The assistance, help, and guidance provided to customers or clients is referred to as Customer Service. Proposals, recommendations, and suggestions are also named customer service. In today’s global economy, providing great support to customers is really the building block for a business. Customers have hundreds of options to choose from, and the one thing that matters is how they get treated by the company.
Today customer service is not limited to physical dealing or phone answering. In this internet era, live chat and email support are very popular too. Instead of calling, internet users prefer to get info from live chat agents on the website.
Excellence in delivering customer service applies to any business, B2B or B2C. For businesses dealing with clients directly, the Account Manager or Business Development Manager usually plays a key role in maintaining client relationship. In B2C businesses, usually, the Customer Service team including call center (phone answering, email handling and live chat support, etc.), store receptionist or cashier and company dealers play a vital role in delivering support to customers.
Source: Clever Daisies
Since customer service today plays a vital role in winning a customer, it is important for the persons dealing with customers to have great attitude and passion for helping, however, this is not all that takes to win a customer.
Here is a list of characteristics we feel every call center agent and client support person should have:
1. Courteous
2. Professional
3. Good Listener
4. Persuasive
5. Cheerful
6. Team Player
7. Good Learner
8. Friendly
9. Pressure Handler
10. Organized
Contents
1. Courteous:
The foremost important factor is how one interacts with customers, the expressions are far more important than actual words. This is why customer service person either on the phone, replying email or discussing in a live chat, should always be courteous. When a customer shouts over the phone or in store, the best way to handle them is to remain calm and reply politely. This gives customers an assurance that their concern is being acknowledged and they will ultimately be happy.
Source: Diligent Corporation
2. Professional:
While being courteous and joyful is important, a good call center agent should never get casual with customers. Many businesses today consider being professional as ‘robotic’ however, this is not entirely true.
Professional really means that a phone answering agent should talk with customers in good manners, keep the tone polite and be expressive to their concerns.
3. Good Listener:
A phone answering agent needs to be a very good listener and be attentive to what customers are saying. A poor listener or someone out of focus can easily upset a happy customer.
To be a good listener, an agent should remain focused while interacting with customers and make sure he/she is not multitasking.
While repeat and reinstate is important to ensure accurate information is delivered, unnecessary repetition frustrates the customer and may result in a loss for the business.
4. Persuasive:
You must have heard of the phrase ‘customer is king,’ this is very accurate since customers pay for salaries and all the expenses, however, it is equally important for a business to create balance in customer needs and expectations.
A good live / phone answering agent should be a good listener and be courteous, but at the same time, he/she needs to be persuasive and deliver business policies clearly. This also helps avoid unnecessary escalations to their manager and handle difficult situations themselves.
Also, when handling a new lead or potential customer, the agent should be confident and convince them on the products or services business delivers.
Source: careerbuilder.com
5. Cheerful:
Call center needs pleasant and active agents. The pleasant and cheerful attitude leaves a positive impression on customers.
Happy and dynamic call center team helps retain existing customers as well as win more business. Word of mouth carries great weight, and many businesses survive due to referrals from existing customers.
6. Team Player:
A call center agent should always be open to helping out colleagues as well as customers. The only legit way to survive in such a tense and competitive market is to ensure that every teammate is helpful to the whole team. While individual achievements have their own perk, we can never deny what teamwork stands for. Most if not all matters come down to this ultimately.
The best part about being a team player is that if you are really good at it, it becomes impossible for the management not to notice you, and thus more and more horizons open every given day.
7. Good Learner:
Not being able to do or understand a task is completely normal. The actual failure is quitting to try. A good customer support agent will make mistakes but will never repeat them. As per today’s rapidly changing customer service needs, the agent should be adaptive and up for quick decision making. And of course, Customer support agent should always be eager to learn and spread the knowledge as much as possible.
Source: Vivocha’s Blog
8. Friendly:
A smiling face, whether in person, on website live chat or call, encourages people to open up and share in detail whatever problems they are facing. The best call center agents are always welcoming queries and criticism with the same gesture. If a customer’s negative tone or rude behavior is able to switch one’s mood, then this might not be the job for you.
Being friendly to someone friendly requires no special skill but being friendly to someone annoyed, rude, angry or abusive is what only the best of agents can do.
9. Pressure Handler:
Diamonds are formed in result of the pressure that the Carbon endures. Same goes for the water that boils on 212 °F but remains just hot water if its 211 °F. Once the water starts to boil, it gives steam that can even run a train engine. These seemingly irrelevant examples are pushing us TO BEAT OUR OWN BEST every day. The world is not all sunshine and rainbows, it requires pressure handling and will beat anyone down to his knees if one allows it.
A customer service agent will remain calm in all situations. Nothing can make him/her panic, and by not panicking, the agent starts seeing solutions instead of problems.
10. Organized:
From the agent’s desktop to his attire, a good customer support agent will be a practical example for the beginners along being an efficient front face for the company. There are lots of things that can go wrong if the agent is not organized enough. For example, keeping a follow-up list maintained, remembering repetitive customers or queries. Being punctual and setting positive trends by showing tidiness and abiding company’s rules in good spirit.
Source: ClipDealer
Conclusion:
Having a great support team really matters for any business, and proper resources should be allocated to ensure customer-facing team is well trained.
247 Phone Answering Service has great and highly trained agents that offers 24-7 Customer Service Agents with a great attitude towards customers and offer Phone answering, Email handling and Live Chat Support to all sorts of businesses.
