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6 tips for creating a strong customer service department

by | Feb 14, 2020 | Analysis, Public Relations

One of the most important departments in your business is the customer service department. Customers will not continue to do business with you if they don’t have good interactions with friendly, helpful people when they need help. If you think your customer service team could be better, here are some tips on how to create a strong customer service department.

1. Thorough training

Customers expect your customer service team to have all of the answers to their questions. You need to ensure that your employees are experts on your different products and services. Training should be extensive, and people should not go out on the floor by themselves until they are fully ready.

Training should not end after a person gets hired on. You should offer different training classes throughout their tenure with their company. They can always use a refresher class. The sessions can even be fun and involve games. If you have a new product, you should take the time to train employees on it.

2. Quality control

Set up the technology to record all calls made during the day. You should pull one or multiple random calls from every employee once a week or once a month. Set up uniform metrics to grade each call. When grading the calls, you want to focus on attitude and ensuring that the employee uses proper greetings and closing statements. They should also provide accurate information.

3. Proper scheduling

There are certain times of the day that will be busier than others. You need to have plenty of people available to help at these times. Customers will get frustrated if they have to wait on the phone too long. However, there are other times where it will be slow. You don’t want to waste the money on unnecessary staff at these times. Get scheduling software to help you determine when you get the most incoming traffic. You may also decide to hire some employees as part time employees or give certain people additional tasks. When the schedule is full enough to handle the work load but not too full to cause them to get bored, they will be able to give each customer the attention they deserve.

4. Create a safe and comfortable work environment

People work better when they work in a safe and positive work environment. Make your business a company that people want to work at. You can do this by encouraging appropriate behavior at the office. You can also include things like casual Fridays, free coffee, donuts some mornings, decorations, and fun activities. Customer service workers in particular should be in a good mood when talking to customers. These things can help.

5. Offer your team support when needed

Your customer service team will not have every answer to every question. It’s simply not possible. They need support when they come across an issue that they don’t know the answer to. You need to ensure that there are people they can turn to with questions. Vetted employees and supervisors can be great assets to new team members. You should also have an open door policy yourself. You can also give them resources to find answers on their own at a universal help desk. Make sure that everyone knows where to go when they need help.

6. Hire the best people

Customer service requires a certain type of personality. Keep this in mind during the interview. Look for people who smile and laugh a lot while also remaining attentive. People with a negative attitude or a cold demeanor can be a bad for customers.

You want your customers to get the best service possible. Since you can’t answer every phone call yourself, you have to develop a killer customer service team. Use these tips, and you’ll watch your team grow with your company.

Walter Bodell

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