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5 Tips for Hiring the Best Customer Service representatives:
1. Are they making good eye contact?
“The number one greatest thing that a person can do in a customer service role is to maintain incredible eye contact with the person they’re talking to,” says Beemer. This is an essential trait for anyone who is working directly with customers. “There’s nothing worse than talking to somebody about a customer complaint or a customer service issue and they’re not looking at me, because that tells me that I’m not important.”
If a person does not maintain great eye contact during an interview, you would never want to hire them for a customer service position, he says.
2. Does the person seem to enjoy life?
A positive attitude is critical to anyone working in this type of function, says Beemer. It may seem obvious, but there are many people today who work in a customer service capacity and will complain to customers about their problems, or relay that they’re having a bad day, he says. This is a critical mistake.
“You want employees who really love life and embrace a positive attitude,” he says. “It’s going to be their job to convince a customer that no matter how bad their problem is, they can fix this problem.”
3. Can you hear empathy in their voice?
Another key trait is having an empathetic vocal quality. Beemer learned this lesson from direct experience while working with a client in South Carolina years ago.
Beemer was hired by his client— a dentist—to create a big ad campaign to drive new customers to his dental business. But six weeks after the campaign started, the dentist complained that he hadn’t gotten any new business and that the campaign was getting too expensive.
“I said to my client, ‘Ray, do me a favor, can you record the calls that come into your office?’ Sure enough I listened to this lady that answered phones for the dentist for about 35 seconds and I wanted to throw up. That lady had no empathy in her voice. None!” But after the dentist brought in a new person to answer phones, he immediately saw a two hundred patient increase every month after that.
“That one person answering the phone with no empathy negatively impacted at least two hundred people,” Beemer explained. “So if we’re talking about customer service on the phone, I want that person to have incredible empathy in their voice to the point where they’re practically drooling to make you feel good, and to feel comfortable.”
4. Can you hear them smiling over the phone?
Beemer goes out of his way to hear how a candidate sounds on the phone personally and conducts a call back with a candidate to test their phone skills. He says he can instantly tell by their tone whether or not they’ve got those skills he’s looking for. “I never call somebody back to tell them I hired them. I call them back to say, ‘I have a couple of questions I wanted to ask you, and that’s how I find out about their telephone manner,” he adds.
“If they’re going to be working on the phone, I want to be able to see their smile over the phone. I want to know that they’re sitting there listening very intently, but they’re smiling all the time.”
5. Have they stuck with previous customer service jobs?
Finally, one critical factor to consider is whether the person considers customer service to be their career. People who think of customer service as a career tend to be much better at it, he’s found. “You can tell a lot by looking at people’s work history. If they’ve changed jobs a lot over the last five years, they probably don’t like customer service,” he explains. “The people that are good at it love working in that environment and stick with one position longer,” he says.
When Beemer is frequenting shops in his hometown, he will often go out of his way to find a customer service person that likes what they do and goes back to the same person each time. “You can always tell who the best bank teller is, she always has the longest line in front of her window.”
It’s not that complicated, says Beemer, but many companies get it wrong when it comes to hiring customer service professionals. “If you hire the right people to fit these attributes,” he says, “there will be a remarkable difference in the quality of your service.”
CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE CAREERS
Do you like listening to others’ problems? Well, ok, nobody really enjoys listening to complaints, but some are better at pretending to care than others. If that’s you, maybe consider a career as a customer service representative.
From customer complaints to processing orders and just being able to answer questions, customer service representative interact with customers throughout their day. The great news is that representatives are needed in almost every industry, so it shouldn’t be that difficult to find a job. And as long as you’re able to communicate well with others and know your way around a computer, all you need is a high school degree and some on-the-job training.
What Does a Customer Service Representative Do
Customer service representatives interact with customers to handle complaints, process orders, and provide information about an organization’s products and services.
Duties
Customer service representatives typically do the following:
-Listen to customers’ questions and concerns, and provide answers or responses
-Provide information about products and services
-Take orders, calculate charges, and process billing or payments
-Review or make changes to customer accounts
-Handle returns or complaints
-Record details of customer contacts and actions taken
-Refer customers to supervisors or more experienced employees
Customer service representatives answer questions or requests from customers or the public. They typically provide services by phone, but some also interact with customers face to face, by email, or live chat.
Customer service representatives typically use a telephone, computer, and other office equipment. For example, representatives who work in call centers answer phone calls and use computers to review and select standard responses from a list of options. Those employed in retail stores use registers to process returns or orders
How To Become a Customer Service Representative
Customer service representatives typically need a high school diploma and receive on-the-job training to learn the specific skills needed for the job. They should be good at communicating and interacting with people and have some experience using computers.
Education
Customer service representatives typically need a high school diploma.
Training
Customer service representatives usually receive short-term on-the-job training, lasting 2 to 3 weeks. Those who work in finance and insurance may need several months of training to learn more complicated financial regulations.
General customer-service training may focus on procedures for answering questions, information about a company’s products and services, and computer and telephone use. Trainees often work under the guidance of an experienced worker for the first few weeks of employment.
In certain industries, such as finance and insurance, customer service representatives must remain current with changing regulations.
Licenses, Certifications, and Registrations
Customer service representatives who provide information about finance and insurance may need a state license. Although licensing requirements vary by state, they usually include passing a written exam. Some employers and organizations may provide training for these exams.
Important Qualities
Communication skills. Customer service representatives must be able to provide information in writing, by phone, or in person so that customers can understand them.
Customer-service skills. Representatives help companies retain customers by answering their questions and complaints in a helpful and professional manner.
Interpersonal skills. Representatives should be able to create positive interactions with customers.
Listening skills. Representatives must listen carefully and understand a customer’s situation in order to assist them.
Patience. Representatives should be patient and polite, especially when interacting with dissatisfied customers.
Problem-solving skills. Representatives must determine solutions to a customer’s problem. By resolving issues effectively, representatives contribute to customer loyalty and retention.
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