Customer service is the front line of any business. Customer service staff in this area are vitally important and should be carefully selected. Initial training is invaluable. A small investment at the beginning will pay dividends in the long run. Below is advice on what you should and should not do for a successful and productive customer service team.
Always Select customer service staff carefully and screen. There are thousands of motivated men and women out there who are willing to give all they've got to make a customer's contact with your business as enjoyable as possible. Take time to recruit and if necessary pay a recruitment agency to select new customer service staff for you. Experience is not always the best indicator of aptitude - attitude and vocation are everything.
Interestingly, women are often selected for exclusively telephone-based work. This is a sound practice, since studies have shown that women absorb a customer's frustration better and are less likely to provoke anger or aggression, or respond to it.
In any case, you are going to have to train your customer service staff. After an initial period of orientation, during which you will allow a newcomer as much time as he or she needs to learn about your products and company philosophy, you will need to provide specific training.
Never let a new member of customer service staff lose on customers. At times of customer service staff shortages or increased demand this is a temptation, but it is always one you will end up regretting. You could not only lose customers for poor service - worse, your reputation could be damaged. This is not something you will be able to put right, ever.
Once you have the right customer service staff, it is important to give them the right tools for the job. This may seem obvious, but it is astonishing the number of firms who do not invest enough in, for example, their telecommunications equipment. The best customer service staff in the world cannot give decent customer service if the equipment keeps cutting out. Ask your customer service team for feedback on a regular basis - a new pair of headphones is sometimes all it takes to provide proper service.
You should let your customer service staff know when they are doing things right, so that they continue to do so and teach others by example. Positive feedback is highly motivating. Perhaps you can even work out an incentive scheme. Negative feedback should be avoided, since it is de-motivating and upsetting, and likely to lead to poor performance. One way to take the heat out of negative feedback is to share the blow - perhaps you can talk to a number of customer service staff at the same time about a particular problem or set of problems.
Never keep customer service staff in the dark. They should be abreast of all new company products and policies. You should not launch new products or introduce any structural changes without fully informing the front line. This will probably mean regular production meetings with your customer service team, covering such points as new products, advertising campaigns and any physical or structural changes within the company. Schedule time for this - it will definitely pay off.
