Within any company, customer service is arguably one of the most important features. For a company to continually succeed, they need customer service representatives who maintain regular contact with customers, providing them with an efficient, friendly service.
Customer service agents are the face of your company
Therefore, when it comes to choosing the best team members for your support desk, you’ll want to find employees who are fantastic at solving problems, are able to understand the psychology of customers and are familiar with the latest technologies.
With that in mind, here are some of the must-have characteristics for a customer support team:
They understand customers are human beings
In the past, a lot of customer service agents would work in an environment where customer issues were quickly ticked off before being put aside. A customer would call in with a query, the ticket would be given to an appropriate agent, they’d resolve the issue (in most cases) and the ticket would be closed. Then, the process would start again.
That’s not how it works today. Now, customers demand support that’s personal. They want to be able to speak to somebody who doesn’t just address their issue but also understands the needs of their business. That’s why, when you’re hiring new employees for your help desk, you need find ones who see the value of building relationships with customers. They will get to know the customer on a holistic level, and won’t just be looking to tick them off their to-do list.
They work as part of a team
The modern customer is much more sophisticated, but most of the time, they’re really busy, too. When they call a company with an issue, it’s often because they’ve tried to resolve it themselves and weren’t able to. Therefore, by the time they’re getting in touch with your team, they’re keen to get the issue resolved as quickly and efficiently as possible.
They don’t care if it’s a new agent who’s training, or if the agent they’re speaking to doesn’t know the answer straight away. That’s why customer service reps who are the most successful are collaborators.
They aren’t afraid to ask for help because they know that in order to give the customer what they want, they need to gather all of the information their team has to find timely, in-depth solutions. By doing this, they’re also aware that they’ll be increasing their knowledge base significantly.
They are familiar with modern technology
The most successful customer service departments within a company will rely on state-of-the-art helpdesk software to do a number of things. These systems will monitor and track issues and trends by companies, customers, and products. They can be integrated with other business tools to assist with management and reporting purposes. And they’ll streamline the operations of the customer service team while enhancing their teamwork in the process.
Even though the software products available today are easy for agents to understand and use, the industry-leading ones will boast a number of sophisticated features that will require tech-savvy agents who are familiar with using these on a day-to-day basis.
They are happy to work in a multi-channel support system
What was previously deemed a “call center” is now a center that deals with a multitude of channels. Today, a customer will use whichever channel is most convenient for them, whether this is social media, live chat, email or telephone. Therefore, when you’re hiring new employees to come into your company, you’ll want to find candidates who are happy to work with all of these different communication channels.
They have an understanding of your company’s bottom line and the impact customers have on this
It’s quite easy for a customer service agent to fall into the trap of believing their job is easy – all they have to do is deal with tickets, one after another. But as a business owner, you’ll know this isn’t the case.
Every touchpoint a customer has with your company has the potential to create failure or success. A customer that is both content and satisfied is much more likely to generate more business for you. Those who aren’t satisfied will look to your competitors for the solution they need.
From having an understanding of how long it takes to resolve a ticket, to running reports to stay in tune with the latest issues and trends, the best customer service representative will be one who understands these key principles. They know that they need to proactively resolve customers’ issues, because the interaction they have with them affects the customer experience, and ultimately, the business’s bottom line.