Hire Customer Service Representatives
Your customer service representative plays a significant role in the success of your sales strategies. Hiring an effective customer service representative is crucial as they manage your customers’ complaints and queries about the products and services your company offers.
These employees are the front line support of the company’s customers and clients. Customer service representatives provide useful and helpful information about the products and services of your company or store to your customers and clients. If you don’t hire the right fit for this role, customers will often have unresolved issues and soon come to resent your company. Their responsibilities are all centered around assisting and satisfying your customers.
Because your company’s customer service representative has an impact on overall revenue, you need to take your time while hiring one. A customer service representative needs to be able to remain calm and relaxed when customers are frustrated and annoyed, which is a special skill.
So, what do you need to know before you hire one?
How to Hire a Customer Service Representative
It’s important to keep the following qualities and criteria in mind when hiring a customer service representative for your store or company. You should ensure that the person you are employing can maintain a professional, emphatic, and positive attitude. They should also do their best to satisfy the customer in every interaction.
The duties of a customer service representative vary from company to company. However, there are some crucial factors to be considered.
The minimum level of education required for a customer service representative is a high school diploma. Prior experience in retail sales is also important.
A customer service representative typically will receive on-the-job training to learn the necessary skills required for the job. This training includes interacting with customers, helping customers with specific needs, and good communication skills.
Depending on their experience, a customer service representative might have received several months of training to learn about specific products, services, and regulations. A customer service representative who provides insurance information would need a state license.
The job of a customer service representative is quite demanding and stressful. It requires remaining calm when the customer is upset. Therefore, you need to employ someone who has a positive working attitude and is internally motivated to do well in this role. A customer service representative must be polite and patient whenever they are dealing with customers, especially angry or demanding customers. A customer service representative with a professional, optimistic, and empathetic attitude is key to customer retention.
A customer service representative is on the front lines when it comes to the satisfaction of your customers. Hire a customer service representative who takes ownership and responsibility for solving the complaints of your customers quickly.
The sense of responsibility that a company’s customer service representatives have can determine the level of the company sales. They should be able to find solutions to the customer complaints without transfer. Encouraging these characteristics in your service representative would go a long way in helping your company retain their customers.
What is required of a Customer Service Representative?
A customer service representative is expected to assist the customers with their complaints and questions, provide information about company services and products to customers, take their orders, and process returns. The job and duties of a customer service representative vary from company to company.
However, there are some general basic tasks that customer service representatives do in any store or company. Some of these essential tasks include:
- Responding quickly to the inquiries of the customer
- Proper knowledge of the company’s products and services
- Acknowledging and resolving the complaints of the customers
- Communicating with the customer using various channels
- Coordinating and communicating with colleagues when necessary
- Processing forms, orders, requests, and applications
- Keeping a record of the customer complaints, comments, transactions, and interactions
- Providing feedback on how efficient customer service is
- Ensuring customers satisfaction by providing professional support for the customer
- Managing and coordinating junior customer service representative
The above-listed tasks are what a customer service representative usually does. If there are any duties that are different from the usual that you want your customer service representative to do, you can include it in your job description.
Skills and Qualifications of a Customer Service Representative
Due to the nature of the job, there are specific skills and qualifications you should look for when hiring a customer service rep for your company or store.
These qualifications and skills would help them to efficiently and effectively carry out their job and duties in the company. Some of them are:
- Attentiveness
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- A sense of consideration and empathy for customers
- Willingness to improve
- Basic knowledge about the company product, services, and policies
- Ability to make use of positive language
- Patience
- Ability to adapt to situations
- Persuasive speaking skills
- Effective problem-solving skills
- Ability to remain calm when customers are upset or stressed
- Experience working with customer support
- Good knowledge of the usage of computers
These skills and qualifications would ensure that the customer service representative can function effectively and appropriately in the work environment, and you, the employer, won’t regret hiring them.
You can hire a customer service representative through free job listing or posting sites, referrals, or an agency. If you have any problem hiring one, you can post or look at a general job listing or posting sites such as Monster, Indeed, and Glassdoor. These sites would help you spread the word about the job and enable you to pick from a variety of well experienced and educated candidates. You can also get referrals from a family or a trusted friend or go through an agency.
