Can your customer service representatives explain your tech?
When people think about customer service representatives, they often roll their eyes in frustration because companies overlook the importance of hiring great, knowledgeable customers service staff. When they do this, their representatives are unable to efficiently and effectively solve problems and their customers end up sharing their terrible experiences all over social media. Don’t make this mistake!
Your ideal customer service representatives are kind, empathetic, understand your products and emulate your brand through clear communication with your customers. Investing time and effort into ensuring your customer service representatives embody your company’s values as well as thoroughly understand your products is paramount to their success as employees and your company’s overall health. Happy customers who have positive experiences with your company are your best sales force.
Customers like kindness, but in most cases, they need a problem solved. Kindness doesn’t always solve their problems. Unless your customer service representatives are kind AND knowledgeable about your tech, your company and its values, you risk losing customers who are frustrated their questions or problems go unresolved.
When hiring customer service representatives, you must explain your company’s definition of success as a customer service rep and make it clear in the job description. A candidate that understands what success looks like in the position will incorporate that into their professional goals and more readily adopt your company’s customer service philosophy. In the interview, it is important that you gauge their understanding of your company’s place in the market. Do they understand your product or service? Do they know your immediate competitors? If they have a good understanding, desired skill set, and professional goals that align with your definition of success, they are worth investing in as a hire.
Talk the Talk
Once hired, now, it is YOUR job to ensure they can “talk the talk.” Invest a few hours in their training, so that they can translate the industry lingo for the customer. For example, if your company produces an app for photography enhancement, your customer service representative should understand how the app works, and understand all the associated photography vocabulary. When a customer wants to know how the aperture setting works, your customer service representatives better understand what aperture means!
Why is knowing the content and the context important? Because as our world becomes more and more digital, human contact with a company often first occurs after the customer has made a purchase. Customers want to feel confident that their questions are being answered or problems are being solved by someone more knowledgeable than themselves. Your company should be the absolute authority on your product, and anyone that interfaces with your customers must exude that confidence. Great customer service will likely lead to positive reviews, posts and shares on social media, creating positive buzz and good ratings for your company. Likewise, negative human interactions can often lead to bad publicity that can be very difficult to undo.
Courtesy over Content
But wait, what do you do if you have to hire a temp to fill in for one of your regular customer service representatives? Prioritize personnel with courtesy – kindness and patience – over technical skills. While having a technically adept customer service rep is ideal, it is most important for customers to interact with someone who wants to help. Sticking one of your app engineers on customer service duty may not be the best way to serve the customer. Hiring a quality, customer service temp may offer better results. Temps from Salt Lake Staffing are screened for their broad knowledge of the largest tech industries in the Silicon Slopes and are selected as candidates based on their ability to be courteous and helpful to all customers. While these temps may not know the exact lingo of your specific tech, they are able to ensure confidence in your customers by knowing how to find the answers needed or assuring them that their problem will be addressed by an authority as quickly as possible.
Invest in your Customer Service Reps
Good customer service representatives go above and beyond to serve the needs of the customer. As an employer, the best investment you can make is ensuring you go above and beyond for your customer service representatives.
Hiring the best is a two way street. You want the best, so offer the best. Make sure your job description is clear and offers the candidate an idea of your company’s culture. Successful employment is often determined by the personality of the employee’s match with the company’s culture. What incentives do you offer your customer service representatives? Is your compensation package competitive with your competitors? Is your brand clearly identified and one the candidate wants to represent?
Your new customer service representatives will become a part of your brand. They will be the face/voice of your company to your customers. Ensuring their personality and attitude align with your company’s values and mission is critical to your mutual success. If that means annual staff retreats, or occasional staff dinners, invest in keeping your customer service representatives engaged in positively representing your brand, your company.
Find the right person, give them the knowledge to succeed.
Hire by example; meaning, treat the candidate as you would want them to treat your customers. Observe how they respond. Does their personality and attitude exude your company’s values? Ask them what their personal customer service philosophy is – it doesn’t have to be the same as yours, but it will be clear from their answer if it is wrong!
Once you have the right personality with the desired skills, invest in them by providing the training needed to ensure they can talk the talk with your customers.
Salt Lake Staffing prepares our candidates for YOUR success. Our Customer Service Reps are skilled professionals with experience in a variety of customer service settings who are ready to take their careers to the next level. They are motivated and ready to learn your product and represent your brand today. For temporary, temp-to-perm, or direct-hire positions, call us today and let us help you find your perfect match. (833) SL-STAFF [833-757-8233]
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