Evaluating Your Most Recent Experience with a Customer Service Agent

How was your recent interaction with a support representative like?  How did it make you feel?

Perhaps it was the speed at which your needs were met, the availability of resources, or how easy it was to find the answers you sought. But for many who rated their customer service encounters with 5 stars, it was the “humanity” of the conversation that struck them the most.

A survey amongst cxperts clients revealed that the majority appreciated our associates’ easygoing demeanor and how genuine, lighthearted conversation helped lighten the mood while their accounts were being fixed or verified.

But what does great customer service truly mean?

Putting metrics aside, great customer service boils down to a team’s soft skills. Let’s peek into the top 20 customer service attributes clients seek when doing business.

Compassion

Empathy is concerned with your capacity to comprehend emotions, while compassion is how you show sympathy for other people’s issues. Even if you understand why a client is dissatisfied, you may believe they are exaggerating or that their problem is not one that you are compelled to assist with.

Compassionate service representatives recognize the importance of all support questions and are happy to help individuals whenever and wherever feasible, even if it means going beyond their area of assistance.

Empathy

Empathy is the ability to emotionally understand and respond to what other people feel and think. It is also the foundation of customer service. A good BPO partner must grasp not just the hows but the whys.  It is never just about fixing a customer’s problem. It is also understanding what’s essential to them.

Creativity

When diagnosing a customer’s issue, the problem is not always obvious. As is often the case, agents will need to go outside the box to develop a solution that benefits both the client and the client’s client.  The more innovative your BPO partner is at problem-solving, the simpler, easier (and quicker) it will be to satisfy the wants of your customers.

More than half of customers (54%) expect all experiences to be individualized. Being able to read specific client facts on the fly will allow you to develop tailored customer experiences and eliminate small pain spots along the customer journey.

Tenacity

When it comes to offering help by phone, email, or live chat, clients don’t often see what goes on behind the scenes. While they believe the encounter is going well, you may be frantically seeking your internal resources for an effective solution to their issue.  Even if the client has been on hold for 10 minutes, the finest service representatives maintain a calm demeanor and concentrate on what has to be done to finish the job.  This is only possible if your BPO partners provide an engaging working atmosphere for their workers. (This is why choosing a BPO partner wisely means choosing a great working environment, as well.)

Consistency

Consistent data is crucial for managing customer support teams since it demonstrates consistency. For instance, if you track individual contact center data, you’ll be able to see which agents are doing well and which are falling short of client expectations.

Furthermore, if you measure metrics like as customer satisfaction score (CSAT) and NPS, you may establish long-term objectives for representatives to strive toward throughout the year.

You’ll know which salespeople are the most effective since they regularly deliver outstanding service to your customers.

Being punctual

Customers demand quick answers, but they also recognize that service representatives are people, too. If you need additional time to tackle an issue, that’s fine. Just make sure you contact the consumer at the same moment you promised to update them.

Don’t make them wait, worry, or doubt. It’s preferable to be on time with your answer and inform the consumer that you’re still troubleshooting than to keep them in the dark.

Being Personable.

When connecting with another person, even if it is text-based, such as live chat or email, establishing some kind of personal connection is a MUST.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re an introvert or not very good at small conversation. Opening up to consumers will make them feel more at ease and increase your likability.  Sure, everyone is down to a reference number. But the more you can make the consumer feel like you’re on the same team, the more positive their experience will be.

Being Investigative

If you work in customer service, it pays to be curious. Read between the lines. Know what could possibly be happening outside recorded conversations between and among your clients and your staff. Read between the lines.  This demonstrates that you are truly interested in client success and care they they attain their objectives.

Optimistic

Optimism makes clients that their issues are solvable and that you are confident in your ability to supply the required answer. Pessimism makes clients assume that their issue is worse than it is and that the experience was unpleasant, even if you gave them the correct response.

It’s critical to use words that demonstrate your optimism. Instead of stating that a product has a problem or malfunction, state that it is “behaving unexpectedly” and that you wish to investigate its “behavior.”

This informs the consumer that you believe the product is not damaged but rather requires some minor recalibrating before it can be fixed. While it does not rule out a significant issue, it lowers doubt, giving the consumer greater confidence in your capacity to solve it.

Confidence

The team assigned to you MUST be confident in their ability to solve issues and provide effective solutions. Customers depend on them to offer accurate responses.  This is only possible with BPO partner who offers training and growth for their team members. If your agents aren’t able to give a solution confidently, trust suffers and this may prompt them to escalate to “management”.  This defeats the objective of your frontline support crew and adds unnecessary friction to the service experience.

Intuition

No two support cases are alike. Even if clients have the same problem, the circumstances surrounding it will change. One client may be in a rush and want updates as soon as they are available, whilst the other customer may be more flexible and prefers that you contact them after the matter has been fully fixed.

Adaptable

When you’re dealing with a consumer in real-time, you never know what hurdles may appear.

Say the client lost power and the call ended abruptly. The assigned agent had to immediately inform the customer via email, mobile phone, and social media to reassure them that their concerns were still being met.  This is only one of many situations in which service representatives must be adaptable and prepared to change when plans or routines go wrong.

Patience (loads of it!)

While the support representative should be a subject matter expert, this is not necessarily the case with the consumer. Customer service includes answering frequent inquiries from new users and being able to communicate solutions in various ways.

Keep in mind that the same explanation will not always make sense to every consumer, so patience is a virtue here.  Devise new methods to educate people on how to utilize your products and services.

Responsible

One guideline that cxperts customer support staff emphasizes is accepting responsibility for your support situations.

When you answer the phone or assign a support ticket to your queue, you assume responsibility for the client and their issue. As a cxperts support representative, we know we are in charge of ensuring that their experience with the company is enjoyable and unique.

As a customer, it is infuriating to be shuffled between “specialists” when all you have is one simple question. The finest support representatives take responsibility for their situations and find answers, even when the questions are beyond their area of expertise.

Attentive

Customer service can sometimes be more like a marathon than a sprint.

It rarely happens to cxperts but there can be support calls that last for hours because some customers are determined to get a solution on their first interaction with your team.  The longest recorded support call that has been used for training purposes lasted over ten hours.

If you’re going to be working with customers for this long, you must pay attention. A small detail mentioned at the beginning of a call can have a significant impact on your ability to resolve the case.

Knowledgeable

Customer service representatives should be subject matter experts in all aspects of your company’s operations. They should understand how to solve common problems and where to look if a solution is not immediately available. They should also be able to explain things in terms that are appropriate for the customer’s level of expertise.

For example, you would not want to give a highly technical explanation to someone who is just learning how to use your product. You should explain it at a fundamental level so that your advice is understandable to a new user.

Professional

When you work in customer service, you will encounter honest — sometimes overly honest — feedback from customers. Regardless of whether you agree with the assessment or not, you must maintain your professionalism and accept the feedback provided.  Our clients are a mix of BPOs, retail, trade, service, and global brands. We get feedback both from our clients and our client’s clients.   Remember that you are there to support the customer, and if they had a negative experience, you should be concerned about it. Try to figure out what you can do better next time, and keep this advice in mind as you work with other customers.

Honesty

All excellent support representatives are truthful with their customers. While telling the truth may risk upsetting a customer or admitting a flaw, honesty is an important customer service policy.

Consider this: Would you want a representative to tell you that your item has shipped (when it hasn’t) and raise your expectations for an unattainable delivery date? Even if the intention was to keep the customer happy, they would be even more frustrated once they discovered the truth.  Mistakes happen, and representatives are human. When you are honest with your customers, you establish trust. When they trust you, they are more likely to stick around.

Positive

A little positivity can go a long way. 89% of customers are more likely to make another purchase after having a good customer service experience.

Maintaining a positive attitude can be difficult at times. Especially when working with a difficult or angry customer. However, keep in mind that it is not personal — you and the customer are up against whatever problem they are experiencing.

Empowered

When your customer service representatives feel empowered to assist customers, they are more likely to enable customers to assist themselves. Empowerment, confidence, and knowledge go hand in hand. Customers feel safe when they speak with representatives who are confident in their knowledge.  When you believe you are an expert in your products and services, it is easier to provide your customers with the tools they need to become experts.

Everyone deserves great customer service but not all BPOs are equipped to provide this level of attention

While the qualities listed above are shared by the best customer service representatives (and even the highest-rated BPO partners), it is equally important for their business leaders and other departments to embody them as well.  Partner with a team that takes this interaction to heart. From the top-tier, C-level executives to the frontliners,  everyone at cxperts get it.