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Five Most Important Customer Service Skills

Knowing how to listen is the key to customer service. Questions such as, what is a good agent for? To make or receive calls? What type of calls do you have to answer: claims, orders, breakdown management, sales…? These types of questions are not necessary, because whatever the need of the service to be covered, what distinguishes a good agent from one that is not is simple: a good commercial agent is one who knows how to listen. Listening is not the same as hearing, we can spend a long time in conversation with a client, and hang up without knowing what they needed or, in the case of sales, without knowing why they did not buy the product.

 

Hearing is a physiological, unconscious and involuntary capacity of our body that allows us to capture a series of waves and transform them: a reactive attitude. Listening is a personal, conscious and voluntary attitude, which consists of focusing attention on another person with the intention of actively participating in a communication process: interactive attitude.

With that said, here are five helpful tips for learning to listen and provide quality customer service:

  1. A good commercial agent must know that he is talking to the best salesman in his company: Only hand in hand with him can we achieve success. If we have this clear, it is already a good start. The importance of word of mouth is a fact. If a client is satisfied with our services, he will be our best commercial when he talks about us, and we never know where our next client may be hiding….
  2. Treat each call as unique. The agent must be able to “tune out” of their previous call, and treat the next one as the first call of the day.
  3. Let the client argue calmly. While we search our “toolbox” for the one we are going to use for your case, knowing that each client is different and with each one of them we must use what best suits them.
  4. Let him know that we understand his needs and that he is talking to the right person. Using non-verbal communication, our voice (intonation, articulation, locution) is firm in our argument, managing the rhythm of the call.
  5. Summarise. Mentally structure what the interlocutor is telling us, taking advantage of his pauses, keeping the most important ideas.

 

If we follow these small guidelines, we will surely be getting a little closer to our goal: Empathize with the client.

The quality of customer service is essential for the proper functioning of the company, if they are not satisfied with the treatment received, they will go to another place where they do feel valued, and given the range of possibilities offered by the current market, it is best not to risk it.

 

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