A couple of days ago I wrote a post about in-person customer service tips. Following up on that, I thought it was time to talk about the other side of customer service that drives a lot of us up the wall, that being phone customer service. To say it’s rarely a good experience would be an understatement. So, let’s get right into 5 tips for better phone customer service.

1. Ask the person on the phone what they wish to be called. As I wrote in the other post, sometimes we don’t like being called by our first name if it’s not something that’s used all that often. Verifying it’s me is one thing; calling me by that name over and over just gets people riled.

2. Take good notes. How many times have you as a customer had to call a company back for the same problem, only to have the person say they don’t have anything in their notes showing you called before, or not having the notes detailed enough so they know what your problem is before you go through the entire thing again? And if you have to go through it all again, don’t you get angrier than the first time because you thought your problem had been handled? If you’re the customer service rep write good notes the first time around, because some people learn names and aren’t worried about trying to get you fired if they have to call again and decide that only management can take care of their problem.

3. Don’t condescend to your customers. I wrote this one on the other post as well, and it really holds true here. There’s nothing so irritating as having a customer service representative ask you to walk through steps of something that you’ve already told them you know and have tried, just because they’re reading it out of a book that they have to do it. Find out the level of knowledge the person on the other side of the phone has and proceed from there. If you can’t do that then go home and study your material because you can’t help people that are smarter than you with their issues.

4. Never get sassy with a customer on the phone. I know that phone customer service can be a tough and lonely job because it seems like half of the people calling are already yelling at you. Never stir up the pot by reacting to something that someone else says. Now, if they’re cursing or using any other abusive language including threatening you, either kick it to a supervisor or, if company policy allows it, hang up on them. There’s behavior you don’t have to put up with either.

5. Remember, with phone customer service it’s never personal. Unless you’re a very small business you can bet that the person on the other side of the phone has no idea who you are. Therefore, they’re not calling up to yell because they’re mad at you. Instead, they’re mad at the company, and thus this is actually an opportunity for you to shine because by being nice and doing what you can to help the customer you can only look good. Do what you can to solve people’s issues knowing that it wasn’t you that caused the problem and you will feel nothing but positive feelings if you can succeed.
 

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