How to Make Your Customer Service Team a Force to Be Reckoned With
The backdrop of the modern business landscape does not focus on one single component. The way you used to be, you would look at improving your customer service and then focus on another component gradually evolving your business.
These days, there is so much of the need to fix everything now, every part of your business needs to transform into a strategic asset that will set your company apart from your competitors. Customer service is one of those things that demands an abundance of soft skills, but there’s so much else every corporation needs to put in place.
So, what does it really take to ensure that you turn your customer service team into a force that will obliterate the competition but also be a force to be reckoned with that inspires and stimulates every other part of your business?
Understanding What Technology Can Really Achieve
We place a lot of our priorities on the latest and greatest technology. Suffice to say, technology is the backbone of so many businesses, but you’ve got to harness the right types of tech. Commonly, businesses use the most up-to-date tools, thinking that this is what will give them the strategic edge. Because something like customer service is so multifaceted, we have to remember that technology is only as efficient as those people who use it. A tool like a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system can ensure that you streamline interactions while also getting valuable customer data.
The goal is to provide that personalised experience, but also, there are AI-powered chatbots that can handle routine inquiries, freeing up your human agents and therefore spreading the load more evenly. The right online chat for website pages will be an invaluable asset, but we still need to learn the lesson that tools are only as effective as the person using them.
Tech can certainly enhance your customer service operation, but rather than believing the right tech is going to instantly transform your approach to the service you deliver, you still need to focus on the heart and soul of your business which is human connection.
The Importance of Soft Skills
If there is one thing that every customer service advisor needs to have, it’s soft skills. Active listening, empathy, and effective communication are all so essential to building trust and relationships.
What we must consider as a business is that if our customer service agents are not helping the customer in the right way, then we must look at cultivating more suitable individuals who can build a rapport with a customer. Part of the issue here is that because customer service representatives are in great demand, we end up getting as many people as humanly possible to fill these roles. This is partly because customer service roles are typically low-paid, but if you really want your customer team to deliver, you’ve got to give them the extra tools.
This is where extra training becomes invaluable, but you also need to give your customer service team the motivation to deliver a good service. This is why finding people who are natural relationship builders is so essential. Soft skills, particularly empathy, can be a major game-changer. If your team can genuinely connect with a customer’s needs and emotions by understanding what they’re going through, this is going to create a far more long-lasting impression.
Emotional intelligence is something that we don’t equate with customer service teams, but if you really want to deliver and get the results that may be so important to your business, especially in terms of call times, you will need to stop focusing on the numbers and help your customer service team to be better at building relationships rather than just being able to perform the job. There is a very significant difference between the two.
Where Businesses Can Go Wrong in Customer Service
The biggest problem for so many organisations is that they end up placing too much emphasis on the analytics aspects. We’ve already mentioned that call times are so important to organisations. But this means that we end up focusing on abandoning calls without necessarily solving problems. It’s that quality versus quantity debate. If you can solve a customer’s problem, even if it takes a little bit longer than the so-called average call time, that customer doesn’t need to come back to you again, and because you’ve solved their problem, they are going to be happier with the service you have delivered to them.
Anybody who’s worked in a call centre will tell you that they’ve stressed about the need to get their call times down, but this forces their hand and encourages reducing call times without necessarily solving customer problems. While many organisations listen in to calls, the reality is that those soft skills that get to the core of a problem are one component but also asking the right questions to increase efficiency is another.
What we must remember to ensure that we’re delivering great customer service is that we don’t get hung up on those so-called analytics and metrics that don’t actually define what good customer service is. Because customer service teams are right at the bottom of the pecking order, this means that employees don’t feel they necessarily have the ability to speak up or don’t have the support for it. Call centres are undoubtedly the factory line of the modern day, and this is why employee support has become so critical.
Nurturing Employee Satisfaction
There are many reasons why an employee in a call centre doesn’t have a good day. There can be one bad customer that just got to them or a lack of togetherness. A satisfied and engaged workforce will always go the extra mile for customers, and therefore, if you can figure out how to ensure your employees are more satisfied, they won’t feel like delivering great service is actually an effort. It needs to get to the point where being genuinely helpful is just a knee-jerk automatic reaction.
Employee training will be invaluable here, but we must also remember that morale is something that should bubble underneath the surface, and incorporating rewards and recognition will create a more positive work environment that ultimately fosters a sense of belonging and, more importantly, purpose. If your employees are content, this positivity will instantly filter through into their interactions with customers.
Don’t Forget Team Building
In a call centre, one person next to the other can feel incredibly isolated. You need to find ways to build that sense of togetherness despite the rigours of the role. Idea sharing between your teams is invaluable here. Allowing employees to not feel like they have to answer call after call in order to meet their quotas will create a better sense of autonomy, but it will also work wonders for their morale.
Constantly feeling like you’ve got to answer another call and then, no matter how exhausting that one is, jumping straight onto the next one, will inevitably create that never-ending cycle of negativity that over time will wear an employee down.
You’ve got to create a far more open culture where every member feels heard and appreciated, and this will translate into a more effective experience, not just for them, but for the customer.
Remembering the Importance of Tech and the Human Touch
Many employees are concerned that their jobs will disappear because AI is slowly creeping into every aspect of their existence. While technology is great at automating and streamlining customer service tasks, we have to remember that the human component is the far more important element here.
Because something like chatbots appears to be a complete solution, this will feed into a lack of morale among your team members. Instead, you need to ensure that your team doesn’t just feel content with the implementation of these two tools but also makes them realise that, actually, the work they are doing is still valued and is not going to be replaced by technology.
Technology is, after all, not human, and therefore, training your team to know when to rely on automated solutions or to dive in and resolve a problem humanly will strike the right balance and will actually make sure the customers feel that their problems are being solved properly.
Rounding Up…
If you want to transform your customer service team, you’ve got to embody a more holistic approach. Technology is one of those things that we can easily lean too much on, thinking that it will make a massive difference to our organisation when in fact technology is there to enhance an already strong human element.
This is why, if you want to create a customer service team that beats all others and exceeds customer expectations in an increasingly competitive business environment, you’ve got to find the right recipe to stimulate customer loyalty while also creating long-term success for your teams.
Customer service is a very tough skill to get right. Some people have it, and some people don’t, but we have to remember that as businesses slowly make their way into a world where automation appears to be the defining solution, you need to keep a tight hold on those human components and prioritise a holistic approach to customer care. This is what will boost your bottom line and be a far more effective business in the long run.
