Getting Through Customs: How To Make Your Relationship With The Customer Soar

Communication with your customers is such a vast subject that it is so difficult to break down into a simple formula. Whether you are in a contact center, a customer facing role, or using email to speak to them, you have many obstacles to overcome. Focusing on the contact center environment, it becomes very apparent that you don’t have as many things going in your favor that you would normally have, like facial expressions, manner, how you posture yourself etc. All you have is your voice, which is a limiting factor in communicating yourself effectively. Secondly, if a customer calls to complain and there are external factors, like a bad line, this will further annoy the customer. There are essential skills to have when working in a contact center, and here they are.

Communication Skills

Communication varies depending on the environnent, and it is down to you to communicate yourself properly. Whether you use body language more in a face to face role this would normally work to alleviate customer anxieties, but this cannot be done over the phone. A thing you do have control over, is the language that you use. There are many words that you use that can be construed as negative. A common example is when someone thanks you and you casually respond “no problem.” Yes, it is an acknowledgement, but the word “problem” will impact on a customer negatively. It could simply imply that there is a problem. Either way, using language that is direct and positive over confusing terms will work so much better to build the bond between business and customer.

Skills In Time Management

From the opening of the business, to the close of business, that is your window of opportunity. So use that time as best as you can. Your role is to sell products and to sell the business or brand. This also applies to when you are in conversation with a customer. You could spend a long time going round in circles with a customer, and sometimes it is better to seek assistance before you say something you regret. And this links to having patience. Managing your own fuse is a very important skill to have, so your best character traits come across, and this translates into productivity and more sales. There are things you can use to help your team get ahead, like extra training or sales team enablement software. Managing your emotions will help you majorly.

Having Superior Knowledge Of The Product

You cannot bluff your way through this. The product is what you are selling, and you need to sell it in as much detail as you can while giving care and attention to the customer. This is balancing act, as you don’t want to come across as someone reciting lines, or too “sales-y.” But knowing your product will help in the sale, and it will help for technical queries afterwards too. If you “know nothing” it reflects badly on the product, on the business, and on yourself.

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