Running a high performance call center today is an increasingly complex responsibility. Consider how the role of the inbound customer care center leader has expanded. To run a successful operation, you must be:
A Marketing Expert: Today, you can never take your finger off the pulse of your customer base. You need to understand and constantly adapt to their ever-evolving expectations.
AND:
A Technology Guru: Technology innovation is an everyday reality. You’re expected to be up-to-speed, savvy enough to pay attention to the innovations that matter, and discerning enough to ignore the noise.
AND, above all else:
Talented, Inspiring Leader of People: You know that the inbound customer care job is the critical liaison role between your brand and your customer. But in this labor market, finding the right candidate has never been more challenging. Keeping that candidate can feel near impossible. Now multiply that challenge by 20 seats… or 100… or 200.
So how do you build, motivate and sustain a growing team of unicorn-quality customer care agents?
At Skybridge Americas, that’s what we do every day.
We rally our teams around our customer care vision and a shared passion for the brands they represent. We have also defined the 9 must-have skills and character traits for our truly exceptional agents.
- The Ultimate People Person. Friendly, reassuring, warm and unfailingly empathetic… even with the stranger who’s expressing their frustration with your product. How many of us are able to do that, day in and day out? A great agent can.
- Detail Oriented. Not excluding big-picture people here. But our agents have an eye for the trees, not just the forest. One of the greatest failings revealed in customer service surveys is that customers frequently discover that, while the rep sounded, they did not seem to fully grasp the complexities of the customer’s issue.
- Super-Human Listener. Not looking for bionic ears. Just a deeply rooted commitment to listening closely to what every customer tries to express. That includes words, tone and all of the other nonverbal that attuned agents “hear” because they care.
- Self Motivated, Fast and Super Accurate. A great call isn’t about the script. It’s about the person delivering it. A self-starter takes pride in their work, is hard-wired for efficiency, and moves swiftly to resolve a customer’s need, while juggling rapidly incoming calls. More importantly, this person cannot imagine providing information unless they’re 100% confident that it’s correct.
- Great Verbal Communicator. A superior customer experience is a connection to your brand. For the duration of the call – and for a significant period of time afterward – your agent controls that connection. A successful agent does not need to possess a PhD level vocabulary (but many of ours do). They do need to have extraordinary command of the words they use and know how to use them to convey kindness, urgency, and confidence.
- Calm in the Eye of the Storm. Taking customer calls isn’t always easy. Handling complaints – and the angry people voicing them – takes a combination of grit and graciousness. A solid customer care agent brings both.
- Quick Study. Change happens. When you need to switch a script, add disclosures, or make wholesale changes to product information, you need to know that every one on your team can take the information in quickly and act on it accurately.
- Trust Worthy and Reliable. If the unicorn doesn’t faithfully show up for every shift, the magic dies. Likewise, if you can’t depend on every agent on your team to stay focused on doing excellent work, it’s just not going to work.
- A True Team Payer. Especially in an era when so many customer care positions are transitioning to at-home jobs, everyone on the team has a higher need than ever to depend on each other. Great agents cheer each other on, help each other, and celebrate victories as a team. Prima Donnas are unlikely to survive – or help the team thrive – in a successful customer care environment.
by Bobby Matthews
Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing
Skybridge Americas
bmatthews@skybridgeamericas.com
Find out how Skybridge Americas can help you delight your customers and grow your business.
We seamlessly integrate our superior customer care skills with your brand messaging. For more information, contact us at 763-299-4570 or submit our contact form.
