No matter how many things you do to create a tremendous customer service department or tech staffing department, the customer service staff is the one that is going to dictate how successful everything is. Hiring a wonderful team is not as simple as looking at a few resumes and then making a decision. The customer service people you hire should show some important traits. Those that are vital are presented below.
Empathy
This counts since it is basically the ability of an agent to quickly figure out the emotional state of a customer, thus leading to a better communication. If you cannot understand how the customer feels you can be sure that communication problems can lead to unwanted situations. The customer will basically not be satisfied and you do not want to see that happen.
Positivity
Customer service agents need to have a positive personality and attitude so that everything is expressed in a completely positive language. The positive agents are going to establish rapport with a customer. This will influence mood and can turn it from negative to positive. Positive language can help agents to change customer perceptions and offer a better, more positive image for the company.
Adaptability
In many cases dealing with complicated customer service issues will be difficult. Agents have to address some issues that will not be present in the training manual. An adaptable customer agent will be able to offer solutions to a situation that does not have a precedent or a really little precedent.
Attentiveness
Listening is always a really important skill for any customer service representative so as you look for new staff members you have to be sure you hire those that are attentive at a natural level, those that always pay a really close attention to what the customers say. In various cases the customer will actually face a problem that is not addressed or realized. An agent that is attentive is going to properly assess the situation in order to offer solutions that are really good and that will increase both customer satisfaction and lead towards a more positive ROI.
Properly Dealing With Pressure
Let’s say the company has to deal with a crisis and there will be many customers that will call support in a short period of time. This is when an agent that is capable of keeping cool while faced with high pressure can strive. Statistics show that close to 70 percent of the customers that contact customer support are already mad or upset. The agent needs to handle the highly upset customers in a way that makes the situation better, not worse. Working under pressure makes it much easier to deal with the upset customers.
Patience
You can only offer great customer service if you are patient. Generally, agents need the patience necessary to listen to the customer in a careful manner while also responding to the issues that appear as they come up. When faced with a situation that is difficult to deal with, like a customer that is highly upset or an issue that is unusually complex, agents have to take the necessary time to be sure problems are going to be solved.
Loyalty
The customer service agent that will show commitment to work and a company have to be praised as being more valuable than others. This is what you want to see. The turnover rate for customer service jobs is much higher than what many think at the moment. Loyalty is something that you do want to see. If the agent is loyal you will save money that would be spent on looking for new agents in the future, which is definitely not what you want to see.