Customer service skills

Customer service skills

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  Customer Service Skills
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  Who is theCustomer? A customer (sometimes known as a client, buyer, or purchaser) is the recipient of a Good or a service, or a product, or an idea, obtained from a seller, vendor, or supplier via a financial transaction or exchange for money or some other valuable consideration.
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  Why Customer Serviceis Important? Customer service is important to an organization because it is often the only contact a customer has with a company. Customers are vital to an organization. Some customers spend hundreds and even thousands of dirhams per year with a company. Consequently, when they have a question or product issue, they expect a company's customer service department to resolve their issues. A company with excellent customer service is more likely to get repeat business from customers. People that have a positive experience with a company's customer service department will likely tell two or three others about their experience.
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  The Main CustomerService Skills that Every Employee Needs There are certain customer service skills that every employee must master. Without them, you run the risk of finding your business in an embarrassing customer service train-wreck, or you'll simply lose customers as your service continues to let people down. 1. Patience 2. Attentiveness 3. Clear Communication Skills 4. Knowledge of the Product 5. Ability to Use "Positive Language" 6. Time Management Skills 7. Ability to "Read" Customers 8. A Calming Presence 9. Ability to Handle Surprises 10. Tenacity 11. Closing Ability 12. Willingness to Learn
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  1) Patience If youdeal with customers, be sure to stay patient when they come to you stumped and frustrated. Also be sure to take the time to truly figure out what they want — they'd rather get competent service than be rushed out the door. Many of us struggle with impatience. But if we want healthy work relationships and a successful career, then we need to spend time making patience a habit.
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  2. Attentiveness Active listeningis a way of listening and responding to another person that improves mutual understanding. Often when people talk to each other, they don’t listen attentively. They are often distracted, half listening, half thinking about something else. The ability to really listen to customers is so crucial for providing great service for a number of reasons. Not only is it important to pay attention to individual customer interactions (watching the language/terms that they use to describe their problems), but it's also important to be mindful and attentive to the feedback that you receive at large.
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  3. Clear CommunicationSkills Communication Skills: Being able to communicate with others is one of the best life skills a person can develop. Someone who can effectively communicate thoughts, ideas, and feelings is better equipped for success both on the job and in personal relationships. Make sure you're getting to the problem at hand quickly. Customers don't need your life story or to hear about how your day is going. More importantly, you need to be cautious about how some of your communication habits translate to customers, and it's best to err on the side of caution whenever you find yourself questioning a situation. When it comes to important points that you need to relay clearly to customers, keep it simple and leave nothing to doubt.
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  4. Knowledge ofthe Product Product knowledge is an essential sales skill. Understanding your products' features allows you to present their benefits accurately and persuasively. The best forward-facing employees in your company will work on having a deep knowledge of how your product works. Customers are more likely to trust people who show confidence in themselves and what they are offering/selling. You can build this confidence by increasing your knowledge of your products or services. Without knowing your product from front-to- back, you won't know how to help customers when they run into problems.
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  5. Ability toUse "Positive Language" Sounds like fluffy nonsense, but your ability to make minor changes in your conversational patterns can truly go a long way in creating happy customers. Language is a very important part of persuasion, and people (especially customers) create perceptions about you and your company based off of the language that you use. Small changes that utilize "positive language" can greatly affect how the customer hears your response... Without positive language: "I can't get you that product until next month; it is back-ordered and unavailable at this time." With positive language: "That product will be available next month. I can place the order for you right now and make sure that it is sent to you as soon as it reaches our warehouse."
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  6. Time ManagementSkills No, it's much more likely that they are using their time more effectively and practicing good time management skills. Time management is not very difficult as a concept, but it's surprisingly hard to do in practice. It requires the investment of a little time upfront to prioritise and organise yourself. Despite many research-backed rants on why you should spend more time with customers, the bottom line is that there is a limit, and you need to be concerned with getting customers what they want in an efficient manner. The trick here is that this should also be applied when realizing when you simply cannot help a customer. If you don't know the solution to a problem, the best kind of support member will get a customer over to someone who does. Don't waste time trying to go above and beyond for a customer in an area where you will just end up wasting both of your time!
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  7. Ability to"Read" Customers You won't always be able to see customers face-to- face. That doesn't exempt you from understanding some basic principles of behavioural psychology and being able to "read" the customer's current emotional state. This is an important part of the personalization process as well, because it takes knowing your customers to create a personal experience for them. More importantly though, this skill is essential because you don't want to mis-read a customer and end up losing them due to confusion and miscommunication. Look and listen for subtle clues about their current mood, patience level, personality, etc., and you'll go far in keeping your customer interactions positive.
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  8. A CalmingPresence There's a lot of metaphors for this type of personality: "keeps their cool," "staying cool under pressure," etc., but it all represents the same thing: the ability that some people have to stay calm and even influence others when things get a little hectic. The best customer service representative know that they cannot let a heated customer force them to lose their cool. In fact it is their job to try to be the "rock" for a customer who thinks the world is falling down due to their current problem.
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  9. Ability toHandle Surprises Sometimes the customer support world is going to throw you a curveball. Maybe the problem you encounter isn't specifically covered in the company's guidelines, or maybe the customer isn't reacting how you thought they would. Whatever the case, it's best to be able to think on your feet... but it's even better to create guidelines for yourself in these sorts of situations. Let's say, for instance, you want to come up with a quick system for when you come across a customer who has a product problem you've never seen before... Who? One thing you can decide right off the bat is who you should consider your "go-to" person when you don't know what to do. The CEO might be able to help you, but you can't go to them with every single question! Define a logical chain for yourself to use, then you won't be left wondering who you should forward the problem too. What? When the problem is noticeably out of your league, what are you going to send to the people above? The full conversation, just the important parts, or maybe some highlights and an example of a similar ticket? How? When it comes time to get someone else involved, how are you going to contact them? For instance, at Help Scout we prefer to solve small dilemmas over chat, and save bigger problems for email, keeping inbox clutter down to a minimum.
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  10. Tenacity Call itwhat you want, but a great work ethic and a willingness to do what needs to be done (and not take shortcuts) is a key skill when providing the kind of service that people talk about. The many memorable customer service stories out there (many of which had a huge impact on the business) were created by a single employee who refused to just do the "status quo" when it came to helping someone out. Remembering that your customers are people too, and knowing that putting in the extra effort will come back to you ten-fold should be your driving motivation to never "cheat" your customers with lazy service.
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  11. Closing Ability Tobe clear, this has nothing to do with "closing sales" or other related terms. Being able to close with a customer means being able to end the conversation with confirmed satisfaction (or as close to it as you can achieve) and with the customer feeling that everything has been taken care of (or will be). Getting booted after a customer service call or before all of their problems have been addressed is the last thing that customers want, so be sure to take the time to confirm with customers that each and every issue they had on deck has been entirely resolved. Your willingness to do this shows the customer 3 very important things: • That you care about getting it right • You're willing to keep going until you get it right • The customer is the one who determines what "right" is.
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  12. Willingness toLearn Desire to learn is important because it allows you to improve and develop your own skills. On the other hand, a well-educated with a good background of knowledge staff is a key factor needed for the company’s success and business growth. This is probably the most "general" skill on the list, but it's still necessary. Those who don't seek to improve what they do, whether it's building products, marketing businesses, or helping customers, will get left behind by the people willing to invest in their skills. Learning is a long-life process and the knowledge that you have is never enough. There is always more to know. The desire to learn is among the best characteristics a person can possess.
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  Thank You