Tips to Improve your Customer Service Team

We all know the importance of customer service at this point, for those who didn’t know had learned it the hard way during the course of the pandemic. As customer service became the major driving force behind revenues and customer retention. The major reason behind the sheer importance of customer service in today’s market is due to the changing narrative of the consumer.

The consumer of today is well aware of his rights, and where he or she needs to spend their money, and most of the time the critical factor behind this decision is good customer service. People tend to forget about a brand or how lower the cost of the product was, or even what kind of an amazing discount they got. What they don’t forget is how they were treated, which either can generate happiness or distrust among them.

This is something which is crystal clear by now that the responsibility of creating a loyal customer and making sure they remain happy and satisfied with a brand is bestowed upon the customer service department. Today we are not going to talk about the importance of customer service rather we are going to explore the human aspect of customer care, and will talk about the things you as a brand need to be careful about when coming to the customer service team.

 Because when you will treat your employees the right way they are going to replicate the same treatment towards your customers. So, let’s dwell deep into the psyche of a customer service agent and see how we can make them better and more productive employees. Because as the saying goes a chain is as strong as its weakest link. 

The Importance of a Customer Service Team

Your customer service team is the front line of your business, no matter how good your product is, how competitively it’s priced, and the kind of discounts you are giving to your customers. In the end, it all comes down to customer interactions and catering to their needs, which is the most important aspect of customer retention. And all these things are managed by your customer service team. So in a way, the customer service team is the face of a company because it is with them a customer interacts the most. 

And unfortunately, those employees are the ones who are most stressed and overworked, especially in big companies. For example, if we take a look at Cox Communications, the third-largest cable company in the country with a consumer base of 6.5 million customers, one cannot even imagine how many times the Cox customer service number is dialed in a day. Even if we take a conservative estimate of 1 percent it still makes up 65000 interactions per day, and to be clear this is a very small and conservative number in comparison to the original stats.

So now you just get an idea of how much work a customer service team puts in for the betterment of a brand. This demands that customer service teams should be well equipped, better trained, and most important of all well paid. So that they can carry such a monumental task with great execution, and that is why we have written this piece. 

Factors to Consider for the Betterment of a Customer Service Team

Here we have created a list of factors that should be looked into to improve the performance of customer service teams. Any firm can follow these practices and procedures and witness a huge boost in not only their customer but employee satisfaction as well.

Healthy Remuneration Packages

There is no such thing in the world that can bring more happiness and satisfaction than money. The unfortunate state of the current corporate sector is that customer service teams are not even paid the bare minimum in contrast to the amount of work they are expected to do. We are in no way saying that empty all your revenues in employee remuneration, we are just saying that pay your customer service team according to the work and results they are expected to produce. 

This will not only contribute to overall employee satisfaction but will also boost your team to work with full zeal and zest. This positive mental attitude will also be reflected in their customer interactions and in a way, this will also give a boost to client satisfaction which is a core principle of every business.

Training Programs and Sessions

Training should be a vital focus towards customer service teams, the better they are trained the better they are going to cater to a customer. There should be consistent training programs and sessions for your customer support team to keep them updated with not only the products and services with which they are assisting their customers but also to make them aware of changing consumer dynamics and customer psyche. 

I mean how a customer service agent is going to assist a customer if he himself doesn’t have adequate knowledge about the product or service he’s assisting with. Or even worse what if he doesn’t know what the customer exactly requires assistance with. Thus training sessions can prove to be a crucial game-changer in the customer service landscape.

Inclusion of Technology

Technology has always been a component that has brought ease and convenience in our lives, and it’s about time that new technologies should be integrated into the customer service departments. This doesn’t mean that the customer service department hasn’t progressed over the years. It has, but this advancement was just restricted to the transition from filing cabinets to computer screens. Customer service teams are still working with decades-old software and CRMs that are not equipped to handle the load and queries of current consumers. 

There are options like AI and Machine learning which can detect consumer patterns and provide relevant solutions. Chatbots are also present which can assist customers without the need of any third party. Technologies like these should be implemented on a large scale to reduce the load on employees because, in the end, that’s what technology is for. 

Conclusion

Customer Service teams are like the frontline forces for any business, they are vital for the longevity of any firm and business since this department is directly related to customer satisfaction and retention. And unfortunately, this is the department that is often ignored. However, a little investment in the customer service team can do wonders for any business, and we have provided a foundation through this topic on areas where a business can focus to improve their customer service team and overall employee satisfaction.