It takes a bit of effort, but everyone can be empathetic if they really try. To practice empathy, try to feel what the customer is feeling, then think about how you can make those bad feelings go away. True, it is an important piece of the puzzle, but it’s only one skill among many that make good customer service possible. Many will argue that empathy is the most important customer service skill out there. It’s essentially putting yourself in the emotional shoes of the customer. 6) EmpathyĮmpathy is the ability to sense and understand the emotions of others. When you focus on the customer-when you’re attentive-you’ll often see a simple way that you can resolve the issue for the best. It does not mean, looking elsewhere, focusing on something else, and only hearing part of what the customer said. Attentiveness means making eye contact, listening to what the customer has to say, following the conversation, and responding appropriately. That means more than just taking the time to fix whatever is wrong. When a customer has a problem, he wants to be given the attention necessary to get the situation resolved. If an employee isn’t concerned with the success of the business, he’s not going to be concerned about the happiness of the customer. Concern for the customer goes back to being concerned for the reputation and success of the business itself. Good customer service skills include being concerned about the well-being of the customer regardless of the problem she is having. An effective way to maintain self-control during a confrontation, is to take a few deeps breaths and count to ten before responding. Let him have his say and then work to resolve the issue. Keep in mind that the customer may just want to be heard, and this is the only way he knows to make that happen. By staying calm, you allow the customer to vent his frustration without creating an antagonistic situation that could get even more heated. It’s these situations that demand strong self-control. Others, however, are going to let their emotions get the better of them and come at you with yelling and harsh words. Some customers are going to keep their voice low, stay calm, and communicate in a rational way. One way to cultivate patience is to remember that, most of the time, the customer is not upset with you personally. This helps the customer feel like they’re being heard and can go a long way toward making the situation better. An employee with good customer service skills will wait patiently and let the customer talk until they’re finished. Sometimes, they’re going to keep talking even after you got the point. They’re going to want to explain every last detail to you. Wait until they’re finished before offering a response.Ĭustomers with problems are going to want to talk.Here are some simple ways that you can show respect: Regardless of their attitude, good customer service skills dictate that you be respectful at all times. The same goes for the person who has come to you with an issue to resolve. If you had a problem, you wouldn’t want to be dismissed or ignored, would you? Of course not. The idea behind respect is that you treat others the way you would like to be treated. We’ll come at them from the perspective of problem-solving, but use them every day to make your customers happy. These skills are even great for the everyday dealings with customers that don’t involve a complaint. The Most Important Customer Service Skillsīut what exactly are “top-notch” customer service skills? We’ve created this list of the twenty most important customer service skills you need to have to make your business successful. That’s why it’s so important to cultivate top-notch customer service skills in yourself, and every single employee who works for you. You’re going to do your best to solve the problem so you don’t lose that customer, and potentially, many more. What are you as a manager or employee going to do in those instances? Dismiss the customer and move on? No, of course not. Sure, your awesome product or service may keep them happy for a while, but sooner or later, someone is going to find something wrong and will make that thing known. But those things are worth much less without the ability to make your customers happy. You might think the cornerstone of your business is a great product or an effective management team. By extension, then, success in business relies on your, and your employee’s, customer service skills. The cornerstone of every great business is customer service.
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