Customer support is an essential part of any business. The customer support team is often the first face that customers see, and their success can often mean the difference between a loyal customer and a one-time customer.
With so many prospective employees to choose from and so many questions to ask, it can be difficult to find the right person for the job. It’s important to know what you’re looking for before you start hiring. Here, are some things to keep in mind when hiring your customer support team.
Section 1: What customer service roles do you want?
The first thing to do is to put some thought into what you want. Do you want an internal customer support person? Or do you want someone who works primarily on the phone? Do you want someone who comes into the office on the weekends?
Section 2: What customer service skills are important?
It’s also important to know what skills you need, which will help determine where you’re willing to pay. Is it important that you have someone who speaks English fluently? Are you willing to pay for English courses if this is needed?
To begin, you need to look at the skills that make up a good customer support person. Most customer support teams need some basic computer skills, such as Internet etiquette, Microsoft Office and Outlook.
Where do you find your customer support team?
Customer support team members should be dedicated to what they’re doing and want to do. They should work hard to ensure customers get a good experience and leave with a smile. Finding someone with these qualities is much easier to find than you might think. Here are some great sources to look at:
LinkedIn can ease the hiring process of customer service reps:
Everyone has an account on LinkedIn, so your customer support team members will have an opportunity to see what’s working and what’s not in a professional environment. On the other hand, the experience will help them decide if they want to apply for a job. You can search through these search results by keyword, job title, city, and other helpful information to narrow down the search.
The qualities of the ideal customer support professional
Some qualities are more desirable than others. Obviously, someone has to be friendly and personable, but you also want them to be competent and reliable. Additionally, they have to be able to handle calls and are not afraid to get their hands dirty.
How to get started with hiring excellent customer srvice representatives
Finding the right person is only the first step. This is a highly specialized field, so the processes to fill positions are very different from those for most other positions. Companies often want candidates who can do their jobs in a specific way, which can be very unique to the business, so finding a candidate that can perform your job is hard.
After all the work you put into recruiting to hire a customer service team, you have to be sure that the candidate can hit the ground running when they start. Getting help from an experienced recruiting firm can help you get the best results from your candidates. They have the know-how and connections to source candidates for your job, making it easier to hire the right people for the job.
Hiring on the job market
One of the most commonly cited advantages of hiring a customer support team is the potential for great pay. With a candidate that you can train, you can get a huge jump in pay.
The caveat is that there is no way to properly train on the job. You’ll need to find someone with a strong foundation. It also has to be someone with the right experience in the field, and a good attitude.
There’s also a risk that you may not be able to fulfill your need for an employee with the necessary skills. This happens especially often in competitive industries like healthcare and telecommunications. In this case, you’ll need to look for different resources. This includes connecting with relevant customer service groups, visiting meetups and events to seek out potential candidates.
Outsourcing recruitment services
One of the easiest ways to find an expert is to use a recruitment agency. If you want to focus on customer support only, then you might consider working with a recruiter like Appier. These companies use both online and physical recruiting to help connect job seekers with customer support jobs that meet their skills and needs.
Focus on experience
Every customer support agent should have specific experience in customer service, sales, social media or customer service. This is very important for someone who will be dealing with customers. It’s important to make sure that they have a deep understanding of your product or service, as well as customer service principles. You can easily find this online in the form of certificates, coding degrees and general coursework, for example.
Building your team
First, it’s important to create a profile of what your company is looking for in a customer support representative. The first piece of the puzzle is your product.
Do you offer interactive software? A product with a complex interface? An online bookkeeping service with extensive reports? The more questions you can answer for yourself, the better.
Make sure that your customer service representative can do everything the job entails for your product. For example, if you sell a digital book reader and your customer support rep needs to install and configure the software, you may want to hire someone with experience with computer hardware.
Once you have an idea of what kind of person you need, the next thing you should do is create a job description.
Training your customer service team
If you’re going to hire new team members, it’s important that you give them the proper training before they start working. Trainees need to learn the basics of your company and the products and services you offer.
However, they should also receive specific training on different customer support topics, so that they’re equipped to assist customers with a problem or issue. Hiring trainees who aren’t trained properly could prove to be a serious waste of time and money for your business.
Customer service etiquette
An important part of training your customer support team is to make sure that they know proper customer service etiquette. Potential customers are going to love this. For example, they should keep their phones and email system up-to-date.
Dealing with performance issues
Your team needs to have the right personality to deal with issues and respond to customer inquiries. Some people have the ability to be empathetic and understanding, while others might need to be angry or even rude. It’s a delicate balance that you have to balance. Some questions that you have to deal with in customer support are pretty straightforward, but others can be quite complicated.
What kind of interview should you have with a candidate before hiring them? Do you have any scripts or suggestions for dealing with typical issues that might arise? These are things that the interview panel should know about before you let a candidate join the team.
