Companies that provide excellent customer experiences train their customer-facing employees well. Below are eight specific things that quality training and expert customer service companies are exceling at, along with tips on how you can improve in these areas as well.
Customer-facing employees at the best-rated for service companies excel by:
Bringing new perspectives and ideas. They aren’t just order takers. they help customers find the best solutions to problems or products to needs.
Tip: Do creative thinking exercises at training sessions to help reps find new ways to use the information they’ve gained and already have.
Being willing to cooperate. Most customers don’t want to be just sold a product or service. They want help in achieving a goal – whether it’s to find the perfect dress or permanently solve a recurring software issue. So they’re looking for a customized solution and a personal approach from reps to get it.
Tip: Measure quality of service and sales calls, not quantity, so reps have time to collaborate with customers.
Being confident. Customer-facing employees must believe that they, their company, products and services will do what customers need. At the best customer service providers, employee confidence is contagious.
Tip: Arm your service and sales reps with information on standards your company meets and exceeds, how your products or services are developed, the positive things loyal customers say, industry awards and recognition – everything to build their confidence and spread the word to customers.
Listening intently to customers. The best service providers listen a lot more than they talk. Customers always feel like they’re heard out by a person who is doing more than waiting for his or her turn to speak.
Tip: Practice listening skill exercises in training so reps are constantly reminded it’s the most important skill they can use.
Understanding all customer needs. They hear the question or issue and they figure out the solution that will fix all the issues wrapped in the one thing that was presented to them. They connect the dots to the next question or the underlying issue.
Tip: Create a “cheat sheet” for the next possible question. So reps learn that when customers ask X, they’ll likely need the answer to Y also – and they should just give it.
Helping customers avoid issues. The best tell customers about potential pitfalls to the buying decisions they must make, and they notify them immediately if there’s an internal issue that will affect them – plus the fixes that are in the making. Then customers can minimize any risk.
Tip: Be honest. Always share details on the drawbacks of certain products or services. And when internal issues occur, use several channels – phone, email, text, social media – to be the first to notify customers of it and what’s being done to correct it.
Explaining the process. Customers don’t want surprises and the best companies don’t deliver them. Instead, they explain in simple terms what’s involved in purchases, agreements, warranties, returns, upkeep, etc.
Tip: Use the same language customers use on your website, in personal dealings, in written contracts, etc.
Connecting personally with customers. Customers have relationships with people, not companies. Customer-facing people must have outgoing personalities and genuine interest in helping others.
Tip: Give reps time to build rapport and maintain relationships with customers with small talk before business.
Capture the Customer Experience with Speech Analytics Technology
If you’re looking for a solution that will enable you to start listening to the conversations that your customer-facing employees are having with your customers, then consider speech analytics. Contact us for a free online demonstration of our affordable, cloud-based technology that will help you capture the voice of your agents and customers, and provide the knowledge you need to improve workforce training programs and performance measurement goals.
Source: “10 things every customer wants,” by Geoffrey James, www.inc.com
