Customer service consultants are essential players in every business and are the key to client-based success. In order to be amazing at their jobs and achieve the best relationships with the company’s clients, customer consultants need to have the right skills. And, in most cases, these skills are to be used interchangeably.
Listen and understand
Because customer consultants deal with customers and clients, it’s important that they are able to listen and understand what the customer wants and is going on about. There’s no relationship building happening when customer service is constantly speaking over the client, not addressing the actual issue or sticking to a script that goes nowhere.
When listening to client and customer feedback, you as the service consultant need to understand where they’re coming from and listen to what it is they have an issue with. It doesn’t help to get defensive, your job is to reassure them that you and the company have their best interests in mind and will come up with a solution tailored specifically to them.
Listening to your customers opens the “follow-up” communication channel where you can recall information that they’ve already relayed to you and find out if your solutions have indeed helped them. All your client wants to know is that you value the business they bring and care about their loyalty to the business… which you do.
Cool as cucumber
Dealing with clients can be a stressful and frustrating business. And as client service consultants, dealing with other departments to make sure they nail the client brief can be just as frustrating.
But a skill that client consultants need to have is the ability to remain as cool as a cucumber in those circumstances. Remember, your goal is to build and maintain client relationships. It’s hard to get that right when you lose your cool and start arguing with the client or shouting at the different departments. Bursting out like that won’t bring about the “listen and understand” elements of communication that are so necessary.
Quick thinking
Sticking to a script isn’t always going to work in the real world. There will come a conversation and situation that your training and notes haven’t exactly prepared you for. Being a quick thinker will be advantageous to you in this role and could really save quality business for the company.
What consultants also need to understand is that every client is different and will have a different way of communicating, so you cannot apply the same script rules to all of them. If anything, they should be a guideline and the rest should come from the consultant reading the client in the moment. Obviously, it’s a lot easier to be a quick thinker if you’re knowledgeable.
All-knowing
Client service needs to have all the knowledge about everything the company offers, everything about the products and services and the answers to every frequently asked question. On the spot, they should be able to call on all their knowledge and help the client in that moment.
This will ensure speedy replies to customer requests, which will build that client-to-company relationship and overall customer loyalty.
Assertiveness
But being in client service and making the client happy doesn’t mean that you have to be a pushover. Because of your knowledge of the product and of the client’s needs, you know what the client would like you to do and what should actually be done may be two different things. And, without arguing and damaging the relationship, you need to be assertive when going back to the customer and telling them your informed opinion on the whole situation.
Bring your concerns across in a way that the customer thinks it was their idea. That’s the only way “the customer is always right” actually works.
Responsibility
You are the face of the product when it comes to client complaints because you are the person they have to deal with to sort out their issues. Customer consultants are, in the eyes of the customer, responsible for their problems. And if you aren’t accustomed to the phrase “I’m sorry”, you better start getting used to it and getting used to meaning it, even though it’s technically not your fault.
Being accountable and responsible is a daily part of a service consultants job and it’s just something you need to be able to handle in a genuine manner. You don’t want the customer to think you’re mocking the concerns they’re bringing to you because you’ll lose them and earn a reputation of bad client service and management.
Time management
Addressing client and customer concerns in a timely fashion will better your rapport and reputation with them. So it’s important to have organisational and time management skills that will confirm that every client’s concerns have been seen to and solved in a realistic time frame.
