Customer service roles
Discover the 10 key customer service duties: resolve issues, process orders, handle complaints & deliver exceptional experiences. Learn essential responsibiliti...
5 min read
Customer service roles
Customer service duties
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What is a Customer Representative?
The customer representative is an employee, who interacts with the company's customers on behalf of an organization. Customer representatives represent the company, its products, or its services.
What is a Customer Representative?
The customer representative is an employee who interacts with the company’s customers on behalf of an organization. Customer representatives represent the company, its products, or its services. When the customer calls, writes, or chats, they resolve their questions, queries, or complaints.
Customers can connect with representatives through phone, email, live chat, or other channels. Customer representatives receive proper training, but they also have to have some important skills (e.g., speaking, listening). They have a very important role in every company – they are the voice of the company.
What Does a Customer Service Representative Do?
Customer service representatives have a wide range of responsibilities that are essential to maintaining customer satisfaction and company reputation. Their key duties include:
- Responds to customer’s complaints - Addressing concerns and resolving issues promptly
- Provides knowledge/information - Offering detailed information about products and services
- Communicates with customers through multiple channels - Engaging via phone, email, live chat, social media, and other platforms
- Assists with cancelations, refunds or exchanges - Processing customer requests and transactions
- Answers customer’s questions - Providing clear and helpful responses to inquiries
How Can Customer Service Software Help Customer Agents?
Customer service software plays a crucial role in enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of customer representatives. Here are a few key benefits:
- Ability to handle all customer queries from one interface - Centralized communication management
- Faster response time - Streamlined workflows and quick access to information
- Organized tickets into proper departments - Efficient routing and categorization
- All customer data in one system - Comprehensive customer profiles and history
Customer service software, such as LiveAgent, combines an excellent live chat, ticketing, and automation that allow you to provide exceptional support to your customers. With LiveAgent’s omnichannel help desk software, you can handle all customer inquiries from one interface, significantly improving your team’s productivity and customer satisfaction.
How to Become a Customer Service Representative?
Essential Qualifications
There are usually no specific qualifications for a first entry customer representative. Although, having a high school diploma is a must in most companies. However, there are more important factors that play a role in the hiring process. Recruiters usually search for certain natural skills and abilities.
Important Skill Categories
Every customer service agent should have two important skill categories:
1. Soft Skills - The most important category, which includes:
- Communication skills (verbal and written)
- Empathy and emotional intelligence
- Active listening
- Problem-solving abilities
- Patience and resilience
- Ability to multitask
2. Technical Skills - The company can teach you the technical side of the product/services. However, they cannot teach you soft skills. Every customer and situation is unique, so understanding the customer or the situation needs to be intuitive.
Training Process
The technical side of the job will be taught through training, which usually involves:
- Knowledge about products and services
- Company policies and procedures
- Internal programs and systems
- Customer service best practices
Training can last for a few weeks, although in some companies it can take up to a few months. The important aspect of the training is shadowing - listening and learning from senior customer agents is a beneficial tactic at the beginning.
On-the-Job Learning
The job usually starts in the middle of the training, so you learn on the go. The company usually tries to give you the ’easy" customers first. However, there is no way to predict what customer a new employee is going to get. But no worries, you have supervisors around you helping you at every step.
After the training, you can seek help from a senior customer representative or a manager. After finishing the training, the learning part is not over. You learn on the go. There are always all kinds of unique situations. Yet, even after a while you still might receive extra training on products or new procedures. There is always room for improvement.
Key Takeaways
Customer representatives are the backbone of any customer service operation. They serve as the direct link between a company and its customers, making their role critical to business success. By developing strong soft skills, receiving comprehensive training, and utilizing modern customer service software like LiveAgent, representatives can provide exceptional support that builds customer loyalty and drives business growth.
The combination of human empathy and advanced technology creates the perfect environment for delivering outstanding customer experiences that keep customers satisfied and coming back.
