Four Skills to Improve Your Customer Service Ability

Posted December 16, 2016

How many times have you had a great meal or delicious cocktail, only to be put off by rude or snobbish restaurant staff?

Regardless of how great your product is or how expertly you provide a service, the one thing that often sticks in the minds of customers is the experience they have with company representatives.

In a nutshell, customer service is just as important as being efficient on the production line or expertly repairing a returned product, and customers' experiences will be based on quality of the customer service they receive.

While a decent company may have great customer relationships, a smart business will constantly be asking how good customer service is defined and how to best meet that definition. A smart business is always looking for chances to enhance its customer service.

If you're looking to improve your customer service, focusing on a few key skills can go a long way to increasing customer loyalty and retention.

Empathizing with customers

Some customers will come to you with a hostile attitude. Others will have question after question. And still other people will be overly talkative. You need to understand how to handle all of them and offer the same degree of service every time.

To help keep your customers satisfied, it's essential to understand where they are coming from. This requires being able to step into their shoes. Try spending time with individuals who are different than you and pay attention to their concerns. There are numerous chances to do this every day, from chatting with the barista at the local coffee shop to listening to the people around the water cooler air their grievances.

Clear communication

You can't help your customers if you can't communicate clearly with them. For instance, you don't want them to think they're getting 50 percent off the regular price when they're actually getting just 10 percent.

Make sure you get into the habit of letting customers complete their thoughts and not talking over them. Practice active listening and focus on comprehending everything a customer is saying before responding professionally.

Being patient

Customer service isn't always the fun part of a job. If you step into a particularly challenging customer service situation, it might be very tempting to lose your temper. However, studies have revealed being impatient not only hinders our ability to enjoy life, but it causes us to be worse at doing challenging things.

To maintain your patience, try to take mental breaks from dealing with customers when you can. Also, think about learning conflict de-escalation and meditation techniques.

Always be improving

One of the best customer service qualities is a desire to always be improving. You can always have more loyal customers. You can always boost customer referrals. Complacency is probably the worst enemy of good customer service.

If you're currently looking to take the next step in your career, please feel free to contact Ambassador Personnel today to work with a full-service staffing agency!