Register now or log in to join your professional community.
Customer service is not a department. It is a philosophy to be embraced by every employee – from the CEO to the most recently hired. Basically, there’s a whole set of so-called ‘soft skills’ that can enhance just about any employee’s performance, regardless of the role they’re in. They’re skills that can help any team member take ownership of the product and contribute meaningfully toward finding solutions and overcoming challenges.
thank you for the invite - I think the basic skills are basicly to be polite and attentive and secondly listen and not interrupt the cusotmer. Hoever Mories Macalinao nails it on the head.
1. Patience
If you don't see this near the top of a customer service skills list, you should just stop reading.
Not only is patience important to customers, who often reach out to support when they are confused and frustrated, but it's also important to the business at large: we've shown you before that great service beats fast service every single time.
2. Attentiveness
The ability to really listen to customers is so crucial for providing great service for a number of reasons.
Last week I went over a few customer feedback systems, and long before that I showed you the data on why listening to customer feedback is a must for many businesses who are looking to innovate.
3. Clear Communication Skills
Make sure you're getting to the problem at hand quickly; customers don't need your life story or to hear about how your day is going.
More importantly, you need to be cautious about how some of your communication habits translate to customers, and it's best to err on the side of caution whenever you find yourself questioning a situation.
4. Knowledge of the Product
The best forward-facing employees in your company will work on having a deep knowledge of how your product works.
It's not that every single team member should be able to build your product from scratch, but rather they should know the ins and outs of how your product works, just like a customer who uses it everyday would.
5. Ability to Use "Positive Language"
Sounds like fluffy nonsense, but your ability to make minor changes in your conversational patterns can truly go a long way in creating happy customers.
Language is a very important part of persuasion, and people (especially customers) create perceptions about you and your company based off of the language that you use.
6. Acting Skills
Sometimes you're going to come across people that you'll never be able to make happy.
Situations outside of your control (they had a terrible day, or they are just a natural-born complainer) will sometimes creep into your usual support routine, and you'll be greeted with those "barnacle" customers that seem to want nothing else but to pull you down.
7. Time Management Skills
Hey, despite my many research-backed rants on why you should spend more time with customers, the bottom line is that there is a limit, and you need to be concerned with getting customers what they want in an efficient manner.
8. Ability to "Read" Customers
You won't always be able to see customers face-to-face, and in many instances (nowadays) you won't even hear a customer's voice!
That doesn't exempt you from understanding some basic principles of behavioral psychology and being able to "read" the customer's current emotional state.
9. A Calming Presence
There's a lot of metaphors for this type of personality: "keeps their cool," "staying cool under pressure," etc., but it all represents the same thing: the ability that some people have to stay calm and even influence others when things get a little hectic.
. Goal Oriented Focus
This may seem like a strange thing to list as a customer service skill, but I assure you that it is vitally important.
In my article on empowering employees, I noted that many customer service experts have shown how giving employees unfettered power to "WOW" customers doesn't always generated the returns that many businesses expect to see.
That's because it leaves employees without goals, and business goals + customer happiness can work hand-in-hand without resulting in poor service.
. Ability to Handle Surprises
Sometimes the customer support world is going to throw you a curveball.
Maybe the problem you encounter isn't specifically covered in the company's guidelines, or maybe the customer isn't reacting how you thought they would.
Whatever the case, it's best to be able to think on your feet... but it's even better to create guidelines for yourself in these sorts of situations.
. Persuasion Skills
This is one a lot of people didn't see coming!
Experienced customer support personnel know that oftentimes, you will get messages in your inbox that are more about the curiosity of your company's product, rather than having problems with it.
. Tenacity
Call it what you want, but a great work ethic and a willingness to do what needs to be done (and not take shorcuts) is a key skill when providing the kind of service that people talk about.
The many memorable customer service stories out there (many of which had a huge impact on the business) were created by a single employee who refusedto just do the "status quo" when it came to helping someone out.
. Closing Ability
To be clear, this has nothing to do with "closing sales" or other related terms.
Being able to close with a customer means being able to end the conversation with confirmed satisfaction (or as close to it as you can achieve) and with the customer feeling that everything has been taken care of (or will be).
. Willingness to Learn
If you came across this article and read all the way to the bottom, you likely already have this skill (nice job!).
This is probably the most general skill on the list, but it's still necessary.
Just to name a few and I can say that some of these skills are not limited to customer service only.
1. Dedication
2. Patience
3. Well driven
4. Proactive
5. Optimistic
he should be friendly and patient,quiet,smiley and he have knowledge about his job
Thank you for the invitation and agree with your distinctive and generous
Talk and tact
Appearance and attractiveness
Knowledge
Promptitude
Humility
Honesty
There are certain customer service skills that every customer service employee must master it:
1. Patient
2. Attentiveness
3. Clear Communication Skills
4. Knowledge of the Product
5. Ability to Use "Positive Language"
6. Ability to "Read" Customers
7. Goal Oriented Focus
Team work spirit and co-operation Hard worker under stress.
Good Communication, Presentation, and Leadership skills Encouraging team work in order to achieve common goals. Self Planning and Time Management
Do you need help in adding the right keywords to your CV? Let our CV writing experts help you.
