The 10 Customer Service Skills Every Employee Should Have
Employees who work with customers every day need a special set of skills that allow them to deliver exceptional customer service. When it comes to hiring employees to fill customer service roles, not everybody has what it takes and hiring the wrong individuals can hurt your reputation more than you think. Poor customer service or experiences cause customers to move their business elsewhere.
If you want your company to be known for a positive experience, look for individuals with these 10 customer service skills.
1. Willingness
Customer service employees need be willing to learn, listen, research and solve problems. If an employee is not willing, he or she will never be able to make customers happy or advance with a company.
2. Patience
Not every customer conversation will be smooth sailing, making patience necessary for employees. Customers are looking for somebody to take the time to guide them, understand their struggle and help them find a solution.
3. Product Knowledge
Customers expect representatives to be knowledgeable of the product, brand and company procedures. Being connected with a customer service representative who has to look up the answer to every question or places the customer on hold to ask for help cause further aggravation.
4. Attentiveness
Being able to actively listen to customers and co-workers is essential in being a successful employee. Hiring attentive employees will also build a better team culture improving employee retention over time.
5. Empathy
The ability to understand the feelings of another individual doesn’t always come easy, especially if they haven’t had the same experiences. Empathetic employees will also be more forgiving to their peers when mistakes are made and more patient with customers.
6. Intuition
The ability to read others can help employees know what to say and when to say it. It also helps them understand whether or not the customer is satisfied with the outcome of the call or conversation.
7. Flexible
Some days will go as planned at work, and some days don’t. Every employee needs to be able to go with the flow when things change or take a turn for the worse. Being flexible results in a more positive attitude and happier employees.
8. Persuasive
Depending on their role, many employees can benefit from being persuasive and able to talk others into thinking a certain way or making a specific choice. This is especially true if they are attempting to upsell a customer on a new product or service.
9. Strong Work Ethic
The last thing any employer wants is to hire an employee and discover they are slow as molasses. Having a strong work ethic means employees not only show up for work, but they also put in the effort while there.
10. Responsive
One of the best qualities employees can have is responsiveness or the ability to deliver what they say they will, when they say they will. Employees that promise one thing and do another or simply never respond to messages are difficult to trust. If you don’t trust them, your customers won’t, either.
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