When considering the various aspects of customer support that you provide, defining the single most important resource is something that can definitely allow you to make the most of the service that you are providing. Your most important customer service resource is your customer service representative! Here is how you can keep your CSRs motivated.
#1: Focus on Individuals
A common mistake that people make when it comes to human resources is that they treat their team as a whole instead of focusing on individuals. The fact of the matter is that if you want your team members to feel important enough to be committed to the jobs that they have been assigned to do, you are going to have to look into individual focus. This means going to each team member and addressing their concerns, and giving them praise based on individual performance as well. Your team needs to work together to be successful, but the fact of the matter is that they can’t work together until and unless they are given the right amount of importance as a team in the first place.
#2: Hire the Right Managers
This is another thing that a lot of people might not think about, at least when it comes to the initial thought process that is associated with taking care of your customer support representatives. If you have a CSR that is not as satisfied as they should be, look at your manager’s performance. Chances are that an underperforming team is only doing so because of the fact that it is being mismanaged rather than because of the general incompetence of the people that are working within that team. Hence, you need to focus on hiring the right managers. You would be surprised at just how much the performance of a specific team can improve simply because of the fact that you changed the person that is managing said team, you will start to see vastly improved performances from people that you might have thought to be completely useless at the tasks that you have assigned them! This is because of the fact that they are being given the right kind of encouragement and leadership in the workplace.
#3: Use the Right Live Chat
One thing should be perfectly clear to you at this point if you want to be able to make the most of the customer support that you are attempting to provide to the people that acquire your products and services on a regular basis: you are going to have to incorporate live chat into your customer support. Now, the only question that remains here is what software you end up using simply because of the fact that the performance of the members of your customer support team relies to a great extent on the software that they have been given to allow them to do the tasks that they have been designed. The best live chat software can keep your team invested in the job that they are performing.
#4: Don’t Let Them Get Bored
A bored customer service representative is, quite frankly, not going to be very good at the job that they have been tasked with. While you don’t exactly have to build them an arcade within the workspace, you are going to have to focus a bit on the task of entertaining your team members at least to some extent. This is because of the fact that talking to customers day in and day out can be a pretty draining job all things considered. The fact of the matter is that your CSRs are going to need a break every now and again, something that will help them take their minds of work so that they can return to the task at hand with renewed focus and vigor. This is one of the most important aspects of taking care of the most important resource you have at your disposal when it comes to tackling customer support.
#5: Be Respectful
This is perhaps the single most important thing you can do in order to ensure that the customer support you end up providing is top notch. Your CSRs are your subordinates but treating them with respect is important because of the fact that they are human beings at the end of the day, not to mention the fact that they represent an incredibly important aspect of your company that you absolutely cannot jeopardize in any way shape or form if you want to move forward in a manner that is as successful as possible.
