If customer service is your job, and you want to succeed in it, this article is for you. Wether you have large experience or you are new at customer service, it is never late to improve your skills and be good at customer service.
How to Good at Customer Service
Learn to listen to your customers.
Only great listeners can become great at customer service. Learn how to listen actively, ask questions and summarize the answers. Show genuine interest and willingness to help.
Know your product.
Deep knowledge of your product is important. No matter if you sell used furniture or a complicated software, you must be an expert in it. If you are not able to explain customers how your product works, you will not sell it. If you are not able to understand what kind of issues your customers experience with your product, you will not be able to help them, and you may lose them. Ask yourself “Am I able to answer all possible questions about my products?” If not, start learning the answers right now!
Keep calm.
Customer service is a very stressful job if you are not able to manage your emotions. You may find some useful advice in our post “How to keep calm at work”. To be good at customer service, you should learn how to stay cool under pressure, and also how to calm down a customer (See our post “How to calm an angry customer”). Sometimes customers think that the world is falling down due to their current problem, and it is your job to stop their panic and continue with a positive and meaningful dialog.
Admit that you may need help.
When you learn how to work under pressure and how to listen to customers, and you know your products pretty well, the situation still may run out of control. When you ask someone for help, it does not mean that you show your weakness. It means that you are doing your best to help your customers. You need to know who, when and how you may ask for help, if any extraordinary situations happen. Work out a “Plan B” if there is no one to help.
Be ready to go an extra mile.
Good customer service is when you match customers’ expectations. WOW customer support is when you exceed them. If you are able to do more than your customers expect, and you do that with enthusiasm and willingness to make your customers happy, you have a great future in customer service.
