Key Human Skills That Your Customer Service Team Should Possess

Customer service is one of the most crucial components of any business that’s seeking to thrive in the 21st century. It doesn’t matter if it’s a physical store or an online shop that you have; customer support is an essential department that you need to make sure exists within your business. But its mere presence alone will not guarantee that things will go smoothly as you want them to be.

An effective customer service strategy ensures that every agent which composes the team possesses every human skill that’s there is to be efficient in dealing with customers every single shift. It’s not just about good communication skills, it is being able to relate with customers and having the patience to stay engaged until certain issues are resolved.

What Are Human Skills?

Human skills also known as soft skills are essential ingredients in building up a team that will thrive in today’s ever-evolving customer service space. Since the spread of Covid-19, big companies have switched to the new normal of work arrangements where distance is really a limiting factor. Online interactions became the staple and this has raised the need for human skills even more.

But what exactly are human skills and how can your business benefit from it? By definition, human skills are those abilities that are attributed to us being humans. It includes the capacity to relate to one another and exhibit different emotions and actions that are mostly intangible but are felt really well especially within certain situations. Human skills include but are not limited to the following:

- Compassion

- Empathy

- Authenticity

- Kindness

- Adaptability

- Respect

There still are others that some people may innately possess but most of these can actually be learned through training and practice. Being able to relate to other people’s experiences is a key customer service skill that will ensure a good customer feedback and encourage loyalty to your brand. It also has that big potential of boosting your business reputation which means a smoother overall journey towards making it close if not above your competitors.

Human skills not only ensure that your team is serving every customer well; it also creates a very strong foundation for your workplace and inspires the team to think on opportunities for innovation, collaboration, and many more.

Now that we have named the key human skills, let’s define each one of them and find out how important it is that your customer service team possesses them. Let’s get started with the first one.

Compassion – Seeking the Good of Others All the Time

Compassion is one of the top ability or skill that every member of your customer service team needs to possess. It is the attitude of consistently seeking the best for other people. Since your customer support employees deal with several people whom they don’t even know personally, they will come to the point that they would no longer care as much for customers like they did when they were new hires.

That is why instilling the value of compassion to every single one of them is very important as it will make customers feel that they are talking to a human who cares about how they feel, one who will actively seek solutions to resolve their issues and concerns. Compassion is like loving others the way you love yourself and if your customer service team has this, they’ll surely perform well every time.

Empathy – Feeling How Customers Feel

Empathy is the next human skill that is essential for every customer support agent. It is being able to relate and feel how customers feel so that the drive in helping them solve the problem remains strong. But empathy is more than just feeling sorry or feeling sad for the customer, it is being able to make them feel that you are there listening to them and you actually understand where they are coming from.

When customers feel that your agent empathizes with them, they would tend to trust and have confidence in your business in the long run. Train your agents to learn how they can show genuine empathy both in actions and words and avoid faking it by all means.

Authenticity – Genuine Desire to Help

Authenticity’s main focus is on the way your customer support agents communicate with your customers. Words like “I totally see where you’re coming from”, “I want to deeply apologize for the issue”, “I know the trouble this may have caused you but,”, and many other re-assuring statements are methods in showing how authentic they are in their desire to offer help and assistance.

Train your agents how not to sound like robots or automated prompt and give them the right set of words and statements that would effectively start genuine conversations between them and the customers. Building rapport and finding a common ground is also a strategy of showing authenticity and genuineness. Teach your support team to listen actively and start conversations based on common interests, hobbies, and love for pets, etc. that they might have in common with the customers that they are serving.

The key is to let them feel that they are talking to a real human who has real hobbies, experiences, and emotions because these things give hope of issue resolution to your customers.

Kindness – Speaking Soft Words Every Time

Customers commonly engage with your support team because they have issues about your product or service. And having issues don’t feel good at all. Some customers may already be irate at the first contact that they establish with your agents. So the best approach that your team must have is to be gentle in words and show kindness no matter how angry or disappointed the customer is.

This takes a lot of patience and strong character but this is something that can be learned and acquired. Make developing kindness one of the top training courses for your newly-hired customer service agents as it would ensure that your overall customer retention strategy would effectively work. Rude customer service agents tend to turn customers into enemies and when they do turn into one, your business will be on its sure way to destruction and defeat by competitors who have kind support agents in their arsenal.

Adaptability – Being Flexible and Ready to Perform

A good customer support agent is one that is capable of adapting to different work scenarios and environment and your agents need to be like one. Adaptability also means being willing to undergo training to enhance their skills and make them capable in serving under different support departments like customer acquisition, technical support, customer retention, etc. There is no room for single-skilled worker especially when you’re just starting with your business.

Train your agents to be adaptable and make sure that they master every work process and acquire proper work ethics in every department so they can serve as trainers once you expand your team to serve even more customers who are seeking help with the issues that could arise as they use your product or service. Adaptability ensures effective synergy and effective synergy produces overall business success.

Respect – Treating Others Better Than One Self

Respect will be our last human skill in this list but it is definitely not the least. It is esteeming others higher than one self and in your customer support team, it means giving others the proper esteem because every single agent has his/her own set of skills that contribute to the overall success of the business operation.

Train them to give proper esteem both to newbies and seniors and never to belittle each one especially after a failed call or a refund request. Everyone can experience such and sometimes, bad luck really happens even after our best efforts. Teach your agents that bad situations are opportunities for unity and a chance for the more knowledgeable ones to step up and share those important learning with others who are still taking the baby steps towards mastery.

When respect reigns, development and growth becomes more evident and if this happens in your customer support department, your business will see a brighter future ahead of it. Respect begets respect as they say so as a business owner, you’ll also need to embody this human skill in your every interaction with your employees and add some flavor of consistency to it every time.

Human Skills Are Essential Skills Indeed

There you have it! The 6 top human skills that every customer service team needs to possess if the business that they represent is to thrive in the digital age of the 21st century. Customer service may have evolved so much through the years and has even seen some drastic changes when the pandemic began but the basic and most important human skills did not.

They all remain the same today and in many years to come. Have you ever considered human skills in your hiring decisions especially for your new customer service staff? It’s not yet too late to get them trained with the above skills and if you already have honed your agents to have such skills, make sure that every single one is applied in every customer engagement that your agents have.

Ask customer feedback every after engagement and learn how well your customer support team performs. Remember, your business is only as strong as its weakest department and if it is your customers support team that’s on the failing side, the negative effect that it will result for your business is double. Human skills are essential skills so have every member of your support team possess them.

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