Surviving Customer Service A Frontline Employee Field Guide potx

Surviving Customer Service A Frontline Employee Field Guide Shawn Cowling Smashwords Edition Copyright 2012 Shawn Cowling Greeley, Colorado Smashwords Edition, License Notes Thank you for downloading this free ebook Although this is a free book, it remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied and distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy at Smashwords.com, where they can also discover other works by this author and many other authors willing to share their knowledge Thank you for your support I promise this is the only stuff I straight up stole for the purposes of this book Legal speak was never my strong suit Table of Contents Introduction Chapter One: The Job Chapter Two: Customers Chapter Three: Coworkers Chapter Four: Avoiding Burn Out Chapter Five: Survival Tips Chapter Six: Closing Introduction You are fantastic Let us settle that point right away Customer Service agents/teammates/personnel/gurus/ whatever fun adjective follows service, the job is not for the faint of heart The job can be stressful beyond belief one day and mind numbingly boring the next One customer could nothing but yell at you for an hour and the next customer you just may invite to a holiday dinner at your parent’s house You have to be ready for either extreme with every interaction How is that not the most exciting thing in the world? The trials and tribulations of the customer service position provide some the best education and character building experiences a person can find I hope to convince you of this over the course of this little book, but first I want to explain my own experience Hopefully the brief introduction will show that I have some insight into the nature of our work as customer service agents If you just said, “gaw, why?” Go ahead and skip to chapter one to get the party going I’ll tell you though; there is a line in about seven paragraphs that is pretty funny I am a long time customer service agent and am addicted to the challenge and rush of the job Through college I never thought about entering the world of business I was going to curate museums or work alongside award winning academics discovering the secrets of our shared world history That was the plan anyway I found myself on graduation day standing in a sea of my fellow history majors at the University of Northern Colorado in May of 2007 and realized quickly that maybe field work had enough people to choose from With degree in hand and a girlfriend (now my lovely wife) with a semester remaining in her own studies, I set out to find a job around town “It’ll be a good experience for a few months” I told myself as I submitted an application for a position entitled, “Customer Service Representative I” at a company just a ten minute drive- twenty minutes by bike I would later find out- across town This was just slightly before the financial collapse, so it was still a fairly quick process from application to interview, interview to offer That afternoon I received a phone call asking me to stop by for an interview I threw on what passed as respectable clothing (complete with a tie) and drove over for the interview This was just the first interview it turned out I had never applied for a job that had multiple interviews before I worked with an afterschool program during college teaching kids to read and being responsible for their safety and that was just one interview A second interview made me feel so grown up, like the degree was already paying off Looking back, my naivety must have been adorable to my parents The second interview came and went, and then there was a skills test To this day I not remember who I interviewed with but the skills test still bugs me It was a basic words-per-minute check and an Excel test On the Excel test there was a question that asked the user to convert the graph on the screen to a bar graph I stared at the screen for a solid two minutes trying to figure out if I was being pranked; the graph was already in bar format At the time I did not speak up and ask the person monitoring the test if the question was a joke I wish I had taken the time to speak up, and we will certainly be discussing the importance of frontline people speaking their minds as we continue our chat Testing aside, the interview process was alarmingly quick In one afternoon I went from unemployed liberal arts graduate to an employed liberal arts graduate I had a desk to call my own, coworkers to get to know, a daily commute and free access to unlimited coffee I was living the dream! It would take only weeks for me to learn that people only say sarcastically in an office setting That desk, those coworkers and that free coffee taught me how to be a grown up It was a tough job I was working in a department that dealt with angry customers all day long, for a company that would have a pretty major role in causing the 2008 financial woes of the world (they’ll remain nameless because I not want to deal with paperwork) Customers did not like the company; they wanted nothing more than be done with the phone call as quickly as possible and then write hate mail or posting scathing reviews online The team I worked with was the first place I saw how hard working people could really be when put in a group Prior to this job my only experience with “group work” had been in school Inevitably, the school project would be completed by just two people while someone else chatted away on their phone and the fourth person never showed up (but took the grade anyway) This was a team that moved fast, did their jobs well and remained dedicated Three months into my job they were all fired or quit and I was the most experienced person on the team It was terrifying New people were brought in and I was told to train them At the time my training style was, “watch what I Got it? Get to work.” It was less than efficient Three months into my career and I had to learn how to train, how to lead, how to talk to customers and how to not panic at any given moment It was a rush and I was hooked I wanted to learn all I could about modern business (I focused my history studies on Antebellum American economic and cultural developments, so historical business I somewhat understood –I am very boring at parties) So I went back to school and earned a Master of Human Resource Management degree This time around I had a job, a heading-in-the-right-direction relationship and a new found respect for experienced voices that could contribute to my education I took a route that I never thought I would consider; I enrolled in Keller Graduate School It was a non-traditional school labeled “for profit” (but let’s face it, every higher education institution is for profit, some are just honest about it) and populated with nontraditional students It was one of the greatest experiences of my life My first class was taught by the director of marketing for the school (it was a marketing class too, not one of my core HR classes), my first group project I worked with a recently retired air force major, I got to sit in classes with a doctor from Ukraine and a sales executive from Georgia (the state) It was an eye opening, horizon broadening experience that I am very thankful for as it led to me to be a better employee and coworker Eventually, I too was moved out of my first department and into other teams It was a good experience moving around and learning the company, dealing with different customer types with each process I worked on I learned the ropes of internal controls and quality assurance, then received some firsthand leadership training for an accounts payable team that was being put together to pay repossession vendors, a rough and tumble bunch if there ever was one My training style improved, interactions with coworkers were more enjoyable and productive, and my customer service was, not to brag, above average I mentioned that the company I started with was a player in the financial market collapse As a result of the downtrodden economic times of 2010 my office was shuttered, severance packages issued and goodbyes said That provided an opportunity to take a trip into a new industry I would still be working customer service, but now my clients were school personnel looking to purchase textbooks for their students It was a totally different clientele than what I had been working with beforehand They had a cause behind them: educating children I learned the ropes quickly and hit the ground running right in the middle of busy season I started the new job with four other new people; one of whom left with the first month That first August/September I could have easily had a beer or five every lunch hour to try and recover from the morning Customers were in a hurry to get books into their classrooms, they were doing this for the children, budgets were tight; and three of the ten people on the team did not even know the name of the company president yet Once October ended and our mad rush was over, the wind left the sails and we sat in the off-season until April The boredom was intense On any given day in September the team would take over three hundred calls and six hundred emails We would be lucky to hit number in the entire month of December That is the nature of customer service A sales team gets to work year around, making connections and pushing deals Accounting always has a bill to pay Executives are always trying to innovate (hopefully) Customer service is there when the customer needs us though; we not go to them With that, I am tired of talking up my experience There are those out there with more and better experience than I can offer, but this is a field guide from a frontline employee for frontline employees We not have an easy job and I hope the coming pages can help make things a bit easier for your daily routine Chapter One Defining Our Role Customer Service is usually the bottom rung of the ladder at a company It is difficult to see how such a low position has any impact on the company as you are just starting your career In school you never hear about the lab assistants to Edison or the receptionist at the White House Without support roles nothing gets done If you are doing data entry at a bank, that data is turned into information used to target customers and boost profit Without a designated data entry person the customers would not be found and money would be lost If you are the clean up intern at the local zoo, you keep animals from catching any number of truly gross diseases (thank you) The cashier at the local recreation center has to sell memberships, take money and monitor patrons in order to keep the place afloat There are more supporting roles than there are CEOs, and CEOs would not get anywhere without a travel planner and assistant Customer service builds loyalty, solves problems, interacts with clients, makes sales, organizes internal clients, connects the right people together and keeps the business flowing Never, not for a moment, believe that your position is unimportant or unremarkable The company needs you or the position would not exist, likewise you need to be at your best or the company will not exist for long You are in a mutually beneficial relationship based upon the needs of both parties If one party is displeased it has every right to discontinue the relationship Think of it as dating where you get paid at the end of the month…but without the inappropriate subtext Making the Job Work for You At the start of your working life you have a world of options in front of you You are working customer service, so you get to see how the accounting group works, how the delivery team gets things done, how executives are rarely if ever visible to the front line, how supply lines work, how a bad mood can affect an entire team; you see everything the world of business has to offer The first years of your career pursuits are like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure To follow the supply chain path, turn to page To continue on the accounting track, turn to page 42 This is an opportunity to start charting your course In my view, work is good, it builds character You really find out about yourself when conversing with an angry customer or trying to quickly assemble a report for a meeting starting in twenty minutes that you found out about five minutes ago As you learn more about yourself in the working world, you will find out what you like to within the business With my first job, I found I really enjoyed training people and building cohesive teams A friend that started with me found out she adored working through detailed data (she is much more employable than I am) Yet another person that started around the same time I did was dedicated to providing top notch customer service day after day, which was fantastic Everyone takes different things away from their work and as you start your job, now is the time to find a path that works for you As a newbie, you are allowed and encouraged to be naïve as long as you are inquisitive Everyone I have ever worked with hates the people that not work to find answers If you are not asking questions when a problem comes up, you are doing it wrong As you are learning the ropes and wading through the corporate machine, there are going to be scores of new and interesting things heading your way These are not “polar bear with a t-shirt launcher” interesting, but still pretty fun At my first job I got to learn how to use a fax machine I thought certainly the fax machine was a dead technology, how could a company worth billions of dollars still be using fax machines? Turns out they are actually pretty useful for getting information to people quickly and without having to boot up a computer There are even special stamps notaries use to make faxed copies of things legal! There is an established culture around fax machines that I never knew existed Of course, the technology is becoming less and less useful as this whole “internet” things takes hold, but it was an important aspect of that first job My first experience with a fax machine gave a pretty good laugh to my coworkers It was my first week on the job after training finished I was still enthusiastic and smiled when I said, “my desk” One of the other new people had to fax a document to a vendor we needed paper work from and she simply said, “I’m off to the fax” I was probably a little overzealous when I turned my chair to face her and asked, “Oh! Can I come along?” She stared at me for a brief moment, dumbfounded and responded, “Seriously?” “I’ve never used a fax before” a responded sheepishly My coworkers sounded like a well rehearsed choir in how quickly they broke into laughter in unison When the laughter subsided the coworker heading to the fax just said, “Come along, kid.” When she showed me how to work I felt rather silly The box seemed so mystical before I knew it was just a lazy man’s telephone The silver lining quickly came through My coworkers realized that I truly knew nothing about an office They started showing me tricks on Excel I had never seen I was escorted around the building to meet new people They shared their organization tips I learned how to fix a squeaky desk chair, paper jams, how to turn paperclips into pushpins, how to brew a strong cup of coffee; I learned how to be a good office worker My coworkers answered questions I did not even know to ask This was stuff not could not be found in a book and had immediate practical implications for my world Those little lessons from my coworkers taught me how to be a total coffee snob Before that, I would just drink the bean juice and call it good Afterward I started saying, “Dark roast” and knew that Kona was a place apparently These were mundane skills and shortcuts, but they opened a way of seeing the objects around me that I would not have seen before Paperclips turned from the shiny things that hold documents together into instant cabinet locks, swizzle sticks, cord wrappers, and once even a hook to hold an empty coffee cup (I not recommend doing that) Without my coworkers to show me this, I would have just sat in my desk chair and waited for calls I would have gone crazy in a month Instead of simply sitting around though, I learned how to use my time effectively and learn more and more new things I took on greater responsibility and branched out beyond my regular duties I grew real, marketable skills just by asking questions and watching and listening to the people around me I learned stuff that never came up in school and had a very fun time with the experience as well I highly recommend that use your time now, as a new customer service agent to learn more skills and watch other departments when possible You never know what will strike you as so fascinating that you just have to take part Feel free to take some risks too Customer Service has the advantage of being, generally, very low on the corporate importance level When downsizing occurs, customer service is the first to go (sorry) because the people that make those decisions not know how truly tough the job can be Use that to your advantage If you have an opportunity to add something of value to your team, department or the entire company, go ahead and try to build it, pitch it, work it into your routine whatever your “value adding proposition” work on it There is nothing to lose if you are a bottom rung employee, if you are that close to the bottom it is very easy to get back up Early in your career will be the time you are allowed to make mistakes and every failure allows you to learn something new Not every endeavor will be a success, but that should not stop you from continuously trying new things Someone had to ask a company long ago to start paying for health insurance coverage, and that worked out pretty well for everybody You not have to introduce radical new workplace benefit plans, but if you think the company may benefit from an air hockey table or a fancy coffee maker, go ahead and ask for it While you are taking risks, start to work on yourself as an employee The rest of this little book will go over talking to people, working with people, and not going insane among other topics Right now though, I want it known that in the world outside of school, the business world full of people that worry about their mortgage or driving to pick up the kids after work, people not care about your weaknesses unless it affects your performance You landed this customer service job because you have a strength in a desired area If you are not good at technical writing or failed calculus, not one of your coworkers will care They care that you are able to the job and make their work a little less stressful There is a need for you in the company that brought you on and they think you can the job just fine Use this time to build your strengths, become even better than you were before taking on the job If you cannot remember the quadratic formula or when Magellan set sail, it does not matter and you no longer have to care You are being paid for your strengths and if you build on that you will continue to bring home that pay check For your own personal growth, sure go ahead and read a David McCullough book to learn about the American mythos For professional growth, try to be better and better at what you and you will be just fine in this business world of ours Chapter Two Communications Customer Service is first and foremost a communications role An agent is the voice of the company for better or worse Customers not talk with marketers or CEOs; they talk to customer service How we talk, how we word our conversation can make all the difference to a customer We are all told at orientation that a person receiving good service will tell two people about the experience, but a person receiving bad service will tell ten people I always thought that was a bit exaggerated, until I had a horrendous experience with a local optometry office I took straight to the internet to post negative reviews anywhere I could, my friends were told never to go there, my parents, my in laws, my coworkers, any one that would listen (or pretend to listen) had an earful of my venom regarding this optometrist When it came time to visit a different place and they provided superb service in a timely manner and kept me informed of what was going on every step of the way I said thanks and told my parents the new office did a really fine job and we would be returning I did little to ensure the good place would see increased sales, or at least have better name recognition and they did everything to deserve glowing reviews and an increased customer based Rage is a fine motivator, happiness rarely invokes action The role of customer service is to be the point of contact for the customer Customers not call in to say hello, see how the cat is doing They call because a problem exists that requires resolution Sometimes the problem is simple like removing someone from a mailing list Sometimes the problem is quite difficult like compiling a payment history in an hour because auditors are coming this afternoon and they are not happy Whatever the problem may be, more often than not there is a solution available The customer service agent has to be the solution finder We can point people in the right direction, start a dialogue between two parties and let the momentum take over from there As a solution finder, your purpose is to provide a confident voice to the client If a customer senses confidence they relax, they begin to trust you and your words Think of your own experiences where confidence played a great role in your perception of services provided I envision a grocery store cashier fresh out of training and facing down a long line of customers awaiting check-out There is a farmer’s market chain my family frequents that has some turnover issues I still live in a midsized college town so entry level employees come and go with the wind, but that is a management issue The managers have a difficult task in finding new cashiers quite often Working with food is incredibly difficult My first job back in high school was for a fast food place in a mall food court You learn quickly in the food industry that people are incredibly finicky and picky with their food New cashiers at this grocer are not always warned about the customer base of the store it appears The new people can always be identified by shaky hands as they lower fruit into bags or incredibly awkward conversation starters that are quite often accompanied by a cracking voice As one customer service professional to another, I always try to make conversation with them as well, try to put them at ease let them slow down a bit, if I had anywhere else to be I would not be standing in line buying a cart full of fruits and vegetables (and Doritos of course) The long time serving cashiers can be seen the next aisle over working customers through their line with speed and good humor, acknowledging the customer and commenting on the freshness of the food or how good the strawberries look this season They not really care about the berries, but it puts the customer at ease as they spend their money In this situation, the cashier is the end of experience manager If all goes well at checkout the customer will forget all about how difficult it was to track down the sausages they needed for dinner, or how some other numb-skull ran into them with a cart The cashier has to wipe away the rest of the experience, as this is the moment that will be remembered That is quite some pressure to put on a person If a cashier is terrible, customers will be reluctant to come back Or they could mention their less than praise worthy experience to a friend that has not yet visited the store The friend’s only impression of the grocery would be poor service from cashiers They are less likely to visit now No amount of advertising or marketing can compete with word-of-mouth (unless of course there are free burritos involved –that does the trick every time) The confident cashier at the counter is reassuring to the customer The customer thinks to themselves, “well, they sure know their stuff!” as the cashier effortlessly punches in the item number for a rutabaga I not think I could identify a rutabaga if it were in front of me, if a cashier could look at the object say, “Huh, rutabaga” and instantly know the item code I would start a slow applause right there at check-out I would hope balloons and someone presenting a trophy would pop up out of nowhere, but that would be too awesome The new cashier is not going to illicit such a response if they are obviously shaking with nervousness or struggling to get through the transaction We are all new at some point Experience certainly boosts confidence and an individual’s ability to radiate the appearance of confidence In my career I have worked with two types of customer service representatives: long time professionals and new workforce entrants Never is there an in between, someone that became bored with their old career and moved into customer service People either love the job for the thousands of reasons there are to love it, or they decide quickly it is a most horrifying or putrid job Of which I can only name three reasons and those all involve my disdain for smooth jazz Without experience, where does confidence come from for new workers? Most of the time, we have to fake it Unless your ego is at Kanye levels, new employees to a company should not believe they know everything there is to know While navigating the learning curve, here are some tips on how to appear confident to customers Talk Fast Speaking quickly gives the impression you know what you are talking about But be careful, you can speak too quickly to the point people not know what you are saying or you start to stumble over your words Aim for somewhere between quick talking friend with a cool story and an auctioneer that finished three espressos half an hour ago and is currently incapable of blinking What you are aiming for is the ability to provide information quickly, efficiently and accurately Speak too slowly, and customers will think you are making things up as you go along Speak quickly enough and they see you as competent It is tough to find that solid middle ground between talking like a tranquilized tortoise and an excitable kindergartner at a Wiggles concert, but here the best guidance I can offer, try these tips out: Drink plenty of water: dry throats make you skip words It is no fun Focus on the point: reiterate the solution you are selling to the customer Keep talking: Say what needs to be said, but avoid pointless material like the weather Ask questions: As you are speaking, make sure the customer is following along Focus, interaction and plenty of chatting go a long way in helping you speak fast Try not to stray from the topic (as I so readily throughout this text), customers will only listen to what matters to them I wish I had good news that people cared about other products your company has available, or that making small talk really impacted In your office, you will have people that communicate in very different ways Most of the time, people are fairly easy to read and you will know within a conversation or two how people take their information They way people respond to others is similar to how people take their coffee Some people prefer strong, dark roast coffee with cream but no sugar Others enjoy a light roast with plenty of sugar added and whipped cream on top There are the straight up black coffee of any kind folks and the specialty cold coffee, double shot, soy, cinnamon swizzle stick people No two people drink the exact same cup of coffee, and no two people interact the same way There are people that prefer direct conversation No fluff, no background, no time; this is a conversation style in the workplace that people in a hurry prefer Be blunt, be honest and provide the pertinent information as quickly as possible to keep these people happy I worked alongside a very blunt and no-BS type at my publishing company job This coworker was not very chatty, but highly productive They were a complete Pay Check employee One of my duties required sending monthly progress reports to the entire team I wrote up personalized reports for each employee to give them better insight into their own performance on this one subject the report detailed With the Pay Check employee that obviously a direct communicator, I knew to weed out the general pep talk included in every other report and get right to the data and potential solutions to the issues presented Over time, the employee took action to correct repeated errors and we saw results There was a Leader employee, one person that took time to help train people and keep them motivated when things were not so great at the company, the progress report to the Leader also skipped the fluffy parts and went straight to the data Pay Check and Leader type coworkers are totally different people, one is highly engaged and interactive, the other was there to work and nothing more They both needed to receive information the same way in order to get results though There are the suggestion people; those that not enjoy blunt conversation but still need guidance They are open to suggestion and need options They still like data, but need time to work out solutions on their own Going back to the progress report at the publishing company, there were many coworkers that needed suggestion style correspondence to gain results One coworker, a Helper type with strong Leader aspects as well, always received a pep talk to start out then an explanation of the report and then a list of how to solve the issues on the report and then more options on how to work those solutions I presented the problem, the needed solution and then routes to the solution How they reached the answer was totally up to them, but they needed to be presented options to work out the information on their own For this Helper employee, providing options was key to them being able to work out the information presented in the report People that take in information using suggestions are able to review the suggestions and find the best way to interpret the data for themselves and then find a working solution If they see four suggestions in front of them, they can work those all at the same time to find a fifth, and infinitely better solution to use the data provided There are other people that will take up some of your time to converse with Story based conversationalists need the background to everything, they need all the information provided to them and they will want to discuss the options right then and there They like shared experiences and ideas and form solutions based on their history with the subject matter These are the type of people that after being presented with a problem say, “I’ve seen this before” followed quickly by, “trust me, it will work” Story communicators enjoy the human experience They convey ideas using stories to help illustrate their point or reinforce their position If a Story style coworker asks you for assistance, they will give you every ounce of detail about the customer that is possible; from the problem to their accent no detail will go unmentioned My favorite Story communicating coworker was with my first job This coworker was an animated, jovial person with a near tri-polar archetype of Fun One, Lazy One and Leader all at once He was about my father’s age and had some kids about as old as I was, which was much more common than I thought possible at that first job, many of my coworkers took a parental approach to working with me I will forever be thankful for that, I am sure I looked like a deer in headlights for my first year or three The Story Coworker had a joke for every situation, a tall tale to share about every situation the customer presented and a parable for every lesson When I had to ask for his assistance, I had to provide every detail possible and reiterate the entire phone call almost by playacting the situation After I shared my story and asked for his advice, he would ponder the situation and create a solution, humorously of course as he was the Fun One The solution he designed would be conveyed through a story of his past and how he had something similar come up once The solution was generally quite worthwhile and worked out great, but getting there took some time Be ready for the Story communicator to be a bit long winded –in a good way- and be ready to read between the lines to get the point On the other end of the Story spectrum is the number person They only want data to work with Numbers not lie (unless they do) and there are no words to misinterpret These folks are a bit like the direct communicator, but they can skip the human element of conversation and be just fine Be nice to them and provide any data they request Explain the situation clearly, if you are asking for help, then let them work their magic I had a coworker long ago that was not the best communicator in the world He was wonderful with computer work though and arranging data in beautiful reports that helped every person that read the report understand the issue at hand The only way to really get information through to this guy though, was by sending an explanatory email to him with row after row of numbers attached If you did not have data to share, you had to go get that before asking this person for help Without data and real information available, there was no way this old coworker was able to help with the problem They needed something to see, to move around and make sense of before they could take part in the solution The consensus communicator likes opinions and various points of view before making a solution This will delay the decision making process and customers can be hurt by this communication style, but that is true of every communication style depending on the customer When providing them data, they will ask if you have run it by other people and then ask what those other people thought They aim to provide a utilitarian solution for the customer, something that makes the customer and the company happy A consensus coworker I had long ago took forever to accomplish things, because if they needed to make a decision on how to help a customer they ran it by three different sources before interacting with the customer I eventually stopped going to the person for assistance of any sort because the delay would erase up to two days of available time for a customer You are more likely to see customers with the consensus communication style than coworkers; people that cannot make decisions are not asked to make them and eventually leave the company The consensus communicator will most likely be your boss anyway Be ready to make a case and provide a clear solution Have questions ready for them to bring to other people and if you have the opinions of others already available, that would be perfect Someone that needs a consensus to make sense of information is simply taking a long route to find other suggestions and ideas; they are a meld of the story and suggestion communicator They want options, but no background; opinions but not extra ideas to muddy the waters Finally, there is the selfish communicator These are the “me first” types When you are providing information to a communicator that thinks of themselves first and foremost, make your conversation revolve around them When working with a selfish communicator they will take the information that pertains to them away from the conversation, but little else Your conversation has to be tailored to their needs, has to highlight the reasons they will benefit from helping with the problem The selfish communicator drives off of information that will help advance their most important cause; their self Nearly every Dramatic One I have worked with has been a selfish communicator Forget the numbers, forget the story, forget bluntly stating what course of action must be taken, the selfish communicator will tune out all of that until they know how the information affects them It is easy enough to point out the direct correlation between your information and their well being, sometimes all you have to is remind them how their contribution to the team matters and other times you can just use basic veiled threats like, “I’m not getting written up if this is not completed in time” If you are working with a Dramatic One with selfish communication style, they will then rant about the last time they were written up and how unfair the whole process was as they work on solving the problem presented to them This is manipulation through and through, but it works There you have it, the type of people you will be working with and how to talk to them I say again, there are no clear cut, text book examples of each type of communication style and people will change their style depending on their mood If you only have numbers to provide to a story teller, they may freak out at first, but they will work with the material provided You have to adjust to people as you need to though If you can adapt to a Schmuck or if you are a story teller that can just as easily work with a direct communicator, your job will be much easier than someone who sticks to their own style at all times Communication is essential to surviving this job If you not communicate with your coworkers well, they will make sure you only last a couple of months or the customer will suffer due to the communication failure Neither option is especially exciting Work on how you speak with your coworkers, learn their terms and jargon, learn how each person likes to receive information and you not only become a good employee, but a super communicator Any person able to identify the preferred communication of another has quite a skill available to them in breaking down those early communication barriers in a relationship As a customer service agent, relationships are what matter most Chapter Four Avoiding Burn Out There will come a point in your customer service position that you become so mind numbingly bored that you will feel basically immobile The customers will become routine, you will know all the stories your coworkers have to share, there seems to be little else to learn and you are just plain old tired This is normally the point when agents start browsing the job sites and looking for greener pastures It may take months or it may take years, but everyone is bound to hit a wall with the job Managers and supervisors are not always well trained in identifying people that have hit this point, so they may be completely oblivious to your malaise Most of the time, it is up to you to make the work interesting again I get bored My boss gets bored My boss’ boss gets bored It is a productivity killer that costs a company tons of money, but it seems like an unavoidable part of business There are ways to keep yourself amused and busy once that boredom takes control There are business friendly ways, which we will cover first, and there are human friendly ways which will be discussed in greater detail because that is where the fun rests Business Friendly Motivation Continuing Education is a great way to build new skills and bring them into the company My first job had a great e-learning option with courses on programming in SQL, learning legal issues, communicating with people, leadership training, and scores of other topics I spent probably too much time going through these two hour courses, but I certainly had a nice return on investment The SQL course alone helped me create a better data management system for the department I worked with The company liked that I was not browsing the internet for hours on end during down time If your company does not have a training program established, ask for one There is no need for a large catalog of e-learning options, but maybe they can budget in some good business books or pay for a class at the community college or online training There are scores of non-University trainings and seminars that occur regularly for little to no money If you can build a business case for attending the seminar or buying the book, it is always worth asking The drive to learn more and better yourself will appear favorable to your boss at least A business case is easy to make too If you want to attend a lecture on how to increase team communications just say, “If we talk good, we work good” Missing proper sentence structure will make your boss all the more interested in creating a well trained team Job Shadowing offers the chance for an employee in department A to see what an employee in department B is doing all day If you have free time and a desire to see what other departments work on, see if you can sit with them for an hour or so a day for a set amount of time You get to see how another function of the company is affected by your work and get away from your normal routine for a small amount of time It is refreshing and you get some insight into a different set of skills This takes a bit more coordination as multiple departments are involved, but the benefits are certainly worth pursuing Again, there is rarely any harm in asking the question If the question is, “Why does your wife look so fat in the picture?” there will be great harm in asking Take on more tasks to keep yourself entertained As a customer service agent just starting out, the pay is not going to be great and you may say, “they don’t pay me enough to what I normally do, why take on more?” If you are only doing what you are paid for, that is all you are worth to the company Expand your own role and they may expand your paycheck Of course, taking on more responsibility only makes you busier and there is a vast difference between busy and not-bored When you take on additional tasks or duties with your department, aim for something totally new Learning something new entertains the mind and allows you to see new things If the additional work you are taking on is something you are already familiar with, you will be busy and bored, and that leads to resentment of your company Ask your boss if you can help with scheduling or reporting duties, maybe find out if any special projects are coming up that need an extra hand Build Tools to make your job easier If a new spreadsheet will help organize your data easier, make it If a clearer price sheet will make it easier to relay information to customers, design it If there is no way for customers to provide feedback, create one You will learn what you need and what your customers need over time and you are in a great position to provide tools that may not be on the radar of management Eventually you will know enough about your job to create or refine a manual In my experience, customer service manuals are created by HR reps and managers that have never worked customer service or the last update was in 1994 If cartoon shows were still good when the manual last saw an update, you should take some time to update that packet of information You will be contributing to the ongoing creation of a knowledge base for your company Customer Service departments generally see quick turnover in those people that are taking on the role With a consistent knowledge base available to new agent coming into the position at least the customer will suffer less in the long run Those are the business friendly options I offer to you Learn, grow and become indispensible; those are the best ways to keep your company happy and stave off boredom for another day Now, if you are working at a company worth working for, you have a great opportunity to build your cultural influence and try to brighten your coworkers’ day Company culture is what keeps people coming in day after day It is the way a company interacts with employees and how the company presents itself to the outside world You can read dozens of articles trying to pin down an exact definition of the term, and there are plenty of people more apt than I to try and define it but that will not stop me from trying When I ask about a company’s culture, I always ask about their summer picnic You learn a lot about a company based on their office parties Does a company have a summer picnic? Is it onsite or at a local attraction? Is it during office hours or afterhours? Are families invited? When the food comes out, employees go through single file not talking or they form a staggered line and people not silence themselves long enough to actually get their food? Do people eat with their department or mingle? Are there games? Is there a DJ or a CD player? Are there balloons and decorations or blank walls? Do they hand awards or get right to the party? Answer these questions and you get a good idea of how a company interacts with their employees Feel free to answer them yourself in the way you would want a company to respond There is no right or wrong culture, just preference My answers would lead me to company that has a picnic onsite during office hours with just the employees present, mingling around and not really caring about food lines as the games went on and the DJ played for the party To me, that is a company that focuses on the employee’s contribution and rewards them for that service by allowing them to kick back and have some food together with no other hassles or worries for an afternoon Plenty of people not want a picnic, and plenty of people would opt for an awards banquet at a fancy restaurant with the families around There is no right or wrong and different things work for different people That is not to say you cannot influence the culture you have come into Company culture should be a vibrant, living organism that adapts and grows with the employee base Here are a few ideas to help build your own influence on company culture These will hopefully create a fun place for people to work together You spend hours and hours with this group of people every week I know there are weeks I see my coworkers more than I see my family It is important to at least like the place that is literally your home away from home Create a meme Internet savvy readers will know that Philoso-raptor is hilarious, but may not work so well in a business setting So make your own funny, visual running joke There are inside jokes and references that will only be funny to your coworkers, roll with that I used old box lids to host drawings of stick figures with beards and guitars to represent ZZ-Top accomplish impossible feats of daring and bravado I would put the box lid somewhere in the office and let it be My wife thought it was the dumbest thing in the world, but for the few weeks it happened it work there were plenty of laughs Trivia is the answer People really like to share their knowledge With a web search always available at your fingertips, knowing something before the internet has become a source of pride for those with vast amount of trivial knowledge stored in their memory See about starting a trivia game on Fridays for your teammates Vary the topics from week to week and offer a soda up for a prize to whoever gets the most answers correct There are dozens of ways to pull this off, and the most successful way will be different in every office Build something as a team My first company did egg-drops and bridge building competitions to get people working together It was surprisingly effective and really kept people motivated (when they were not building a bridge or vessel to carry an egg down a story or so) Write a newsletter to keep people apprised of company news and events This could be something simple like a recap of updates and memos from the week or even include a letter from the higher ups in the executive office Information is powerful and if you have a way to get a creative outlet at work that is always a good thing Many companies will maintain a blog or have an RSS feed set up on their homepage to provide company news to employees A newsletter lets you get a message out and allows a chance to share stories across your department quickly and easily This could be a way to share birthdays, arrange parties, swap photos of kids both human and animal, and let people know when Girl Scout cookies are going on sale Since movable type was invented newsletters have been a way to bond a community and create a shared identity Find people in the office that like to write and have some fun with it Always get approval for articles from executives though You are in a private place of business and freedom of the press will not apply to you (unless you have the craziest contract since the Magna Carta –finally, a 1215 joke has been incorporated)! Plan something fun and team oriented for your department Maybe a potluck, or a book swap or even a nice game of rummy is just what the doctor ordered to create a closer knit group Food, games and knowledge always seem to work in bringing people together and driving conversation Best of all, any of these activities can be done at a desk and interfere little with your work Scavenger Hunts did not go out of style in elementary school This sounds cheesy and totally unprofessional, but as an adult a scavenger hunt can actually be a good way to learn more about your teammates Try out a “Coworker Scavenger Hunt” Have people roam the office trying to find the person that attended a Phish concert, lettered in chess club, has five cats, once visited Peru for one crazy weekend Start out with a questionnaire for all participants –only the willing participants will take part; many people prefer their professional and personal sides to never mingle Once the questionnaires are completed and returned to the organizer, put together the list and watch people fly around the office trying to complete their list first The goal is to learn a bit more about your teammates and have an easy way to start a conversation Yes, it is silly, but if you are working a bunch of new people it goes a long way in breaking down those initial anxieties of on boarding Decorate the office Plants and windows are great contributors to office morale Plants pump a bit of extra oxygen in the workspace and sunlight keeps people from going totally crazy I have no eye for design myself I not know the difference between a love-seat and a small couch and I am prone to using any surface as a table Art and color escape me completely You may have a knack for organizing a space and making a room “warm” You may have a talent for replicating the master pieces of accomplished painters like Pollack, Rembrandt or elephants with brushes in their trunks Paint something; put it up in the office You spend a lot of time at work Make it a place you not mind looking at Call of the Day Challenge If you are in a phone based customer service arena, you are going to spend most of your time sitting at your desk talking with your coworkers It would be great if you were always busy and doing something, but customers call in around the same time every day and you will start to notice the pattern over time So you will need things to converse about I submit to you, the Call of the Day Challenge Sometimes a call will come through and a customer will be so out of the ordinary you must share it with your colleagues Share your weird calls, odd customers, strange questions and any other bizarre tale from the day with a group They should share their own tales of oddities as well to make this work well The crowd gets together and cheers for the best story of the day The winner gets bragging rights and a chance to hold their head high and proclaim, “Call of the Day” to the crowd It is goofy fun and a nice way to let off steam Office Accomplishment Pins You know video game merit badges? Of course you The challenges in every modern video game that reward you with player points and a little emblem to show you accomplished a major feat within the game? Those things are awesome Shiny awards and a public way to show your experience all while having fun is a motivational tool straight out of the minds of some diabolical genius A diabolical genius of motivation and productivity! I envision the video game mechanics working perfectly in an office setting This is also an ongoing project that will keep you active and participatory within the company Here is how it works First, assemble some coworkers to help put together the system These will be your teammates in making the office a fun place where people really pay attention to each other and the work they put out Once the team is assembled, hash out the actions, behaviors and feats that should be encouraged and rewarded within the office Say someone takes 50 calls in a day (which is plenty for my office, but if that sounds like just an hour of work in your office, boost the number), once call 50 completes they get an emblem symbolizing their frantic call taking skills that day Or maybe they start a call with an angry customer and gently work that customer into a calm state and the customer says, “thank you” at the end of the call, that deserves an accomplishment pin Your team will put together a list of reward worthy actions that are easy to spot, but tough to achieve These are not to be actions that management should reward If an employee writes a new program for the company that will save hundreds of thousands of dollars, let management reward that one, they should received a fair windfall for that feat The actions you need to identify are those that mean something within the customer service team, but may go unnoticed to those executives watching broader numbers Once you have a team and a list, build a good tracking system This can be a standard spreadsheet file with a list of the accomplishments in one row and columns with every employee’s name As an employee accomplishes one of the items on your list, mark that row for the employee to have record that they hit the goal The tracking tool need not be difficult or complex, just a way to watch how people are progressing While someone puts together the tracking tool, another teammate should be creating images for each accomplishment pin Images and symbols should be easy to understand and colorful Color is important with the goal being to have these pins displayed for others to see Color draws the eye and will help brighten up a cubical or workspace for the employee A bright and happy cube goes a long way in making the day more tolerable With the tracking system and artwork available, set up rules There are no rewards in this program aside from shiny, colorful images so your rules not have to be compliant to federal regulations You not want people being abusive of it either Some ground rules could be that proof of the accomplishment should be available or accessible and you can only get an accomplishment pin once Other than that, it is really dependent upon your workplace The framework is in place and now you need participants Rolling out a program is difficult and time consuming Creating buy-in and participation is no easy task and if you are in an office setting that has been around, anything new will be difficult This is a good skill to have though; being able to successfully implement a new program will teach you many things the least of which is the value of communication To roll out the program you and the team that put it together will need to be ambassadors of the program It will fall on these people to identify when an accomplishment is obtained and award the pin to the recipient Have them be corny and exuberant beyond compare when presenting the pin The goal is to assign value to these pins If the team views these shiny objects as a valuable item, more and more people will start participating When you roll out the program, be excited! You worked hard on this and it is worth your time to make it a success Send an email with a list of the accomplishments and the corresponding images to each member of your team or office so they know what to look out for and what to aim for In the email (or however you opt to spread the word) allow for an opt-out option If people not want to play along at first, that is fine They will come around when the objects have cultural value in your office If anyone opts out, make sure your program ambassadors know about them You not want an angry coworker Spend time with the program over the first few weeks of implementation This is a fun way to interact with people, but it will take your attention and care Send continued email updates once a week and collaborate with your ambassadors to see how the team is responding With luck, people will be enthusiastic and willing to participate Realistically, you have some work ahead of you to keep it moving along Make sure your boss is on board and is taking part in handing out the pins as well If you are doing the work to keep people motivated, your boss should be pleased as punch I not know how pleased punch is at any given moment, but apparently is quite content At the end of the day you are responsible for keeping yourself motivated and engaged Your manager should be willing to help you learn new things and try out new projects or at least let you some goofy stuff in the office every so often If they are not willing to help you then you need a different job and so they The only thing that will keep you motivated at work is something only you know Try the above tools to find out what sort of actions at the workplace will keep you from going crazy If none of it helps, try other things and then other things until you find out what makes work fun for you This is called “intrinsic motivation”, it comes from within Sometimes people need to learn things to keep motivated, other people need career progression or a creative outlet The best motivator comes from you so take charge of your career and let your boss know what projects or duties you would like to take on Chapter Five General Survival Tips Your job in customer service will provide stress filled days that thankfully will get to stay at the office once your shift ends Customers are a demanding bunch I know I have a “customer mode” that is tremendously different from my real person I venture to say that most people are in this boat For some reason, when money enters a relationship things get weird That is why my wife does all of our financial stuff at home If I not know how much money we spend or have, I not know how much I am allowed to spend on shiny objects For the unique relationship that exists between the customer and customer service, there are a number of general survival tips that you need to know before your first day on the job Here’s the list: Always call in sick on Friday the 13th People are strange on this day and you not get paid enough Professional athletes and oil barons alike not get paid enough to deal with people on a Friday the 13th Create a contact list Your company probably has a phone tree or organization chart available, but you need to know who does what in the company As you learn a name at your new company, write it down with a note on what that person does This will save so much time for your first few months Organize My desk at home is cluttered with papers ranging from one week to one decade old There are pencils thrown about willy nilly and a few candy wrappers for items no longer available I spend plenty of time at this desk and have no intention of picking up after myself At work, my desk is organized There is a designated spot for follow up material, new projects, recycling, extra supplies and even a space for my coffee cup so I have no opportunity to tip it over and ruin my keyboard I this for my customers If I have to spend five minutes diving through documents to find a sticky note that says “Call Rhonda, She’s angry here’s why:” with Rhonda on the other end of the phone, I have made a bad situation even worse Say a coworker needs to find something on the desk when I am away, my neat stacks can deciphered by anyone Keep your workspace organized for your own sanity Ask Questions! When you are just starting out with a company, you not know everything there is to know I cannot stress that point enough No training program in the world is solid enough to give a new hire all the information necessary to hit the ground running That is why mentors and ongoing training programs exist Your new coworkers not expect you to know everything either Ask for the tools you need Nothing is more problematic than knowing how to solve something, but being completely unable to anything about it You and the company are there to work together and maximize profits, if a tool exists that will make your job easier check with your boss to see if it is possible to get that tool It is not really your boss’ job to know how to your job; they have their own job to It is up to you to let them know what will make things easier, more efficient for you and your coworkers If necessary, get a presentation together –nothing fancy, a quick text document with fancy word art and a few pictures can sell just about anything in an office or retail setting- and make your case Find out if there would be any immediate cost savings and you are likely going to be a golden god in the eyes of your employer If a tool helps you get something done quicker, that saves money for the company and that looks good on everybody There is no such thing as providing too much information That is not to say you have full license to describe your shower routine to a coworker or customer, but information pertaining to the problem at hand should be viewed with a “more is good” mentality If I receive a note or voicemail saying that an order was improperly placed for a customer, I correct the error and then tell the other person exactly what happened and how it was fixed Knowing the cause and solution to an issue may help prevent it from happening again in the future If you are providing information to a coworker that is dealing with the customer, the more information they have at their disposal the better their chances of providing a positive experience to the customer Never be afraid to give the details of a situation Get pictures of things you like and hang them on your cube or locker or break room, wherever you can I have a photo of my son at just a few days old being held in his mother’s arms on my desk in a spot I can readily look at it If my day is just horrid, full of nothing but angry calls and complex issues, that photo reminds of why I sit at my desk for hours on end The pictures motivate me to my best; their health insurance coverage is riding on me Having pictures of things you love will brighten your day Find a good mug Or water bottle for you water drinkers out there Bringing your own liquid carrier not only saves on the disposable stuff, but provides a little bit of home at your office Never turn down free food from the company When the company says, “Here’s food!” and your coworkers swarm over it, you better head over and grab a plate If you are at a computer learn Alt + Tab Learn all the shortcuts you can, but Alt + Tab is a good one Take walks and use your break time It is important get out and away from whatever it is you are working on every so often In customer service you have to provide answers and solutions with every contact, that is physically draining after awhile and as you make more and more decisions you will become more and more tired Physical activity on your breaks does not have to be strenuous, but something to get your blood flowing and mind recharged Please and Thank You accomplish much more than “Do this now” or “I’ll straight up cut you” Be nice to those around you and they will become your greatest allies Try not snack at your desk Desk based customer service is not a healthy activity More and more studies are coming out saying sitting is not good for you and the lack of activity associated with computer work leads to further health issues You are more important than the job, so take care of yourself Snacking refers to eating plentiful amounts of junk food I love Doritos Nacho Cheese chips, they are ambrosia What I not love is gaining fifteen pounds a year because I sit at a desk for 40 or more hours a week without exercising Junk food is designed to be a quick pleasure, not a meal Eat well and be good to yourself There is no reason to ever use the term ASAP Customers call at half hour marks Get what you need done during the 10 to 20 minute portion of the hour and 40 to 50 portion If a customer is calling in, most often they have it scheduled as part of their day Cell phone reminders are most easily set on the hour and on the half hour mark Have important documents readily accessible As part of being organized, if you seem to be returning to a document over and over again for reference, keep it handy Always reload the printer paper when the lights are flashing Always start a new pot of coffee if you take the last of one Have a pen on you at all times Taking good notes will help you survive the job A customer once told me, after I forgot to call them back, “a short pencil is better than a long memory” I thought she said a totally different word at first, so once I stopped giggling inappropriately and understood what she said I thought the advice was perfect There is always a pen and a stack of sticky notes near me now Ask for feedback as often as possible Some companies will an annual review and that is the only time you gain insight into the company’s perception of your work habits and abilities If you have been completing a task for three months straight in a totally incorrect manner and no one has taken the time to correct it, you will keep doing the process that way until you leave the company Ask your boss for quarterly reviews or brief monthly chats Nothing has to be formalized, but progress reports can certainly help you perform better and identify skills that can be used to better the company Realize that feedback is good and constructive critiques of your ability are going to help you short and near term One of the best bosses I have ever had was at my very first job slinging fried chicken at a mall food court One night he pulled me aside and complimented my ability to work with customers, but I was slow at the end of the night breakdown He challenged me right then to get the whole place spotless by 10:30 that night, to which I responded “We’ll be out of here at 10” Yes, he used the compliment sandwich to prep me for criticism (I was 16 at the time), but it worked The crew and I were out of the store by 9:55 that night and every night thereafter He offered a performance review that was beneficial immediately Be open to critiques and ask for them Some bosses are not upfront about problem areas, but if there is a part of your performance that hurts the team or the customer it needs to be corrected These informal meetings not need to be just about how you can correct a problem area either Learn how the company or your boss at least, views your strengths and find out how they put to other uses If you are good at writing outbound emails to customer inquiries, perhaps you can train your team on the finer points of written communication Ask your coworkers for feedback Have them double check your work, listen to a phone call, or proofread an email if need be They are veterans and can offer insight if you ask questions Try not to sound needy though, needy people are annoying You will learn survival tactics specific to your workplace over time as well Wherever I work, these tips seem to apply just fine Telling you to avoid the fax machine on the east side of the copy room because the key does not always work is not necessary though Every workplace has its quirks and eccentricities that you will have to work around and adapt for Systems may be slower in the afternoon than the morning, or you may need to visit the break room farthest from your desk for the best coffee The workplace specific nuances provide character to your job and quite often provide a good laugh There was a popcorn machine at the financial services company I worked for that was noted more often for its ability to burn people than pop that corn proficiently People learned which carrying method worked best for their popcorn needs Some opted for bowls, some went for plates and others used bags It was a statement of self how one carried the popcorn back to one’s desk and it was hilarious People learned the best time to get their popcorn Some liked it fresh out of the kettle and piping hot others liked it a little cooled so they waited a bit That little machine was a cultural touch point for the office with its own set of rules and rituals that new people had to learn Your office may not have an actual popcorn machine, but it will have a popcorn machine equivalent There will be one thing in the office that everyone can rally around and say it helps define their working experience In addition to observing the tips and guidance above, pay close attention to the rules of your own office Office rules are different everywhere you work, but observing the specific rules of your office will help you survive your customer service job Chapter Six Creating a positive experience for you and the customer Customer Service departments exist to create a positive experience for the customer when they need one With the knowledge presented in the many pages before this one, you are ready and able to create an experience that will suit the customer’s needs beyond their expectations Knowing how to talk to a customer and how to listen to them will prepare you to be a service all-star You want to be the employee that people call directly or ask for by name because they trust in your ability to get results As you develop regulars and people that only talk to you, there will be times you not want to take their call They are calling on you because the experience is positive when they chat with you You know how to talk to them, you listen to their problems and you find results quickly You may even talk about the weather or their favorite local sporting team Your report with the customer is what matters to them Even angry customers that you were able to help will start going to you directly in future instances Each customer deserves a positive experience and you deserve that as well There are many times a customer will annoy or bother you, but if you aim to make the experience memorable and easy for them they will change their attitude A supervisor at the publishing company told me his one goal when working with customers is to have them thanking him at the end of the call 98 times out of 100 that was exactly what happened That is creating a positive experience for the customer A positive experience does not always mean the customer gets what they wanted when they called on you Sometimes customers just cannot get what they want, but if you explain to them why the solution they are requesting is not an option, they may be more understanding What really makes the experience positive is treating the customer like a human With most over-the-phone customer service jobs you will have to collect numbers from the customer to identify their account information Once you have that account information, forget the identifying numbers Call the person by their name and respond to their cues If they are chatty, interact with them If they are skittish, reassure them You are there to create an experience they would be not mind repeating When a customer’s experience is being hindered by the company’s policies or procedures there is a problem A company will not last too long if the customer is inconvenienced by simple policy There are plenty of legal requirements that have to be observed, but at the end of the day the company exists because people want the product being sold When you come across a policy or procedure that inhibits the customer experience, see what can be done to change that policy When I was at the financial services job my first process could take up to two weeks for every customer that came through Two weeks is too long for anything to take, so my boss asked for ideas on how to speed things up After some discussion and consultation with process owners, we were able to knock the average time down to three days with only the most extreme cases taking up to a week We changed the rules to be more customer friendly and easier on my team It took some time, certainly, but at the end of the day the customer experience won out over an archaic policy Provide solid service, work within policy or change policy when needed and most importantly get results; those are the core components of the customer experience As an agent you have the best insight into how customers perceive your company so you have the best information on how to provide an improved experience With the publishing company, the website was just awful Orders could not be placed online if the customer had a typo in there or if their school district was not already loaded into our database It was a pain for the customer The most common phrase of the company’s customer base was, “I tried to order on the website, but it did not let me continue to checkout.” Thankfully the customers would call in to place on order, but there is no way to know how many customers were lost because of a poor website Customer service started voicing their concerns and relaying customer opinions and soon the company had a new website that was just slightly improved While still not perfect, the new web based ordering system was a vast improvement over the aggravating system it had replaced When the web store problems were fixed, our customers were much happier Be mindful of ways that the entire system you work with can be improved If a new website would help customers interact with the company, say something to management There could be an issue with your phone menu options, or the walk way into your store, or a strange humming sound that is bothering customers; find out what could hinder the customer experience and change it for the better Conclusion stuff Your customers will come at you fast and consistently and if you want to survive a customer service role you need all the knowledge you can get The type of customer, how they speak and how they listen will constantly keep you on your toes You are going to learn more about the state of the human condition in your customer service role than any schooling can provide Mark Twain said once, “I never let schooling get in the way of my education” your education is coming on fast May this book be your guide for your first year on the job and may it be used well The customers, coworkers and challenges you will face are going to prepare you for a life time of working within the business world In my opinion, there is no greater challenge than solving a customer problem in five minutes or less Enjoy your time in this role If it lasts your career, I applaud you If you take your experiences and take it to a different portion of the business world, always remember the life of a customer service agent and the needs of the customer If businesses worldwide would focus more on the needs of their customers, agents would have a much easier job Going into your customer service career, you will be faced with customers that feel they have been wronged by the company and customers that “just have a quick question” You will get to know your coworkers and see how different people work in such a wide variety of ways Those same coworkers will teach you about the working world and help create what is ultimately the professional version of you Taking the steps to become a better agent as you enter your career is wonderful It is a good thing to want to be good at your job People that are good at their job get the raise, the promotion, the satisfaction; whatever they are looking for, a talent for what they are doing will provide that for them With any luck, the advice and observations provided in this little book will help prepare you for a long and satisfying career working with people and solving problems Your customers are going to entertain and frustrate you for ages I hope you enjoy the ride that is Customer Service You will survive the hard times and you will thrive in the good times The tips and tricks in this book will give you a head start in becoming a valued employee for your organization Use the book to help define your own style of service and coworker interaction You will evolve and adapt over time as you learn more and more about your own abilities and motivators The learning curve is fairly steep in this sort of role and has a definite “sink or swim” aspect Keep reading, keep learning and keep growing You are fantastic and this customer service job will teach you more than you could have ever thought To share your thoughts and comments with the author send an email to survivingcs@gmail.com or check out @ShawnCowling on twitter I’m surprisingly quiet I will warn you We all have stories and insights to share, and your contributions to making better customer service agents will be greatly appreciated Thank you for reading my little book Special thanks to OpenClipArt.com contributor gasgri04 for the cover image outline ... I am prone to using any surface as a table Art and color escape me completely You may have a knack for organizing a space and making a room “warm” You may have a talent for replicating the master... conversation At the publishing company I had a call come in late on a Friday afternoon Any call that came in late on a Friday was going to be a user of our assistive technology that was a guarantee... over and grab a plate If you are at a computer learn Alt + Tab Learn all the shortcuts you can, but Alt + Tab is a good one Take walks and use your break time It is important get out and away from