Customer service is all about people. The experience the customer has is mostly dependent on the interaction they have with your customer service personnel. In many cases, the only humans your customer will ever speak to in your organisation will be your customer service staff. This is why it is essential that the client has a good experience.
Personality Matters
The reality is that some personality types will thrive in your customer service role and most others will struggle to cope. you want to hire people who will thrive in the customer service environment you have.
Work environments vary. Your customer service work environment is different from the company next door. This is why it is essential that you hire people who have a personality that is right for your specific environment.
Better Results
When you hire the right people and they get to work to their natural strengths most of the time, you see exceptional performance levels. When your customer service people are better than your competitors, you give yourself a significant competitive advantage.
Low Staff Turnover
People who are comfortable in their work environment, do not start looking for other jobs. Mainly it is people who are unhappy that start looking about for other jobs. When people are good at what they do and thriving at work, they do not leave to join other organisations. They don’t even look to see what’s on offer. Even if they are offered more money, in many cases, it would need to be significantly more money before they would even consider leaving what is working for them.
When you have a lower staff turnover than your competitors, you give yourself a significant competitive edge. it means your people get better and better at what they do. it means that your training has a chance of making an impact and improving things further. When the staff turnover is low, people build relationships with their colleagues which further flues them to the team and reduces the likelihood of them leaving further still.
How To Build Great Customer Service Teams Starting With Recruitment
Let’s start at the beginning and look at how you build great customer service teams from scratch. If you already have some customer service staff that are already exceptional, then you can model them. Copy what is already successful. Build a Success profile using personality as the principal factor. The reason for this is that some personality types will work better in your role than others. This is regardless of skills, work experience or qualifications. you can get all of these three traditional factors right and still hire the wrong person if their personality is not a good fit. However, get someone with the right personality fit and you can train them to become better regardless of their experience.
Now all models are different. What works for you, may not work for the organisation next door. There is no one personality type with a monopoly on good customer service. The trick is to identify what is right for your specific situation.
PeopleMaps provides a range of personality reports called Interview Pro, designed as interview guides, to ensure you hire the right personality type for your customer service roles.
How To Build Great Customer Service Teams Using Your Existing Staff
So what do you do with your existing staff? Well, you have the option of modifying the work environment and management style to suit each personality type. it’s a lot easier than you would imagine. Work environments are not set in stone. PeopleMaps provides line managers with a personality report called OnBoarding & Managing Others that explains in detail what a line manager should do to get the very best from each staff member they are responsible for.
It acts as an operating manual and helps the line manager avoid making mistakes that will be difficult to recover from, as well as explaining exactly what to do to get the very best from the employee.
How To Build Great Customer Service Teams
Getting people to work well in isolation is one thing but getting people to work well together as a team, is another level of complexity. PeopleMaps has conducted a lot of research into the psychology of teams and the role that personality plays in building a successful team. Many of the problems that teams experience are personality-centric and can be fixed with an understanding of personality.
PeopleMaps will provide you with a suite of personality reports and training that ensures your staff work well together as a team. it provides guidance for team leaders as well as each individual.
If you want to know how to build great customer service teams then talk to PeopleMaps today.
