Soft skills that customer service to establish better customer relationship
So, Sam was quite overwhelmed by the fact that he was hired as a customer support representative at the xyz company since he had no prior experience in customer support and had zero technical skills. This news came as a surprise to him, and he wondered if he might have managed to fool somebody during the interview.
As he continued to give it a thought, his selection seemed quite unexpected since he had no technical knowledge. However, his strongest skills were English and communication.
Now, you also must be thinking why the xyz company hired Sam.
The answer was soft skills. The company believes that its reps can learn about the product with continuous exposure; however, learning how to become an empathetic communicator is a much harder skill to master. Since Sam had a set of soft skills, he seemed a perfect fit for the customer support representative role. In this post, we’ll talk about those soft skills that customer support reps need to master to ensure a good customer relationship.
What are soft skills?
Soft skills are the set of abilities that enable someone to interact effectively and harmoniously with others. These attributes will help customer service representatives delight their customers through every conversation. These non-technical skills include empathy, understanding, active listening, positive vocabulary, and more.
Here are the top customer service soft skills:
1. Active Listening
Just imagine right after you finished telling someone about your worst experience which made you sad, and they reply to it with, “oh, sorry, can you repeat what happened?” yeah, I know, you wouldn’t be feeling like repeating it as it would have frustrated you to the core.
The same happens in customer service. Customers are no longer reaching out to you to only get a solution. They need to be heard, valued, and feel cared about. This means you have to be an excellent active listener. Pay attention to what your customer is saying, put yourself in their shoes, and feel what they’re feeling. Only then you would be able to provide them with the best solution.
2. Empathy and Understanding
Empathy and understanding are fundamental to customer service. It’s common for customers to want to feel understood and heard. However, exhibiting these skills can become challenging if you consider your customer as a ticket. These skills can be mastered only when you treat your customers as friends and feel their sadness. When you understand your customer’s needs and the roadblocks they are facing, that’s when you’ll be able to display genuine empathy.
According to research, nearly 80% of consumers want customer service to be more empathetic or responsive in a post-pandemic world. Showing customers that you understand their issue will assure them that you care about them and will more likely help them find a solution.
3. Positive Vocabulary
The tone in which you deliver your message matters a lot. If you are talking in an ‘I don’t care’ tone via call, the customers will immediately sense it and become annoyed with you since it depicts that you don’t care about their problem and see them as a mere ticket.
Using positive vocabulary can uplift your customer’s bad mood and make them more comfortable with clearly explaining their issue. It will not only help you acquire clarity of the issue but also help in laying the foundation of a trustable and understanding relationship.
4. Creative problem solving
Not everyone can come up with a creative solution for a complicated issue. Sometimes, customers come with the most challenging problems; you need to become creative and think out of the box. Customer support reps must be excellent problem solvers who can come up with clever and effective solutions to help customers dodge the most challenging hurdles with ease.
To become a creative problem solver, you need to think differently. Don’t jump to the first solution that comes to your mind. Think deeper and make a list of potential options and weigh the pros and cons. If required, share your ideas with your colleagues and take their feedback on your ideas. Listening to a new perspective can help you choose the best solution for the customer’s problem.
Wrapping Up
The nature of the customer support job is to interact with customers in a meaningful and positive way. These soft skills are personality traits and attributes that will help you succeed in your role. Even if you don’t already have soft skills for the customer service representative role, we hope this article will help you develop the right set of skills.