Customer Service Skills For a Positive Customer Experience

明智的一句话：客户正在控制。不是大多数时间或一半时间 -总是.

对于客户成功或客户服务行业中的人，该概念应塑造我们与客户的每一次互动，无论是销售前还是在销售后。But there's more to it than that. There are a handful of critical skills and sentiments that should inform我们与客户互动的方式.

Depending on your product or service, these must-have skills may vary a bit — in some cases, some skills will come in handy more often than others. But if you can master the nine we've outlined below, we can promise you'll be better for it.

1. Customer Service Skills

2. Customer Service Areas

Customer Service Skills

1. 耐心
2. Flexibility
3. Empathy
4. Efficiency
5. Product and industry knowledge
6. Active listening
7. 一致性
8. Accountability
9. Perseverance
10. Communication

1.耐心

At its core, having patience means being able to regulate your own thoughts and emotions — even in times of high stress or delay. For folks in the customer success industry, patience is a necessary skill.

很遗憾。在一个受到技术和即时满足感的世界中，耐心正变得有点垂死的艺术。客户和为他们服务的人都习惯于加快他们所做的几乎所有事情，并在此过程中做出快速决策。但这并不总是正确的方法。

通过以轻松，周到的举止来接触客户互动，您会发现，在不损害服务质量的情况下克服客户障碍会更容易，并使客户在此过程中感到满意。

2.灵活性

In some cases, process is necessary. But more often than not,too过程可以有不利影响your customer conversations. When we put process before people, we lose site of the end goal:帮助客户取得预期的结果.

如果您想在客户的成功角色中蓬勃发展，那么学习灵活就可以帮助您拥有自己的持有自己的能力，尤其是在面对“地面”情况和决策时。与其将客户成功视为直线和狭窄的道路，不如考虑您可以帮助客户的所有方式，并选择最适合其独特需求的路径。

3. Empathy

When a customer reaches out to your company for support or advice, they want you to help them. They also want to feel heard in the process.

Some simple ways to prove that you're on their side and committed to helping them include celebrating their successes or showing genuine concern when things aren't going to plan. These small considerations can make a world of a difference when it comes to creating a positive experience across the board.

有意识地提醒自己，如果您穿着客户的鞋子，您将如何受到治疗。在大多数情况下，这种相互的理解水平可以帮助客户放松，并为更有生产力的对话定下基调，尽管他们遇到了任何挫败感。

4. Efficiency

At the end of the day, customers are looking for one thing: reliable,efficientservice. Bear in mind that this doesn't mean grabbing at the quick-fix approach just to get the job done faster. (Remember our previous mention of patience?)

Efficiency in customer interactions is all about determining the most effective systems for helping them arrive at their desired outcome. It requires a careful balance of timeliness and commitment to satisfaction.

简化互动的最佳方法之一是提供及时的生产服务。这涉及花时间了解您的产品和/或行业，这使我们进入了下一个观点。

5. Product and Industry Knowledge

Deep-seeded product and industry knowledge is perhaps one of the most valuable skills for a customer service or customer success manager to lean into. Gaining and continuously expanding your understanding of the product your servicing affords you the confidence you need to carry out customer interactions with ease and exactness.

A strong personal知识库also translates into increased professionalism, enthusiasm, and efficiency. It can function as a competitive advantage and a signal to customers that you're taking their business seriously.

6. Active Listening

Before you help, you need to listen. As the listener, it's your job to gather all of the information you need about a customer's situation to properly uncover and surface a solution.

但是，活跃的听众不仅要密切注意所说的话 - 他们还调整了没有说的话。通常，意识到这两者都会帮助您拼凑出既通知又有点的响应。

If you really want to prove that you're hearing them, restate their problem in their own words. This exercise forces you to remain engaged and helps to let the customer know you're really committed to hearing them out.

7. Consistency

Consistent delivery is important when it comes to a customer's perception of service.

考虑到这个想法，您应该考虑在与客户的每个接触点上提供熟悉的情绪，这反映了您品牌的核心价值观和对客户成功的承诺。

Remember, it's much easier to work on nailing this undeviating experience upfront, as correcting inconsistency issues after the fact can be both costly and time-consuming.

8.问责制

When you're tasked with assisting a customer, whether it is a transactional support issue or a long-term business relationship, their problems with your product or service become your problems. You own the issues and it's your job to solve them in an informed and timely fashion.

This type of responsibility requires a great deal of accountability — in other words, you need to not only own your actions, but also their implications. Without clear accountability, execution falls flat. And a delay on your response time directly influences a customer's perception of your service quality.

To avoid this, accept responsibility and act accordingly.

9.毅力

In a people-facing role, it's easy to feel discouraged and frustrated when you're regularly being knocked down by difficult interactions. Luckily, it's in your control to determine how you respond.

According to Carol Dweck, you can choose to have one of two mindsets:

1. A fixed mindset:Operating under the notion that your abilities, talent, and intelligence are fixed traits that cannot be expanded or strengthened.
2. A growth mindset:Viewing your abilities, talents, and intelligence as traits that you're in control of — traits that you can develop and improve.

10.沟通

However, whatever, and whenever you're communicating to customers, clear沟通is key. Both the words you use和the intention behind them matter. Customers can pick up on insincere, rushed interactions — even over the phone or live chat.

When speaking with customers, try the "Problem, Solution, Benefit" framework. Repeat the customer's problem back to them to confirm you heard it correctly and to show your understanding. Share the solution along with the actions the customer can take to solve the problem. Explain the benefit of the solution to solve the problem as well as to avoid future problems and inconveniences.

Here's an example:

• Problem: "I'm sorry to hear that your payment method isn't working on our website."
• Solution: "To resolve this, log into your account and go to Profile > Settings > Payments and re-input your card number. Be sure to include the expiration date and mark the card as your preferred payment."
• Benefit: "This will ensure your payment method is saved so that all future purchases will be easy and quick!"

尽管上述客户服务技能解决了您可能与客户互动的特定方式，但这些客户服务领域解决了您在角色中可能看到的较大的“主题”（或者可能如何组织客户服务团队）。

1. Customer Service Channel Mastery

Nowadays, customer service professionals use a myriad of tools. While the above skills apply to any and all customer interactions, some channels may require different skills and best practices.

For example, the synchronicity of a phone conversation can help solve certain problems whereas the asynchronous nature of email or social media may lend itself better to other issues. Moreover, the different channel interfaces require different language, tone of voice, and levels of explanation.

For example, it's easier to demonstrate a solution over email, where you can include screenshots and links. On the other hand, a phone call may make it easier to chat through an issue with a customer who may not need a step-by-step fix.

Customer service channel mastery is an important customer service area to train and hone.

2.客户服务管理

客户服务管理需要与直接与客户合作的技能不同。管理层应创建代表（和客户）可以依靠的流程。

This customer service area should focus on training, feedback, process development, onboarding, product training, meetings, and team alignment.

Customer service management is also responsible for the quality of service — ensuring all representatives serve customers with accurate, relevant, timely information. This can be improved through new guidelines and standards.

3. Customer Retention

Retaining customers is less expensive and more impactful than continuously attracting new ones. The customer journey shouldn't cease when a sale is made — delight is an important component of theflywheel. Not only does it keep customers around, but it also incentivizes word-of-mouth marketing, which canbring in more new revenue比您自己的营销。

Customer service is at the heart of customer retention. Encourage your team to solve for the long game of customer service — keeping your customers satisfied ... and keeping them, period.

Master These Customer Service Skills and Areas

By choosing to adopt a growth mindset, you give yourself permission to persevere through challenges and come out stronger on the other end.

如果您想在面向客户的角色中建立自己的职业，请优先考虑这些客户服务领域和技能。您的客户会感谢您！

Originally published Feb 24, 2021 9:00:00 AM, updated June 09 2021