01/22/2019
5 Core Customer Service Values
Empathy
Most the time, the person we are in communication with about a service complaint, is by no means the problem. What frustrates me as a consumer, is when I have to explain my problem, and it is as if no one is on the other end. Sometimes just hearing, “I completely understand your frustrations,” or “I am right there with you, I am doing everything to get this right,” goes a long way. Just knowing that they can relate is something I really value.
Patience
Problems are not easy to solve, customers typically understand this. But when we are moved across three departments, multiple conversations, repeating information, customers patience becomes thin. For a customer service worker, patience truly needs to be a virtue, listening carefully, understanding the issue, and working to fix the issue. There is a certain skill to remain patience with difficult customers, but it is essential to providing and excelling with customer service in the public sector.
Passion
I truly enjoy working with or talking with people who are passionate about what they do. It’s always inspiring to hear people passionate about their craft, their skills, and taking their work to a higher level. This is true for me with customer service officials, I love it when customer service representatives are upbeat, energetic and genuinely listening to your issues, and trying to help.
Persistence
Employees need to keep working towards a resolution. Sometimes this is not easy, especially with how complex government often operates, but being persistent and finding an appropriate solution is one of the most important roles of a customer service official. Often, this means that management needs to have properly trained employees and has clearly provided all the right information, points of contact and whatever resources are needed to assist a customer.
Desire to Improve
Customer service officials have dozens of conversations with customers each day. The organizations that do customer service best are the ones that look at data, analyze conversations, train employees and constantly looking for ways to improve their product/service and how they are providing customer service. In a lot of cases, customers are reporting similar challenges and issues, what separates good customer service representatives from poor is that they look at each case as an individual and unique case. Although the solution might be identical to a previous call, the ability to truly connect with customer and treat them like they are the first person ever to report the problem, is crucial.
