What skills do technical support staff need in 2013?

From the translator: I often come across the fact that companies treat technical support of users as a secondary process, and meanwhile, high-quality technical support is, in the official terms “the basis of sustainable business development and customer loyalty”. In the United States and many European countries, user support has been erected a “cult”, and when you compare how customers are supported “there” and “we”, it becomes sad (but the situation is constantly improving). Indeed, to provide excellent technical support, knowledge of the subject is not the most important thing and additional communication skills are needed. But everything is correctable and in order to get inspiration and launch your own high-level technical support, I offer a translation of the article “Customer service skills you need in 2013” ​​devoted to the recommendations on the skills necessary to provide excellent technical support.

Customer support skills needed in 2013

At the moment, technical support of users, it is much more than just discussing the issue of the client on the phone. E-mail, specialized helpdesk systems, chat rooms and social networks have become very important channels of support, although many customers still prefer to use voice communication and telephone.

From the point of view of the company, the telephone is not the most efficient service channel, especially in the case of large companies working with significant volumes of calls.
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Interpersonal communication skills required to communicate by telephone - empathy, empathy, the ability to “read” the emotional state of the client, adherence to accepted standards of etiquette, sociability and friendliness remain important, but in addition it is necessary to develop new skills in order for the client to communicate through non-voice channels It was no less convenient to call on the phone.

Below we list the main skills that will help grow technical support stars and how these skills manifest themselves when communicating through different channels (generally speaking, these skills overlap and can be used in several channels).

A. Telephone support

• Just smile. A smile can be “transmitted” through the phone, it makes your voice sound friendly and warm. But be careful and do not “smile” at the angry customer - wait for the right moment.
• Imitate the client in your communication. Try to imitate the tone and emotions of the client. This does not mean that if a client yells into the phone, then you should yell too, but an increased volume or power in the voice will help start the dialogue. But after that, it is important to quickly reduce the emotional level of the dialogue. Be yourself, but try to reflect the client as best as possible in order to quickly establish an emotional connection with the client.
• Think and justify. If the client is angry or very disappointed, he is not inclined to listen to the decision that you offer him, even if it is the right one. The first thing you need is to reassure the client carefully listening to what he tells you. After the customer speaks out, he will be much more receptive to your offer.
• Accept. Let the client know that you understand his problem and the reason for which he called. Make sure he understood what he heard.
• Give the customer time. Even if everything is clear to you from the first second - do not interrupt the client, let him speak to the end. Often, before continuing, people need to formulate the task in their own way.
• Summarize. Rephrase what the client told you, showing him your support. This will demonstrate that you understood him correctly.
• Call hold Before you ask the customer not to disconnect and wait on the line, make sure that it suits him. The general rule: do not leave the client to wait more than 2 minutes, even if the solution of the issue takes longer. In this case, go back to the client, let us know that you need more time. If you need a lot of time and the client will have to wait a long time, then tell him as soon as possible. Try to agree with him that you will call him back if circumstances allow.
  

B. Support by e-mail and through tickets

• Hone your writing skills. Tickets and e-mails require "writing" skill. This means that writing answers should be clear, precise and concise.
• Blanks, not patterns. Do not use absolutely standard text when answering tickets. Start with a standard template, but personalize it for each specific support group and client during the work.
• Be individual. Allow support staff to use their style and approach to solving requests. Encourage them to express the identity and philosophy of the company in their own way when communicating with customers. Consider using different signatures and final texts, depending on the tone of communication and the course of solving the issue.
• Set a goal to solve requests for a clearly defined time. Make sure all tickets are resolved or escalated by the due date. The time to the first answer is critical and you need to correctly form the expectations of the support team and customers. In order for tickets not to be "stale", be sure to create a system of triggers and warnings of deadlines. Also, a system must be built that will inform customers that their ticket is resolved immediately after receiving information about this from developers, product specialists or other internal services of the company.
• Do not be a robot. Letters should possess individuality emphasizing the fact that they were written by a living person.
• Simulate telephone support skills. Smile, imitate, sum up, etc.

V. Chat

• Chat is very similar to phone support in the sense that it is a real-time dialogue . However, as in the case of e-mail support, it requires writing skills.
• The tone of messages is very difficult to embed into the outline of a series of short and fast replicas. Nevertheless, we must be sensitive to what is written in the chat - the key to success is the polite and informative tone of the messages. Good practice to answer the question: if it were not possible to insert emicons (emoticons) into the message, could the client understand your tone? And, of course, be kinder in your words.
• A trained support staff member can chat on several tickets at the same time, but this should never affect the quality of customer service. Take as much as you can take. If a client waits for your replica more than 1 minute, then you essentially do the same as on the phone, leaving the client to wait on the line - if you need time, tell the client how long to wait for an answer from you (see above).
• Chatting requires you to be an attentive reader . As in the case of e-mail, a client often cannot state his problem and express his tasks as well as during personal contact or phone communication. Read carefully and ask clarifying questions. Do not rush to move to conclusions.

G. Social networks

• Inform clients that you are aware of their Twitter posts, Facebook posts, etc.
• Contact immediately. Contact users about their comments as quickly as possible (preferably within 10 minutes).
• Publicly inform the client that you will take action and process the problem or question described in the post (within 10 minutes).
• After solving the problem described in the post, it is desirable to return to the social. network and write about it there (close the circle!).
• For tweets (Ticket sent via Twitter):
  • Do not react to harassment or attempts to pull you into a meaningless quarrel in a public space.
  • Send positive feedback (Compliments, etc.) to the Marketing Department so that they can retweet or contact the client if necessary.
  • For incoming support requests, simply reply via twitter (instead of asking for contact information and contacting the customer through another channel). It is much faster.
  • If a client addresses a problem that requires a trial or more personal information, then continue the dialogue in a specially created ticket , and send a link to the client to it. In this situation, it is much better to communicate within the ticket, than to drive information through Twitter. Simply reply to the client with a link to the ticket and continue the discussion there.
  
  General recommendation: Regardless of the communication channel used, always close the circle. This means that you should always keep the client informed of the actions you are taking, and after completing the request, you must make sure that the client is satisfied.