12 Important customer service skills
1. Positivity
One of the most important customer service skills is positivity. In the customer services field, you will encounter numerous instances of dissatisfied customers. They may have had a bad customer service experience with your company’s product and also may have been waiting for a while just to talk with a representative.
It is important, therefore, to keep a 10/10 positive attitude even though they may be in a foul mood to ensure customer satisfaction and great customer service. Restoring faith in your brand to a disgruntled customer can result in continued sales and customer-loyalty that may have been lost to a competitor.
This means using positive language and pointing out positive resolutions to their dilemmas. Since it takes a lot of patience and understanding on the part of the customer service representative, it can be helpful to offer training.
A great way to train your customer service team is through using an LMS like EdApp. They have a course about creating a positive customer experience that focuses on impressing, interacting, and engaging with customers.
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2. Clear communication
Another important skill that customer service representatives need is clear communication. Many negative situations can be avoided if there were just clear communication.
Communicating well can come down to keeping things simple. That can help reduce miscommunication and negative customer-feedback, leading to customer success.
Check out the course on EdApp titled Excellent Customer Service through Communication to help your employees learn some customer service tips and refine their communication skills.
3. Empathy
An additional exceptional customer service skill needed by workers is empathy. Empathy can be defined as the ability to see the world through another’s eyes. In the customer service realm, that means being able to think like a customer and measure customer expectations.
Being empathetic means that customer service reps can relate with customers on an emotional level. Emotions can drive purchases as much as economics and being practical. Therefore, we should try to get inside the minds of our customers to understand their needs.
Empathy can be further explored in the EdApp course entitled Understanding Customer Motivations. This course can go a long way in helping your employees cater to customers by understanding their mindsets.
4. Emotional intelligence
Related to empathy is the concept of emotional intelligence. This can be considered knowing the right thing to say in the right situation. When a customer is distressed, listening to them and using your words to make the situation better can make them greatly appreciate your efforts.
5. Patience
Patience is a virtue that is especially important with customer service workers. They can often face angry customers, and it is essential that the customer service representative does not lose their temper as well.
Being patient can involve techniques like taking a deep breath or counting to ten. We can also seek training. A good course for this is EdApp’s class called Customer Service Handling Complaints.
6. Problem-solving
Customer service representatives also need to hone their problem-solving skills. When a customer has an issue, they may not fully understand what the problem is. It is important that a customer service representative gets to the bottom of the issue and go the extra mile to solve it.
Problem-solving means that the representative has a thorough understanding of how the product or service works. That can be helped by using an LMS that keeps employees up-to-date on all the latest information regarding the product or service. EdApp can do this through the use of microlearning, which gives bite-sized lessons of new content.
7. Efficiency
It is important to remember that a customer service representative also needs to work efficiently. That may seem at odds with the other skills that they must possess, such as patience and empathy. But not working efficiently can be a detriment to the company’s finances.
Being efficient means combining all the other skills in the timeliest manner possible. We can think of this as being lean, which matches with a course you can recommend to your employees called Think Lean. Like the other courses, you can find this at EdApp.
8. Persuasion
Another very useful skill is that of persuasion. Customer service workers may interact with people who are unsure of what to buy, and in that case, they may have to act as salespeople.
Being persuasive can influence potential customers or loyal customers who need additional help to buy a product or service from your company. Teaching persuasion skills can be aided with a course like EdApp’s Selling Strategies and Interacting with Customers.
9. Product knowledge
Product knowledge is similar to problem-solving and can help a customer service representative aid a potential or current customer in choosing the right item to purchase. Detailed product knowledge always gives one customer service representative an advantage over others.
The best way to keep employees on top of the latest products is through an easy-to-use LMS. An LMS like EdApp has a drag and drop authoring tool that quickly creates lessons that can be immediately distributed to employees so they can learn about new products right away.
10. Curiosity
One more essential trait for customer service workers is having the curiosity to keep learning. Employees who are stuck in a rut or who do not have any new challenges can get bored and become dissatisfied with their work.
As an employer, you can offer new challenges to your employees while also upskilling them through an LMS. EdApp offers gamified learning with real-world rewards like gift cards. Integrating this into a learning environment that acknowledges your employees’ dedication to training will lead to satisfied customer service representatives.
11. Telephone Skills
A key component of developing your customer service teams is improving telephone skills. You can direct your representatives and reinforce call protocol, procedures, and etiquette in this training topic. This will enable your staff to sound professional, deal with a variety of circumstances, and speak confidently on the phone. Teams providing customer support over the phone are better able to use their listening and communication skills to create more meaningful connections with customers.
12. Crisis Management
Since your representatives are the first point of contact with customers, especially during emergencies, crisis management is a crucial topic for customer service training. It’s critical to train your workers on how to handle unforeseen crises and potential client complaints. Your employees will be more capable of handling stressful situations and will have the knowledge necessary to reassure anxious clients if you place a strong emphasis on crisis management before any issue ever develops. Calming them and assisting in their problem-solving, also contributes to the maintenance of connections with devoted clients. Representatives risk losing clients to churn if they don’t prepare well and don’t foresee any issues. As a result, they won’t be able to adequately respond to complaints or customers.
Why Improve at Least 10 Customer Service Skills?
Customer service is an essential aspect of any business. It is this customer support, both before and after selling them a product or service, that creates an impression upon them which will guide their next purchase. That is why attention to customer service is so vital.
In this article, we will take a look at 10 of the most important service skills that should be cultivated in the employees of your company. Moreover, if you are still job hunting, mastering these skills is essential for landing a customer service job successfully. Not only will we see what these skills are, but we will also look at ways in which you can train your employees to hone these skills. In today’s world of online learning, there is no reason not to create engaging learning programs to get the most out of your employee’s ability to satisfy customers.