Customer Service : 7 Essential Skills Every Contact Center Agent Needs
Your contact center agents are brand ambassadors for you. Have you ever trained your agents on essential customer service skills? Have you ever called customer support only to speak with someone who can’t seem to help you? Or, do they seem clueless of your level of frustration? The interaction not only makes you mad but it may taint the view of your company.
As a customer service representative, you are important in the fight for customer loyalty. Customers search for you when they have problems and they want the person on the other side to listen and understand their needs. Companies recognize your value: 78% of agents say their company views them as brand ambassadors. Yet, over half 55% of agents say they need better training to do their jobs.
Imagine this; what if customer service skills are the basic knowledge and ability that your loyal customers seek from you these days? Meeting their expectations is never easy but do you know what are the necessary skills every customer representative needs?
Soft Customer Service Skills
Product knowledge is important and soft skills or interpersonal skills are also equally important. These skills ensure how the agent interacts with the customer and makes them feel. For instance, were the agents respectful throughout the conversation they had with your customers?
For further improvement of customers service skills, here’s what to master:
Communication skills
Nearly 99% of customer service representatives say that communications skills are essential. How can you ensure agents in your contact centers are hitting higher levels during every interaction?
Here’s a checklist of things to do:
1. Nail the basics. Always use clear and straightforward language and be focused on the entire conversation. Don’t be distracted by notes or experience difficulty in moving from one system to another.
2. Keep every interaction positive. Most customers are angry and feel defeated by a certain issue.
Approach engagement with an open mind. Always steer the conversation toward a positive outcome. Acknowledge the customer’s concerns. Thank them for their patience, understanding and continued loyalty.
3. Lean into the power of persuasion. Persuasive communication techniques turn problems into solutions. One way to hone this skill is to conduct role-playing exercises with fellow agents. Share ideas on how to deliver a respectful point of view. Empowering persuasion can help you cross-sell and upsell customers.
Active Listening
If there’s one thing you need to know about your customers, then it is that they never like to repeat themselves. Active listening will help your agents stay present at the moment and determine the root cause of a problem.
71% of service professionals say listening is very important.
It’s time to improve your listening abilities, remember to take time and understand the customer’s issue. Focus and give them space to finish voicing their concerns and avoid cutting them off mid-sentence. Rephrase the issue in their own words and repeat it back for confirmation. Let’s do this to assure the customer that you hear them – and want to do everything you can to help.
Empathy
Demonstrating empathy is an important customer service representative skill. Put empathy into practice by applying emotions to problem-solving techniques. Use phrases like, “ I understand how you feel” while offering the customer the next steps and building long-term trust with the customer.
Adaptability
Each agent must be able to adapt to change.
62% of service professionals say adaptability is very important.
While it’s a good rule of thumb to follow contact center prompts, use them as a guide rather than as word-for-word scripts. Mostly, a conversation requires improvising based on the customer’s personality. Attentively listen to the language of the customer and see how they express themselves to interact in their way.
Let contact center managers know if you need further training on adaptability. They also keep managers in the loop if you need to escalate an issue.
Time Management
Time is essential.
Yet, 63% of agents say it’s difficult to balance speed and quality.
Set realistic goals with contact center managers upfront. Make sure you are clear on important metrics – whether that’s first call resolution or customer satisfaction scores. You will then know if it’s more important to stay on the line and resolve the issue and quickly escalate the case.
Hard Customer Service Skills
When customers know they are talking with a knowledgeable agent, they feel their issue will be solved. This builds trust and leads to loyalty. Technology can help you gain product knowledge more rapidly because it makes key information easily accessible. Tech also gives you the ability to collaborate with seasoned and knowledgeable colleagues in real-time.
For your agents to sharpen their customer service skills in a particular area, consider this important list.
Agents who want to further build their skill sets can attend the company’s training and be equipped with tools to develop good customer service skills. But to further add volume to greater and smarter customer service, the key is to adopt an Omni channel cloud contact center strategy. Yes, you read that right. An omnichannel strategy would keep you updated with the latest trends, customer data and also provide your customers with optional conversational channels to choose from.
Learn how the Accordia Omnichannel + Cloud Contact Center brings you easy interactions coupled with a comprehensive hub of Voice, Chat, Desk and Social channels so that you and your customers can pick anytime and anywhere to have a conversation. Discover Accordia Omni Cloud Contact Center today.
Source: https://www.salesforce.com/resources/articles/important-customer-service-skills-list/?sfdc-redirect=517
