this area.
Fortunately, soft skills are not innate. They can be taught, and businesses looking to provide the best customer experiences can equip employees with soft skills.
What Are The Critical Soft Skills in Customer Service?
Customers want to be seen and acknowledged, so soft skills start at the front door.
Employees have seconds to make a good first impression before shoppers clock a negative customer experience.
Therefore, soft skills in the customer service sector include:
- Giving customers immediate attention: Even if you’re busy, look up, smile, and say something like “I’ll be right with you. Just give me one minute, please.”
- Making eye contact and smiling: This shows the customer that you’ve noticed them and are ready to help.
- Offering a warm greeting or salutation: Warm, authentic greetings are rare today, so when they are presented authentically, they stand out and can meaningfully improve customer experience.
- Showing the customer they have your undivided attention: Clarify and validate customer concerns and offer visual cues, like head nodding and eye contact, that indicate focus and attention.
In all interactions, employees should be authentic, fully present, and engaged with the customer. People are intuitive. They can quickly pick up on whether a greeting is authentic or not.
When employees demonstrate these essential soft skills from the moment customers enter your space, they significantly impact business outcomes.
According to a Zoom study, when companies make a great first impression, 72 percent of their customers are likely to tell six or more people about their business while also making casual buyers more likely to become repeat customers.
Put differently, when companies and the employees who carry their message personify a “How can I make your world better?” or “How can I help you?” attitude, they are nurturing positive customer experiences that differentiate their brands and drive revenue growth.
Companies like Chick-fil-A have built their entire brand value on customer service, proving that excelling at soft skills can be key to solidifying brand reputation and sales outcomes.
How to Teach and Train Soft Skills
Equipping employees with soft skills is not just an academic exercise but also a cultural priority.
Start by modeling soft skills.
Leaders can’t just talk about soft skills. They need to embody these traits personally, actively modeling them in interactions with customers, team members, and other leaders.
Make soft skills training part of your company’s onboarding processes for new employees. Promoting this priority from day one underscores the centrality of soft skills in creating compelling customer experiences and the importance of employees continually developing and refining their skills in this regard.
Soft skills competencies are a journey, not a destination. All employees require regular input to refine and enhance their customer-focused soft skills. Leaders achieve this through:
- Positive reinforcement: Tell people when they are excelling at demonstrating essential soft skills.
- Constructive feedback: Offer solutions for soft skills deficiencies. Identify the opportunity to enhance their soft skills after the moment. When leaders see something done well but not excellently, there is an opportunity to teach techniques that enhance customer service.
- Continuous Learning: Provide convenient, efficient ways, such as e-learning or on-site sessions and other positive educational opportunities that refresh soft skills training and reinforce the priority throughout the organization over the long term.
Many people feel self-conscious about their soft skills development. They are sensitive to not knowing what they should know.
Teaching and training people in these core competencies raises their confidence, which in turn makes them more pleasant and welcoming. We want to have a safe learning environment where employees are at ease.
Notably, soft skills training isn’t a one-and-done solution. It’s an ongoing process that requires regular feedback and training to make it an active and rewarding part of the company’s culture and customer interactions. Talk about soft skills, unpacking customer encounters, celebrating success, and identifying solutions to customer service challenges that arise.
Leaders should make an intentional effort to provide authentic positive feedback and compliments to their colleagues and coworkers to reinforce positive behaviors and let people know their efforts are appreciated.
Who Benefits From Soft Skills?
Soft skills aren’t a secondary skill set. Increasingly, they are the differentiating skill set, especially in customer service sectors where positive people-to-people engagement is the essence of a compelling customer experience.
When brands take the initiative to teach soft skills, everyone benefits. The most tangible outcomes often include:
- Increased employee confidence
- Improved pleasantness and welcoming attitude
- Enhanced authenticity
- Improved self-awareness
- Service recovery
- Better employee recognition
- Positive impact on the bottom line
- Differentiators in the market
- Customer satisfaction
It’s a long list, underscoring the expansive impact of soft skills in the customer service sector.
Soft Skills Create Great Customer Experiences
Soft skills are the catalyst for incredible customer experiences that allow brands to attract, retain, and multiply their customer base.
By investing in soft skills training, companies can equip their employees with the tools needed to make lasting positive impressions from the front door.
Since customer experience is the place where any company can compete, it’s a priority worth pursuing with your teams today.
