How can workplace training enhance customer service skills and sales performance?
Whatever industry a company operates in, if it deals with clients, strong customer service skills are critical in ensuring customers stay loyal and a high level of customer retention is accomplished. Additionally it is vital in creating more business, since the customer service standing of an organisation is one of the major motivating factors which can help create new client opportunities.
Any staff member that comes into contact with clients should be well-equipped to deal with interactions with them. Therefore, every worker should undergo customer support training. In actuality, if all members of your team can find the training, the better. This is because every member of your team should be working to keep your clients content. Happy customers are what provide you with the ideal opportunity for growth.
Like me, you have no doubt experienced both good and woeful customer support. It’s very likely you haven’t returned to the company with bad service, whereas you might be a loyal customer of one which always delights you.
So, you want to know how to improve customer service skills? If so, these tips will help. They will help you make your customers feel like your biggest fan.
How Do You Improve Customer Service Skills?
1 Cultivate your customer base. Be an expert in product awareness. Learn your clients’ feedback on their experience with you.
2 Be an active listener. Learn how to listen to your clients, and what to say in response. Practice active listening by calling a common customer question by using a prerecorded script. Then, follow up with a more personalised answer, using your own words.
3 Utilise call shadowing. Call a prospect several times after she has indicated that she might be interested in your company. Find out how she responds when you call, what her take is of your company’s customer service tools and how effective she is at using them. Once you have identified potential weak areas, practice your call shadowing skills until they are second nature.
4 Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Identify your customer’s needs, and match your skills to theirs. For example, if you are a call center agent, you will most likely be good at understanding what customers need. However, if you are a bookkeeper, your skills may be better focused on customer service skills, such as helping customers to file income tax returns or handling other finance related issues. If you work in a retail store, your skills may be better targeted toward customer service skills, such as helping customers locate products or checking the inventory to ensure that it is correct.
5 Develop product knowledge. Asking the right questions goes a long way toward customer service. If you do not know something, ask, you may learn something that will make your job easier. For example, if you suspect that a particular product is dangerous, ask the retailer about the recall and be sure to follow up with the appropriate authorities.
6 Become an emotional intelligence expert. Emotional intelligence refers to a personal sense of how a person thinks, feels and behaves. A person with high levels of emotional intelligence is more skillful at utilising available customer service tools and can often handle any situation that comes their way. An emotional intelligence expert also has an advantage over others because he or she has developed their ability to listen effectively and find creative solutions for problems.
7 Partner with other retailers. Join or start a networking group. Attend seminars or training sessions. Participate in online forums and social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn.
8 Develop your own marketing plan. A strong marketing plan includes the development of clear goals and clear plans for action. It should also include a strategy for evaluating customer service performance. Conducting periodic evaluations of your retail operation is an excellent way of staying abreast of industry trends and best practices.
9 Develop your own in-house customer service departments. These departments should be located in areas where your retail operation is busiest. For example, it would be pointless to have an in-house customer service department in a store located in a middle-of-the-day shopping center because people are not going to be shopping during these hours.
10 Partner with other organisations. Form a committee of external consultants who are willing to share their experiences and tips with your department. They can offer a host of ways to improve your work culture, approach, and methods. They can also help identify opportunities for enhancing internal productivity, such as making sure that all employees understand the proper procedure when interacting with customers. The more informed your employees are about how to best provide customer service, the better they will do on the job.
Here is the full list of 20 ways you can improve your Customer Service Skills.
- Become a specialist in product knowledge.
- Review your clients’ feedback.
- Develop your emotional intelligence.
- Improve your technical skills
- Know your Services and Products
- Search for common ground
- Communicate clearly
- Be solutions-focused
- Admit mistakes
- Provide first-class training
- Set your standards high
- Have a clear escalation pathway
- Align your client journey touchpoints
- Be smart about automation
- Use tools that boost efficiency and speed
- Quantify and analyse customer feedback
- Use closed-loop feedback
- Be Willing to Learn
- Practice active listening.
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