Best Customer Service Skills to Improve in the 2020’s

Customer Service is an ever-changing field.

And more importantly, a good customer service strategy can add value to your business.

Which in turn can increase the customer retention and revenue of your business.

Today, we will go over some of the top customer service skills to have for everyone in your customer service team.

Why Good Customer Service is Important

Customer Service might seem like an afterthought for your business. But you could be making a big mistake.

Good customer service can add value to your product or service. Which can allow you to charge extra for your products due to the perceived value of your customer service.

Alternatively, good customer service can also improve your customer retention and increase your recurring revenue.

Want to learn more? Read our guide on how good customer service can help your business.

Must-have Customer Service Skills

Let’s now break down some of the top customer service skills to adopt.

Conversational Skills

Conversational skills go beyond being friendly and polite.

In the context of customer service, a good conversationalist can effectively listen and talk to the customer to identify their issue or opportunities. As sometimes the customer might not know what problem they are running into or what kind of help they need.

For example, after handing out a hot drink, a barista might hear their customer say “that’s pretty hot” and immediately offer the customer a coffee cup sleeve rather than waiting for the customer ask for it.

Pro-active conversational skills can be the key to wowing every one of your customers.

Adaptability and Quick Thinking

In the world of customer service, curveballs are extremely common.

From customers with odd requests to customers who might end up being incredibly rude.

The ability to adapt to any situation and, more importantly, know when to ask for help will be key in these kinds of situations.

At the end of the day, you’d never want to follow the wrong protocol for any given situation. Knowing how to properly approach these conversations ask for help will make the difference between good and bad customer service.

Focus on Positive Language

Focusing on positive language can also highly improve your customer service. However, this means much more than being overtly nice and cheery.

Positive language is all about re-framing the conversations to be positive. For example, re-framing conversations to be solution-focused rather than problem-focused.

A phrase such as “that’s no problem, in fact, we have multiple solutions that can easily get you back on track in no time” re-frames the conversation on how quick and easy it will be to solve their problem, rather than dwell on the problem itself.

Knowledge about the product or service

Customer Service representatives should be highly knowledgeable about your company’s products and services.

At the end of the day, your customers will see them as experts that are ready to help.

This is why in the retail fashion industry, sometimes employees are required to wear the retailer’s clothes and come up with fashionable outfit combinations to show off to customers shopping at the store.

Ideally, your customer service reps will also be power users and fans of your products and services.

Learn how to “read” the customer

A good customer service rep will also understand that not every customer is the same. As a result, they will know how to “read” the customer.

For example, you might have the customer that wants little conversation and just wants to quickly get in and out.

While on the other hand, there’s also the customer who LOVES conversation and telling you all about their day before they get to the issue at hand.

Remember, the ideal customer service experience looks very different from person to person. So there is value in quickly identifying each of these customers right out of the gate.

Willing to share insights

Customer service reps will be witnesses to infinite scenarios surrounding your customers and your products / services.

At the end of the day, your most experienced customer service reps might be the ones that best know your customer.

As a result, a good customer service rep will be willing to share these insights with the rest of the team and the company. These insights can help you develop new products or strategies to better help your customers.

Sales Skills

Sales skills are a no-brainer for any customer service rep.

After all, these reps will interact with many undecided customers that, with the proper guidance, could become long-term loyal customers.

On the other hand, great customer service reps will also identify upsell opportunities that can lead to larger purchases from existing customers.

Lastly, you should know when not to push the envelope on being sales-y. Remember, no one likes to be pressured into buying something. Balance is key.

Closing Thoughts

Honing your customer service skills can help you provide outstanding customer service.

This outstanding experience can then turn into increased revenue for your business.

And with increased customer retention, it can also extend the life of your business with more loyal customers who will often purchase from you.

Which skill will you improve first?