Every great business must have a good customer service representative. This is the person who interacts with your clients, listens to their complaints and forwards them to the concerned parties. They are the people that bridge the gap between businesses and clients.
Therefore a good customer service rep must have good communication skills, be friendly, problem-solving and computer skills. They must be able to take in customer’s different reactions professionally.
Some customers will act crazy when disgruntled or unhappy about your company’s products or services and regardless, you should be in position to handle them professionally. Below are skills every customer service rep (CSR) should have. Get comfortable and keep reading.
Persuasive Speaking Skills
You probably know that one person in your organization that has great persuasive skill and they must be sales people. Persuasion and sales seem to be inseparable. I mean, how else will you get customers if you can’t persuade even the hardest of people to buy from you?
Persuasion is perhaps one of the best sales skills one can get because they have to turn problems into solutions. You should allow your CSR to attend business seminars and conferences, see how other sales people behave.
This way, you will be nurturing their skill. Also, let them go in the field to sell your brand and this way they can judge how they are doing in terms of confidence, being positive and engaging prospective clients leading to conversions.
One of the best ways to nurture persuasive speaking skills is to practice it often, get corrected where necessary and keep practicing some more.
Empathy
A good CSR should be in position to understand another person’s emotion and their point of view. Do you believe that almost all people will buy depending on how they are treated?
As much as some some may argue that people buy because their problem was solved or they spent little time making the purchase, they got a refund on a product or service that didn’t go well. I agree that these factors also contribute to sales, but it’s also largely dependent on how the customer feels they were treated.
Let’s agree that humans generally are emotional. Therefore, if you want to have anyone buy from you or even listen to you, be empathetic. If you were in their shoes, how would you want to be treated? Empathy should be an inborn trait but it can be also nurtured.
Attend seminars, talk to people and see how you get treated. Be intentional on how you treat prospective clients, listen to them without being judgmental and you will have them hooked.
Communication Skills
This might seem like an obvious skill that every CSR should have, but it is not. Anyone who is dealing with the public should have good communication skills. You must be in position to sell your company professionally without being needy or nagging.
Again you don’t have to be too ‘sales-y’. You should give people a reason to keep listening to you. This means you must be informed with current affairs so that in case any topic comes up, you can engage them.
Also you should be confident, use clear and simple language as opposed to jargon, be focused and don’t mumble. Every company should commit to training their customer service representatives on communication and other related skills.
You can send them for refresher courses, seminars or have them attend conferences. They will learn how experienced people in the industry communicate and also get to interact with them.
Bottom Line
Great customer service undoubtedly plays a big role in the success of a company. It is entrusted with bridging the gap between the company and clients and therefore should do that-bridge the gap.
A good CSR should have great communication skills so that prospective clients get to know what you are saying clearly. Also, they should be empathetic and persuasive.
