The importance of customer service

Customer service is a top competitive advantage for many companies. 80% of customers believe that the level of service a company provides is just as important as the products and services it offers. This is important because studies also show that seven out of 10 customers will spend more money with a company that delivers great service. However, companies in the U.S. lose more than $62 billion annually due to poor levels of service. So, by delivering a positive customer experience, your company has the opportunity to retain existing customers and grow profits which is pivotal to your bottom line.

What is good customer service?

Most organizations define customer service as the process of supporting customers by answering questions and solving problems. Depending on the industry or customer base, many companies go one step further and create their own definition of service that agents should adhere to. As you consider your organization’s unique definition, it should include these 3 important qualities of customer service.

  • Personalized: Good service is always personalized for each and every customer. Personalized interactions let customers know that your organization cares about their questions and challenges. 
  • Timely: Customers need to be able to reach an agent in a timely and convenient manner. Nearly 70% of customers note that they won’t accept wait times longer than 2 minutes. Therefore, reps need the right skills to help customers quickly and efficiently.
  • Accurate: Competency plays a big role in good customer experiences. If an agent doesn’t have the skills needed to solve problems or answer questions, they’re less likely to provide accurate and consistent support.

10 essential customer service skills

The role of a customer service agent is no small task. First, their work requires them to understand numerous tools, systems, and processes in order to do their jobs correctly. They also have to possess a wealth of knowledge and skills in order to meet and exceed customer expectations. We’ve worked with customer service leaders across a variety of industries and businesses who have shared the customer service skills and abilities they prioritize for their agents. Here’s a closer look at some of the most valuable skills.

  1. Active listening: Understanding the customer’s problem correctly and anticipating possible questions is key. Active listening isn’t just about hearing what the customer says. It also requires attentiveness to what isn’t said in order to get the full picture of their problem and provide a solution.
  2. Empathy: Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. This is critical as customers often want to be heard and understood during an interaction. By showing empathy, agents often create a mutual level of understanding that is helpful for the customer. In fact, more than 65% of customers say that a kind and empathetic agent was a key component of good service.

  3. Effective communication: Working on the frontlines requires agents to communicate knowledge and information as clearly and concisely as possible. Effective communication makes it easy for customers to understand what they might need to do or what the agent will do to solve their problem or answer their question.
  4. Confidence: Agents need to be confident in their skills and knowledge when helping customers. If not, there’s a chance the customer will reach out again for assistance. Confident agents also create a foundation of trust and professionalism with their peers which is important.
  5. Problem solving: It’s likely that customers won’t always be able to explain or diagnose their problem correctly or clearly. A great agent takes the initiative to ask questions that uncover the problem or question and solve it. They can also anticipate any related problems that a customer may experience and address it during the interaction.
  6. Patience: Agents need to maintain a healthy relationship with customers and themselves. Agents who are patient will appear cool, calm, and collected during the most stressful and complex interactions. They’ll also dedicate the time and energy needed to assist a customer.
  7. Time management: It’s unlikely that your agents will only deal with customers who have one, simple problem-solution scenario at a time. Therefore, agents need to be able to deal with different scales of problems at a given time. For example, if an agent has a large queue of callers on hold, they effectively manage their time on the current interaction and take care of each customer as quickly as possible.
  8. Team player: Being able to work for the good of the entire customer service team creates a positive and supportive environment. This will increase agent morale, drive productivity, and result in great interactions.
  9. Product knowledge: Most of the skills that we’ve mentioned so far are considered soft skills — or, non-technical skills that describe how agents work and interact with others. While these are extremely important in customer service, agents also need  product knowledge and skills. This ensures that they can effectively communicate the details, features, uses, and benefits of your company’s products and services.
  10. Willingness to learn: As mentioned, customer service is an ever-changing industry. Agents need to be willing to stay up to date with new products and services, processes, and skills in order to keep pace with changes.

It’s important to note that many of these 10 customer service skills serve as a starting point for agents. Once an agent becomes proficient in these basic customer service skills and more experienced in their role, organizations should expand on their abilities. The results are two-fold, as it encourages agent growth and development while ensuring that they’re well equipped to help customers at the highest level. 

For example, many organizations have tiered support levels. Newly hired agents often start their roles as Tier 1 agents and may only interact with customers on certain channels or products. As agents move tiers, they’ll likely see their roles and responsibilities expand to assist more complex and escalated customer interactions or across more channels. They may also lead a team of agents. Regardless, these roles require advanced customer service skills in order to remain successful.

How to develop customer service skills

Now that you have a better understanding of what makes an agent skilled in customer service, it’s time to take a look at the different ways you can help them learn these skills. Some leaders argue that a lot of the skills we mentioned are innate to agents. While qualities like friendliness and patience are often key personality traits, we believe that agents can also learn the key technical and soft skills they need for their roles. Here are three ways that leaders can ensure agents have the necessary customer service skills.

Customer service skills training

Customer service training teaches new and experienced agents the skills needed to interact with customers and perform their jobs. Many organizations provide initial skills training to newly hired agents, but it’s best to provide ongoing training so agents keep their skills sharp. Hubspot found that 62% of agents on high-performing teams actively learn new skills for their roles at least once a month. Training can take place through workshops, seminars, and shadowing. Teams that work in a hybrid environment have also found success providing customer service training online so agents can complete skills training from virtually anywhere.

Practice and role play

The best customer service training programs also incorporate a hands-on application of newly learned skills. Once agents complete a training course on a specific skill they need to apply that knowledge through a realistic scenario that they’ll likely encounter with a customer. For example, if your training focuses on effective communication, it’s a good idea to ask agents to run through a simulation where they need to communicate with a customer over the phone or by email so they can apply what they learned. You can also have a group of agents run through a role play scenario and share feedback with one another.

Coaching and feedback

As agents learn and practice skills, it’s also a good idea for leaders to provide personalized coaching and feedback. This helps reinforce skills in which agents are already proficient. It also gives leaders the opportunity to focus on the skills that agents need to improve in order to close any performance gaps.

Help agents master their skills

Customer service is becoming increasingly complex. And, there’s no shortage of customer service skills that agents need to support each and every customer. Customer service agents use Seismic’s learning and coaching tool to learn and improve the skills needed for their work. With Seismic, teams can deliver interactive skills training online, hone skills through real-life practice scenarios, and correlate skill development with important business outcomes like NPS and CSAT. Interested in learning more? Click here to get a demo.