A great customer service representative treats their customers the way they themselves want to be treated. Customers and reps are two sides of the same coin because everyone is a customer at some point. Whether it’s at the grocery store, gas pump, bank, retail store or an almost infinite number of other locations and situations, everyone is in need of customer service during their daily lives.
When you work in customer service in person, over the phone, through email or via chat, you need to extend your customers the same courtesy you expect as a customer yourself. This is occasionally a challenge when faced with difficult and/or angry customers but there are some important factors to keep in mind. Customers and reps are both humans and imperfect but they’re both deserving of respect and patience. Set up a scenario in your mind when you were the subject of or witness to poor customer service. Recall a similar situation involving an unhappy or rude customer being unkind to a customer service rep.
Ask yourself some questions when faced with improper customer service rep behavior:
Did the CSR immediately start out negative?
Was the CSRs negative behavior in response to your attitude?
Was the customer service rep verbally rude or just indifferent?
Did the rep make you wait longer than seemed necessary?
Did they make it seem like your problem wasn’t important?
Did you think the CSR accurately represented what the company they work for is about?
Now ask yourself questions about dealing with unpleasant customer behavior:
Did you think the customer’s negativity was directed personally at you?
Was the customer reflecting a negative attitude you’re projecting?
Did the customer seem distracted by other matters in their life?
Did the customer blame you for the issue they were having?
Dealing with unpleasant, unkind and rude people isn’t easy for anyone but it’s best for everyone involved if customers and reps both take the higher ground and maintain a positive attitude. Customers and reps are both faced with situations where it’s a challenge to be courteous when they’re being treated unfairly. The job of a customer service representative is to always provide excellent, efficient and courteous support to all the customers they deal with. However, it’s not a job requirement of the customer that they always use a positive attitude, though common sense and manners dictate that being nice is the right thing to do.
Members of a customer support team know how vital customers and reps are to the success of a company. As a customer service rep, your goal is to help customers in every way you know how, regardless of their behavior. You take it all in stride and know that you’ve done your part by being patient, listening and addressing all the customer’s concerns. You document everything in user-friendly customer support software from PhaseWare so that the next rep who handles the issue knows exactly what to do. A majority of customers respond positively when treated kindly, even if the beginning of the interaction started with them being angry or irritated.
Customers and reps both benefit from the use of customer support software from PhaseWare. The customer knows they’re dealing with a competent CSR because the CSR knows the exact procedure to follow for issue tracking and resolution. Customer service representatives have a unique insight into dealing with different customer relation situations. They know how they want to be treated as a customer and translate that into their daily lives and interactions with other people in the customer service field. The best customer service is always positive and efficient.