Community, Public, and Customer Service Training Outline

Listen, and Understand

The first thing any and everyone in customer service has to learn, regardless of the nature of their customer service, is that listening, and listening well, is the most important skill you can possibly have in this line of work. It is a mortal sin for the customer service agent to stop listening and interrupt the customer. If you interrupt, you may miss important information about the customer’s concerns. It is your job to address these concerns, and you can never do this effectively if you don’t have all the information you can get about it. Don’t be afraid, however, to politely ask questions for clarifications when needed. Reflect back their point when they are done talking so that they are aware that you were indeed listening to them attentively.

Know their Name and Be Politely Informative

If possible, and whenever necessary, it is helpful to know the customer’s name and to call them by that name. It can make the customer feel that he or she is important enough for you to know them, and feeling valued is a positive feeling that people return for. It should also be obvious that talking to these customers requires the customer service employee to always be polite and courteous: say “please,” when you mean to request something like information from the customer so you may attend their needs, and say “thank you” when it is provided. While you are being polite, and calling them by their name, offer as much relevant information as you can without overloading your customer. This empowers the customer to have options to address their concerns, which the customer himself can address. It offers a feeling of involvement in solving the problem, which many customers enjoy.

Keep Help on Speed Dial

It will never be the case that you are always equipped to handle the customer’s needs. Sometimes, they will require information that is out of your hands, or they want to talk to someone in authority. When that happens, the good customer service employee knows to call upon a superior who is appropriately armed with the ability and resources to effectively address the customer’s concern. In line with this, it would be wise to familiarise yourself with the resources around the workspace you are in, and how to tap those resources for assistance when you simply don’t have the ones necessary to address the customers’ concerns.