Customer Service Training: Skills & Guide for Support Teams

In the age of AI and machine learning, human-like chatbots can be met more and more often. Talking to a machine becomes more alike to communicating with a real human. But, it is undeniable that nothing will change the feel of a human touch and nothing will ever replace human qualities — empathy, creativity, emotions and the ability to listen and hear. These are the crucial skills, when it comes to outsource customer support and that is exactly why we at SupportYourApp are paying so much attention to them.

According to the stats, more than 41% of customers expect to see live chats on the websites. For the customers who browse the internet from a mobile device, this number is as high as 50%! This means that those, who opt for using chatbots exclusively, are just plain ignoring the needs of their customers.

But that is not the only reason why using support consultants is a lot more beneficial than using chatbots all the way. 

AI vs. humans — who will win?

People vs. robots. Even though it might seem like this is a battle we already lost, it is not true. There is still a bunch of benefits that people have in this situation, as support consultants are going through several stages of customer service skills training and acquire knowledge that no machine can replicate. For example: 

• Empathy;
• Creativity;
• The ability to:
  • Say the right thing;
  • Listen and understand what the end users want;
  • Resolve the issues using fourth-rate approaches;
  • Channel our and our clients’ values;
  • Add the human touch to every conversation and messaging thread with the end user.

These, among others, are the main skills that support consultants possess and that distinguish them favorably from AI chatbots. The fact that the consultants can go through customer service excellence training and improve all these skills makes them even more favorable to various chatbots than they seemed before. 

Basic customer service training: how to communicate with the end users?

There are several traits and skills that can make a great consultant. But, there is no point in denying that all of them can be acquired through customer service workshops and seminars as well as various customer service call center training.

For sure, having some skills on the list from the very beginning can really facilitate the way towards being the best customer support consultant.

❓ So, what makes the best consultants (just like the ones in SupportYourApp)?

1. 👂 The willingness to talk and listen to the end user

Even though it is right there in the job description, some consultants still take their time to understand the real importance of proper communication with the end-users. Some might be lacking patience, some empathy and some might be searching for the right approach for too long. In general, it is nothing that customer support training can’t take care of.

2. 🙏🏼 Empathy — core feature to develop while going through customer service training

We have already greased this topic before, so let’s dive deeper into it. 

We at SupportYourApp think that empathy is one of the most important things when it comes to providing top-notch customer support. And we can’t stress enough, how much attention we pay to it.

The ability to understand and feel the disappointment and inconvenience of others and to have the desire to help them and to improve their level of customer satisfaction, even if this means reaching out to the users who didn’t leave the support tickets, but rather left a bad feedback in App Store or Google Play, can never be replicated by a chat bot. And that is what really matters.

3. 🤔 The willingness to learn and develop throughout the entire course of one’s career

Too often customer service representative training (developing additional skills) is falling onto consultants and their own initiatives. But not at SupportYourApp. We conduct educational talks, develop and research knowledge bases and encourage everyone within our structure to read books and attend the best customer service training seminars they can possibly find. 

Moreover, our consultants are not only willing to do that, but they also show initiative and are glad to grab onto any chance they get. 

Best SupportYourApp customer service training techniques — what do we do to be the best?

For sure, we at SupportYourApp want to see all of our consultants grow and develop in their customer support skills. For that we employ the best customer service training techniques that we have been developing over the course of the last decade.

1. We conduct feedforward sessions

Monthly talks are essential for the business. How often you conduct them and their quality are crucial to the success of professionals in your team. Plus, you have to keep in mind that if you focus on mistakes and scolding, the morale is only going to get lower and there is going to be a huge turnover. This means that there is a need to develop a system of monthly talks that are going to encourage your teams and push them to become better. 

For that we implemented monthly feedforwarding sessions. They help us not only improve our professional organization, but also to learn how to efficiently communicate with each other to get rid of all the possible informational roadblocks. 

2. We conduct random QAs

QA is very important. After all, you can trust your teams, but verifying that they are providing the best services in the market is necessary to maintain high industry standards. Our QA process is random — several chat conversations, email threads and telephone calls are picked to assess the attitude, the swiftness and overall skills of a consultant. If any of them need adjustment and discussion, we make time for that as well. 

This way of ensuring that all of our consultants are delivering the best services has been one of the foundations of our great services. 

3. We have regular team building 

Only the team with strong bonds that knows how to build a smooth communication flow within itself can be learning how to communicate with the end users. That is why we conduct regular team building meetings. We want our consultants to form strong bonds and to have friendly atmosphere between each other. By having regular out-of-the-office team building sessions we are training our customer service consultants to communicate and build relationships with each other, which, in effect, leads to a perfect ticket-resolution flow. 

4. We ensure there is a possibility for professional growth

What is the best incentive for anyone? The possibility to develop and move higher on the ladder. And we provide this possibility to those who show exceptional results over the years. Consultants have the possibility to become a team lead or even a member of our management team, if they show potential, results and initiative. 

Customer service skill training tools

• 🛥️ Customer support training onboarding materials

We hide nothing. We tell our consultants what we expect of them right off the bat. Moreover, the teaching process starts in the first couple of hours of the newcomers joining in with SupportYourApp, during onboarding. Various customer service training presentations and materials are telling the new members of our team how to behave with difficult customers and how to resolve tough tickets. What to say and what not to say, what are the main traits needed to be successful in the field of customer support. These, among others, are the things that we teach our consultants during onboarding, so that they can join their team with this basic knowledge already gained.

• 📙 Customer service management training books

Books are one of the cores of team building at SupportYourApp. Our management reads books and holds a discussion about them. And, what is even more important, they promote what they have read to the teams, for them to expand their horizons and gain new knowledge on customer centricity and customer support service. 

It is also another great way to bond with your teammates, simultaneously becoming the best in customer service management. 

• 🖥️ Customer service online training materials

The web is filled with online customer service training materials. And we encourage our professionals to engage in various courses, seminars and other ways to receive certification as customer service representatives. This is just one of many-many ways of SupportYourApp and our teams being a perfect fit — we all strive to be better, so we all grasp at every possibility to develop and gain new knowledge.

Training for customer service might seem intimidating. And no wonder — there is just so much information to take in and for some it might seem like an ordeal. Yet to deliver high level customer service, we at SupportYourApp stop at no challenges and are constantly investing in training and development of the people who provide it.

This is the way we ensure that our services stay the best, and that we develop together with the needs of our clients and their end users.

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