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PRINCIPLES OF MODULE 5 Customer Service
T
MARKETING QUARTER 3 WEEK 5
Learning Competencies:
1. Understand and develops a program for customer service.
Code: ABM_PM11-Icd-6
Customer service is the act of providing support to both prospective and
existing customers. Customer service professionals commonly answer customer
questions through in-person, phone, email, chat, and social media interactions
and may also be responsible for creating documentation for self-service support.
Organizations can also create their own definitions of customer service
depending on their customer service philosophies and the type of support they
want to provide. For example, at Help Scout, we define customer service as the
act of providing timely, empathetic help that keeps customers’ needs at the
forefront of every interaction.
4 Key Principles Of Good Customer Service
Good customer service has four key qualities: It’s personalized, competent,
convenient, and proactive. These four factors have the biggest influence on the
customer experience.
1. Personalized. Good customer service always starts with a human touch.
Personalized interactions greatly improve customer service and let customers
know that your company cares about them and their problems. Instead of
thinking of service as a cost, consider it an opportunity to earn your customer’s
business all over again.
2. Competent. Consumers have identified competency as the element that
plays the biggest role in a good customer experience. To be competent, a
customer support professional must have a strong knowledge of the company
and its products, as well as the power to fix the customer’s problems. The more
knowledge they have, the more competent they become.
3. Convenient. Customers want to be able to get in touch with a customer
service representative through whichever channel is the most convenient for
them. Offer support through the channels of communication your customers rely
on most, and make it easy for customers to figure out how to contact you.
4. Proactive. Customers want companies to be proactive in reaching out to
them. If one of your products is backordered or your website is going to
experience downtime, proactively reach out to your customers and explain the
problem. They may not be happy about the situation, but they will be thankful
that you kept them in the loop.
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PRINCIPLES OF MODULE 5 Customer Service
T
MARKETING QUARTER 3 WEEK 5
By building your customer service strategy around these four main principles,
you’ll create a positive, hassle-free customer experience for everyone who deals
with your company.
10 Key Customer Service Skills
While delivering consistently good customer service requires work and alignment
across your entire organization, a good place to start is your support team. It’s
important to hire people who genuinely want to help your customers succeed —
and to pay rates that are attractive to skilled professionals.
Here are the 16 customer service skills that every support professional should
seek to develop and every leader should look for when hiring new team
members.
Patience. Patience is crucial for customer service professionals. After all,
customers who reach out to support are often confused and frustrated. Being
listened to and handled with patience goes a long way in helping customers feel
like you’re going to alleviate their current frustrations. It’s not enough to close
out interactions with customers as quickly as possible. Your team has to be
willing to take the time to listen to and fully understand each customer’s
problems and needs.
2. Attentiveness. The ability to truly listen to customers is crucial to providing
great service for a number of reasons. Not only is it important to pay attention to
individual customers’ experiences, but it’s also important to be mindful and
attentive to the feedback that you receive at large. You have to be attentive to
pick up on what customers are telling you without directly saying it.
3. Ability to communicate clearly. The ability to communicate clearly when
working with customers is a key skill because miscommunications can result in
disappointment and frustration. The best customer service professionals know
how to keep their communications with customers simple and leave nothing to
doubt.
4. Knowledge of the product. The best customer service professionals have a
deep knowledge of how their companies’ products work. After all, without
knowing your product from front to back, they won’t know how to help when
customers run into problems. According to Help Scout’s Elyse Roach, “Having
that solid product foundation not only ensures you’ve got the best tricks up your
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PRINCIPLES OF MODULE 5 Customer Service
T
MARKETING QUARTER 3 WEEK 5
sleeve to help customers navigate even the most complex situations, it also
helps you build an understanding of their experience so that you can become
their strongest advocate.”
5. Ability to use positive language. Effective customer service means having
the ability to make minor changes in your conversational patterns. This can truly
go a long way in creating happy customers. Language is a crucial part of
persuasion, and people (especially customers) create perceptions about you and
your company based on the language that you use. Responding to questions
with positive language can greatly affect how the customer hears the response.
6. Acting skills. Sometimes your team is going to come across people who
you’ll never be able to make happy. Situations outside of your control (such as a
customer who’s having a terrible day) will sometimes creep into your team’s
usual support routine. Every great customer service professional needs basic
acting skills to maintain their usual cheery persona in spite of dealing with
people who are just plain grumpy.
7. Time management skills. On the one hand, it’s good to be patient and
spend a little extra time with customers to understand their problems and needs.
On the other hand, there is a limit to the amount of time you can dedicate to
each customer, so your team needs to be concerned with getting customers
what they want in an efficient manner. The best customer service professionals
are quick to recognize when they can’t help a customer so they can quickly get
that customer to someone who can help.
8. Ability to read customers. It’s important that your team understands some
basic principles of behavioral psychology in order to read customers’ current
emotional states. The best support pros know how to watch and listen for subtle
clues about a customer’s current mood, patience level, personality, etc., which
goes a long way in keeping customer interactions positive.
9. Unflappability. There are a lot of metaphors for this type of personality,
“keeps their cool,” “staying cool under pressure,” and so on, but it all represents
the same thing: The ability some people have to stay calm and even influence
others when things get a little hectic. The best customer service reps know that
they can’t let a heated customer force them to lose their cool. In fact, it is their
job to try to be the “rock” for customers who think the world is falling apart as a
result of their current problems.
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PRINCIPLES OF MODULE 5 Customer Service
T
MARKETING QUARTER 3 WEEK 5
10. Goal-oriented focus. Many customer service experts have shown how
giving employees unfettered power to “wow” customers doesn’t always generate
the returns many businesses expect to see. That’s because it leaves employees
without goals, and business goals and customer happiness can work hand-in-
hand without resulting in poor service.
Performance Task:
Choose one (1) business (e.g., retail store, café, online shop, school
canteen, service center).
Create a simple customer service program by answering the guide
questions below:
1. What is customer service in your own words?
2. Explain how the business will apply the four (4) key principles of good
customer service:
o Personalized
o Competent
o Convenient
o Proactive
3. Identify five (5) customer service skills needed by the staff and explain
why each is important.
4. Explain how good customer service can help the business satisfy and
retain customers.
Write your answers in paragraph form (3–5 sentences per question).
Observe proper grammar, clarity, and organization.
Output Requirements:
Individual work (Written/Printed)
Properly Labeled
Subject: _____________________
Content: ____________________
Quarter: ____________________
Week: ______________________
Name: ______________________
Grade & Section: ____________
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PRINCIPLES OF MODULE 5 Customer Service
T
MARKETING QUARTER 3 WEEK 5
Submit on:
SCORING RUBRIC
Needs
Point
Criteria Excellent (5) Good (4) Fair (3) Improvemen
s
t (2–1)
Clear, accurate, Mostly
Understandin
and well- correct Basic Incorrect or
g of Customer /5
explained with minor understanding unclear
Service
definition lapses
Application of All four
Three
the 4 principles
principles Two principles One or none
Principles of clearly and /5
applied applied applied
Customer correctly
correctly
Service applied
Identification Five relevant Less than
Four skills Three skills
of Customer skills clearly three or /5
explained explained
Service Skills explained incorrect
Explanation of Insightful
Importance to explanation Clear but Limited Incorrect or
/5
Business showing strong lacks depth explanation unclear
Success understanding
Very well- Organized
Organization Some Poorly written
organized, neat, with minor /5
& Clarity disorganization and unclear
and clear errors
TOTAL /25