5 Habits of Good Customer Service Teams
Good customer service teams all have one thing in common—their habits. In the world of customer service, there are very clear rules about what you should and shouldn’t do, however it’s still hard to find good customer service these days.
The first, and most important thing, that you need to keep in mind is that your customers don’t actually want to talk to you.
I mean, they really don’t want to talk to you.
So if you’re talking to a customer, you should always be aware that you’re likely their last resort. They’re probably very frustrated because statistically, they’ve been browsing the internet looking for their own solution and can’t find one.
Good customer service teams don’t ever forget this. Good customer service teams will use this information to shape every interaction they have with their customer to make it as painless as possible.
That being said, here are 5 winning habits of highly successful customer service teams.
1. Engage, Don’t Sell
One of the fastest ways to lose a customer is to try to sell when all they want is support. Don’t make the mistake of saying, “while I have you on the phone, can I interest you in…” Just don’t do it. Your customers won’t like that – remember they’re only talking to you as a last resort and all they want is some help.
Trying to sell to your customers when they call for support can hurt your business.
In fact, you have to be really careful about this because most of your customers aren’t complainers, and you may never know by your conversation that they were unhappy. Since statistics show that 91% of unhappy customers will simply leave without saying a word, you won’t that know you’re making any mistakes until your customers are gone.
That being said, just avoid the sales pitch when you’re giving support, and you’ll prevent yourself from making this costly mistake.
2. Be Quick
One thing that makes your customers tick is slow service.
This is really true in any industry, for any service. Like standing in line for what feels like forever at Starbucks just to get a coffee. In fact, if you’re anything like me, when I see a long line at Starbucks, I just turn around and leave – that’s saying a lot, since like most people, I really need my coffee.
The same logic applies to B2B customer service. Statistics show that the most important factor in customer experience is fast response times to issues, with 52% of customers rating it as the top factor.
Remember, odds are that your customers have already spent time trying to solve the issue on their own, so you need to be quick.
3. Know Your Stuff
This should seem obvious, but as a customer, it can often feel like the customer service rep that you’re talking to doesn’t know how to address your issue.
When a customer service rep doesn’t know their stuff, they have to ‘pass it on’ to someone else. This is literally one of the biggest frustrations that a customer can experience – I’m sure you’ve all been there.
Good customer service means that customers aren’t passed around. Winning customer service teams ‘win’ because they have top tier training. Proper training is what will prevent this issue from happening. That being said, you should seriously consider investing in good customer service training for your staff, because by all accounts, it’s worth it.
4. Offer a Personalized Approach
The key to any successful business practice these days is personalization.
Good customer service teams are empowered with good technology. With the right tools in place, customer service teams can access customer profiles and information, making it much easier to provide a personalized experience for the customer.
Remember that your customer service can be limited by the tools that your reps have access to. Investing in a good CRM software will provide your team with everything they need to know about your customers in order to offer an exceptional personalized approach.
5. Stay Positive
What really makes a good customer service team is the individual makeup of each member on the team; good customer service teams are brimming with winning personalities. Not everyone has the ‘right stuff’ to be good at customer service, so you want to select the members of your team wisely.
It’s simply a habit of those who make good customer service reps to be positive. Positivity will come naturally to these people, and let’s face it, you really need to be positive in order to deal with sometimes difficult or angry customers all day long.
Winning teams are consistently positive, polite and watch their tone.
This helps them a lot because statistically, 68% of customers believe that what makes a good customer service rep is simply being polite. The bar really isn’t that high, but you have to stay positive or you won’t be able to consistently reach it.
And there you have it, 5 habits of good customer service teams.
