Best Tips to Motivate Your Customer Service Team that Must Know

Ever since the pandemic, customer service managers and customer service representatives all over the world have faced serious hurdles in their work. Working from home was no cherry on top either. Everyone faced a lot of communication issues and most of the people were left with no motivation to do anything.
Also, the customer service division is comparatively more challenging than any other department in a company. The teams are working on handling customers of all ages and with different backgrounds. Customers face a lot of issues with using products and services. For this, it is very important that your customer service team should be energetic and enthusiastic, because no customer wants to be dealing with a representative who seems to be having issues of their own.
Moreover, there are many companies that prioritize their customers’ satisfaction and loyalty. For instance, you can take a few pointers from the top companies in the United States like HughesNet. This company is known for its remarkable services and top-notch customer support. They also train their representatives to deal with non-native speakers. They even have Hughesnet servicio al cliente en español for Spanish speakers. This just goes to show HughesNet’s commitment towards their customers.
For companies who feel that their customer service teams lack motivation and feel less enthusiastic about their work like never before, we have come up with some great tips for you to motivate them to get back their spark. Let’s dig in to learn more about them.
- Empower Your Customer Team
If you give your team trust and let them take charge, it’ll really boost their motivation. When support agents have to run to their higher-ups for approval on every little thing, it just brings down their morale. Without the freedom to make decisions, they feel like they’re hitting a roadblock in getting their tasks done.
To see some solid results, empower your reps. Let them have a say in customer meetings. They shouldn’t have to double-check every business decision, like discounts or pricing, with the higher-ups. Also, have a chat with your customer service crew. Find out what gives them that confidence. Listen to their thoughts and suggestions on recurring issues.
Moreover, equip your agents with the tools and authority to take action without needing the nod from above. And hey, when they’re doing a stellar job, make sure to give them props!
- Appreciation
It is very natural that a human will drive and work better if they feel they are being appreciated in their work environment. To motivate your customer service team, make sure that they know that they’re appreciated and there are different ways that you can ensure that. Create quarterly work reports, which will allow you to give your team bonuses.
Also, evaluate the performance, either quarterly or yearly, and give them awards or certificates for good performance which will be shown to other workers as well. This also becomes a motivation for all the co-workers. Well, you can think of that by giving appreciation to your employees in the form of gift hampers, discounts, extra holidays, and many other ways.
- Get them the right tools
Since customer service is all about communicating with the customer, this means they need to be provided with the best and the right tools for them to communicate efficiently and timely. If your customer services team is facing an issue with any of these tools, they will not be able to do their jobs properly. For them to perform better, make sure that you have different platforms for communicating with customers.
Also, your customers want to be connected with your business through multiple platforms, whether it is live phone calls, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, etc. It can be difficult for your support team to keep track of communication from each platform. The solution here is to use an application where multiple social media channels can be managed from just one place. Examples of applications are Buffer, Freshchat IntelliAssign, Hootsuite, etc.
So make sure that your team is provided with all the required tools.
- Employee training
One important factor in motivating your employees and improving their work is getting them the right training. This is an investment with great returns. Four types of training are needed for customer service, namely product training, communication training, soft skill training, and specific situation training. Based on different levels, these trainings should be implemented monthly and yearly. Whether your employee is a Jenny or a senior reinforcing.
These trainings will help your customer services team a lot. Training on Communication will allow your employees to understand how to communicate with the customer. Other pieces of training will allow them to understand how to use empathy in their work, positive thinking, being more creative, and problem-solving under pressure. Product training is very important as they need to understand all aspects of the product that they’re dealing with which makes them sound more aware rather than sounding as lost as the customer is.
Bottom Line
When it comes to your customer service team, these small points can go a long way. In a business, this team is crucial and must be treated with care and love. It is this team that faces the greatest amount of pressure and stress since they have to deal with a lot of people with different temperaments, backgrounds, preferences, and problems. Because of this, the solutions to these problems must be unique. Every business should pay special attention to this department and invest in training and the best tools.