What Are The Most Essential Customer Service Skills?
What are the essential customer service skills needed so that employees and customer service representatives can provide excellent customer service?
There are a lot more skills a customer service representative should master than one would think, which is why training of customer facing employees is so important.
Unfortunately, many customer service employees are quite under trained as companies attempt to keep costs low.
Here’s a list taken from Perfect Phrases for Customer Service: Hundreds of Tools, Techniques, and Scripts for Handling Any Situation.
Listing of Customer Service Skills
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Above and Beyond The Call of Duty Acknowledge Customer’s Needs Acknowledging Without Encouraging Active Listening Admitting Mistakes Allowing Venting Apologize Appropriate Nonverbals Appropriate Smiles Arranging Follow-Up Assurances of Effort Assurances of Results Audience Removal Bonus Buyoff Broken Record Closing Interactions Positively Common Courtesy Completing Follow-up Contact Security/Authorities/Management Disengaging Distraction Empathy Statements Expediting Expert Recommendations Explain Reasoning or Actions Face-Saving Out Finding Agreement Points Finishing Off/Following Up Isolate/Detach Customer Leveling Managing Height Differentials/Nonverbals Managing Interpersonal Distance Not Taking the Bait Offering Choices/Empowering |
Plain Language Preemptive Strike Privacy and Confidentiality Probing Questions Pros and Cons Providing a Customer Takeaway Providing Alternatives Providing Explanations Questioning Instead of Stating Referral to Supervisor Referral to Third Party Refocus Setting Limits Some People Think That (Neutral Mode) Stop Sign-Nonverbal Suggest an Alternative to Waiting Summarize the Conversation Telephone Silence Thank-You’s Timeout Use Customer’s Name Use of Timing with Angry Customers Verbal Softeners Voice Tone-Emphatic When Question You’re Right! |
