“Hello! Welcome to our company, what can I do for you?” These few words of introduction, depending on how they are spoken, will either make a great first impression or a worst on the customer. Customer service is crucial if you want any business to thrive. It does not matter whether you are located online or in a store, the way you deal with customers will greatly impact your business. The only difference is for online, you’ll find yourself dealing with customers virtually, through email, or calling; as to the store where you’ll be face to face with a customer. No matter how you run your business, the same tactics for great customer service will apply!
In order to have solid customer service, you will need to acquire a few skills. Firstly, patience. There is nothing worse than talking to customers and not giving them the time and patience they deserve. There will always be the customers that are not always kind when dealing with employees. In some cases, customers may talk for a long period of time complaining or explaining their issue, which may become irritating to the employee. Now, taking the time to think about how to analyze the problem, can not only give the customer the feeling of being valued but also allows the employee to respond in a way that is beneficial to the business.
Another quality of good customer service is knowing your business. When a customer asks about a product or service that your company offers, there should not be any “I’m not sure” or clueless looks or silent air time. When talking about a big company that has multiple departments, transferring the customer to someone with the extensive knowledge will assure the customer is informed.
One of the most important skills is communication and positivity. A customer service team that shows great communication skills such as eye contact, gestures, good tone of voice and confidence, shows that you care about what the customer has and want to help. When speaking face to face, 55% of what you mean is in your body posture, 38% of what you mean is in your tone of voice and only 7% of what you mean is contained in words. Talking on the phone or in person; no matter which one it is, using different tones of voice shows you are interested in the conversation and shows value to the customer. Staying positive, even in tough situations, can relax the customer and settle them down. If you are in a situation where a customer is yelling or upset, keeping the conversation positive will help bring the issue down.
These skills come naturally to some people! Although, there is always room for improvement especially with customer service, which is why training and workshops can help boost your customer service at your company. Training sessions can help your employees learn what to do in difficult situations. As well teach/refresh them on the skills required to keep a high customer service. Workshops can set up real-life scenarios and help the employees feel and learn what it is like to be in very different situations. Investing in customer service training allows for better success in the future!
Lastly, companies can be overwhelmed by the number of customers. In these cases it usually takes more time to respond to customers, making them unhappy. Using customer service software can help dramatically organize the wave of customers. There are many software products now created to help companies manage customer service. Ticketing systems are one way that this software helps, by highlighting the key issues in an easily organized list. This helps employees and managers categorize issues and their significance for the business. These software applications can also provide calendars showing assigned tasks, and tasks needed to be completed; helping managers see who is dealing with what, and what other issues need to taken care of. Customers do not like to be kept waiting. Using ticketing software can help your employees stay on top of issues, and get to all their customers in an organized and quick manner.
Customer service is crucial from a business standpoint. Employees need to know how to engage properly and solve issues that may arise with customers. Training programs and workshops can help achieve this! Software apps are also offered that can assist the company with staying on top of issues, with an organized and less chaotic way. Treating your customers like gold will help keep your existing customers, but also bring in new ones. If a customer is satisfied with the way they were treated, they will talk about it and spread the word. Although, it can go the other way too as well. Let the word get around positively…and that can be done with the help of the assets mentioned throughout this article!