Communication skills define how you
progress in your personal as well as professional life. You could have a great
idea for a new business but if you are unable to communicate it to your
partners or investors, you will be shot down. The same goes for
your customers. Communication happens on different levels from ads to
hoardings, emails to messages and nowadays, on social media sites like Facebook
and Twitter. While
effective communication skills must be ingrained in all
employees of an organization. Here are a few
communication concepts that all organizations can use to communicate
effectively with the customer:
Patience is must:
A customer reaches out to you when they
are unsure, confused or have a grievance. He may, sometimes, be angry because
of miscommunication or because he feels that he has been treated unfairly.
Many-a-times, a great deal of patience is required just to understand the
problem, let alone offer a solution.
Accuracy of information is key:
The turnaround time for any service that
is communicated to the customer must be the same across all levels and
departments. It is the responsibility of management to ensure that staff is
communicated at accurate turnaround times, which can be used to set the
customers' expectations.
The proactive approach always delights customer:
When a customer has called you to get an
issue resolved, the resolution may take more time than required. In such
situations, when you have a customer waiting for your response, be proactive
and keep the customer informed of the progress rather than have the customer
get in touch with your time.
Attentiveness helps:
While attending to a customer complaint, if you happen to
miss out any important details, it would just aggravate the situation. So,
block out the noise and focus entirely on the query at hand have a pen and
paper handy to help you make notes.
Avoid
interrupting:
When customers are complaining or
telling you the events that led to their disappointment, do not interrupt. You
might have heard the same lines before and you might think that offering a
quick solution would make for great customer service. However, interrupting
customers upsets them and makes them feel less valued.
Don’t take shortcuts:
At the end of a long day, you tend to
provide short cuts or slack service to complaints and queries. Do remember that
the customer might be the fiftieth one you are attending to on that day, but
you are his FIRST service representative.
