Workforce Management Featured Article
3 Methods to Help Your Agents Manage Customer Service Situations
Not long ago, I had a conversation with a business owner who was frustrated with an employee. She couldn’t understand why the employee would handle herself in such a way with clients that it didn’t support her company’s overall approach to quality customer care. In just a short conversation, however, she came to realize that what she thought was common sense in her own customer interactions were actually the result of years of customer service training.
It’s not uncommon for hiring managers to assume that individuals hired for a customer facing position would possess basic skills. For instance, it would be easy to think that the typical employee would know how to properly answer a phone, type an email or conduct a meeting. But unless they have the right training and know your expectations, what they actually do in these situations might be surprising and could hurt your brand.
Therefore, it is important that you have the right customer service training tools at your disposal to ensure you can prevent such situations. Still, even with the right training, customer situations can arise. A fun Groove piece explored a few customer service techniques that may be good to have in your arsenal. We’ll explore these techniques, but don’t go it alone. Remember you need to have a quality workforce management solution in place before you can truly address these concerns.
If you’ve accomplished this key step, we can move on to situation management. In other words – a situation has come up with a customer – how are you going to manage it? One method is the Feel, Felt, Found technique from the Apple (News - Alert) customer service training. It uses empathy to alleviate a customer concern. The agent should empathize how the customer feels in the moment, explain how they felt that way in the past and then found that the concern was actually incorrect.
The next technique is HEARD: Hear, Empathize, Apologize, Resolve, Diagnose. Taken directly from Disney (News - Alert), this technique is completely customer centered and has proven incredibly valuable for Disney. Ever wonder why the parks can get away with charging such outrageous prices for everything? Spend a long day in the park and then walk back to your car in the lot late at night. The guy picking up trash had this training and he’ll make you feel like you’re the most important guest they’ve had all year.
Finally, there’s the ELI5 technique – keeping it simple. Companies can often get lost in the brand message and forget that their customers don’t live, eat and breath their jargon every day. If instructions are too complicated, the customer can get frustrated. Write manuals and instructions as if you’re explaining it to a five year old by keeping it simple. That doesn’t mean you treat your customers like children; it’s simply a reminder that they need more information simplified that you do.
The point is, these situations are going to come up and how your agents handle them can make the difference between a happy customer and a lost customer. Workforce management can make sure you have the right agents available – quality customer service training will help make sure they do the job right.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi