Great customer service is a balancing act

Customer service is a real balancing act. You have to juggle incoming calls, respond to e-mail, process paperwork and make follow-up calls. But you must perform another type of balancing act to provide outstanding customer service.

“The two customer service elements that need to be in balance are the technical skills (product knowledge) and the people skills (how you treat the customer),” explains Nikki Sweet, president of Customer Service University in Wellington, Fla. “Picture a seesaw at the playground. If you put your technical skills on one end of the seesaw and your people skills at the other end, then place your customer at the very center, would the customer feel ‘balanced’?

“Being balanced and comfortable makes any customer service experience more enjoyable for both you and the customer,” Sweet explains. Use these tips to bring your service into balance:

• Understand the benefits of balance. Sweet recently worked with a high-tech company where that wasn’t the case—and the results were very dissatisfied customers, Sweet says.
  
  “The company provides customer service to the end users of its products. The support reps are highly skilled technically, able to troubleshoot problems and provide solutions. But customer surveys rated their service experiences as ‘poor’ to ‘fair’ due to the ‘attitude’ of the support reps.”
  
  Customers had no problems with the technical service they received, but they felt mistreated by abrupt and impersonal service reps. “The reps were serving from the technical side at nearly 80%, directing only 20% of their attention towards people skills such as being friendly, understanding, listening, acknowledging customers’ frustration, reassuring customers that they’d be taken care of and thanking them for calling. The customer in the middle of the “seesaw” was sliding toward the technical end, resulting in a not-so-great overall experience.”
• Warm up your people skills. Sweet advises taking these steps in every customer interaction:
  • Welcome your customers. Give each a warm greeting and a friendly smile. That’s important even when you’re on the phone.
  • Make customers feel special. Use their names during your conversations. “It makes them feel important, and they appreciate the personalized service,” Sweet points out. “Treat customers the way you’d want your family members to be treated.”
  • Be highly attentive to needs. Ask customers how you can help. Comfort them with the assurance that you will make everything OK.
  • Always thank your customers. In addition to thanking customers for their business and their patience, sincerely tell them it was a privilege to serve them.
• Sharpen your technical skills. Don’t go to the other side of the “seesaw.” If you’re cordial and caring with customers but lack the technical knowledge to help them, they will still end up dissatisfied with their overall service experience. So learn about the products you are supporting and know how they work. And make sure you can answer all the basic—and not-so-basic—questions that your customers are likely to ask.