Customer Service Skills

You Need to Be Patient

Being patient is one of the key customer service skills that you need to have as a customer service representative, because you will have to deal with many different types of people and solve their problems the entirety day. You cannot do that unless you are a patient person.

You Need to Be Attentive

Without your 100% attention to what the other person is saying, you will not be able to solve their problem or address their concerns. A great customer service representative is always attentive to what the customer has to say, because this helps the customer service representative to be more helpful towards the customer on the line. Sometimes the customers say something with underlying meanings when communicating with you; without being attentive you will not be able to catch these underlying meanings. Consequently, you will end up giving him or her poor service.

You Need to Have Good Communication Skills

Good communication skills can be the one of the apparent customer serviec skills. If you mumble a lot or talk in hushed tones or if you have a lisp, then you need to improve on these flaws because without proper communication, more than half of your job will be ruined. You also need to know if you have difficulty with any language or if you have a difficult accent. If you are too loud, you need to address that and if you are too quiet, you also need to address that issue.

You Need to Have Problem-Solving Skills

Problem solving can be some kind of essential to be a customer service representive. If you are a customer service representative who will be working in a technical firm, then you need to familiarize yourself not only with the product details but also the jargon regarding that particular product or service. This means that if the other person is addressing a certain issue and he is using certain words that are not familiar to you, your efforts to help him or her will be in vain.

You Need to Be Positive

Being postive is listed on customer service skills. Negative language can easily turn off a customer and make him or her even angrier than he or she was before. You need to use positive language with a positive attitude so that your customer can derive some positivity from you. This can also help calm a very frustrated and angry customer. 

You Need to Have Certain Acting Skills

Acting skills is also needed in customer service, because you will always come across some people who will be deeply unimpressed by the way you are handling their issue. They will never be happy with your service and they will say a lot of things that nobody in their right minds would want to hear even on a good day. There are some situations and circumstances that are out of your control and this can wreck your experience with a customer. Under these situations, you need to be cheerful despite the fact that you are boiling.

Time Management Skills

As a customer service representative, you need to know that it is a must to manage time effectively. If you get rid of a customer too soon, they might end up thinking you are not invested in their problem; but if you take a little too long to solve the matter, the patient of the customer might already be running a little thin or run out, which will never play out in your favor. If you are having trouble managing a problem, then you can assign the particular case to someone else who knows how to handle it.

Ability to Read Customers

As a customer service representative, you need to be able to read customers in the sense that you can judge what temperament they have. It is hard enough to be able to read customers face to face, but when you are talking to one another over a telephone line, it is even harder to do so. If you are able to read the customer, then you will be one customer service representative who can personalize the customer service process, which is a great help in all kinds of situations.

Be a Calming Presence

This point cannot be stressed enough. You need to be calm and you need to make sure that your customer also remains calm because if your customer is frustrated, then you have probably failed as a customer service representative.

Capable of Handle Surprises

No matter how prepared you may be for unusual types of customers, there will always be one type of customer beyond your expectation, which can due to their attitude or their demands or anything of the sort. The thing that you need to remember is not to react in a negative way but act normal as if nothing out of the ordinary has happened so as not to offend the customer.

You Need to Be Able to Handle Surprises

Here are some other pointers that you will need to remember as a customer service representative: 

• You need to be a goal oriented person.

• You need to be a focused person.

• You need to be a persuasive person. 

• You need to be a tenacious person.

• You need to have a closing ability.

• You need to have a willingness to learn and to grow.