Like anything else of high quality, great customer service does not simply happen. It results from several steps that serve as the building blocks for creating a culture of excellence. The support team is often the face and voice of your organization; it’s how consumers are most likely to have contact with the brand. The impact of bad service is no secret, and its effects are quantifiable.

Memorable service, on the other hand, is just as important, probably more so given the propensity of people to be more vocal about negative events than positive ones. But imagine a level of service that made you a customer for life and compelled you to share that experience with others. Service also has proven utility as a customer retention tool and a means of generating additional revenue, as we have written before. Today, we will look at creating engaged and proactive support teams through training that goes beyond process and product instruction to focus on people.

Laying the Groundwork

There is a direct link between the customer experience and the agent experience, and you must maximize the latter to affect the former. Confident, enthusiastic, well-trained agents – like excellent customer service – don’t happen in a vacuum, either. They are the result of a purpose-driven plan to provide team members with the skills needed for resolving user issues, even when (especially when?) interacting with unhappy customers.

For us, all roads begin with our week-long WoW course, which is all about the front-line role that agents play not just in issue resolution but also in being customer advocates and an intelligence-gathering unit for our clients.

It starts with communication and understanding that dialogue is, by definition, a two-way street. Half of the equation in any conversation is listening.

Sure, WoW gives agents the tools for setting the table – enthusiastically greeting the customer by name, being empathetic, and asking the right questions. But it also gets into hearing the voice of the customer and understanding what is being said, detecting the nuances in tone and inflection, and making the interaction collaborative rather than combative. The ability to diffuse an emotional situation and work through to a satisfactory resolution is priceless, and an agent’s capacity to do that is forged in training.

Process, Products, and Problems

Client-focused training typically revolves around a particular set of circumstances: if/then scenarios that are common with tech support issues, product knowledge for helping users make the best use of the things they purchase, or recognizing sales opportunities when they arise. Each scenario is guided by knowledgeability. Agents must be fluent in the subject matter before gaining a customer’s trust. This expertise is also evident in metrics such as first-contact resolution rates and handling time of calls or chats.

Creating subject matter experts of agents results from three things:

• classroom instruction
• nesting or on-the-job training
• time in the seat.

Each of these also represents a rung on the credibility ladder, and it’s a progression that extends to practically all professions. First, team members learn the nuts and bolts of the client’s organization, the product/service line, and the customer personas that will be seen. Second, nesting is a hands-on application of the classroom lessons. Finally, time and repetition fine-tune an agent’s ability and confidence in delivering the right solutions quickly and effectively.

One additional skill that bears mention is patience. Customer service often involves some type of a stressor – an order that was processed incorrectly, a user having difficulty accessing an account or making a purchase, or a customer being on hold for “too long,” which can be a subjective measure that is compounded by the severity of the problem. Just as agents are human beings, so are customers; no discussion was ever resolved by keeping tensions high. Let a frustrated person vent, apologize for the problem, and then address the issue. These three steps have done more to turn what began as contentious calls into memorable experiences than any other tactic.

A Few Other Things

Treat customer care as a competitive advantage that your organization provides its customers. That approach will sift into agent training, coaching and mentoring, and doing the things necessary for retaining skilled customer service experts. Beyond providing solutions and steering customers toward informed decisions, agents are also the ideal conduit for gauging consumer sentiment.

No one talks more often with product users than the service team. Agents hear about the pros and cons of client products, they hear how the brand stacks up against competitors, and they hear about trends. This type of market intelligence data is vital to clients, who can use it to make decisions based on information and evidence, not guesswork.

What customer does not like a brand that listens to the people who use it and is responsive to their needs?

While tending to customers, keep the agents in mind as well. Create a supportive environment that values continuous improvement, understands the benefits of coaching, and recognizes the need for recognizing outstanding performance. One of our clients has gone a step beyond the norm with a recognition program for our agents, genuinely treating them as part of the service team rather than an outsourced element. When the client treats agents that way, the team will likely reciprocate. 

Wrapping Up

Communication, problem-solving ability, listening skills, and patience are all integral to the customer and agent experiences. Remember that a team is just that – it is incumbent on members to support one another, particularly the newer associates who are still finding their sea legs. Crosstalk between and among members, having senior leaders shadow newbies, and non-production events help to build camaraderie, and happy people are more likely to stick around.      

A high-functioning service team not only benefits retention, but also creates the conditions that inspire customer loyalty. This level of support increases customer lifetime value, makes the team a profit center rather than a cost center, and gives clients reasons to expand the lines of business being supported. Training agents to be brand ambassadors pays long-term dividends, so be sure to include ongoing learning so that the team is not caught off-guard by changing trends. It’s one thing to say that a company is customer-centric, but walking the talk means putting in place the systems, methods, and tools that put agents in a position to be successful.