The job of a Customer Care Specialist is one of those that catapults an employee into further career growth. Why is this so? Simply because in this position you will perfectly train your soft-skills, but most importantly you will learn how to communicate with people. If you’re thinking about such a job, we’ll tell you what its biggest challenges are and what the position entails.
But let’s get this out of the way. First, let’s talk about the qualities that a Customer Care Specialist must not lack:
- Patience – sometimes the people on the other end of the phone are just having a bad day and won’t always call you for a completely rational reason. They may ask you about the obvious, but don’t be put off and patiently, and most importantly, kindly help them with even the smallest things.
- Communication skills – remember that your response builds the image of the whole company. Therefore, take special care in the form of communication. Practice different forms of answers and phrases that you might find useful. If you’re still not 100% confident, there’s an easy way to build your confidence in the difficult early days, especially when communicating over the phone. Just write a few basic phrases on a piece of paper and then stick them on your wall. They will be at your disposal at all times and will serve as a crutch if you unexpectedly find yourself in a stressful situation.
- Resourcefulness – it often happens that you won’t know how to advise the person. This is where you have to call on your imagination. Don’t be afraid to go at things intuitively and certainly don’t be afraid to ask for help from your colleagues. They’ve been through more than one conversation with all sorts of customers. Therefore, they will certainly understand and be happy to help you.
- Empathy – if you hear an aggressive tone on the other end of the earpiece or email communication, don’t return it. Be polite and bear in mind that frustration is often taken out on someone other than the person who caused it. It doesn’t mean you have to get your head handed to you and be insulted. Respond firmly but empathetically. Try to reassure the other party and explain that you can solve the problem sooner.
And what are the other useful skills and knowledge of a Customer Care Specialist that you should look at?
Knowledge base
If you obtain a position as a Customer Care Specialist, it’s a good idea to make certain you get to know the system or product you will be servicing very well right from the start. This is the very first and the most important thing you need to make sure you do. Because if you don’t have a good grasp of the content, features or details of the product, it will be difficult for you to offer quality help to your customers. If your company offers the opportunity to study the product on a training module, be sure to take advantage of it and get better at using it.
Intuition
Most applications or products are designed to be intuitive to use. So don’t be afraid to use your intuition to solve your customer’s problem. Sometimes you just need to tweak something here and there or look at things from a different perspective and the solution is there.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help
In cases where your knowledge or intuition is insufficient, do not hesitate to ask your colleagues for advice. Sometimes it’s better to ask the customer for a moment of patience, explaining that you’ll ask a fellow expert in the subject, than to appear incompetent and provide poor customer service.
Learning from the experience of others
A lot of times in the position of a Customer Care Specialist it’s about the constant repetition of cases. Therefore, try to find out if there is a database or history of old conversations with the client from where you can draw guidance for solving more difficult problems. Sometimes these old cases are a good tool that often crack even the toughest nut.
The fate of a Customer Care Specialist is to work with people, and it leads to unpleasant moments in addition to the feeling of a job well done. But everything can be gained through training. If you decide to go down this route, we hope our advice will help you get off to a good start in this position.
