Customer Support is a very important, but difficult role. Reps often are dealing with upset individuals, have strict metrics to maintain, and deal with complex issues to resolve. More often than not, they deal with all of that simultaneously. Here are a few tips we use at Leverify to improve the interactions we have with our client’s customers.
Use the Customer’s name
In Dale Carnegie’s book, How to Win Friends and Influence People he says, “A person is more interested in their name than in all the other names on earth put together. Remember that name and call it easily, and you have paid a subtle and very effective compliment. But forget it or misspell it – and you have placed yourself at a sharp disadvantage…one of the simplest, most obvious and most important ways of gaining goodwill was by remembering names and making people feel important – yet how many of us do it?” He is spot on — think about when you’re in a conversation and the other party mentions your name casually and effortlessly. You feel uniquely seen and subconsciously are more at ease and willing to open up. This can be an incredibly powerful tactic when dealing with customers. By using the customer’s name, you put them at ease and this can be especially helpful to de-escalate any issues before getting out of hand.
The Customer is not always right, but they must be heard
Customers want to feel heard — one of the biggest frustrations for customers when dealing with customer support agents is feeling like they stepped on an escalator with no way off. They’re immediately thrown into a script that is one size fits all. At Leverify, we start with discovery questions to understand the true issue. This allows the customer to feel heard while also gathering the necessary information to find a remedy. This doesn’t mean we let the customer dictate and control the conversation. We simply set up the parameters for the conversation to thread the needle of being expeditious and allowing the customer and opportunity to be heard.
Communicate, communicate, communicate
Most interactions with customers these days, especially in the SaaS space, happens via phone, chat, or Zoom. With phone and chat support, this can create a disconnect visually for the customer. The customer’s attention span is finite and often can lead to frustration because they may think the agent is confused, slow, or generally doesn’t care. To combat this, we train our agents to essentially narrate what they are doing on the other end of the phone. If they are logging into their CRM, they tell the customer. If they’re going to read something and be silent for a minute, they will tell the customer. This allows the customer to set an expectation and reduces their frustration. With Zoom you have the luxury of the customer being able to see the agent, but the customer is still in the dark as they can’t see the agent’s screen. At Leverify, we share our screens so there is transparency and the customer has something to keep their attention. If you’re concerned about private information, you can simply share one tab so if you jump to a different tab or screen the customer will not see it on their end.
