Mandatory Skills for Customer Support

The saying, "happy customers are loyal customers" is very true. Therefore, a customer support role with a capable skill set is needed to realize these ideals. The reason is, the profession is the spearhead that will have direct contact with all customers.

The skills that customer support needs to have can be further divided into two aspects. The first skill is of course those that directly deal with work or responsibilities with the company. On the other hand, there are skills that are needed and are closely related to customers.

It is important to master all the skills needed to increase customer trust. See the explanation of each required skill set below.

Basic Customer Support Skills

Basic skills are skills needed to help with the work carried out every day. The following are the basic skills of a customer support person.

1. Ability to read data

Customer support must also understand data. This data will later make work more focused. As customer support, you need to see the characteristics of most customers in their shopping activities. Then, identify the aspects that most often encounter problems. That way, customer support will be able to provide the fastest solutions.

2. Skills in using digital devices

Technology is becoming more sophisticated as time goes by. Therefore, understanding digital things is very important. Customer support can also use it to connect directly with teammates even when they are not in the office. Apart from that, understanding technology can help customers experience difficulties more easily.

3. Able to utilize AI

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can make work much easier. At least customer support is able to run chatbots to answer messages from customers so they don't wait too long. AI is also able to provide convenience by helping with large and repetitive tasks. That way, customer support can complete even more complicated work.

4. Knowledge of the industry

A mandatory requirement to become customer support is to understand all the products the company has. They are obliged to be a bridge for every customer to get all the necessary information. However, this is not enough to win the competition. Customer support must also have knowledge about the industry in which the company they work is in.

5. Good writing skills

Customer support will not only communicate with customers via telephone calls. This profession also forces you to be able to communicate well via email or short messages. For this reason, they are required to be able to put words together well so that they are easily understood by customers.

6. Problem solving skills

It's not customer support if you can't provide solutions for customers who have difficulties. It's even better if you can immediately draw a conclusion in an obstacle that you have never experienced before. Apart from that, accuracy and speed are needed in decision making to get customer satisfaction.

Additional Skills for Customer Support

Apart from the skills above, there are still other skills that customer support needs to master. These are skills that have a lot to do with customers.

1. Be a good listener

Hearing is not now to answer. However, good customer support needs to listen to understand customers. By understanding, you can provide the best solution for them. Being a good listener also needs to be done when interacting with customers via telephone, video or face to face.

2. Able to receive input

The customer support team must be tough in dealing with input and complaints submitted by customers. There may be words that are unpleasant and make you hurt when interacting with other people. However, this cannot be avoided and has become part of the job. Each team member needs to take part in supporting other members in dealing with this problem.

3. High sense of empathy

Empathy is the feeling of being able to feel and understand everything that another person experiences. Most customer interactions will revolve around complaints and problems. It is important to be able to put yourself in the customer's shoes to understand them. By increasing your sense of empathy, you will be more willing to find solutions quickly so that they don't feel in trouble for too long.

To get everything, companies can take part in the Customer Satisfaction & Relationship Program to improve the quality of the entire customer support team. This program will help learn the role of increasing customer satisfaction to gain business profitability.