It is now common knowledge that a good customer service practice is needed by all types of businesses to stay afloat. “production is never complete until it reaches the final consumer”. This means that no matter what product or service you are bringing into the market, you are not in business until you have customers who use the service or buy the products.

Most firms in Africa have failed with their customer service systems. because of this prevailing custom, most firms in Africa has improved the way they relate to customers. Banks, oil companies, insurance firms and most big industries have done a lot more work on their customer satisfaction.  most have chosen to outsource the entire customer service sector in a bid to better in that area.

I want to use this forum to discuss a few practices firms can adopt to make sure their  customer service sector is professionally up to date with their practices. I will try as much as possible to explain what each of these means, and give examples if necessary

1)Train Your Staff

We often make the mistake of thinking that a customer service representative does not need skills to handle their duties. I have heard remarks of companies saying “just get anyone it is just a customer service role”. A customer service representative need to be someone who can actually deal with people. Customers call for different reasons, as such he needs to be able to handle varying circumstances and emotions on the go.

So the need for the staff to already have the right skills and still receive training on more skills and the company’s corporate culture, is eminent. How will a staff represent your firm the way he should if he does not have adequate training on what exactly is required of him?

2)  Do Not Make Promises You Can Not Keep

I can not begin to stress how important this point is. Most times you have a perfectly trained customer service agent, yet customers complain that their needs are not being met. This can be as a result of the firms making promises in their correspondence with the customer without seeing it through. Now you get customers saying “but you promised”. It is always advised to tell the customer exactly what can be done or take a permission to escalate their request.

3) Be Helpful

Most customer service agent spend so much time on the phone with a customer without actually helping the customer in any way. The core job role of a customer service agent is to help the customer. Simply put, do your job.

4) Answer Your phone

This reason is the number one reason why most firms decide to outsource their customer service sector. Employees become reluctant at picking up calls at some point. This is a major failure for firms in Africa as most of them have staff who are complacent on picking up their calls. If customers can not reach you when they need to, the loyalty you have built about the business will slowly start to diminish. This very factor has led to so many firms going out of business and should be closely watched. At Top 100, we aim to maintain 100% call answering record.

5) Listen

This factor right here is everything. Most customer service agents tend to speak over customers in attempt to show off their english speaking skills. Communication is a two was process, if you know how to speak but do not know how to listen, then you are not a good communicator. You need to allow the customer to do more of the talking so that you understand exactly what their concerns are. Only then can you be able to resolve them.

6) Take The Extra Step

Sometimes the extra step can come in form of offering something more, a promotion or a freebie to the customer to sweeten their experience. Other times it might come in the form of escalating their complain to make sure its properly dealt with by the appropriate authority.  Other times your something extra is the human touch you bring to the conversation. The empathy, the fellow feeling, the understanding tone of voice, the apology, and the keen interest to help. No matter what you choose to do as an extra, always make sure the customer believes that you value their custom and want to keep them in the family.

In Conclusion

It is true that we can never please everyone. But with the right tools customer service agents can be better equipped to handle customer complaints and drive more positive traffic towards your business. We will do our business a lot of harm if we do not take customer satisfaction very seriously. At Top 100, every staff we employ to handle your service receives adequate training on the needed skills, and get drilled on your business and company culture. So when you outsource your customer service sector to us, you can simply kick back and relax, while we make sure your customers are fully satisfied with your product and services. There is no better way to end this forum than to say, your customers are the life of your business, work at keeping them happy.