Excellent customer service is essential for business. In fact, consumers are willing to spend 17 percent more with companies that deliver great customer service, according to American Express.

Most customer service stories online are about a bad customer service experience, and consequently, you don’t always hear about companies who are achieving customer satisfaction. Keep scrolling to find customer service examples that will inspire, as well as tips for improving your customer experience.

The definition of “good” customer service is flexible, because it entirely depends on the level of expectation that customers have for your brand. This can be affected by variables such as your industry, product cost, brand reputation and more.

What consumers expect from your customer service experience is the key factor in whether they perceive your brand to be great or terrible. Do they want to be able to resolve issues on multiple channels, or do they go to one channel for specific problems.

Is poor customer service the main reason why they might try a competitor.

They can be proactively helpful in providing customer service that’s memorable, and turn a bad customer service experience around. Investing in great service is worth your while.

Examples of good customer service experiences are more often than not the result of a kind, customer-centric service agents who are good at the following things: There are several reasons why great customer service is important for your business.

According to Hubspot, 68 percent of consumers are willing to pay more for products and services from brands associated with excellent customer service. When you invest in delivering great customer service, you’re creating happy customers but also generating enough brand equity to charge a premium for your offering.

Your support team should be empowered to provide excellent customer service, not just for the customer’s benefit, but for your brand’s financial benefit as well. If you provide good customer service, you can convince customers to return, even if something didn’t go as they expected.

Microsoft says that a whopping 96 percent of customers believe customer service is vital when they’re choosing to be loyal to a brand. If you don’t provide customer service that meets expectations when dealing with an upset customer, you risk alienating them from returning to spend more.

Consumers who have a good customer service experience are more likely to recommend your brand to other people. Our own XM Institute found that consumers who rate a brand’s service as “good” are 38% more likely to recommend that company to others.

Below are eleven customer service examples from companies that go above and beyond, as well as the customer service tips we’ve taken from their stories. Paul Brown was flying JetBlue airlines when he casually tweeted that he couldn’t grab his Starbucks coffee before boarding the plane because he was flying out of the smaller terminal at Boston’s Logan airport.

Brown was elated and raved about JetBlue on Twitter. Good customer service takeaway: This is definitely one of those great customer examples other companies can learn from.

Your customers don’t always need large gestures, but just want to know they’re appreciated. In fact, 68 percent of customers leave because they perceive you don’t appreciate them.

Brown feels appreciated and he’ll be a loyal customer for a long time. Keep your company at the top of your customer’s mind, with good customer care by doing small acts for more people, instead of a few large things for a lot of people.

Tesla literally meets customers where they’re at by going to the customer’s home and fixing issues on their car. It’s convenient for the customer because they don’t have to sit around a repair shop and it can be scheduled on their own time.

Good customer service takeaway: While you can’t always physically meet customers where they’re at, you can use omni-channel feedback and multiple customer support options to allow customers to contact your support team in the way that’s most convenient for them. Customers value time and convenience, and as evidenced by Tesla’s high prices, will even pay more for it.

Flat tire on Sunday. Called Tesla, git a loaner tire within 40 minutes.

scheduled to come back to fix a small issue next week. What other car company does this.

— Chris Kern (@cjk7216) October 31, 2018.

The tweet contained a video of a puppy stampede as a distraction and lightened the mood. While there were some comments asking when the program would be running again, many replies focused on the adorable puppies.

Many customers know technology doesn’t work 100 percent of the time and appreciate it when you apologise for making a mistake. In this case, also making it lighthearted helped.

An 89-year-old man was stuck in his house during a snowstorm and his granddaughter was worried he wouldn’t have enough food. She called around to several grocery stores and asked if they would deliver, to no avail.

She read off a big list to the store and they delivered the entire order and more within 30 minutes, free of charge. Good customer service takeaway: Just like the story of Chick-fil-a handing out sandwiches to stranded motorists during an Atlanta snowstorm, this story ended up going viral.

People love championing companies that help the underdog and those in need. It shows corporate responsibility and that the company truly cares about its customers.

Since 1984, Coke has given back more than $1 billion through the Coca-Cola Foundation. What’s great is they give back at the local level and not just to large organizations.

Good customer service takeaway: Millennials in particular want to do business with companies that have similar social values and use their resources to give back to those in need. By donating to social causes, you can burnish your brand’s reputation and gain millennials’ trust.

Zappos responds to every email it receives, even if it’s addressed to the CEO. In this case, a woman sent a request to Tony Hsieh and even though he was unavailable, his representative sent a humorous and engaging email back.

A response demonstrates that you value them as customers and care about their needs. As a bonus, Zappos also gives tours of their headquarters to show their loyal fans a taste of what goes on behind the scenes.

During many conferences that we attend, we send our “Qualtrics Dream Team” to fulfill customers’ needs and wishes to make the event a truly exceptional experience. From food and drinks, to swag, to even vacations and massages, our team tries to fulfill as many requests as possible.

Good customer service takeaway: Today’s customers don’t just want products or services, they want unique experiences that they can’t get anywhere else. Customers want to be delighted at every touchpoint, and anytime you can go the extra mile to make it even more special, you’ll gain loyalty.

I think our example would be stronger if we had something like that.

It often represents the first and last contact customers have with your business, highlighting why good customer service isn’t sufficient – excellence is key. It involves more than just timely and pleasant support.

Excellent customer service is essential for your business to stand out and succeed in today’s highly competitive environment.

Observe your competition’s customer service. Chances are, you can outdo them, gaining more business and loyal customers.

Your customer service team is your company’s face and should focus on maintaining good relationships and serving with integrity. Effective communication is crucial.

This includes explaining issues and solutions and handling customers with varying communication skills. Support teams often deal with irate or unsure customers.

Sometimes, excellent customer service means being informative. Customers need to understand what your business offers and why it benefits them.

First impressions in customer service are often the only ones. Being friendly, respectful, and sincere is crucial for every customer interaction.

They show continued concern for customer satisfaction and can turn negative experiences into positive ones. Proper training is the only way to ensure excellent customer service.

Thorough product and service knowledge are essential. Continuous reinforcement and support for your team are crucial for maintaining excellent customer service standards.

Excellent customer service goes beyond standard politeness and courtesy.

Keep the simple principle of treating others as you would like to be treated as the foundation of your management practices. Share these tips with your employees and display them in common areas like break rooms.

We connect people with answers. Updated December 11th, 2023.

Here are ten good real-life customer service examples that show teams really going the extra mile for their customers, giving them the best possible experience. In this exceptional customer service example, a customer wrote to the HomeServe contact centre to ask whether he could reduce the price of his policy at renewal.

With this in mind, the advisor decided that she wanted to do more, so she talked to members of the team who were in charge of looking after HomeServe’s vulnerable customers as part of the company’s “CustomerFirst” initiative. Together, the team decided to mark the occasion by giving the customer a free HomeServe Cover8 policy for life.

But her kindness didn’t end there. As well as sending him a “Random Act of Kindness” card, she also arranged with CustomerFirst for a birthday card to be sent to him.

The advisor had taken HomeServe’s “Dare to Care” initiative to a whole new level. Great customer stories like this are displayed on HomeServe’s contact centre walls.

For more from HomeServe, read our article: 12 Ideas Taken From HomeServe’s Contact Centre. To create the best possible experience, FatFace’s contact centre holds close ties with other departments, including marketing, creative and design.

One example of how these relationships enabled a FatFace team member to go the extra mile was when a customer contacted the organisation to say that even though she loved a FatFace blouse that she had recently bought, she was self-conscious about wearing it. This was because of her recent mastectomy.

The design team were then able to create some specialised scarves that the customer could wear with the blouse and hide any sign of her recent operation. Thrilled with the outcome, the customer got in touch with the contact centre and thanked the team for their efforts, compassion and support.

This is a thank-you card that was sent to FatFace’s contact centre. Thanks to the Contact Centre Team at FatFace.

In this example, a customer purchased a portable mini-speaker from an online store and opted to collect it from the warehouse at the weekend. En-route to the warehouse, she realised she had her times wrong.

Realising she was still 15 minutes away at 11:55, the customer tried to phone the contact centre. There was no answer and so the customer resigned herself to her mistake.

It was the call centre. They’d picked up a dropped call and wondered if they could assist.

The call centre advisor confirmed that this was true. However, the advisor didn’t leave it there.

They would.

Twice during this time, the advisor had phoned back to find out if the customer was getting there accurately. She even helped with directions when the customer got lost.

The warehouse man was waiting outside with the package. He greeted the customer with a smile and when she thanked him for staying and waiting for her, his response was: “It’s a pleasure.

The exceptional customer service didn’t stop there. The advisor called back a third time to ensure the customer had been able to collect her package.

Thanks to Carolyn Blunt at Ember. To find out more about this, read our article: An Example of Great Customer Service.

This was certainly the case for an advisor at Sure Petcare’s contact centre. The advisor in question spoke to client, who was unable to retrofit the replacement part of a product sent to her by Sure Petcare.

Realising the customer’s trouble finding somebody to help her, the advisor called around and found a local handyman and covered the cost to upgrade the product for the customer. In addition, the advisor took ownership of the customer’s issue and covered the customer’s bill for the handyman.

Thanks to Sarah Metcalfe at Sure Petcare. Sometimes, it’s not just about an individual advisor going the extra mile for the customer, but a customer service team coming together in the best interests of the customer.

LV did just that for a customer whose family had lost a number of precious items in a fire. For the customer, one of the items was a signed album by the band James.

Find the original tweet by clicking here. When writing a letter to a customer, it is a nice touch to do it by hand.

However, a handwritten letter is a great way of personalising a service to each individual customer and show them that they are valued. When a Delta Air Lines flight was diverted to an alternative destination due to heavy snowfall, the company responded by sending a personalised apology email to passengers.

Find the original tweet by clicking here. Charlie Mitchell.

This email was met with a great response by the airline’s understandably frustrated passengers. One such passenger, David Mortensen, tweeted: “@Delta just another example to appreciate great customer service.

#gracious”. Thanks to Charlie Mitchell at Call Centre Helper.

When the customer nervously called up to make a complaint, the advisor could tell by his tone of voice that this was not something he’d decided on flippantly, he was genuinely distressed.

The advisor then made it their responsibility to try to reassure and make amends with this customer. They took an account of what had happened at the centre and used their fact-finding skills to successfully deduce who had handled the customer sign-up.

The customer stated that using the gym facilities was one of the only recreational activities he had the confidence to do due to his anxiety over his stammer. He also said that he had been a “pay as you go” customer for a while and had tried to sign up to a membership, as he was gaining more confidence and was attending more frequently.

The customer called through a few days later and asked specifically to speak to the same advisor. He thanked them and also said that the manager at the centre had personally apologised to him and he had since been made to feel very welcome during his visits to the centre.

Upon receiving the request, it was obvious that the customer felt he had been misled by the information given to him by an advisor. On first glance of the complaint, it seemed that the advisor was indeed in the wrong, but when the company looked into this further, it was an unavoidable technical error with the driver’s Sat-Nav that caused the non-delivery of his very important parcel.

Mandy Holford. Once the company got to the bottom of this, after speaking with the depot and driver, the original advisor organised for the customer to receive the delivery on the same d.

When you think about your best customer service experience, what comes to mind.

Or that time you called customer support and the agent sympathised with you, then went out of their way to fix the issue. An excellent customer experience can change the way customers think about a company.

Great customer service means meeting customer expectations—from interacting with customers over messaging channels because they expect convenience to investing in your knowledge base because they expect to find answers on their own.

*The Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2021.

But there is so much bad CX out there, that to stand out, all you need to do is meet customer expectations,” says Ben Motteram, CX expert and founder of CXpert. “There is so much bad CX out there, that to stand out, all you need to do is meet customer expectations.” Ben Motteram, CX expert and founder of CXpert.

A good place to start is by understanding what customers expect—in 2021, that is speed, convenience, and friendliness. What are three important qualities of good customer service.

It might not surprise you to learn that the top answer is: I can resolve my problem quickly.

Not quite. The second most-popular answer is:

This is followed closely by…. The agent was friendly.

It is one thing to aim to deliver good customer service. But unless your competitors deliver bad customer service, you will need to go further to stand out.

For many companies, good customer service just is not good enough. Here is how to step up your customer service from good to truly excellent.

But it is not always that simple. Maybe they have already tried calling your toll-free number and had a long wait time.

People pick channels based on how quickly they want a response and how complex their problem is. Customers want to connect with you on the same channels they use to talk to friends and family.

Customers want to connect with you on the same channels they use to talk to friends and family. Your agents need to be able to handle questions by phone, email, messaging, live chat, social media and more.

For example, suppose a customer starts with live chat, but the issue becomes too complicated to be discussed via chat. In that situation, you want your agents to be able to easily transition to a phone call.

Companies that offer omnichannel support:.

That starts with empathy, which means putting the customer at the center of everything you do and being driven to help them—not seeing them as an annoyance to handle, but as the hero of your story. It is a crucial customer service skill.

“In 2021, we will see customers expecting companies to continue to be more empathic and flexible than they have been in the past. Organisations need to invest in empathy training and empower agents with well-defined delegations that allow them to go outside of policies to deliver satisfactory solutions.”.

Customer-centric companies are on the rise and they look for people who are driven to deliver a truly great customer experience. It is a profitable strategy: Companies with a truly customer-centric culture are 60 percent more profitable compared to companies that do not.

Zappos is so devoted to customers that its number-one core value is to “Deliver WOW through service.” The idea is infused into everything the company does: Customer centricity is a business strategy that puts customers at the center of everything.

Companies with a customer-centric culture are 60 percent more profitable than companies that are not. Businesses that want to be customer-centric need to commit to putting people first.

Truly customer-focused organisations collect customer feedback in every channel and share that information across the company to help guide business decisions. Your customer’s experience is just as important (if not more so) than the product or service you are selling them.

When things do not go as planned, your customer might let you hear about it. And now one issue has become two: fixing the original problem and trying to turn an angry customer into a happy one.

Proactive customer service is what happens when a business takes the initiative to help a customer before the customer contacts them for help. It means trying to resolve problems at the first sign of trouble.

As the company grew, it became challenging to keep up with customer requests, which came in mainly via an email ticketing system. Since implementing Zendesk Chat, Feed has been able to improve support through proactive chat.

Each chat is a sales opportunity—generating over €180,000 in revenue. “By engaging with customers as they browse the store or read on the blog, we are able to provide targeted support and solve their problems in real-time,” said Aurore Galland, customer support happiness manager at Feed.

There are big benefits to delivering proactive customer service: Sixty-seven percent of customers are willing to pay more for a great experience, according to the Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report.

The truth is, most customers today expect a highly customized experience: They want a company to know who they are, what they have purchased in the past, and even what their preferences are. They also expect you to remember all this information—they do not want to repeat themselves.

This approach is working. “In a time period where the broader apparel and accessories market saw sales decline 80 percent, we delivered $372 million in net revenue,” Stitch Fix Founder and CEO Katrina Lake said in a statement to investors.

The truth is, your customers already expect highly personalised service. And while consumers are often reluctant to share personal information, 83 percent of buyers are willing to give companies their data if they think it will lead to more personalisation, according to research by Accenture.

If you share their data without explicit permission or use it in a way they did not intend, you will be breaking your customer’s trust. And once broken, trust is hard for brands to regain.

Millennials and Gen Z, in particular, often prefer channels that lend themselves to immediate responses: With older generations, it is no surprise that consumer preference leans toward more traditional methods like phone, email and in-store interactions.

Exceeding expectations means keeping pace with customers. That might mean creating something like an automated response for messaging or email to say, “We got your question and we are looking into it.” Similarly, it means quickly calling back a customer who leaves a message.

Customers want fast service. That much is cl.

Common customer service interview questions include those questions that explore the job candidate’s understanding and knowledge of the principles and practice of customer service help and customer support. The prospective employer wants to know that you have the right approach to providing good customer service.

Customer service interview questions like this come up regularly in interviews for all types of customer service jobs.

This is one of the customer service interview questions you really need to prepare a proper answer for.

Good customer service is more than just a friendly smile and an offer of help – every aspect of the customer’s experience should be included. It is about taking the extra step, making the extra effort at every customer touch-point.

This is often followed up with the interview question “Why should we hire you. “.

This question requires a prepared mission statement that sums up your approach to customer service. For example:

This is a very common customer service interview question so be ready with a well considered answer. Have some good workplace examples ready to back up your interview answer and show how you walk the walk when it comes to your customer service philosophy.

Interviewers like to ask this customer service interview question because it explores the candidate’s understanding of how to quantify good customer service in a business context.

How to Provide Good Customer Service. You can expect a number of behavioral interview questions in your customer service job interview.

These can be tricky and need some thought and preparation. We show you how to answer frequently asked behavioral customer service interview questions.

What you need to know about the customer service job interview before your next interview. Customer Service Interview Guide.

Behavioral Interview Questions. Tell me about yourself.

What are your strengths.

Top 10 Interview Questions. Have some good questions prepared to ask the interviewer.

When the interviewer asks “Have you any questions for me. ” make sure you are ready with a couple of insightful questions.

Communication is key to getting the customer service job. You can find excellent interview communication tips here.

Customer Service Resume. Customer Service Manager Resume.

Customer Service Cover Letter. Customer Service Resume Objective Examples.

Think back to a time you had a bad experience with a brand. Maybe they lost your order, or a representative was rude to you when you asked for help.

Do you have a moment in mind.

Those memories can be easy to recall because, well, they stick. According to a study from the Association for Psychological Science, we’re more likely to remember bad experiences over the good1—meaning that one bad customer service story has the potential to undo all your good work and outweigh any positive service received before or after.

Were you reluctant to buy from them again. Did you consider switching over to a competitor.

Maybe you took it a step further to tell your friends and family about the awful experience you had, warning them to stay away. Unfortunately for businesses, this isn’t uncommon—and it’s costing them.

So, what can you do to prevent bad customer service. Read on to find out:

Get strategies for every stage of the customer journey with this free eBook.

Poor customer service happens anytime your business fails to meet a customer’s expectations. It could be the quality of service your customer received, how long it takes for you to answer their phone call, or just their overall experience with your brand.

While these certainly are instances of bad service, sometimes negative experiences come from something as simple—and as easily preventable—as a poorly implemented customer service software or a customer service strategy that wasn’t properly thought through. Here are just some of the side effects of consistently bad customer service over time:

Let’s explore some examples from real companies.

Bad customer service can take many forms. Here are five of the most common examples—and tips on how you can avoid them while retaining more customers.

The list of platforms that customers are using to ask questions, issue complaints, or ask for help is growing every day. From traditional customer service channels, like phone calls and email, to “newer” platforms, like social media, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to customer service.

But if your service reps aren’t managing those platforms and looking for questions or concerns regularly, a customers’ needs could go ignored. By the time you see their message, they’ve already moved on to a competitor.

Just having a customer service phone line isn’t going to cut it. But rather than hopping between Facebook messages and Twitter DMs while managing email overload, you could just consolidate all of these messages into one contact center platform.

It also lets you connect with customers on their channel of choice, allowing you to see every past message for a customer, whether it was on email, a phone call, or social media. Not only does this speed up your response time, it also allows different people on your team to pick up on a conversation smoothly—even if they’ve never spoken to that customer before.

Live chat has been a great addition to customer service strategies. It makes it easy for the customer to connect with you, they don’t have to deal with long hold times, and you can efficiently respond to multiple customers at once.

But too often, chat service agents aren’t equipped to handle more complex customer support questions. They give cookie-cutter solutions that don’t always work, and get caught up when the customer can’t find a solution—leaving everyone frustrated.

Rather than trying to help the customer solve their problem, they insist they wait 30 minutes, hoping it resolves itself (or the customer’s issue will be another agent’s problem). Half an hour later, you’ve got an angry customer on your hands.

They’re given guides to follow, but when the steps laid out for them don’t work, they’re not actually familiar enough with the material to be able to recommend an alternative. You can avoid this by supporting your team with virtual training sessions and equipping them with a contact center solution with features like live chat:

RingCentral’s Live Chat feature allows you to add a chat feature to your website and route messages to relevant agents to respond to. Using AI, you can ensure each message lands in front of the right support agent who can then appropriately answer questions or address concerns.

Put yourself in this customer’s shoes: You call a business you recently ordered from to check the status of your shipment.

You go through the steps of explaining your situation, answering their questions, and giving them personal information so they can help you out. But they tell you they’re not the right person to talk to (after going through all this information, of course), and they’ll direct you to the right person.

They transfer your call and the cycle continues. You’re probably feeling frustrated just imagining this scenario.

Not only is that just an awful example of failed customer service teamwork, a whopping 70% of respondents in our survey of consumers said that being transferred and having to repeat themselves is “very annoying,”—outranked only by having to wait too long on hold:.

If you have different teams focusing on different channels or new reps monitoring for customer concerns, you’re going to need to transfer customers around until they find the right support team. This creates confusion for you—and frustration for customers.

When each team is equipped to respond on every channel, support agents trained in each specific area can answer questions or provide service regardless of where the customer is asking—meaning fewer transfers and less repetition.

This is a pretty basic customer service skill, but it can be difficult to master. It isn’t just about “using positive language”—there are other nuances, like making the effort to personalize the conversation even though a lot of resolutions to customer service questions are scripted.

Hiring empathetic team members needs to be the first step. If your customer service agents aren’t naturally empathetic, it can be more difficult for them to naturally apply it to support conversations with customers.

Empathy exercises can improve listening skills, understanding, and problem-solving. One of the fundamental things you can do to show empathy in a conversation, other than listening and trying to understand what the customer needs, is to pepper in indications that you’re paying attention, such as “I completely understand…” and “I know where you’re coming from…” to show that you’re paying attention to and acknowledging what they’re saying.

An informative, yet empathetic response, can go a long way in reducing frustration and creating a better environment to positively support the customer. The message above is actually not even super personalized, but the addition of an emoji and well-placed exclamation point makes the tone more “human.” Adding these little elements can go a long way in creating positive experiences for the customer when using workflow automations.

When a customer is stressed, confused, or frustrated, they’re probably anxious to find a solution to their problem. It doesn’t help if they have to wait for you to pick up the phone (learn more about first call resolution standards) or respond to their message.

Customer service is the direct one-on-one interaction between a consumer and a company representative. The interaction is commonly done when a consumer is buying a product or service from the company.

The option to speak to a live customer service agent is considered necessary for most businesses even though the bulk of customer care is automated. Customer service is also considered a key aspect of servant-leadership.

Investopedia / Jessica Olah. Behind the scenes at most companies are people who never meet or greet the people who buy their products.

The buyers’ perceptions of the company and the product are shaped in part by their experience in dealing with that person. This is why many companies work hard to increase their customer satisfaction levels.

Successful small business owners understand the need for good customer service instinctively. Larger businesses study the subject in-depth, and they have some basic conclusions about the key components:.

There are many reasons why businesses should invest in (good) customer service. The following are just some of the main benefits of implementing a customer service program within a company:.

Rather, it needs to be effective in order to help reap the benefits. But before we look at how to be effective, it’s important to explore bad customer service.

Bad customer service is any communication or experience where a consumer feels as though they are let down. This includes negative experiences, such as long wait or hold times, not being able to speak to an agent, being transferred many times, or not being heard.

So how can this be turned around. There are a few key traits that businesses can apply to their customer service to make it a better experience.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projected customer service representative job growth decline by 4% between 2021 and 2031. Studies of customer service have centered on creating the perfect online experience.

Today’s customers expect to get service through whatever app or device they happen to be using at the moment. That may be a mobile device or a laptop, a social media site, a text app, or live chat.

Once again, the focus has been on packaging how-to content and related resources that are designed for self-service. Increasingly sophisticated data analytics also are being used to identify dissatisfied or low-engagement customers.

There are a number of different channels to deliver customer service. Many companies use more than one way for consumers to reach them, especially larger ones.

And in the age of social media, it’s become even easier to get in touch with businesses to get questions answered and problems resolved.

For decades, businesses in many industries have sought to reduce personnel costs by automating their processes to the greatest extent possible.

But in the end, there are customer service issues for which human interaction is indispensable, creating a competitive advantage.

It has to, given that it delivered 4.75 billion packages to customers in the United States in 2021. Nevertheless, Amazon still offers 24-hour customer service by phone, in addition to email and live chat services.

Most successful businesses recognize the importance of providing outstanding customer service. Courteous and empathetic interaction with a trained customer service representative can mean the difference between losing or retaining a customer.

The average annual salary for a customer service representative as of July 21, 2023. Much is expected of customer service representatives.

The average salary in 2021 was about $36,920, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Customer service is a very important part of the business structure. Having a good customer service plan in place contributes to sales, increases brand loyalty, generates referrals, helps retain customers, and provides businesses with a competitive advantage over others in the same industry.

They’re also very good at problem solving and being proactive. It’s important for them to have a level of professionalism, which means that when things get heated, they can take a step back and don’t take anything to heart.

It’s also important for customers to feel as though their concerns and problems are valid and that they’re being accommodated. Being proactive, not taking anything personally, and following up are also some examples of good customer service.

Putting in a good plan with the right people, proper training, and appropriate channels can lead to more sales, customer loyalty, and referrals. Even though things may be moving in the right direction, corporations shouldn’t rest on their laurels.

When was the last time you provided good customer service.

Good is mediocre. When was the last time you provided GREAT customer service.

Most companies don’t prioritize customer service. Yet, Zappos built a billion dollar empire by delivering excellent customer service.

“Our purpose is simple: to live and deliver WOW.”. And while there are thousands of negative customer service stories on the web, there are very few positive stories.

What is good customer service.

Did you know that 68% of consumers would react by telling family and friends about a bad experience by posting it on a social network.

And as each Facebook profile has an average of 338 friends , one negative experience can quickly reach thousands.

According to the recent Achieving Customer Amazement report, 1 in 4 customers is willing to pay up to 10% more in almost every industry if they receive excellent customer service.

Plus, 96% of consumers consider customer service to be a crucial factor when deciding whether to remain loyal to a particular brand. Increased sales and customers is one of the benefits.

The worst thing you can do to a customer is ignore them if they try to contact you. Here’s 3 additional benefits of customer service.

Happy customers are less likely to stop doing business with you. Plus, if they’re loyal, they will spend more.

Good customer service is good marketing.

However, if someone is happy with the service you provide, they can influence their network to visit, shop or buy from you.

What kind of feedback do they share with you. And how can you improve your product or service.

Without customer service, you’re just guessing. With customer service, you have the answers.

How you communicate with customers differs from company to company.

Great customer service happens in all channels – email, social, SMS, chat and phone.

High quality support.

Here’s the 6 channels you need to know about.

Here are seven ways to stand out from the crowd to help you deliver excellent customer service. Let’s get started.

One of the biggest factors in good customer service is speed, especially when a client is requesting something that’s time sensitive. Several years ago, STELLAService conducted a response time report and found that the average email response time for the top 100 retail companies was 17 hours.

Meanwhile Frost reported that 41% of consumers surveyed listed being put on hold as their biggest frustration.

Don’t leave customers waiting.

Instead of having to sit in a waiting room watching their cars being worked on, their customers were given a brand new Lexus instead. But what if you created an environment where customers wanted to be kept waiting.

Hear me out (thanks to Lena Bomko for sharing this on LinkedIn). Richard Branson knows a thing or two about customer service.

No one wants to hear – “Your call is important to us” and then have to wait an hour. Instead of that message, Virgin experimented with the following:

I’m the owner of the airline. Now all operators are busy.

Let’s proceed as follows:. After 18 seconds, if no one answers, you will receive a discount of £450.

Instead of the customer being annoyed at waiting for more than 30 seconds – the opposite effect happens. Now, they hope the operator doesn’t answer.

We’ll never know – the results weren’t released publicly. That is how you turn a negative customer service experience into a positive one.

By using SuperOffice Service.

Book a demo here.

Customers love personalization. Get to know your customers, remember their names and previous conversations.

In January 2020, Starbucks launched their “Every name’s a story” campaign focusing on improving relationships with their customers. The award winning campaign promotes inclusivity, recognition and acceptance at Starbucks stores across the world.

Not taking responsibility for your mistakes is a sure fire way to getting a bad reputation. Transparency is important in business and customer service is no different.

An Amazon customer ordered a new PlayStation for his son for Christmas. When the shipping company delivered the parcel, the customer was away and had a neighbor sign for the package.

When the customer realized what had happened, he was left in complete shock.

The Customer Success team at Amazon showed great empathy here towards the customer. Rather than sticking to their refund policy, they chose to do good.

Listening to your customers will not only result in an indebted and happy customer, it can also go a long way in terms of keeping yourself on their radar for future business. A three year old named Lily Robinson wrote a letter to Sainsbury’s, a UK grocery store, asking why ‘tiger bread was called tiger bread and not giraffe bread.

Lily was clearly onto something, as the bread really does look like a giraffe print.

But, to Lily’s surprise, Chris King, the customer service manager of Sainsbury’s responded with “I think renaming it to giraffe bread is a brilliant idea. ”.

How’s that for appreciating your customers.

Here’s what he had to say on the topic.

By keeping customers happy, they will be loyal and through word of mouth, will do the marketing for you. In fact, according to author Pete Blackshaw, a satisfied customer tells at least three friends (whereas an angry customer tells 3,000.

Peter Shankman, author and business consultant, was ready to board a flight before tweeting “Hey, @Mortons – can you meet me at Newark airport with a porterhouse when I land in two hours. K, thanks.

A fun attempt at humor, right.

He never expected anything after he sent that Tweet.. But, as soon as Peter landed, a gentleman wearing a tuxedo was holding a bag that contained a porterhouse steak, shrimp, potatoes, napkins and silverware.

Would you travel 23 miles to provide one of the most legendary stories on customer service.

Julija Ražanskienė, Support Manager at SuperOffice since 2016, knows all about balancing short-term support metrics with a genuine passion for building long-term relationships with customers.

Giving customers personalized service is a great way to show them that you care about their business.

For example, if you have an online store, you can suggest products based on their previous purchases or what they’ve been looking at and searching for on the web.

The retail industry is notorious for bad customer service. Many of the published stories on customer service have to do with poor worker-to-customer communication.

Before we dive into examples of good customer service, it’s important to understand what good customer service actually is. In short, good customer service is all about providing timely, attentive, and pleasant service to customers.

As we look at various examples of good customer service across different companies and industries, you’ll notice that they all share 3 important qualities of customer service. They are:

This means that customer support reps, agents, and retail staff display a positive and professional attitude to everyone they interact with.

Great customer service requires patience, understanding, and flexibility to deal with varying situations.

Ok, now that we all know what good customer service means and the qualities it includes, let’s take a look at some common examples of good customer service skills in different situations. Good customer service skills at a high level can come naturally to some.

Excellent customer service skills are rooted in your businesses’ detailed definition of customer service. To define excellent customer service skills, think about the key messaging and values that your company revolves around.

It’s true that some employees will be inherently good at customer service. Employees that are great communicators and problem-solvers are the ones to look out for when interviewing.

Excellent customer service starts with effective, enjoyable training. If employees can’t embrace learning customer service skills, they’re not going to execute those skills properly to customers.

With tools like Lessonly by Seismic, you can deliver training prior to on-site training to have employees prepared to perform. Furthermore, you can assess the learning of individuals and deliver ongoing training along the way — all on a digital platform.

From a high-level customer service duties course to a lesson on customer service phone tips. Learners can reference back to the material on a whim with any mobile device.

A customer service skills list that consists of actions and reactions or FAQs and responses is a great cheat sheet for employees to refer to. It’s necessary to note that retention doesn’t come from learning something once.

On some learning platforms you can schedule certain lessons at a cadence weekly, monthly, or annually to keep employees refreshed on information. If a lesson needs updating between then, the updates are saved automatically and the scheduling will not be affected.

information is retained and relevant experience is gained. When it comes to creating great learning, we provide a platform that enables you to incorporate a mix of media.

Besides the standard customer service training examples, sprinkle some fun into your learning. For example, throw in some customer service quotes throughout the lesson.

These retail quotes can reinforce brand values and make an employee feel recognized for their knowledge. Be sure to define good customer service for your team and provide real-life examples in training.

Use simple scenarios to display how good customer service examples can quickly become bad customer service examples. When your employees are performing examples of good customer service, those actions echo throughout a company.

Here are some good customer service examples that set the bar for retail brands. These great customer service stories set the bar for competitors.

Whether you’re managing a team for a retail call center or not, providing excellent customer service over the phone is a big factor in today’s definition of amazing customer service. Call center customer service tips or retail customer service tips should be a briefing of all the takeaways from employee training.

Great training has a lasting impact on consistent, excellent customer service, and is the first step to define excellent customer service skills throughout a business. Good customer service examples are challenging to find.

There even seems to be a consistent group of companies with good customer service skills that deliver an exceptional experience for most customers. We’ve found a few companies with effective customer service that are worth mentioning.

Every employee at Chick-fil-A possesses good customer service skills and they regularly go the extra mile to ensure an excellent customer service experience. In fact, the employees were rated the most polite in the food industry.

Put the customer experience at the forefront of every touchpoint, and the company will be easily distinguishable from the rest. Countless customer service examples are born out of this supermarket specializing in organic produce.

Trader Joe’s shows us that in saturated industries, like supermarkets, delivering a good customer service experience is key to earning brand loyalty. Why would any consumer buy a pair of shoes online.

Zappos knew the answer was good customer service skills. The company pioneered an entire industry through examples of good customer service situations.

Zappos employees build relationships with consumers through every customer service experience and this leads to extreme brand loyalty. In the digital age, one bad service complaint can forever hinder a company’s branding image.

And too often, companies undermine the value of a good customer service experience. They build incredible products but forget that’s only half of the battle.

Converting new customers is far more expensive than keeping existing ones. Companies like Apple are incredibly successful because of brand loyalty.

Effective customer service will payout in the long run. Plus, it’ll keep customers away from competitors.

The result. Happier customers and a customer service team that does better work.

When customers are so pleased with their customer service experience, they’ll recommend the company to their friends. Eventually, these references which are created from good customer service skills, not products, will turn into new business.

These customer service stories and examples don’t have to be fiction. You can make them a reality for your organization with customer service training.

Want to see how. Get a demo to learn more.

When managing a business, there’s never a shortage of work to be done. Whether you’re focused on sales numbers, marketing strategies, or internal organization, there’s always something that you and your team can be doing to improve.

Should I be adjusting my customer support hours. Should I be hiring more customer-facing employees.

Answering any of these questions isn’t easy. However, combined, the real concern is where to focus first, begging the question “What are the 3 important qualities of customer service.

Essentially, the 3 important qualities of customer service center around three “p”s: professionalism, patience, and a “people-first” attitude. Although customer service varies from customer to customer, as long as you’re following these guidelines, you’re on the right track.

Here, we’ll break down the 3 important qualities of customer service in more detail. We’ll also touch on a few leaders in customer service, so you can follow in their lead if you’re unsure what high-quality customer service should look like.

To get an idea of why the three “P”s matter, first, let’s break down what they are. The first “P,” professionalism, refers to the attitude you take towards your customers.

The second “P,” patience, means remembering that every customer is different. Even though there are obviously some common “do”s and “don’t”s, each customer learns at a different pace and may respond to a common practice in a way you didn’t expect.

Finally, the third “P,” a people-first attitude, builds off of professionalism and patience. With this attitude in mind, your customer service strategy should reinforce the idea of human connection.

It’s the relationship you make with the customer.

That way, you won’t just know what you “should” do. You’ll also know how to confidently turn each insight into action.

First and foremost, let’s look at professionalism. Of the 3 important qualities of customer service, professionalism is arguably the most basic and the first one we’re expected to demonstrate when entering the workplace.

Below are the most important components of professionalism in customer service.

From the outside, professionalism first means staying calm and collected at all times. If a customer is upset about a product, an experience with an employee, or simply the situation at hand, it can be easy to get defensive and respond to their complaints with the same tone and volume.

Keeping calm, on the other hand, provides reassurance that their concern is solvable and that you’re there to help.

In retail environments, for example, there are countless examples of employees calming a disgruntled customer. During a recent trip to the grocery store, for instance, I saw a customer complaining loudly about a missing product.

She also insisted that it was the fault of the employee in front of her, despite the fact that he appeared to be the deli manager, not a member of the stock team. Nevertheless, despite her attitude and raised voice, he remained calm and walked her to the store’s customer service desk, assuring her throughout the walk that she would receive a raincheck and be given the sale price once the item was back in stock.

Ultimately, because the deli manager was so cool and matter-of-fact, the customer visibly relaxed and left the store with her problem solved. Likewise, in your own business, exercising the 3 important qualities of customer service means staying calm and solving problems.

You also present your brand in a professional manner, making them more likely to return, even if their needs can’t immediately be met.

As a rule, empower every employee to make decisions below a certain dollar amount. The “right” dollar amount will depend on your business model and approximate lifetime value of a customer, but somewhere between $20 and $100 is probably right.

It’s not worth anyone’s time to elevate that complaint to another person — and, it’s certainly not worth losing a customer (even if it’s a Crazy Karen. ) because she’s frustrated that it took “speaking to a manager” to solve the complaint.

Speaking of bad experiences, professionalism in customer service also involves seeing every experience as a learning opportunity. Like an argument with a friend or family member, experiences with tough customers usually stem from both sides of the situation.

Look for that reason and focus on how to solve it so you can prevent similar confrontations in the future.

It’s not always easy, but there is always a way to take a negative experience and spin it into a chance to learn and improve. Below are a few examples to kickstart your positivity.

At the end of the day, the key to seeing bad experiences as opportunities is remembering that, with each unhappy customer, you’re there to help mend the professional relationship. In other words, practicing the 3 important qualities of customer service doesn’t just mean turning a contentious situation into a calm one.

The last component of professionalism is a simple one: treating your employees just as well as your customers. For many business owners, it’s easy to get into the “eye on the prize” mindset and focus on customers above all else.

At that point, if employees are unhappy, they can no longer help customers be happy. Essentially, the business owner built the entire customer service strategy on a cracked foundation.

Google, for example, has consistently received praise for its company culture and the benefits they offer their employees. In addition to the standard perks, such as health insurance and 401Ks, these benefits include rare amenities such as free food, dog-friendly offices, and an onsite fitness center.

Because of these benefits, Google has not only grown dramatically over the last two decades. It’s also more than doubled its customer satisfaction ratings and grown its annual revenue from $1.5 billion in 2003 to $280 billion in 2022.

In the same way, whether you’re a giant in your niche, like Google, or a mom-and-pop shop, exemplary customer service on the front end of your business is only possible when there’s an exemplary work environment behind the scenes. Remember, happy employees create happy customers.

Well, that just about wraps up the “professionalism” aspect of the three “P”s. Next up in the 3 important qualities of customer service is the second “P’: patience.

Although it’s not always explicitly stated, it’s one of the key components of any interaction with a customer and, without it, a calm interaction can quickly become problematic. Consequently, the importance of patience – with yourself, your team members, and your customers – cannot be understated.

One way to show patience with customers is by being flexible with company protocols. Although it’s undeniably a good rule of thumb to have general service guidelines for yourself and your team, sometimes a customer may require a helping hand to achieve the same experience you provide for the average customer.

Susan Greene, a copywriter from Orlando, recently shared an experience in which a Publix Super Market employee did just that. In Green’s words, the experience went as follows:.

One time, all those carts were in use and my niece was disappointed to find she’d have to ride in one of the plain carts. Without our knowing it,.

Think of the best customer experience you ever had as a client. If you really can recall one, you’re in the lucky few.

You have a question, you get an answer and that’s it. Now, imagine you’ve reached out to some company’s support team and got the following answer:

The story got popular on Reddit which led to a trip to Netflix headquarters, a TV interview, and a meeting with William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk in “Star Trek.”. Really, how cool is this.

“We really allow support agents to be themselves,” Brent Wickens, Netflix’s vice president of global customer support, told The Huffington Post. Say what you will about Netflix, but the company is as customer oriented as it gets.

This and other examples of customer service orientation vividly illustrate how a creative and open culture can make a huge difference. If you put your customers at the head of the table, you can be sure you’re in the right.

Companies that do so are called customer-oriented or customer service oriented. So, if you are looking for tried and tested customer service solutions, this post will be of use to you.

A customer service oriented culture means that a company focuses on its current and future customers, their requirements, and needs. It values them over anything else, and responds to them quickly and efficiently.

We think about attracting more leads, maximizing sales, upselling, and stuff. With these things being crucial, a company with a genuine customer-first approach will care about customers and their needs and only then about its own benefit.

Sometimes, it even means letting users go if your solution is not the best for them. I know that these things might shock you as a business owner or a team lead.

I’m not saying this is somehow a wrong business strategy. What I’m saying is there’s an alternative.

On the basic level, support representatives should be able to ‘know the profiles of customers and respond to their requests in an informed, knowledgeable, and polite manner.’. I mean it’s what other companies might consider a true customer service oriented business.

On a higher customer service orientation level, you actively cooperate with users to resolve their issues. The highest level of customer orientation stands for engaging people proactively and making the necessary changes to your company before problems even arise.

When a company provides an A-rated service, high customer retention rates are around the corner. In fact, 58% of customers will switch to a competitor after one negative experience.

Moreover, a frustrated client can leave bad customer feedback, scaring off other potential buyers. However, customer-oriented businesses have a high chance of turning users into loyal clients by treating them as a priority.

The happier a client is with a company, the more they tend to purchase. When you know what your clients are or aren’t satisfied with, goal-oriented improvements can be achieved.

Think over your customer complaints and questions, and provide them with their sought-after information as quickly as possible: you’ll see that a happy customer will convert in no time.

One answer stuck with me: Customer service is serving the customer and making sure they have appropriate experience with your company at any single point.

Jun An, founder of Eezee.sg. What I want to emphasize with this quote is that customer service teams are not just about answering their customers’ emails or talking with users via live chat.

You’ll see very soon that concentrating on clients in particular is bringing great results in the customer service challenges of the future: The thing is people like nice treatment.

And they want their problems and issues resolved quickly. A customer-oriented culture is exactly about this.

Also, don’t forget about the basics and technicalities of any customer service – it should be fast and convenient. No friendly answer can save your face if response times are too long.

I can recall many cases when our customer success managers at HelpCrunch struck up a friendship with our customers. He knows when they have a vacation, how they spend it, and if they like everything about it.

When all is said and done, customer service is something that gives you an edge over the competition. It might come as a surprise to you how many flaws your customers are willing to forgive if you provide them with A-rated support.

Loyal customers are great just as they are, but they can also be extremely beneficial for your business. If you ask marketers and business owners what marketing channel is the steadiest and most reliable, you won’t hear about Facebook ads and Quora answers.

People trust recommendations from their friends and family more than the most creative ad in the world. The tricky part is that you can’t just launch a word-of-mouth marketing campaign, because it doesn’t work like this.

A great product is a good start, but you can’t achieve this level of loyalty without investing in a customer service oriented culture. Customers will recommend your company if it’s a good reliable business, but you can only leave a lasting impression with your excellent customer service.

It’s just that good products are catchy, but good distinguishable assistance is something that sticks in the memory. Exactly as in this whole Netflix situation.

57% of customers won’t use a business that has fewer than 4 stars. At the same time they are likely to spend 31% more on businesses that have excellent reviews.

They actively encourage customers to leave their thoughts more often than not specifically ask for reviews. And that is totally okay.

As you probably guessed, being customer service-oriented means helping people regardless of challenges along the way. But in order to assist clients, there’s a point in starting with yourself and cultivating a certain frame of mind.

First and foremost, define the set of values you promise to your customers. If done right, you’ll get customer loyalty in return.

Invite customer-friendly people to work together, invest in their training, and help them develop their soft skills.

It’s required at a company’s every stage, from product development to sales and support. If a client feels understood, they feel valued and will stick around.

This can be achieved by surveying or collecting clients’ comments. And this data will be helpful in fine-tuning your products or services according to customer expectations.

What I suggest is to do all these things but with customers and their needs in mind. At the end of the day, your goal is to help them reach their goals, right.

When you think about your best customer service experience, what comes to mind.

Or that time you called customer support and the agent sympathized with you, then went out of their way to fix the issue. An excellent customer experience can change the way customers think about a company.

A guide to the customer service resources below. Good customer service means consistently meeting customers’ expectations.

Companies that deliver excellent customer service take the time needed to understand the needs of their unique customer base. It’s one thing to aim to deliver good customer service.

Plus, customer expectations are constantly rising. For many companies, good customer service just isn’t good enough.

If a customer tweets a complaint, you might be tempted to “take that conversation offline” so it’s not hashed out in public. But it’s not always that simple.

Or maybe they just prefer social media for customer service. People pick channels based on how quickly they want a response and how complex their problem is.

So being able to help a customer on their preferred support channel is one of the best ways to create an excellent customer service experience. Customers want to connect with you on the same channels they use to talk to friends and family.

Your agents need to be able to handle questions by phone, email, messaging, live chat, social media, and more. It helps when your technology can track it all and let agents seamlessly switch between communication channels.

In that situation, you want your agents to be able to easily transition to a phone call. High-performing customer service teams are more than twice as likely as underperforming ones to have an omnichannel strategy.

You really have to be able to relate to a customer to provide a great experience. That starts with empathy, which means putting the customer at the center of everything you do and being driven to help them—not seeing them as an annoyance to handle, but as the hero of your story.

“Many organizations raised the bar in terms of their empathy for customers during 2020—from bank loans getting frozen for customers undergoing financial hardship to insurance premiums being drastically reduced because people were in the middle of lockdown and not driving their cars enough,” says Ben Motteram, CX expert and founder of CXpert.

Organizations need to invest in empathy training and empower agents with well-defined delegations that allow them to go outside of policies to deliver satisfactory solutions.”. Customer-centric companies are on the rise, and they look for people who are driven to deliver a truly great customer experience.

Zappos is so devoted to customers that its number-one core value is to “Deliver WOW through service.” The idea is infused into everything the company does: Customer centricity is a business strategy that puts customers at the center of everything.

Companies with a customer-centric culture are 60 percent more profitable than companies that don’t. Businesses that want to be customer centric need to commit to putting people first.

Truly customer-focused organizations collect customer feedback in every channel and share that information across the company to help guide business decisions. Your customer’s experience is just as important (if not more so) than the product or service you’re selling them.

When things don’t go as planned, your customer might let you hear about it. And now one issue has become two: fixing the original problem and trying to turn an angry customer into a happy one.

Proactive customer service is what happens when a business takes the initiative to help a customer before the customer contacts them for help. It means trying to resolve problems at the first sign of trouble.

Our big, annual CX conference is heading to Las Vegas. Lowest price ticket sales start now.

Sixty-seven percent of customers are willing to pay more for a great experience, according to the Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report. In order to create a connection, you need to use data to personalize the customer experience.

They also expect you to remember all this information—they don’t want to have to repeat themselves. 67 percent of customers are willing to pay more for a great experience.

And while consumers are often reluctant to share personal information, 83 percent of buyers are willing to give companies their data if they think it will lead to more personalization, according to research by Accenture. Of course, you need to be careful here—protecting customer data is a top priority.

And once broken, trust is hard for brands to regain. Customer expectations are sky high: They want you to respond quickly.

With older generations, it’s no surprise that consumer preference leans toward more traditional methods like phone, email, and in-store interactions. But patience for response times is shortening: 51 percent of respondents expect a response in less than five minutes on the phone, and 28 percent expect the same on live chat.

Exceeding expectations means keeping pace with customers. That might entail creating something like an automated response for messaging or email to say, “We got your question and we’re looking into it.” Similarly, it means quickly calling back a customer who leaves a message.

Customers want fast service. That much is clear.

There are some ways to boost your response time and create more satisfied customers: Invest in agent training.

They should know your products well, have access to a robust knowledge base, and be able to handle difficult customer issues. Improve processes that slow things down.

One way to do this is creating a “customer service triage” team to manage each ticket that comes in, especially if you receive a lot of complex questions. Get on the phone.

Sometimes, this is the quickest way to reach a resolution. Customers don’t always want to ask someone for help.

Sixty-nine percent of customers want to resolve as many problems as possible on their own, and 63 percent always or almost always start with a search on a company’s website. Sometimes, excellent customer service means letting people help themselves.

Only a third of companies offer a knowledge base or community forum, and less than one in three offer social messaging, chatbots, or in-app messaging. By building out an easy way for customers to self-help, you’ll relieve pressure on your support team and create happy customers.

Track the top issues and customer complaints that come in through tickets. Then, write help center articles based on those questions.

Consider a chatbot. Customers want to take care of problems themselves, and they’re open to bots and artificial intelligence (AI) if that means fast, efficient resolutions to their issues.

End your FAQs and help center articles with “Did this answer your question. ”.

They’ve already tried to solve the issue on their own, so it’s time to escalate to the next tier. Don’t add unnecessary hurdles.

Amidst day-to-day struggles, we forget great support stems not from a mysterious alchemy of magnetism and magic.

Behind the scenes of every experience are attainable skills that separate average or frustrating from truly exceptional.

(Which is fitting for a topic so central to successful support.). To make it easier to apply, we’ve put together one-pagers on every skill below that include short definitions and five steps to bring them to life.

And how do you take your team, business, or career to the next level. To answer those questions….

The capacity to experience other people’s thoughts and feelings from their point of view, rather than our own. To identify with or be sensitive toward.

That’s because it’s the foundation of all relationships.

It can be learned from a young age or improved as you get older.

As customer service agents, we’re often so focused on what we’re going to say next we miss the opportunity to listen and be present. This is a common scenario, particularly someone’s having a negative customer experience.

Above all, people want to feel understood, respected, and supported.

looking for what’s right, rather than what’s wrong—and aligning our words with that goal. It’s a universal truth that we can’t change how we feel.

Telling someone, “Just be happy,” is about as effective as telling them, “Just grow six inches.”. Neither can be accomplished by an act of the will.

By making a conscious choice to replace negative words with positive words: both verbally and mentally. Positivity doesn’t so much refer to your outlook on life, but instead to the language you use.

To accept or tolerate delays, complaints, or suffering without developing counter-productive responses such as anger or irritation. Customer service is not an easy job.

Sometimes, they’ll need extra attention to understand what seems obvious. And sometimes, they’ll lash out.

Patience not only helps you deliver better service, but a study from the University of Toronto found that being impatient impedes our ability to enjoy life and makes us worse at doing hard things. A number of additional studies have also shown that people who are patient tend to be more healthy, happy, and successful.

Easy to understand. The elimination of ambiguity when communicating.

Clarity isn’t just important for making your customer feel confident and empowered—it can also make a big impact on your bottom line. What if you could send one less email per support interaction because you didn’t have to clarify anything that your customer didn’t understand the first time.

If you field 300 requests a week (on the low side of an average Groove customer), that’s 15,600 fewer emails sent in a year.

Even if you could send 0.25 fewer emails, on average—a very reasonable expectation—you’d still send 3,900 fewer emails per year. That’s not insignificant, and it’s a great argument for mastering crystal-clear communication skills.

The quality of being uncomplicated. Plainness of speech.

If clarity is about order and structure, simplicity lives or dies by one rule: less is more. Less jargon.

Shorter sentences. Fewer ideas.

It removes the barriers of doubt and confusion, placing them securely in the driver’s seat. Complexity, on the other hand, quickly leads to confusion, impatience, and other negative emotions that become counterproductive to resolving the original query.

“If you can’t explain it to a child, you don’t understand it yourself.”. Taking inspiration from that line, Reddit’s Explain Like I’m Five distills complex topics into plain language.

“Email is like a written letter that arrives in seconds instead of days. Google is a company that runs many websites, the biggest of which is a search engine.

Having a strong desire to venture into the unknown with the intention of learning or discovering something new. To be inquisitive and to question.

Our minds are full of questions. But as we get older, it’s more common to accept the way things are and lose our sense of wonder.

Curiosity is a skill we must learn to embrace in customer service. Why.

Because curious people ask better questions, unlock deeper insights, and solve more complex problems. Questioning, investigating, and learning: curiosity leads us to the answers we need to build better customer relationships and find out the deeper causes of problems.

What’s more, curiosity makes us less defensive and less aggressive in stressful situations.

To be alert, watchful, and receptive. The body language of attentiveness means holding eye contact in person or eliminating distractions digitally.

If you’re in a bustling call center or an open-plan office with music and other conversations going on around you, attentiveness can be a challenge. Inattention, however, leads to disgruntled customers, which can intensify already touchy situations and take longer to resolve.

It’s up to you to help them realize that. “In our louder and louder world,” explains sound expert, Julian Treasure, “we are losing our listening.”.

managing both time and expectations more effectively. Putting first things first.

When multiple customers are demanding your attention all at the same time, those individual expectations don’t change in the slightest.

In those instances, automation, email templates, and a searchable knowledge base can be godsends. If only it were always that simple….

It also can compromise a sale if you leave new customers waiting too long for a response.

Some customers can make it tough to hold your composure, but the moment you lose your cool is the same moment you lose your ability to be helpful. (Easier said than done.).

Because we’re human. We feel deeply.

Maybe you just had a bad start to the day. And, of course, the same might be true to the customer who’s frustrated on the other end of the conversation.

But as soon as your actions are hijacked by emotions in a tense customer scenario, productivity ceases. You end up with a moral dilemma because you snapped in the heat of the moment.

Receiving tough feedback or criticism and not allowing yourself to get upset or offended by it. Being tough, stalwart, or resilient.

But if you’ve been in the customer support trenches, you already know how valuable it is.

No one enjoys these experiences—but we can all learn to deal with them.

If you’re dealing with a disgruntled customer, they may lash out. Remind yourself that it’s not you they have an issue with, it’s the situation.

The ability to put your ego, wants, or needs aside to serve others. Willingness to admit when you’re wrong or don’t have the answer.

All of us crave approval. To greater or lesser degrees, we find our self-worth in the eyes of other people.

Ironically, pride manifests itself in two opposite responses: (1) defending ourselves and (2) doubting ourselves. The first is about self-centeredness.

But the root of each is the same.

In customer service, pride rears its head through a relentless pursuit of solving problems all on our lonesome. The truth is you don’t have to have all the answers.

Customer. Vendor.

Buyer. All of them have been around since the concept of commerce started.

Today, it is all about the ‘Age of the Customer’. Businesses have grown more concerned.

And rightfully so.

By the same logic, one outstanding customer experience can convert them into loyal brand ambassadors, lifelong.

Isn’t the answer pretty obvious.

You can have a great product and a very talented staff. But the one thing that the majority of customers will remember in all likelihood is the direct interaction they had with your business.

And who is at the forefront of this experience. Your customer service team, of course.

The bottom line is that your customer service department is the face of the company for your customers. Any experience that they have is primarily a direct outcome of the quality and skill of the team.

Hence, any strong business will look to harness the power of customer service to develop positive relationships with the clients. But if you are a proactive company, you will keep asking the questions, “What is good customer service.

The core value of outstanding customer service is centralized around attending to the needs and expectations of your customers through careful listening. Therefore, to prevent the relationship from stagnating, you have to be constantly looking out for newer and innovative opportunities for experience enhancement.

Your customers are interacting with your business pretty much every day. It is clear that at some stage, your team will encounter roadblocks and challenges.

The success of your business will depend on how skillfully you handle your customer service problems. Remember, if you can resolve these issues successfully, you would have won a customer for their lifetime.

On the other hand, if the handling is poor, expect your customers to bolt to your closest competitor. And with it goes your revenue too.

So, the question remains that in spite of knowing the benefits of a positive customer service experience, why is it so hard to deliver it consistently.

And a problematic customer is probably the icing on the cake.

Some days you could be solving customer problems for one distressed client, whereas other days can feel like a train wreck. And your job is to salvage it all.

Customer service is no rocket science. But if it’s that simple, then why do so many businesses do not know how to solve customer service problems.

Maybe looking and analyzing the reasons behind common customer service problems as reported by consumers can be a step in the right direction.

Source. When the world moves at break-neck speed, why should the customer be kept on hold, waiting for the agent to respond.

Customers today expect communication with service departments to be instant. In fact, they want immediate resolution of their concerns too.

Check out the reasons why this major problem occurs frequently: To drive yourself back into the fast lane, you need to do the following:

Be proactive and keep your customers informed of how you aim to address their issues quickly. Read More: Proactive VS Reactive Customer Service: Which One Should You Choose.

Your customer service problem-solving starts by diving due importance to listening. This is often overlooked, which may result in catching the customer service agent off guard with questions to which you may not have the appropriate answer.

Unless you give your full attention to what the customer is saying, it will be difficult to understand what they need or how to service their problem.

To help you deliver the right resolution, you can do the following:.

Your agents should be quick to understand and analyze customer problems.

Wouldn’t you call this an ideal customer service problem example.

When people engage with businesses, and it does not turn out as per their expectations, it is the ultimate death knell to your reputation. When a customer keeps getting transferred from one agent or department to another, it ensures that a customer will never return to you or your business in the future.

This brings us to the second most common customer service problem. Here are some reasons why a customer call may get transferred:

Remember that the customer may already be on the brink of losing it if the call has already been transferred several times. Try not to push him any further than you need to.

This is possibly the worst-case scenario for a business where the customer service rep has been rude to the client. You can’t deny that this is a tough situation to handle and is best avoided under all circumstances.

No matter how frustrated or high-pitched a customer might go at the time of conversing with a service agent, it does not give the rep the license to be rude to the customer in any way. Generally, such situations are handled by an experienced manager.

Following these guidelines can help you tackle even a sticky situation such as this: For now, it may seem like a rather far-fetched strategy to take care of a critical customer service problem and solution.

There will be times when you may not have an instant solution for the customer. Telling that to the customer can be slightly tricky, especially if you notice that the customer is already annoyed.

Customer service reps are only human and may not be able to offer a resolution of customer queries on the first contact. When customers have to chat or call the service department multiple times, it can be a hassle for them.

These include: You can go through possible solutions options in a scenario such as this:

Just make sure that whenever you get back to the customer, the solution should be able to meet their expectations.

This will reduce the chances of inadequate or incorrect information being passed by reps to the customers. That’s a great customer service problem-solving example that anyone can refer to.

While the life of a customer service agent has been simplified to a large extent, most customers find it really annoying to have a real human dealing with their issues. Customers today want to talk to humans, not machines.

The top reasons why businesses are prioritizing automation in their customer service processes are: Here is how you can avoid some of the pitfalls:

Too much of it can undermine the goals of achieving good customer service. Now, this looks like the perfect customer service problem and solution example.

This situation can arise if the customer has a specific product or service-related query or maybe needs guidance to decide on, which is a suitable variant or model that will fit best with their needs. Many times, customer service agents adopt a ‘one size fits all’ kind of approach.

You can land up in this situation due to the following reasons:.

Your customer is looking up to you for directions. Presenting him or her with a range of helpful suggestions will ensure that you drive the conversation on a positive note.

There are certain interview questions that are quite common to ask during an interview. If you’re applying for a position in customer service, you may likely be asked to “define excellent customer service.” This question may also come up in other forms, such as “what makes customer service truly exceptional and effective.

Providing excellent customer service means going the extra mile in making sure a customer is happy and satisfied with a company’s products or services. It also involves providing service to a customer in a timely, pleasant manner.

Before entering an interview for a customer service job, get a handle on what good customer service means to you. Good customer service typically means providing timely, attentive, upbeat service to a customer, and making sure their needs are met in a manner that reflects positively on the company or business.

Typically, he or she wants to identify the candidates who show true passion for the position, and a good answer can make you stand out. Hiring managers may also want to find out about your outlook and mentality toward dealing and working with customers and how you would effectively respond when specific situations arise.

You must prepare for it and have your answer ready to go when the time comes. The better you prepare yourself, the better and more effective your answer will be — and it will be more likely to impress the hiring manager.

Build my resume. Customer service is all about meeting and exceeding the expectations of the customer.

Customers expect those assisting them to be extremely helpful, positive and informative. It is your job to mention all of these aspects and let the hiring manager know that you could fit the position well by showcasing your outstanding qualities.

Coming up with answers to interview questions such as this involves utilizing examples to really show that you are capable for the position. In order to convey that you know what excellent customer service is all about- provide examples from past employment where you excelled at helping and communicating with customers.

This way, the hiring manager will see that you have a good deal of customer service experience and that you know how to do it right. If you do not have a lot of prior customer service experience, talking about the skills involved will be a good thing to do.

Total customer experience is key in the customer service industry. Employees working in it understand that the total experience is very important, from the first contact to the completion of the transaction.

You must tell them that you view each and every customer as a unique individual and treat them as such. Customer service is all about how you make the entire experience for the customer.

Build my resume. Excellent customer service involves meeting and surpassing expectations.

The idea is to leave a lasting impression on customers by working with them and assisting them in the best way possible.I also believe that excellent customer service involves being an expert on the products sold in order to help people make good decisions.

I believe that effective people and communication skills are what have helped me to excel in the customer service positions I have held in the past. I always ensured customers were completely satisfied with their decisions by conducting follow-ups, and I worked to resolve any conflicts or problems that arose effectively.

These samples should help you to better prepare yourself for answering one of the very common interview questions that hiring managers ask. Use what you have learned to form a good answer for yourself so you can succeed at your interview.

Building a noteworthy resume has never been easier or faster. Don’t get stuck writing about your work experience.

Need your resume in PDF, word, or an image file. You’re in control with multiple export and download options.

Copy and paste a job description from any listing and get a job-specific resume match score. We’ll guide you through tailoring your resume for the job.

With Smart Apply, we’ll help you find an opportunity, customize your resume, create a matching cover letter, and download your documents. We’ll even send you to the web page where you can apply.

Customer complaints — they come in the form of an angry email, a scathing online review, an awkward in-person encounter, a negative tweet, or an unexpected phone call. As difficult and uncomfortable as they are, knowing how to respond to customer complaints is an important part of doing business, and they must be dealt with properly.

At a time when the success of your business rests on reputation and the need for positive customer experiences, you should equip yourself with a process for sourcing, hearing, responding to, and fixing customer complaints. Let’s go through a step-by-step process that coworker, Clint Fontanella, used for responding to customer reviews and complaints when he was a HubSpot support rep.

Before we get started, you might want to download HubSpot’s free Review Response Templates which can help you develop your strategy for responding to online customer complaints in a sincere and consistent way. Click here to access the prompts for free.

Customer complaints come through different mediums like Google Reviews, phone calls, or even a handwritten letter. Each channel will offer different levels of frustration and require unique solutions to resolve the issue.

From there, you can customize your approach for each interaction. 20 prompts to help you respond to customer complaints and comments.

Click this link to access this resource at any time. When you have a customer complaint, the first action that I recommend taking is to listen to the issue and focus on what your customer is experiencing.

Though it can be tempting to ignore online reviews, you should give the same time and energy to those who submit feedback digitally as you would with in-person complaints. After all, research shows most consumers are using social media and the internet to discover new brands and products.

I would advise reading through online reviews as soon as you get them so you can provide customers with prompt and thoughtful responses. Additionally, it’s easy to get defensive or to write off a complaint, but keep in mind that complaints rarely exist in a vacuum.

A customer’s complaint should always be treated as legitimate, so give their story your full attention and empathy. Pro Tip: Take detailed notes of the customer’s complaint.

Some feedback can hit hard. It’s not easy to acknowledge that you let a customer down, but getting to the root of the problem is an essential step to properly handling their complaint.

Here’s a tip that I received from former HubSpot support rep, Clint Fontanella:.

Processing criticism is harder if you‘re getting it in real time, like in person or over a phone call. This situation calls on you to put yourself in your customer’s shoes sooner rather than later and truly prioritize fixing the issue, which can only be done if you listen to the complaint and digest the meaning of it.

This shows you’re listening and are taking their concerns seriously. Respond in a timely manner with an apology and a plan of action.

“While you never want to use the same response for different customers, canned responses give you a baseline to work from. One that I would rely on for cases like these was, ‘I appreciate your feedback about X and I understand how it can prevent you from accomplishing Y.

Consider setting up an action plan for recurring customer complaints. That way you’ll know how to solve an issue almost immediately after listening to the details behind it.

If you need some time to think about the best course of action, be honest with your customers. Tell them you need time to figure out how you can make it up to them and provide a timeline for when you’ll reach out with a solution — or better yet, ask customers what they need for you to make it up to them and figure out if their request is doable.

Pro Tip: If a customer’s complaint is due to an issue that you or your team caused, do not hesitate to offer something in return. Whether it be discounts, complementary products, or simple apology coupons, figure out what would help make up for the mistake.

Even if the customer‘s comments don’t make you feel good in the moment, you should still thank them for their insight. After all, the information that feedback contains can radically improve your customer experience.

Responding within at least 24 hours shows your customers that their feedback is taken seriously and valued. If you’re working on a real-time channel like live chat, be sure to respond as quickly as possible or install a chatbot to keep your support live 24/7.

Click this link to access this resource at any time. Immediately after thanking the customer, you should apologize for what happened and express empathy by explaining your understanding of the situation.

Plus, restating the issue can help ensure you did not misinterpret what happened. For example, let’s say an account manager working for an ecommerce platform receives an email from her client, saying his online payment system temporarily went down.

Hi Mike,. Thanks so much for reaching out and letting us know.

That said, I know that doesn‘t make up for the revenue you lost and may not get back. I completely understand you could have lost business because of this issue, and that’s not acceptable.

This response thanks the customer for sharing feedback, apologizes for the issue, explains what led to the situation, and shows an understanding of how the issue affected the customer. Mike now knows that his account rep fully understands the reason for the complaint and values his business and feedback.

For example, you could say “We’re sorry we let you down,” or “We apologize for not meeting your expectations.” See which resonates the most with your customers. Not only should you apologize when a customer’s experience is not satisfactory, you also need to explain how you will fix the problem.

A proper response to a customer complaint is incomplete without an explanation of what happens next. I would highly recommend going above and beyond when remedying customer complaints.

This will allow you the opportunity to win back the customer by providing them with a better experience. Let’s return to the example of the broken payment processor, and pick things up where we left them to show how we can remedy this situation:

We were able to identify the reason for the issue quite quickly and will be working to safeguard it from a similar outage in the future so you can feel confident using our software moving forward. In the meantime, we want to make this up to you.

You should see a credit in your account in the next 3-5 business days – please reach out to me if you do not see that. I hope this in some part makes up for whatever loss your business incurred during the outage.

[Your Name].

The only way to know the customer service your service channels are delivering is to measure it. Conducting relationship surveys and transactional surveys is vital in enabling an organization to evaluate if a service channel contributes to customer loyalty, reduces operating costs, and identifies opportunities to improve customer service.

Relationship surveys are typically sent at regular and predefined intervals. They provide insights into customer satisfaction with the overall relationship with an organization and brand.

Transactional surveys are triggered (within one day) after using a contact channel touchpoint. They provide insights for customer satisfaction with a contact channel.

You can approach customer service measurement in a few ways, including tracking and benchmarking the below-standard customer service metrics.

Your brand’s value proposition is a promise of value to be delivered. It’s the primary reason a prospect should buy from you.

It’s also the #1 thing that determines whether people will bother reading more about your product or hit the back button. On your site, your value proposition is the main thing you need to test—if you get it right, it will be a huge boost.

In fact, if I could give you only one piece of conversion optimization advice, “test your value proposition” would be it. The less known your company is, the better your value proposition needs to be.

In marketing, an ideal unique value proposition must provide the following: Your value proposition has to be the first thing visitors see on your homepage, but it should also be visible at all major entry points to the site.

Ultimately, it can improve your customer lifetime value. When I reviewed a bunch of websites, a missing or poor value proposition was one of the most common shortcomings.

make sure you cover all of them in yours. You can also check out the Pe:p Show discussing value propositions.

It’s for people to read. Here’s an example of what a value proposition is not supposed to be like:

Would you be able to explain the offer to your friend or how they’d benefit. Didn’t think so.

Such meaningless “jargon propositions” are abundant. Avoid blandvertising at all costs.

It should join the conversation that’s already going on in the customer’s mind. To do that, you need to know the language your customers use to describe your offering and how they benefit from it.

The way you speak about your services is often very different from how your customers describe them. The answers are outside your office.

It’s not a slogan or a catch phrase. This is not a value proposition:

Because we’re worth it. It’s not a positioning statement.

America’s #1 Bandage Brand. Heals the wound fast, heals the hurt faster.

The value proposition is usually a block of text (a headline, sub-headline, and one paragraph of text) with a visual (photo, hero image, graphics). There is no one right way to go about it.

Note: Having solid product images are just one piece of the ecommerce pie. You’ll find 247 ecommerce guidelines in this research-based report.

Use the headline/paragraph/bullets/visual formula to structure the answers. (Here’s a value proposition worksheet you might find useful.).

For whom. How is it useful.

Always strive for clarity first. If your value proposition makes people go “hmph.

If they have to read a lot of text to understand your offering, you’re doing it wrong. Yes, a sufficient amount of information is crucial for conversions, but you need to draw them in with a clear, compelling value proposition first.

What makes a good value proposition.

You must address both. Original value proposition research by CXL showed that users:

Most people check out 4–5 different options/service providers before they decide. You want your offering to stand out in this important research phase.

Probably because it’s hard to create a great one. I find flaws or room for improvement with most value propositions I come across.

Here are some good examples along with my comments: Comments.

Comments. Comments.

Comments. Comments.

Here’s Cloudflare‘s evolution…. Comments.

Here’s Continuum Financial‘s evolution…. Comments.

So how do you make your offer unique. Often, it’s hard to spot anything unique about your offering.

If you can’t find anything, you’d better create something. Of course, the unique part needs to be something customers actually care about.

“the ball bearings inside our bicycles are blue”). Even if what you sell isn’t unique, you can still come up with a great value proposition.

Remember: You don’t need to be unique to the whole world, just in the customer’s mind. The closing of a sale takes place in a customer’s mind, not out in the marketplace among the competition.

If all major things are pretty much the same between you and your competitors, you can win by offering small value-adds. I call them boosters.

Boosters can be things like: You get the idea.

Make sure the booster is visible with the rest of the value proposition. Notice the “Free Shipping” sign in the top left.

You definitely have to test your value proposition. How.

By far the best way to test your value proposition is to put it in front of the very people you’re trying to market to, and get their perception on it. This is what message testing is for.

You will get rich qualitative information on how/where it’s falling short, so you can improve it.

Another good way to test your value prop is to craft two candidates (or more, if you have tons of traffic) and split test them. This will take at least 4 weeks on most sites, and requires a minimum of 500 signups/conversions per month.

The limitation here is that A/B testing will only be able to tell you if B is better than A, and by how much. It tells you nothing about the ‘why’.

Learn how to run A/B tests effectively. Another way to go about it is to use Google Ads or Facebook Ads.

Split test ads with different value propositions that target the same customer. The ad with a higher click-through rate signals a possibly better attention grabber and interest generator, but on the downside, it doesn’t necessarily mean higher sales conversions.

You need a value proposition and you need to communicate it clearly on all the main entry pages: homepage, product pages, category pages, etc. If you don’t state why users should buy from you, you will lose most of them.

Working on something related to this. Post a comment in the CXL community.

Your product is so similar to 2 or 3 major competitors in the market that…. Today I’m reviewing value propositions of several websites.

There are already a bazillion resources out there that spell out how to “craft the…. Are you having issues with your manager.

Looking for some compliments to add into your call centre scripts.

Complimentary words are those that we use in a conversation to make the person we are talking to feel good about themselves. They are generally words to describe an aspect of somebody’s personality/life or to describe something that belongs to the person receiving the compliment.

This service is complementary (free/ at no additional charge). Both sound the same but are spelt differently.

We have put together a list of 25 great compliment words that can be used in customer service conversations to describe a customer’s personality: Here is a list of 25 more great compliment words that can be used in customer service conversations:

After an angry customer has vented at you, it can be difficult to know what to say next. The wrong thing can set the customer off again and damage their impression of you.

Thanking them for their honesty can help to show the customer that you are on their side, before you move forward with answering their query. “Thanks for being so honest with me about how this is impacting you.”.

This provides you with the ideal opportunity to give a compliment. By using this compliment, you can show that loyalty is valued by your company in a sincere way that makes sure the customer feels appreciated.

“I can see that you’ve been a loyal customer, that’s really great…”. During a conversation where the customer has clearly done their preparation and made sure they have gathered everything they need before the interaction, thank them for that.

The word “nice” is not only complimentary but also a great positive word. “It’s nice to speak to a customer who has been so proactive.”.

“Wise” is a great complimentary word to use in these scenarios, as it removes any sense of judgement from your response and reasserts to the customer that their decision-making has been logical. “I think that was a very wise decision to make.”.

So giving a measured chuckle can be important to help move the conversation along. When the joke does give you a genuine laugh, that’s great for rapport, which you can bolster by acknowledging the customer’s humour and complimenting them for it.

When a customer opens up to you, validate that and show that you care. Using “good” as a complimentary word in such a scenario can be a helpful technique.

“It’s good that you’ve shared that with me.”. If the customer shares their address, which you know to be a nice area, this compliment is a great way to boost the customer’s ego and give the conversation a friendly feel.

“Wow, you live in [INSERT PLACE]. That’s a lovely place.

From time to time, you will come across a “know it all” customer who challenges you on the advice that you give. These conversations can become a little frosty.

You can then position yourself as someone with inside information to deal with the challenging customer. “I can tell that you’ve done some excellent research.”.

Remove this negative sentiment by telling them that you understand their thought process and found it to be an interesting or maybe even innovative idea. “That’s an interesting idea, I can see why you did that.”.

It helps to reassure the customer that you support their decision and reaffirms that they have control over the choices that they have made. “I think that you have made a wonderful choice.”.

These ten examples are great for complimenting an aspect of the customer’s personality: The ten examples below are great for complimenting something that is closely linked to the customer:

They need to come across as authentic. A compliment cannot feel like just another box-ticking exercise, which are what soft skills are often reduced down to as part of a contact centre quality programme.

This doesn’t happen when you are trying too hard to compliment someone. So, according to Gavin Scott, a Customer Service Expert at Loaf Training, we must train advisors to be curious and demonstrate an interest and make sure the customer is willing and open to sharing information.

From this quote we realize that active listening can be a key component in giving compliments, making the soft skill even more valuable within the contact centre environment. Find out how to improve listening skills within your customer service team by reading our article: Top Tips to Improve Listening Skills on the Telephone.

Let’s call these bits of “gold dust”. In our customer conversations, we should be listening out for these moments and taking the opportunities when that gold dust presents itself.

As Gavin says: “Frame them in a way that will make the person you are talking to feel good. Remember, it is all about creating a positive experience for the customer.”.

For more advice on making customers feel good, read our article: What Does Good Customer Service Look Like.

We hope that some of these words inspire you to give more compliments to customers in your customer service conversations. For more language advice to apply to your customer service interactions, read our articles:

Employers like to hire people who can solve problems and work well under pressure. A job rarely goes 100% according to plan, so hiring managers will be more likely to hire you if you seem like you can handle unexpected challenges while staying calm and logical in your approach.

They’re going to ask you interview questions about these problem solving skills, and they might also look for examples of problem solving on your resume and cover letter. So coming up, I’m going to share a list of examples of problem solving, whether you’re an experienced job seeker or recent graduate.

It is the ability to identify the problem, prioritize based on gravity and urgency, analyze the root cause, gather relevant information, develop and evaluate viable solutions, decide on the most effective and logical solution, and plan and execute implementation.

Solving problems not only prevent losses or damages but also boosts self-confidence and reputation when you successfully execute it. The spotlight shines on you when people see you handle issues with ease and savvy despite the challenges.

Problem-solving is a skill you can master by learning from others and acquiring wisdom from their and your own experiences.

You can share all of the examples above when you’re asked questions about problem solving in your interview. As you can see, even if you have no professional work experience, it’s possible to think back to problems and unexpected challenges that you faced in your studies and discuss how you solved them.

At my current job, I recently solved a problem where a client was upset about our software pricing. They had misunderstood the sales representative who explained pricing originally, and when their package renewed for its second month, they called to complain about the invoice.

We decided that the best course of action was to offer a long-term pricing package that would provide a discount. This not only solved the problem but got the customer to agree to a longer-term contract, which means we’ll keep their business for at least one year now, and they’re happy with the pricing.

In my last job, I had to do quite a bit of problem solving related to our shift scheduling. We had four people quit within a week and the department was severely understaffed.

I think the key problem solving skills here were taking initiative, communicating clearly, and reacting quickly to solve this problem before it became an even bigger issue. In my current marketing role, my manager asked me to come up with a solution to our declining social media engagement.

I feel this is a good example of using logic to solve a problem because it was based on analysis and observation of competitors, rather than guessing or quickly reacting to the situation without reliable data. I always use logic and data to solve problems when possible.

When you answer interview questions about problem solving scenarios, or if you decide to demonstrate your problem solving skills in a cover letter (which is a good idea any time the job description mention problem solving as a necessary skill), I recommend using the STAR method to tell your story. STAR stands for:

So before jumping in and talking about the problem that needed solving, make sure to describe the general situation. What job/company were you working at.

Then, you can describe the task at hand and the problem that needed solving. After this, describe the course of action you chose and why.

Finally, describe a positive result you got. Whether you’re answering interview questions about problem solving or writing a cover letter, you should only choose examples where you got a positive result and successfully solved the issue.

Situation: We had an irate client who was a social media influencer and had impossible delivery time demands we could not meet. She spoke negatively about us in her vlog and asked her followers to boycott our products.

Action: I drafted a statement that balanced empathy, understanding, and utmost customer service with facts, logic, and fairness. It was direct, simple, succinct, and phrased to highlight our brand values while addressing the issue in a logical yet sensitive way.

We also tapped our influencer partners to subtly and indirectly share their positive experiences with our brand so we could counter the negative content being shared online.

We got the results we worked for through proper communication and a positive and strategic campaign. The irate client agreed to have a dialogue with us.

We assured her that she can reach out to us anytime regarding her purchases and that we’d gladly accommodate her requests whenever possible. She also retracted her negative statements in her vlog and urged her followers to keep supporting our brand.

Below are good outcomes of problem solving: Every employer wants to make more money, save money, and save time.

That’s where I recommend you begin looking for stories of times you had to solve problems. Throughout your career, you’re going to get hired for better jobs and earn more money if you can show employers that you’re a problem solver.

When discussing problem solving with employers, you never want to sound like you rush or make impulsive decisions. They want to see fact-based or data-based decisions when you solve problems.

You can recognize what works and what doesn’t. Think about how you can get better at researching and analyzing a situation, but also how you can get better at communicating, deciding the right people in the organization to talk to and “pull in” to help you if needed, etc.

Take a few minutes to walk outside if needed. Step away from your phone and computer to clear your head.

You can use all of the ideas above to describe your problem solving skills when asked interview questions about the topic. If you say that you do the things above, employers will be impressed when they assess your problem solving ability.

Every employer appreciates a problem solver, whether solving problems is a requirement listed on the job description or not. And you never know which hiring manager or interviewer will ask you about a time you solved a problem, so you should always be ready to discuss this when applying for a job.

Good customer service is a critical component of a business’s success. Whether it is a product or service, customers expect to be treated with respect and kindness when they reach out for help.

Examples of good customer service for interview candidates may include how they handled a challenging situation with an angry customer, implemented strategies to improve client relations or times they received accolades from clients or management teams for their excellent work. Interviewers want to hear these stories in order to get an idea of how capable an applicant is of providing excellent customer service while on the job.

It acts as the lifeline of many businesses and defines the relationship between the establishment and its customers or clients. This can take many forms such as in-person assistance, online chat, telephone support or emails.

When interviewing for a customer service role, the answers you should look for in an applicant may vary depending on the company’s particular needs and values. Ultimately, you want to determine if the candidate is personable, approachable and friendly, as well as competent and capable of providing excellent customer service.

Examples of bad responses would include canned answers like “I strive for excellence”. rather you need specific examples such as “In my last role I identified opportunities to address frequently asked questions proactively and implemented a database feature to do so.” This would demonstrate analytical problem-solving skills as well as resourcefulness.

The candidate should also be able to provide examples of how they have dealt with difficult situations in the past, as well as how they have managed customers’ expectations. They need to demonstrate a high level of communication skills, both written and verbal.

Whether you are an interviewer or a respective candidate with experience in customer service, here is a great example answer that demonstrates a problem and solution that was found: “In my experience as a customer service representative, success lies in ensuring the customer feels supported, as well as making sure a positive solution is found.

For example, in my previous role selling electronics, I was approached by a customer who wanted to purchase a laptop. He was nervous about spending a lot of money without having much knowledge about the products.

If the candidate has no experience in customer service, you can still look for examples where they demonstrate a good understanding of what it means to provide excellent service. Here is an example:

For example, I recently ordered a product online, but when it arrived, it was broken. While this was probably not the store’s fault, they immediately sent a new product (which was what I expected)), but on top of that, they also sent a beautiful mug as a gift.

Experiencing this great service stayed in my mind, and I will now always return to shop with this store.”.

Questions should be tailored to assess the candidate’s ability to interact with customers, troubleshoot problems confidently and effectively, manage customer grievances with understanding and empathy, and upsell products or services. A few example interview questions include:

Good customer service is crucial for any organisation to deliver an exceptional and memorable experience for customers. Hiring someone with strong customer service skills can provide benefits to a business that reach far beyond the scope of daily tasks.

This can lead to customers returning, increasing overall customer loyalty and leading to higher profits over time. Furthermore, customers who have a more positive experience with a company will likely offer positive word-of-mouth referrals and help to grow your business.

Through careful hiring practices and training for customer service skills, organisations will be able to ensure that their customers receive the highest quality service and satisfaction that they deserve. Ultimately, good customer service ensures customers’ satisfaction while creating a positive relationship that fosters loyalty and boosts profitability in the long run.

Occupations such as retail, food service, hospitality, and healthcare require strong customer service skills on a daily basis. Many corporate environments also expect their employees to be adept at interacting with clients in a respectful and helpful way.

However, certain roles require a higher degree of interpersonal skills than others when it comes to communicating with customers. For example, customer service representatives need to be patient and professional at all times in order to provide the best experience for their clients.

Although not all jobs have a direct customer service focus, all workers can benefit from developing good communication skills because the success of a team depends heavily on how well its members interact with each other.

Being an effective customer service representative requires having a unique set of qualities: communication, persuasion, politeness, patience, conscientiousness, and loyalty. Communication skills are essential for the role as customer service representatives need to effectively understand the customer’s problem, convey empathy and provide an appropriate resolution.

It will help to build relationships with customers and ultimately encourage more sales. Politeness is also a crucial quality as it helps to build a good rapport between the customer and the representative, while patience allows them to stay calm under pressure and handle unhappy or frustrated customers in a consistently friendly.

Being conscientious allows good planning and organisation when handling customers’ issues and demands. Finally, demonstrating loyalty to both customers and the company reflects good moral character which highly contributes to building long-term relationships while ensuring excellent quality of service.

Whether you are a seasoned customer service representative or you are just starting out in the customer service field and would like to improve your customer service skills, there are some things you should bear in mind. As a customer service representative, it is important to remember the core values of excellent customer service.

Ensure that any interactions are carried out in a composed, polite and professional manner.

Positive feedback is essential for providing a supportive and encouraging environment – be it at school, in the workplace, or with personal relationships. But it needs to be personalized, specific, and encouraging in order for it to have the most effect.

Don’t forget to also embrace constructive feedback as well to give the person ideas about avenues for ongoing improvement. Feedback is often very hard to provide.

When giving your feedback, keep these tips in your mind, as they might help you to formulate more effective feedback: By keeping these points in mind, you can provide positive feedback that is effective, meaningful, and supportive.

This strategy is also known as the “praise-criticism-praise” or “compliment-suggestion-compliment” method. The idea is to “sandwich” a piece of criticism or suggestion for improvement between two positive statements or compliments.

This may help the recipient to know that you’re not just tearing them up – you have both positive feedback and constructive criticism to share, but your overall goal is to encourage and help them to improve. Here’s a breakdown of the feedback sandwich method:

To address this, make sure your positive feedback is genuine and thoughtful. Furthermore, ensure you allow for a chance to discuss and open the door for back-and-forth discussion about the person’s performance.

Positive feedback is an essential part of helping students to understand the correct paths to take and when they did well so they can replicate that behavior. Praise and encouragement can help students stay engaged and develop self-confidence.

Chris Drew (PhD). Dr.

He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education.