Customer service is a proper skill that needs to be addressed and I feel that most companies lack on the proper training for their employees. We have multiple skill sets just within this one subject because you have the basic ‘smile while talking to the customer’ seminar and that is a good start but it’s the simple basics of a tier 1 call center. You have more complex interactions that you will need to be able to handle in more advanced tiers of the support system.
- “Your word is your bond”
- Don’t make promises you can’t keep.
- Make realistic timelines / don’t makeup a bad deadline just to look good for 15 seconds.
- You might satisfy an unrealistic expectation so have something done sooner than possible but it looks bad when you have to extend the timeline because it’s not done.
- Manage your time.
- Priorities your schedule based upon any prior commitments.
- If you need extra time to work the committed task and you can get it done on time if extra time is given. Start cutting things off your schedule: Cut out unnecessary meetings, conference calls or phone time. These calls can be rescheduled or make do without you for that time.
- If you can not make a deadline, give notice to all managing parties as soon as possible. If this is a project that will get back to your manager, give your manager a heads up he may hear push back about having to extend a deadline.
- This helps management prioritize the next steps because if it is really important, they can help you clear your schedule to make the time or even assign additional resources depending how large of an issue it will create.
- If you are customer facing, you need to have ‘two hats’ on.
- Think of your company as a magic show
- You know how the magic show works and are able to investigate the secrets behind the scenes.
- The client is the audience and should not know the magic tricks. (the political / interworking of your company)
- There is a time and a place to show your deck of cards to the customer, make sure you only limit the display to the deck of cards required.
- Think of your company as a magic show
- Admit when you are wrong and don’t make stuff up just to have an answer. I have had a lot of discussions on this and some people think it’s ok to make an answer up just to have a quick answer and I find that as immoral. It is one thing to make an incorrect statement on how you thought something works in good faith but it’s completely wrong to make up something blindly. It’s ok to admit that you do not know the answer but will get the answer to the question for the customer. It’s ok to admit that you are or were wrong because you are only human and mistakes do happen. Keep an open mind, learn from mistakes and move on with the rest of life.