Here at EnergyCare, our clients often ask us for specific metrics. This data is so important because it represents a customer’s experience and satisfaction. The metrics include the soft skills that every one of our agents is trained in as soon as they join our team. Here are the five most important soft skills in which our agents specialize:
1. Greeting
What’s the first thing you say when you meet someone on the street? It’s usually “hi” or “how are you,” right? Even if unable to stop, you generally raise a hand in greeting. We make sure our agents apply that everyday courtesy to the clients they serve. It may seem like a simple, even overly-basic metric to track. However, when a customer isn’t provided with this common courtesy, they can be made to feel unimportant and even trivialized by the person who is trying to help them. We make sure that our clients are always treated with a pleasant greeting and understand their importance to us.
2. Tone
We all know that every person can have a bad day. In face-to-face conversation, this can be seen immediately in posture and facial expression. Over the phone, it’s observed through the tone of voice. When a client calls customer service, they may not have the most friendly tone because they are frustrated or upset. If they are challenged by an aggressive tone on the other end, the issue is likely to be escalated. This is why we coach our employees on providing a friendly, upbeat tone in every case – and why we track this metric.
3. Politeness
Anyone who feels that chivalry is dead has never worked in customer service. Our agents understand that their job is not only to help the customer resolve their issue to their complete satisfaction, but to do so in a polite, cheerful manner. This is why we track whether or not our agent thanked the customer during the conversation. We also train each agent to follow the “Golden Rule,” resulting in a positive customer service experience.
4. Professionalism
While we work hard to put each customer at ease, we also insist upon professionalism in our agents. This is another metric that we track. We are, after all, representing a company with every customer transaction.
5. Consulting Customer Understanding
No one likes to be put on hold. We track to make sure our agents always inform customers why there will be a hold – even if it’s only a short, two-to-five second pause. This is just another way we ensure that every customer has a great experience with our customer service team.
It is easy to get caught up in operational metrics when it comes to customer service, but the personal touch, polite tone, and intrinsic professionalism is what makes any customer service interaction effective. Contact us today to find out more on how you can utilize our customer service experience.
