The widespread establishment of call center agencies and other customer service supports signals the age when businesses are totally aware of how important the concerns, opinions, and suggestions of the customers are in the improvement of the companies' products and services. This is unlike before when the saying "Customer is always right" only applies mostly to small-time businesses where the managers or the owners themselves get to listen to the complaints of the customers regarding this or that about the store, the service of the salespeople, and other concerns.
When the world was awakened that the center of the businesses' concerns should be the ones whom they are making their products and services for, they put up customer service sections. If they cannot do it, they outsource the services. Customer service is important and if provided, can do the business great favor. When the customers feel that they are important, they would likely develop their loyalty towards the business.
With customer services, there are certain common problems that are encountered. These are not those customer complaints that are handled but the customer service agents' problems themselves. An expert in organizational leadership, Donald Converse, observed these problems and here are his proposed solutions.
First, the employees serving as customer service agents lack proper training. When they do, this translates to the kind of service that they give those customers whose calls they would handle. It should be noted too that these customers called because they got irritated with the products of the company and then, their irritation would fire up more when the employees they talk to do not give them the answers that they want to hear. Thus, the employees have to undergo prolific training and continuously do so to allow them to adjust from the constantly changing business environment that they are in.
Second, the customer service representatives (CSRs) should be well selected. The company should be able to sense who among the applicants are truly interested. A character trait that a CSR should and must have is patience to deal with people. The CSR should be able to stretch his or her patients to appease angry customers.
Third, the CSRs are exposed to being burnt out. This is so because it is not an easy job to be shock absorbers of people who blurt all their complaints on the phone. It is professional not to feel affected by these complaints but eight hours of listening to these negativities as though they are music will cause burn out. This is why the supervisor should be attuned to her agents to give them just the break they needed.
If you are looking to land a customer service job, make sure you read our article on how to write a customer service resume.
