Customer service is an essential pillar of every business. Irrespective of the industry, customer service is always at the forefront of your business. The level of customer satisfaction, which is directly related to customer service, influences customer loyalty and every company’s bottom line.
As such, every company, no matter how big or small, should do its best to provide outstanding customer service for all of its users or clients. To be precise, customer service agents should strive to make customers feel taken care of and heard throughout the entire support process– from ticket creation to ticket resolution and closure.
This approach ought to apply to all communication channels, including phone support. But what exactly should customer service agents do, and what traits and skills must they have to be able to provide excellent customer service?
Customer service is about people – both clients and customer service agents. You simply can’t assign random employees with no supporting knowledge to work on the first line of customer communication. Remember that customer service teams are often considered the face of your company, so consider who will be put on the frontlines and what type of impression they’ll make.
Under no circumstance should you leave the operations of customer service teams to chance. The person or people in charge should have an open communication line and a kind of “playbook” that will help them carry out their duties.
For your convenience, we’ve created a list of traits and skills that every person working in customer service should have and constantly work on improving. Check them out below.
Agents that work with customers have to be excellent communicators. They need to know how to relate to whoever is on the other end of the phone, email, chat, or counter. They should know how to speak clearly in a way that will be understandable for different people and will help squash all doubts or negative feelings that the customer may have.
Undoubtedly, agents have to know the company they work for and the products or services they work with. They should be able to answer most questions, propose genuine and sincere solutions, and shouldn’t be caught off guard with almost any question.
Being quick and decisive is one of the most important qualities of a good customer service agent. That’s what users or customers look for. They expect to get help fast and receive simple explanations that will either solve their problems or at least shed some light on their issues and present possible solutions.
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On many occasions, customer service agents or managers will have to navigate unpleasant, tense, and complicated client interactions. That’s why they must be patient and empathetic and able to work with all clients – even if they’re furious and disrespectful.
Ideally, agents should know how to put themselves in the other person’s shoes in order to understand their point of view. Sometimes clients have unusual problems, and agents must have as much information as possible to help and understand them empathetically.
This will depend on the company, but ideally, agents should aim to know and remember the name of the person they are talking to. If your agents always call your clients by their name, they will feel confident and more connected to the company. Thanks to that, the whole communication process will be much smoother.
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Yes, it would be best if you always inform the client as to why you’re closing their ticket. Even if it’s only to say, “The issue you reported has just been resolved, so we’re closing your ticket”.
If you’re putting a ticket on pause, it’s even more important to let the customer know. Each time a ticket is put on hold, you have to communicate it to the client, explain why it’s happening, and inform them how long it will take to resolve the matter or even how long it will take to reopen the ticket. Otherwise, clients may feel forgotten or uninformed, and this kind of situation won’t provide an outstanding customer experience for them.
There’s no simple answer to this question. Your company and its agents should do their best to resolve tickets as fast as possible. People don’t like to wait, and your customers are not an exception. That’s why you shouldn’t test people’s patience by keeping their tickets on hold for too long. If you want to make sure that the service you provide is good enough, look for industry benchmarks.
This kind of data will show you how long it takes for other companies from your sector to resolve customer service tickets and how much time it takes to reopen a ticket, etc. Once you have that information, try to resolve issues faster than your competitors do.
Every person working in customer service should have and constantly improve their communication skills, problem-solving skills, and company/product knowledge.
Using Contact Groups to Answer VIP Customers Faster
The Contact groups feature in LiveAgent allows separating special customers from standard ones, such as VIP customers who need higher priority. By creating a group and adding the customer to it, a rule can be set up to trigger when a special customer opens a ticket, allowing agents to handle it faster or move it to a special department. Other articles and features of LiveAgent are also discussed.
What is a Customer Service Call Center?
Customer service call centers are essential for businesses to ensure customer satisfaction and meet their demands. They can be expensive and challenging, but cloud-based call center software can efficiently manage inbound and outbound calls, routing, monitoring, and reporting. Call center representatives must be skilled in solving problems, communicating, and have technical support experience. They must provide personalized solutions and a great user experience while being flexible and knowledgeable in multiple languages. A competent call center system and an experienced, agile team are critical for excellent customer service.
Customer portal email templates
The given text contains various email templates related to the customer portal platform. These templates include password reset, feedback, and invitation email templates. They provide instructions to customers on how to reset their password, request feedback, and access the platform. The company also emphasizes the importance of their customers' feedback in order to improve their services. Overall, the templates aim to assist customers with using the customer portal effectively.
5 ways customer service representatives are more than just employees to your business
Good customer service is crucial for a business's growth as it helps retain customers and attract new ones. Customer service representatives should be trained and equipped with the right tools to communicate effectively with customers. Utilizing communication tools like Live Chat can further improve customer service and increase sales. Investing in customer service can lead to increased customer engagement and loyalty, resulting in more revenue and positive word-of-mouth advertising. Providing personalized video content and training on customer satisfaction best practices can also improve service and sales. Choosing the right customer service software is also important for maximizing efficiency and performance.
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