Essential Customer Service Skills

Offering a high degree of customer service is a surefire path toward success. This is easier said than done, though. When you consider the turnover rates and lack of skills in the customer service industry, sometimes even the most experienced CEOs and recruiters have problems recognizing which skills are essential. 

It may seem impossible to find the right people, but keep in mind that the main customer service skills can be acquired through training. 

Regardless of whether you’re looking to upskill your customer service reps or trying to find new employees, these are the skills you should set your sights on:

1. Empathy

A customer service rep will always fail without empathy. This is a skill that allows people to put themselves in the shoes of others, allowing them to understand their unique point of view. Considering the outcome of an interaction is based on how a customer feels they’re treated rather than whether their issue was solved, you can’t risk employing those who are lacking in this department.

2. Persuasive speaking

Persuasion is one of the most important customer service skills. Your reps need to solve problems and turn customers into loyal brand ambassadors. Ensure they are confident, and radiate a positive attitude, but also provide enough pressure to turn leads into customers.

3. Adaptability

Working with customers is a dynamic role and no day is the same. Nowadays, customer service professionals need to handle incoming communications via different channels, from the phone all the way to social media. 

Because of this, modern-day reps need an extra level of mental flexibility to be able to deal with different situations regardless of the customer and the preferred communication channel. 

4. Self-control

Why is self-control one of the essential customer service skills?

Simple - customer service reps communicate with a wide array of different people. From a customer out to blood to someone utterly confused with the situation. These situations can be super stressful and agents need to keep a cool head even when a customer gets heated. 

5. Active listening

Most customer service reps can improve at their jobs if you teach them the skill of active listening. This particular ability empowers your agents to learn how to understand customer issues while also helping them demonstrate they’re paying full attention.

Best thing is that acquiring one of the essential customer service skills can be as easy as rephrasing the issue until the customer starts feeling the rep is truly understanding what they’re trying to say. 

6. Clear communication

Talking on the phone all day can be tough. Agents often lose their focus and use unclear language - a recipe for a subpar customer experience.

Your employees could have the patience and empathy of a professional therapist, but if they can’t communicate clearly, they won’t be able to deliver a favorable customer experience. 

7. Patience

Effective customer service reps need to be patient. Not being able to handle the stress and rushing things along will only make it harder to work. Plus, inpatient workers often have trouble enjoying their own lives and shutting off after they leave their jobs.

Patience can be achieved by a tiny mindset shift. Everyone in your team should realize the customer’s frustration and anger haven’t got anything to do with them. Doing this can turn all the negative feelings into positive ones and lead to better outcomes.

8. Good time management

Time is a finite resource, especially in such an area as customer service. Just a small interruption could slow down the agent and cause unnecessary frustration. Unfortunately, workers generally procrastinate and would rather stare at the email client than face their customers. 

These delays can frustrate customers, and they’ll think twice next time before they do business with you if your agents are always unreachable. 

You can help your employees by overhauling the methods of updating client information and streamlining reporting processes. This provides more free time for your employees to complete other administrative tasks. Therefore, they won’t need to balance between getting the administrative issues resolved and helping clients. 

9. Drive

As a part of the essential customer service skills, drive and willingness to improve are a rare find. In fact, it’s one of the skills that guarantee success.

If you wouldn’t settle for someone with no aspirations to improve and grow when hiring for a high-level position. Why would you do so for a customer service rep?

At the moment, customer expectations are changing frequently. As such, it’s necessary to implement all emerging technologies. People who need to learn how to use them properly are customer service reps, which does require a lot of motivation.

While financial incentives are all fine and well, you also need to manage them accordingly, provide all the necessary resources, and open up the lines of communication. 

10. High level of knowledge

In addition to having the ability to learn the use of new technologies, customer service reps also need a high level of knowledge of your business and your offering. They need a deep understanding of your company policies, the purchasing process, and product specs to address customer queries with efficiency. 

Considering that customer service calls are valid opportunities for making an extra sale, you don’t want to be late for this train. However, upselling requires extensive knowledge and experience to know when to make the offer.

11. Resilience

No one likes talking to customer service, and many agents complain that they’re being mistreated by most callers. This is why resilience is one of the most important customer service skills. 

Considering customer service reps are on the frontline, facing the brunt of customers' frustration toward your business. As such, hiring thick-skinned individuals is essential. 

On your end, you must make it a priority to remind the agents that you have their back and assure them they’re doing a good job. You also need to enable a safe environment and allow the agents to take frequent breaks to cool their heads right after facing a difficult situation. 

A recipe for success

The customer service skills we mentioned here are very rare, and it’s impossible to find all the traits in one individual.

Still, this doesn’t mean you should settle for skill gaps. You can train your customer service reps until they improve and provide better customer support. 

Ultimately, your efforts won’t be mute, and you’ll eventually see a massive improvement in your customer satisfaction scores.