customer service representative

Here’s a scary fact. Your customer service representatives could be causing your business heavy losses. In fact, businesses lose up to $75 billion a year because of bad customer service. The bottom line? You can’t have great marketing without awesome customer service representatives. It’s a fact, fam. In the past nine years of running my content agency, Express Writers, I can’t reinforce enough how true of a statement this is. When we do have the right people in our customer service representative team, 85-90% of prospects who start a chat with us convert into customers. Wow! So, how can you do it, too? How do you: Find the right people to hire as customer service representatives? Know how to differentiate between great and awful picks in the hiring process? Lead your team of representatives, so you keep winning by keeping your customers happy? In this blog, I’ll answer all your questions. Let’s dive in! [bctt tweet=”Businesses lose up to $75 billion/year due to bad customer service (@forbes). Great marketing doesn’t work without awesome customer service reps. Learn to find the right hires and lead your team to keep your customers happy ❤” username=”ExpWriters”] What Is a Customer Service Representative? A customer service representative is a person who interacts with your customers. You already know about customer contact centers, where callers go when they need help with problems or questions. Solving these problems and answering these questions is what customer service representatives do. At Express Writers, my customer service representatives are the first people potential clients talk to. They’re our front liners: the experts who give buyers their first glimpse of what they can expect if they decide to work with us. No wonder they have to be (and are) so awesome! What Do Customer Service Representatives Do? There’s more than meets the eye in the job customer service representatives do. Here’s a list of their most important duties: Listening to customers’ concerns and needs Helping potential customers understand product information Taking new orders Processing billing Taking care of customers’ accounts Solving problems and issues behind complaints Taking care of returns and cancellations Being a customer service representative is more than just picking up a phone call and answering a few questions. It’s being a company’s voice, heart, and soul. [bctt tweet=”Customer service reps should be your company’s voice , heart , and soul . Find the right people to embody your company’s vision, and you’ll notice huge gains.” username=”ExpWriters”] And when you find the right people to embody your company’s vision, you’ll notice a huge change in your success level. Here’s why. Why It’s Important to Hire the Right Customer Service Representatives Ever eat at a restaurant with a grumpy, frowning waitress who acted annoyed by your little requests? I bet the experience was unpleasant. You probably picked another place to eat the next time you dined out. That’s how important customer service representatives are. They’re the people who determine if customers love or hate you. They can make or break your business. “But what if I have a great product? Won’t they skip over my unpleasant customer service representatives?” Well, yes. Maybe some of them will. But remember, you have competitors. And customers are picky about spending their money. In fact, 90% of Americans consider customer service an important factor when deciding whether or not to do business with a company. When asked what made them fall in love with a brand, 73% said it was friendly customer services representatives. According to a HubSpot survey, 80% of customers stop doing business with a company due to bad customer services. Source: blog.hubspot.com And what happens when you keep losing customers? You spend more, since it’s 5x more expensive to gain new customers than to retain existing ones. Source: invespcro.com So, you can put all your bets on your products and pray your customers will ignore your bad customer service… But chances are you’ll still see your sales dropping and your faithful followers abandoning you for your competitors. How to Find and Hire Excellent Customer Service Representatives So now you’re sorting through the piles of resumes on your desk (or computer). You’re not sure what to look for. The right degree? 5 years of experience? 10? Awards, maybe? Hint: None of these will tell you if you’re hiring the right customer service representative. Here are three things to look for instead. 1. People Who Are Hungry Average people spend 22 years of their lives learning, and then stop. Geniuses spend their whole lives learning. Michelangelo was one of them. “Ancora Imparo,” he said at age 87. I’m still learning. And while you probably can’t hire another Michelangelo, you CAN find people who share his hunger for learning. They’re not hard to miss. They’re always craving knowledge. Always stretching for growth, even when it’s uncomfortable. They’re eager for challenges, hungry for new skills, and willing to step out of their comfort zones. These are the people you should hire. According to John Brubaker in his Entrepreneur article, “You don’t have to micromanage the hungry. They’re so self-motivated they’ll push themselves harder than you could push them.” 2. People Who Are Humble When I started out hiring my own customer services representatives, I was attracted to the same things that catch a ton of interviewers’ eyes. The decades of experience. The awards. The numerous accolades. And no, there’s nothing wrong with these. But surprisingly (or not), the people with all these credentials are sometimes the hardest to work with. They’re 100% sure of their skills. They’re inflexible and unwilling to grow and learn. They don’t take criticism positively. On the other hand, it’s a dream to work with humble people. Even if they aren’t as experienced. They’re open to learn and change, and it won’t be long before they overtake others with more experience. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “A great man is always willing to be little.” Take his advice and go for great in the hiring process. [av_image src=’https://staging.expresswriters.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/cta-Profitable-Content-Marketer-Cheat-Sheet-banner-03.jpg’ attachment=’79077′ attachment_size=’full’ … Read more