What Every Customer Support Representative Should Know

By Oluwashantel |

Image: Bureau of Labour Statistics

I have worked in an organization as a customer support officer and I have to say, it was fun and exhausting all at once. I had the privilege to speak to people from different walks of life, people with different temperaments and requirements and I learnt most of the points I’m about to discuss the hard way. 

 


It can be a tasking and fulfilling job if you play your cards right. Here are a few hacks that I learnt while on the job.

FIND YOUR HAPPY PLACE: This point is not going to be clear until you carefully read this paragraph, I intentionally made it the first point because as much as customer is King, your sanity is very important and in the line of this work, you meet clients that test the limits of whatever you believe in to keep you sane. This is why it is important to find your happy place, something that keeps you calm even when you’re dealing with an irate client. For some, it could be pacing for a while to keep calm, for others, it could be daydreaming about some of your best memories just so you don’t go over the edge. Whatever it is, ensure that you have a failsafe way of keeping your cool when you get overwhelmed with work or overbearing customers.

CUSTOMER IS KING: In a very bizarre way, the work of a customer service representative can be likened to that of an actor, no matter how sad, angry or even ecstatic you are, once you pick up the phone to talk to a client, you have to sound cheery and put yourself in service mode so that you can get the best from that client. This point is cliché but rings true, you would be out of a job if there were no customers to serve. Go to work every morning with the mindset that the customer is your boss and as much you would hate to annoy your boss, you should aim to please a customer as well. 

POSITIVE VIBES ONLY: I don’t know much about the psyche or psychology but I do know that energy is transferrable. For instance, we all have that one friend who brightens up the room when he or she walks in. They don’t have to tell a joke or try too hard; their mere presence is enough to make everything feel better. That’s the same way talking to a customer is, they can’t see you but they can certainly feel your excitement or irritation. Endeavor to have a positive attitude such that your call might be the highest point of the person’s day.

KEEP YOUR DICTIONARY CLOSE: Except you’re working in a town where you use their native language to communicate with clients, customer service representatives are expected to keep themselves up to date with the latest pronunciations, diction or grammar corrections. You set a standard with your communications skills and so it would advisable that you keep growing by learning the latest words especially ones that come up a lot in your line of work. Also, ask your colleagues to help you clarify any word you’re not clear about. Your client will most likely judge your organization from your interaction with them so making grammatical errors does not only reflect badly on company but on you as well.

ADEQUATE KNOWLEDGE OF THE PRODUCT: Almost every customer calling to speak with you is confused, frustrated or just plain inquisitive about your product, nothing blows as much as putting a call through to a clueless customer service representative. Master your product as much as you can, even if there’s a question you can’t answer appropriately, create phrases for such scenarios so that the client is still appeased. For instance:

Client: I would like to know how much it would cost me to migrate to a more suitable tariff; this current one no longer suits my needs.

Wrong CSR: I can’t help you with that because we currently do not have any other tariff, thank you.

Right CSR: This is one of the best tariff plans we currently have but we are working on other plans for small business owners like you, you will be notified as soon as there’s a better tariff plan but I advise that you keep using this for now.

In all, there are many ways to ensure that you are on top of your game as a customer service representative, you can learn much more online and even on the job. Feel free to comment whichever one you feel is left out and we just might make a series out of it.

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