6 Top Tips To Take Customer Service To Another Level

However, without satisfied employees, satisfied customers can’t exist. Here are six tips to take your customer service to another level with friendly employees. 

 

(Source: Pixabay)

There are a number of key skills that customer facing employees need to have. No amount of customer relationship management software can replace these fundamental qualities that your employees need to possess if they’re going to provide great customer service. Strengthening patience, communication and adaptability in your employees will give them the skills to approach every customer interaction with a positive attitude and provide a great customer experience.

 

These skills don’t develop in a vacuum. Making sure you offer your employees the space and support to practice patience and compassion is an essential part of customer service. Building a culture where these skills are valued as highly as any other performance target is key to providing great customer service.

 

Depending on your business model, it’s likely that there are multiple ways customers can interact with your business. Ensuring a frictionless interaction at each of these moments is key to providing good customer service, and ensuring that each of these interactions is supported by your employees friendliness is essential.

 

Whether it’s sales, complaints or other customer support roles, often these touchpoints will have many conflicting demands. Ensure that technology is in place to allow your employees to have interactions with customers without additional challenges arising.

 

 

If your employees are empowered in the roles they’re in, customer service will have an upswing as employee satisfaction soars. Empowering your employees to problem-solve on their own, rather than restoring to a hierarchical chain at every opportunity, is one considerable measure your business can take.

 

“Whilst it’s necessary for every business to have rules and procedures in place, ensuring that these are flexible can encourage employees to provide bespoke solutions to customer demands,” says Catherine J. Rood, a writer at Last Minute Writing and Writinity. “As well as creating satisfied customers who feel like their needs have been attended to, your employee satisfaction will be strengthened.”

 

Employees provide better customer service when they feel valued. By making sure your employees feel like they’re part of a working team they will be better motivated to fulfil their roles to the best of their ability, and when this includes customer-facing actions, one outcome will be an increase in the personability of your employees.

 

By offering training and development programs, you're showing your employees that you value them as individuals and are keen to see their skills develop. Not only does training make them better at their jobs but it also affects their mindset in a positive way. They will come to work everyday ready to provide the best possible customer service.

 

A lot of managers make the mistake of assuming they’re approachable to their team when they need to be. However, approachability isn’t a passive trait - it requires active renewal on a daily basis, so that your employees know they can reach out to you, and that you’ll check in with them if they don’t.

 

Managers that make time to talk to their employees will see a knock on effect on customer service as staff will have their worries ironed out before it impacts on customer experience. Talk to your employees.

“Naturally there will be a few employees for whom customer service is the main element of their job,” says Vera N. Lee, a HR at DraftBeyond and Researchpapersuk, “but by creating a culture where customer service comes first, and it’s on everyone’s minds, you’ll show those staff for whom customer service is a focus that they’re supported on every side.” Remind your employees that even backroom staff can contribute to a positive customer culture.

 

By orienting your business culture towards customer service, and looking after the well-being of your staff, you can improve customer satisfaction and see friendlier responses in your employees. Strengthening skills, continued training and constant communication are key. When customer satisfaction is at an all time high, profits will soar.