Customer service representative

Photo by Maria Lindsey

Qualities of a Good Customer Service Representative

Customers have more choices than ever before, so they are more likely to take their business elsewhere if they have a bad experience with a company's customer service.

That's why it's so important to have good customer service representatives. These are the people who interact with customers on a daily basis and help them resolve any issues they may have. A good customer service representative can make or break a company's reputation.

So what are the qualities of a good customer service representative? Here are a few of the most important ones:

• Empathy: A good customer service representative should be able to put themselves in the customer's shoes and understand their frustration. They should be able to listen to the customer's concerns and offer solutions that meet their needs.
• Patience: Customer service representatives often have to deal with difficult customers. They need to be patient and understanding, even when the customer is being rude or unreasonable.
• Problem-solving skills: A good customer service representative should be able to quickly identify and resolve customer issues. They should be able to think on their feet and come up with creative solutions.
• Communication skills: A good customer service representative should be able to communicate clearly and effectively with customers. They should be able to listen to the customer's concerns, explain the company's policies, and resolve the issue in a timely manner.
• Positive attitude: A good customer service representative should have a positive attitude and be enthusiastic about their job. They should be able to make customers feel welcome and appreciated, even when they're having a bad day.

If you're looking for a job in customer service, these are the qualities you should focus on developing. By developing these qualities, you can become a valuable asset to any company and help them provide excellent customer service.

In addition to the qualities listed above, there are a few other things that can make a good customer service representative. These include:

• Knowledge of the company's products or services: A good customer service representative should be knowledgeable about the company's products or services. This will allow them to answer customer questions accurately and quickly.
• Ability to work independently: Customer service representatives often have to work independently, without a lot of supervision. They should be able to handle multiple tasks at once and be able to think on their feet.
• Ability to work under pressure: Customer service representatives often have to deal with difficult customers and stressful situations. They should be able to stay calm under pressure and handle difficult situations effectively.

If you have these qualities, you're well on your way to becoming a great customer service representative.

Customer service software

Customer Service Software: The Key to a Better Customer Experience

Photo by Markus Spiske

In today's competitive marketplace, it's more important than ever to provide excellent customer service. And one of the best ways to do that is to invest in customer service software.

Customer service software can help you to:

• Improve customer satisfaction: By providing customers with quick and easy access to support, customer service software can help to improve customer satisfaction.
• Reduce costs: Customer service software can help you to reduce costs by automating tasks and providing self-service options for customers.
• Increase efficiency: Customer service software can help you to increase efficiency by providing a centralized platform for managing customer interactions.
• Improve employee productivity: Customer service software can help you to improve employee productivity by providing them with the tools and resources they need to do their jobs effectively.

If you're looking for a way to improve your customer service, customer service software is a great place to start. There are a number of different customer service software solutions available, so you can find one that fits your specific needs and budget.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing customer service software:

• Your budget: Customer service software can range in price from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars per year. It's important to set a budget before you start shopping so that you don't overspend.
• Your needs: Not all customer service software solutions are created equal. Make sure to choose a solution that meets your specific needs. For example, if you have a large customer base, you'll need a solution that can handle a high volume of calls and emails.
• Your goals: What do you hope to achieve with customer service software? Do you want to improve customer satisfaction, reduce costs, or increase employee productivity? Make sure to choose a solution that can help you achieve your goals.

Once you've chosen a customer service software solution, it's important to train your employees on how to use it effectively. This will help them to provide the best possible customer service.

Customer service software is a valuable tool that can help you to improve your customer service. By investing in customer service software, you can provide your customers with the quick and easy support they need, improve customer satisfaction, and reduce costs.

Customer service innovation

Customer Service Innovation: The Key to Business Success

In today's competitive marketplace, customer service is more important than ever before. Businesses that provide excellent customer service are more likely to attract and retain customers, and they are also more likely to be successful in the long run.

There are many ways to innovate in customer service. Some businesses are using new technologies to improve their customer service, such as chatbots and virtual reality. Others are focusing on creating a more personalized customer experience, such as by using data analytics to understand their customers' needs.

No matter what approach a business takes, customer service innovation is essential for business success. By providing excellent customer service, businesses can differentiate themselves from their competitors and build strong relationships with their customers.

Photo by Ivan Samkov

Here are some tips for innovating in customer service:

• Listen to your customers. The best way to innovate in customer service is to listen to your customers and understand their needs. What are their pain points? What are they looking for in a customer service experience? Once you understand your customers' needs, you can start to develop innovative solutions to meet those needs.
• Use technology to your advantage. Technology can be a powerful tool for improving customer service. Chatbots, virtual reality, and other technologies can help businesses to automate tasks, provide self-service options, and personalize the customer experience.
• Focus on personalization. In today's world, customers expect a personalized experience. They want to feel like they are dealing with a real person who understands their needs. Businesses can personalize the customer experience by using data analytics to understand their customers' preferences and by using technology to deliver a more customized experience.
• Train your employees. Your employees are the front line of your customer service operation. They need to be equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to provide excellent customer service. Make sure your employees are trained on your company's customer service policies and procedures, and that they are familiar with your products or services.
• Measure your results. It's important to measure the results of your customer service efforts so that you can see what's working and what's not. Use surveys, feedback forms, and other metrics to track your customer satisfaction levels and identify areas where you can improve.

By following these tips, you can innovate in customer service and provide your customers with an experience that they will love.

Employees who are not focused on delivering good customer service can cast a long shadow on your business

 

Understanding the impact of customer service on your business is critical

The behaviour of your employees towards your clients will leave a long lasting impact on your business. Every interaction is an opportunity to consolidate the client relationship or conversely a potentially destructive situation creating a long term impact on the perceived service integrity of the business. 

Companies must work much harder than before as customers now have an easy to deploy tool to try to make a situation right. No longer do they try to obtain an apology or a corrective action. In a way it is more convenient, more immediate and more gratifying to leave a bad review which there for all to see and which can severely impact a business. Every customer can cast a long shadow, make sure they are not tempted to do it.

The customer service horizon

Scan your customer service horizon

The long term performance of your business is really what matters. Once you have removed all seasonal effects and difficult trading periods due to economic down cycle or increased international competition, the business will perform according to your ability to understand customers needs and deliver the product or service that they expect. A key element of the service proposition is to make sure that customer service continues to deliver at all times. To avoid any disappointment, you need to be in a position where you can scan the customer service horizon and anticipate what is coming. Your ability to anticipate peak demand periods, changing trends and evolving customer behavior is key to make sure that you do not have clouds building in the horizon. These would make the piloting of your company  impossible and clearly impact even the best intended customer service.

Good customer service videos

In the world of customer service, videos are more and more commonly used.They are helpful in illustrating new concepts and can be very effective to convey approaches which should be used by all employees of a company.

We show below our video on good customer service in restaurants, showing the setting, the way the tables are laid, even the menu but what is lacking is the video is the human touch, you will have to go and try it for yourself. Please contact us if you wish to know where to find this restaurant with a good customer service.
More good customer service videos can be found on Very Good Service YouTube channel


#goodcustomerservice

Good customer service will help grow customer trust

Good customer service will help grow customer trust

Gaining customer trust, confidence and loyalty is the aim of many companies hoping for repeat purchases and growing customer lifetime value. However, with the development of technology, comparator websites, review sites and pinpoint accuracy marketing techniques, your customers are constantly solicited by the competition enticing them with special offers and the like to try their products and services.

In previous posts, we have defined customer service as: 

"Interactions with customers during and after the sale of a product or service in order to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction".   Read more about our customer service definition.

And here it is, customer satisfaction, measured against a range of metrics, is what will allow customer trust to grow over time. Any opportunity to interact with the customers, if well handled, is an extra sprinkle of water, a dose of organic fertilizer which will ensure the sound development of a strong customer relationship.

Instant customer feedback

 Instant customer feedback

Instant customer service feedback is becoming more and more common. With the emergence of IoT (Internet of Things) and the billions of connected objects, this is contributing to the production of tons of data which will be extremely helpful to companies in assessing workload, staff performance and overall quality of service against a very large number of parameters such as time, throughput, seasonality and many others. More efforts however must be put in for the customers who give feedback. Some of them will press the green button and will never want to be contacted again. Others will press red, because they waited too long for example, but nothing else can be done. A large number though will leave the service area with frustration as their problem will not have been resolved. They hit red (sometimes so hard that the button collapses as shown on the above picture) and then what?! 

It is refreshing to see that the most modern feedback station include some interaction capabilities. Not everybody will want it as it will require time investment and patience by customers to give more detailed feedback and explain their grievance but at least not all the red-faced ones will be left slamming their hands into buttons and stamping the ground without an option to put things right.

Customer service week 2015 - #CSWeek2015

Here are some of  our favourite customer service week 2015 stories, organised by #hashtags used on twitter. Do let us know if your team effort is not featured but you believe it should be.

Here is the first instalment with #CSweek2015

#TagATeller that ironed out the kinks when you needed it the most. #CSWeek2015 pic.twitter.com/h7isLMvHAV

— KCB Bank Group (@KCBGroup) October 6, 2015

Spent time shadowing Sam in the @moathomes Customer Service team #impressed #professional #CSWeek2015 #NCSW15 pic.twitter.com/b6T8oBWB77

— Marilyn DiCara (@Marilyn_DiCara) October 5, 2015

Every great business is built on friendship. ~ JC Penney. Our relationship with you matters. #IMCares #CSWeek2015 pic.twitter.com/mgCbMmSSno

— I&M Bank Ltd (@imbankke) October 5, 2015

هذا هي الطريقة المجلس الثقافي البريطاني في السعودية احتفل بأسبوع خدمة العملاء! #السعودية #customerservice #CSWeek2015 pic.twitter.com/2PB5QkKDWy

— British Council (@ksaBritish) October 11, 2015

Fishing for customers or delivering a great customer service?

Fishing for customers or delivering a good customer service?

Most of us already know the answer. Trying to catch new customers:

- is time consuming and sometimes requires extreme patience, 

- can be lonely and frustrating if you are on the road knocking on doors, 

- is not always rewarding as you often come home empty handed,

- does not necessarily bring success as you can catch the wrong type of customer,

- requires innovation as the competition comes trawling over your patch,

- often necessitate expensive baits such as promotion and discounts...

and the list goes on... So much that one wonders why there are still so many enthusiasts?

Most of us already know the alternative, provide an excellent customer service. Customers will come back, buy more, tell their friends, give you ideas for new products, do your marketing and negotiate your prices a little less. Maybe the time has come to do a little less fishing and a little more servicing.