1) Be Passionate about delivering excellent Customer Service.
If you are not passionate about providing excellent customer service, nothing else from this list will apply. You have to want to provide excellent customer service - it has to drive you; this means understanding the organization's vision, mission, and what exactly is your role in making it a reality.
2) You Have to Have Thick Skin.
Some customers can be hard to please, and in the process, they may become frustrated, and yet you have to have think skin. There are two sides to this, first is as a leader and secondly as a team member.
As a leader, you are to be able to lead the team in fulfilling the established goals, but you must also be able to manage characters, mindsets, growth, or lack thereof, among other things. Ultimately, although the idea would be to have everyone happy, you aren't going to please everyone with every decision you make as the leader. As a team member, you are the front line, and in most cases, the only face the customer, therefore providing the best service possible is the. However, there may be customers that become unreasonable and steer their fury toward you. While you want to be tender-hearted and show empathy, you should have thick skin in the face of this type of situation, and please, don't be robotic with your answers! Be as genuine and as firm as possible while providing the best service possible.
3) Help Your Customers Help Themselves
I am sure you have heard the saying: "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime." Some customers only want the solution for right now, even if later they encounter the same issue. It is those moments where it's best to slow it down the conversation, provide the necessary details for the moment and information that will help them later on.
4) Listen
Everyone should be quick to listen, and slow to speak. As you listen, you gain footing in the conversation. You will be able to match their tone or redirect the conversation if the customer's tone is aggressive.
5) Go the extra mile
In a basic sense going the extra mile is about giving more than what the customer expected, but to do this, you must know what they expected. Therefore, going the extra mile goes back to the listing and having a passion for customer service.
6) stay up to date with service, products, and process changes.
Make sure you are aware of any changes that may be taking place within the service that the organization is providing; as well as any changes with policies, products, or promotions. Being aware of any changes will allow you to provide the best service possible to the customers you engage.
7) It reflects heavily on the team.
We are all humans, and as such, we may encounter difficult days, but when we are about to engage with the customer, all that needs to be on the back burner. I used to work with a team where often we would say: "leave your problems at the door." The community we were serving needed our undivided attention, therefore bringing all that "baggage" could affect the service we provide and our attention to detail. The customer service you provide doesn't only reflect on you, it also reflects heavily on the team. When you win over a customer, the whole team has won them over, and when you mishandle an encounter with a customer, the entire team takes the hit.
