Of the many qualities a customer service agent needs to be at the top of their game, two of the most important are passion and friendliness.
Great customer service can be taught, to an extent. But there needs to be something inside of the customer service agent that makes them want to solve someone’s issue. Don’t find someone just searching for a job; find someone who wants a career in customer service. The key thing they need for delivering outstanding customer service is a passion for helping people.
A passion for service goes for hand-in-hand with friendliness and a personable attitude. When interviewing, look for candidates who smile, look you in the eye, act pleasant and confident—these are the types of people you want to put on the front line to give a positive impression of your business. If a candidate isn’t personable to you in the interview, how are they going to be helpful and nice to a stranger—especially under stress?
Your customers can hear characteristics such as passion and friendliness over the phone and even read those traits in emails. When a customer service agent sounds sincere and friendly and acts like they are truly interesting in resolving a problem (and are even willing to challenge policies in order to help you), your customers are more likely to get a “warm fuzzy†feeling that translates in loyalty. And these days, loyalty to a business is hard to find.
Customer management software is the icing on the cake.
Combining friendliness and a passion to help with customer management tools helps your CSAs to provide first-in-class service. By using a robust customer management system, agents can have a holistic view of all forms of customer information, with the ability to immediately pull up a history of incidents, their licenses, billing, maintenance agreements and a host of other information. When customers call in and get to know your agents and know that your agents know them, the relationship becomes one of a team working together to ensure customer success.
Find passionate and friendly customer service representatives, give them the tools for success, and your business will exceed expectations in the customer service world.
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