Confidence: The key to good customer service
Good customer service is pivotal to every company’s success, as it’s the best way of gaining trust and turning people into regular customers who are loyal to your brand.
Having confidence with customers is the key to great service, as it shows the employees have a true understanding of the business and consumer needs.
When they can answer queries in a knowledgeable manner, displaying an attitude that shows their respect for customers, this will have a positive impact on the business’s reputation.
Every employer knows great skills for customer service aren’t achieved overnight. You must grow your team’s confidence to ensure they represent your company in the best possible way. The most effective way of doing this is to organise comprehensive employee training sessions to provide them with the tools of their trade.
Benefits of training an employee
You only need to check out the statistics to realise how important it is to train an employee in the art of customer service.
Studies show 73% of consumers have switched to a rival brand if they’ve had bad customer service experiences. Three-quarters of them say a poor interaction has actually “ruined their day”. Just over half of the people surveyed said they had been left feeling “exhausted and stressed” after dealing with some company’s customer service advisors.
It’s obvious that having a customer services team who can’t resolve concerns adequately is a surefire way of losing custom. So, surely inspiring confidence in employees is the best way of ensuring they will leave customers feeling happy and satisfied following every interaction.
This means providing them with the knowledge to understand the business inside-out and convey this to customers.
Provide the proper training
Customer service advisors need to possess a thorough understanding of the business’s products or services. This requires dedicated training sessions, rather than an informal meeting at the office, so many companies utilise training rooms hire to avoid interruptions. If you’re based in or around the capital, book a meeting room in London for the optimum environment for your training sessions.
A popular method of corporate training today is to use role play, which means asking trainees to take on the role of a customer service advisor and a disgruntled customer. See how they handle the queries and then use this observation to advise them of the best method of leaving the customer feeling happy and satisfied.
Prepare the team for every scenario by reading back real conversations. Then review the mistakes and create a script for multiple common interactions.
Employees need to learn about the technology used to speak to customers such as email, online chat or phone, ensuring they are proficient with each medium.
One of the biggest complaints from customers is being left hanging on because the advisor either doesn’t have the necessary information to hand, or the technology has gone awry. In fact, 60% of people say they won’t be left on hold any longer than one minute while on a call and will simply hang up and take their custom elsewhere. This is why it’s important to get it right.
Once the trainees have a thorough understanding of the product and they’re also familiar with how to handle customer queries, this will give them greater confidence to use their skills in real-life situations.
Offering praise
Once your team has completed the relevant training, arming them with the skills needed to provide good customer services, don’t try to micromanage them. Nothing destroys new-found confidence faster than the feeling they’re being monitored because they’re not trusted.
Also, give praise where it’s due, as making a habit of recognising good work will further boost confidence and motivate your team to do even better.
