If you’re focusing all your customer support training on the customer support agents on your staff, there’s a problem. Every employee at your company needs to have the ability to help customers and ensure a better buying experience.
Here are five ways to enhance the support skills for your entire staff, so your customers will be happier:
Make Customer Support Part of the Hiring Process
With all the other personal and professional skills and talents you might be looking for in your recruits, you may want to add a few that are support related. The skills to look for include:
- Ability to empathize.
- Patience when dealing with problems.
- Use of positive language.
- Clear communication.
The simplest way to identify this skill set in new hires is to look for it on resumes, but you should also ask specific questions about their customer support experiences. Testing can also be done to determine aptitude in these areas.
Once you have the right employees, you need to nurture customer service skills continually with training and inspiration.
Educate Staff on More Than Just Products
To have a company full of employees who can provide the type of quality customer support you need to grow, you need general and specific knowledge enhanced across your entire staff. Your team needs to understand the company as a whole to best represent your brand. Try:
- Weekend retreats focused on company history and what makes you different.
- Showcasing products and services with walk-throughs (followed up by quizzes).
- Involving full staff on development of new products and services.
Develop a Company Collaboration Platform
A platform that encourages collaboration across all teams and between individuals on customer support issues makes the team more cohesive and also helps keep everyone informed. By developing a comprehensive company-wide knowledge base that's searchable, you're giving all of your staff at the chance to become better at serving your customers.
Run Customer Support Simulations
Like regular fire drills that might save the lives of your employees, running company-wide customer support simulations might save a customer relationship or two. Pose a series of devised challenges from a list of consumer profiles and see how your teams — and systems — respond. Make adjustments where necessary and repeat until you're satisfied with the quality of customer support your company is capable of providing.
Encourage Employee Input on Improving Quality of Customer Support
Encourage employee input on ways to support customers better throughout the company. Ask them to report:
- What they've learned.
- What problem areas they see.
- How they think you can all do better.
You'll gain invaluable knowledge from your employees while also showing them you're serious about improving the quality of your customer support.