3 Ways to Keep Your Frontline Customer Service Team Firing On All Cylinders
All businesses have customers, and all businesses have rules. The rules are there for good reasons, but rules can drive customers nuts.
Customers loathe rules that are complicated or hard to follow, take up their time, or require them to pay for what they think should be free. Most customers don't know (or care to know) the big picture of why the rules exist.
Most customers want what they want, when they want it, and the Frontline is usually who they have to deal with to get it.
For Frontline customer service professionals to not only survive but thrive in their roles, they need excellent soft skills (people skills). Without excellent soft skills, they will find it difficult to work together in harmony and interact with every customer professionally - the good, the complicated, and the downright difficult.
To help your customer service team stay positive and professional when interacting with each other and your customers, consider the following 5 actions:
1. Remind them of their Power. In a face to face situation, 93% of what our attitude is and how we feel, is communicated to others via our body language and tone of voice. Remind your Frontline to use their power - smile, use eye contact and stand tall.
2. Encourage Phone Excellence. 85% of how we feel and what our attitude is, is communicated via our tone of voice over the phone. How your team answers the phone can literally set the tone of the conversation. Speak clearly, slowly and with a smile on your dial.
3. Practice what you Preach. Always be mindful of your own body language and tone of voice when you are interacting with your team or your customers. If you don't bother, your staff will wonder why they should.
4. Record Compliments and Complaints. An exercise book will do. Use the front pages for recording the good stuff and the back pages for the areas that might need some work. Ask staff to record what they hear and see ie: date and short details. Review the records regularly to identify potential areas for improvement and acknowledge success. If you don't review it - it won't be used.
5. Recognition and Reward. Customer service professionals are really just kids in adult bodies and like kids, adults also like to hear when they do good work. BUT, not every adult likes a big song and dance about their success. Take the time to find out how your employees would like to be acknowledged. Never take excellent service for granted - it takes effort to provide consistently excellent service and effort should be rewarded.
If you would like to spend less time handling complaints and addressing negative attitudes or bad behaviors, and more time getting your own work done and listening to compliments about your team, then contact us or order your copy of "The A - Z of Service Excellence". It’s packed with practical tips and actions that will take your team from good to great.