Forty percent of American consumers stopped doing business with a company due to poor customer service in 2020. Clearly, customer service is a major factor in ensuring that your business thrives!
But, what customer service skills do you need to make your business even better? Read on to learn about the good skills for customer service to help your business grow.
1. Patience
Customers often get frustrated, especially in retail environments. That’s why patience is one of the top customer experience principles. It’s human to run out of patience when dealing with angry or upset customers, but there are strategies you can use to manage your feelings.
Having empathy for your customers can help you be more patient. Try putting yourself in their shoes – how would you feel about the issue they’re having?
Taking deep breaths can help you work through the tension you’re feeling in the situation. Practicing mindfulness generally can be helpful as well. You may even want to sign up for a meditation class.
2. Knowing Your Business
If you don’t know the ins and outs of the products and services you provide, you can’t provide effective customer service. You won’t be able to answer questions or make recommendations to help your customers. And, being able to fully inform your customers is one of the top benefits of good customer service for them – you’re supposed to be the expert, after all!
So, sit down and try out every product that you sell. Read all about them, and learn about any competitors your customers might be familiar with. That way, you’ll know for sure how to respond when a customer asks whether to make a purchase from you or from your competitors. For industries like real estate, leveraging tools such as a real estate AI chatbot can also enhance customer interactions by providing instant responses to inquiries about listings, pricing, and market trends.
3. Flexibility
When you’re thinking about how to give good customer service, flexibility is an important thing to keep in mind. Surprises come up in customer service all the time. That’s why you need to be able to pivot when necessary. There may be a product recall that will require urgent attention, for example.
Of course, there is only so long that one person can work in a day. Improving your customer service flexibility might simply be a matter of bringing on more customer service staff members to work with you. So, consider hiring customer service agents.
4. Positivity
Customers like to get a sense of positivity from the people that they’re interacting with. Using positive language is one good way to give off an upbeat impression to customers.
This also helps to de-escalate in situations where your customers are angry and stressed out. And, always say please and thank you to your customers. Manners really do go a long way towards leaving a positive impression.
Use These Good Skills for Customer Service Today
Whether you’re trying to improve your own good skills for customer service or hiring employees who already have them, these should be on the top of your list.
Do you need more advice? Some of our other business-focused articles may be helpful to you.