Customer Service Skills Every Agent Should Have

Call center agents have invaluable roles in businesses that they work with. They are the frontlines of customer service, doing the challenging role of pleasing customers and finding solutions to their problems. To deliver exemplary customer service, every agent should work on these skills:

• Communication
  Gone are the days when conversations are solely restricted to the script being provided. Most call centers these days are giving their agents more flexibility when it comes to customer interaction. However, this comes with an added responsibility – to make sure that every conversation is relevant. This simply means not overdoing the small talk and learning to ask the right questions.

• Patience
  Being a call center agent is not easy especially when you’re dealing with irate customers. It takes a lot of patience to deal with upset customers without losing your cool.

• Empathy
  Considered as one of the most important skills in customer service, empathy is about learning to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. An agent who masters this skill will acknowledge the customer’s concerns (no matter what it is) and offering solutions instead of bombarding him/her with marketing messages.

• Listening
  To be an effective call center agent, you need to develop an active listening skill. When you develop this skill, you listen first before you talk. This isn’t an easy skill to master but it’ll definitely make a difference in customer experience.

• Willingness to go an extra mile
  This skill is what turns good customer experience to exemplary. This what delights customers and earn loyalty on the brand/company. Going an extra mile can be through directing customers to a different department for better service,  offering vouchers for an issue, or simply asking the right questions and providing solutions in a timely manner.