How to Manage Customer Service Keeping a Positive Attitude
Happy Customers are essential, while not always easy, it’s important to learn how to manage customer service while remaining positive.
Customer service is ranked number one when asked about what impacts the customer’s level of trust with a company.
If you think that customer service is less important now that everything is done online — you’re mistaken. (Refer to the following image.) Since customers are essential for any business, overlooking what satisfies them is quite risky. But as a matter of fact, companies are very much aware that delivering the best experience isn’t as easy as one might think.
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“If this is the case, how do you ensure the best customer service?”
Well, an everlasting positive attitude is a crucial aspect that drives customers to you.
Does it end there? Definitely not.
The ‘how to’ aspect of managing customer service and maintaining an everlasting positive attitude on the surface seems common sensical. But we all know from personal experience that dealing with others and remaining calm and or positive isn’t easy.
While automation may seem like the best way to avoid all this person to person contact, there are just some things that bots can’t do. Sometimes automated responses prompt a negative emotional response. Identifying what your customers needs are will help you determine the best way to manage customer service aspects.
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Automation is all about replicating a personal customer experience.
Do you know what? Humans, can actually create a lasting impression through a personal experience as well.
Tapping into digital solutions can truly help streamline your business. That being said, a human touch makes a lot of difference in offering the best customer service.
The Significance Of Human Touch For Better Management Of Customer Service
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Despite the wide use of technology, the actual human touch means a lot to a business, especially when it comes to handling customers. Why? Because every person is unique.
Machines are programmed in a particular way to deal with customers in a broad sense. Unfortunately, this often doesn’t answer a customers specific concern. If it doesn’t — they get mad.
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There is plenty of statistical references that signify human representative’s importance in managing customer service, for example:
- For complicated conversations, such as disputes related to payments, 40% of customers prefer talking to an actual person over the phone.
- 23% of clients lookout for face-to-face interaction for complex issues such as troubleshooting.
- 30% of clients state that not reaching an actual human is the most disappointing part of bad customer service.
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Customer Service Agents – The Right Ways To Manage Customer Service
Customer service agents are the buffer between your brand and angry customers. However huge the company is, it is these agents that directly connect with the clients. We’ve talked a lot about how important it is to manage customer service with a positive attitude, but not really how to keep that positive attitude when times get tough. Thus, here are a few aspects discussed to help the employees deal with the clients a positive way that creates a lasting impression.
Begin Your Day The Right Way
Though it may sound pretty silly, starting the day well is essential for managing a positive attitude with clients.
How?
Waking up with a fresh mind and a light heart helps you manage the day very well. On the other hand, opening your eyes and filling oneself with anxiety or tension may lead you to difficulty in facing all the upcoming events of the day.
For most of us, reaching for that first cup of coffee is the only way to start the day, but after that, try the Daily Calm App.
It truly is the little things that help set your frame of mind. 10 minutes of Daily Calm (dose as needed) can help you maintain a positive outlook.
Some other things that can help are being grounded in a healthy routine:
- Waking up early
- Taking a few minutes to enhance your physic
- Though a small bite, eat something to nourish
- Being punctual to work so you can avoid the rush but be relaxed
- Greeting your colleagues (being cheerful and helping others to cheer helps)
- Creating a to-do list for the day
- Prioritizing the listings
- And taking a few minutes to prepare yourself to address the clients.
Remember, being calm helps calm other including your customers. And thus helping you remain positive when managing customer service.
Enrich Your ‘Self Awareness’
One of the essential aspects of dealing with your clients is to know and understand them. We’re talking about the concept of ‘personalization’.
In fact, according to a study, 33% of clients withheld business relationships, the reason being lack of personalization.
A big part of being able to understand your customer starts with your own self awareness. As a customer service manager, the need to understand your customer is important. However, knowing oneself is equally essential too. As humans, it is natural to feel upset, annoyed, distracted, disturbed, and so on. And generally, the state of mind is termed as unhappy, which is not always true. Hence it is essential to ask yourself questions such as Why am I upset? What should I do? How do I handle it? What’s the reason behind me being upset? Etc.
By doing so, you get to understand yourself better and the ways to tackle the situations. Similarly, self-awareness will help you tackle the customer, too, in a way that you would like to be treated. In that case, it is evident that you would take the initiative to get to know the client even before connecting over the call to make the conversation further, more interesting. Wouldn’t you?
In addition to this, it’s not just what you would like to do, but being known well is one of the demands of the customers. Refer to the following image.
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The present market condition demands you to know the pain points of the clients that have caused the reason to reach out to you. Once you know that out of your interest instead, you can tap on their emotions directly and empathize with them using the right solution. Thus, self-awareness, as well as customer awareness, can help you in managing the client’s service seamlessly and effectively. As a result of this, the clients are not just happy but turn out to be your company’s loyal customers too.
Maintain A Positive Tone
Sometimes when we’re in the heat of an unpleasant conversation, we may not be aware of our tone. Anyone who knows me will tell you that my facial expressions give me away. Well, even when a customer can’t see your face they can sense your tone.
We’ve all been on a call where the person on the other end says something snarky or maybe even downright rude. Impatience can strike us all, but when it comes to business it is important to maintain a polite tone throughout. For many of us, this doesn’t come easy, so practice it a home with your friends.
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Even with practice, there are some clients that just rub you the wrong way. If you know you’re not going to be able to deal with a customer calmly, pass them off to another team member. Sometimes walking away is the best course of action.
Be Apologetic And Honest When Necessary
Most of the interactions that occur among the clients and customer service agents are about disputes experienced. The clients may already be unhappy with something that has pushed them to call you. It is important that, as agents, we understand this. Therefore starting the conversation with an apology will indeed go a long way.
Moreover, if it is indeed the company’s unintentional mistake, it is crucial to accept and be honest instead of dragging the conversation and trying to transfer the blame. As the Japanese saying goes, “The reputation of a 1000 years may be undermined by the conduct of one hour,” trying to cover the truth may not last long. Instead, it may damage the company’s reputation.
Therefore, accept the mistakes and convey your apology. Customers are indeed attracted to the company’s that accept and apologize and are willing to continue their business relationship. In most of the cases, customers tend to understand the reasoning when conveyed and appreciate the company’s honesty. And thus, customer service can be enhanced along with enriching the company’s reputation.
Recognize Your Joyous Moments
In customer service there are plenty of ups and downs. Unfortunately the downs seem to stick with you a lot longer. Don’t take things personal. Part of remaining positive is being able to separate yourself from the issue at hand.
FactoHR mentions that appreciation and appraisal must be a part of your work culture. Therefore, your achievement should be celebrated by yourself first. Be it solving a client’s dispute or reaching the targeted calls, take a moment to celebrate.
The more concentrated and determined you are, the more favorable your client dealings will be. It will contribute to your self morale and help you take every minute aspect of dealing with your clients seriously. And with this positivity, the interaction can be greatly transformed into a successful one achieving its motive and creating a lasting impression among the clients.
Conclusion
Knowing the importance of customer service alone leads one nowhere, but the right strategies pave the way for the overall betterment. Hence, identify those that suit well, implement them rightly, and reap the plentiful fruits and impeccable reputation among the clients.
