{"id":925294,"date":"2019-03-01T05:36:41","date_gmt":"2019-03-01T13:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/customerthink.com\/?p=925294"},"modified":"2019-03-01T05:36:41","modified_gmt":"2019-03-01T13:36:41","slug":"6-customer-service-skills-every-employee-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/6-customer-service-skills-every-employee-needs\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Customer Service Skills Every Employee Needs"},"content":{"rendered":"
Customer service teams may perform different functions for every company, in terms of their day to day activities. Some customer service teams primarily work on phones, some on emails and chat, and some work in physical locations. But however your customer service team works, great customer service representatives share certain skills. <\/p>\n
When you know how to spot these skills, you will have a better sense of how to build a successful team<\/a>, how to manage and retrain the members who aren\u2019t working well, and when its time to begin to manage someone out of the company. Look for these skills in your customer service team. <\/p>\n There\u2019s a place for employees who are always striving to be the first one in and out the door, to maximize turnover, and to get onto the next project as soon as possible. These employees are probably not going to be your best customer service representatives unless they also have a sense of proportion. <\/p>\n Some customers call knowing exactly what they need, and a good rep can help<\/a> these people quickly. Others can take a little while to get to the point, and reps need to be able to listen and discern the problem. <\/p>\n Understanding the product being sold is crucial for a good team. Companies forget this sometimes, however, and fail to adequately train representatives. This prevents them from doing their jobs. Working from scripts can be helpful, but isn\u2019t enough to turn a decent employee into a great company advocate<\/a>. <\/p>\n Customers contact customer service when they\u2019re angry. Some customers are good at being clear that \u201cI\u2019m not mad at you, I\u2019m mad at the situation.\u201d Others will levy personal insults at the rep, curse at the rep, or generally treat them very badly. It\u2019s important that customer service representatives be able to let this behavior go and not affect them personally. <\/p>\n One way companies can help is to have limits to what reps need to tolerate. For example, if they\u2019re sworn at once, they can warn the customer, and then if the customer continues to swear, they can disconnect the call. Knowing that management has their back can help reps handle tough issues. <\/p>\n While some customers call in angry and don\u2019t want to do anything but yell, many others are calling because they\u2019re frustrated and don\u2019t know what to do. In these cases, customer service reps benefit from good conflict resolution skills. Some people have already learned these skills before they apply for their job<\/a>; others will need to be trained on conflict resolution. <\/p>\n The good news is that skill absolutely can be trained. Learning phrases like \u201cI certainly understand your frustration,\u201d \u201cI\u2019m sorry that happened, and I\u2019m going to do everything I can to fix this,\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m glad you called in with this problem, because this is definitely something we can resolve,\u201d are all phrases that can help set customers at ease and de-escalate volatile conversations. These tricks can even take angry customers who were on the verge of leaving your company for good and turning them into customers who are more committed to your product and brand than ever. <\/p>\n1. Patience<\/h2>\n
2. Product Knowledge<\/h2>\n
3. Depersonalization<\/h2>\n
4. Conflict Resolution<\/h2>\n
5. Upselling<\/h2>\n