How to Level Up Your Customer Service Skills This Holiday Season

The holiday season is a hectic time of year, and this added chaos makes dealing with other people much more difficult. Leveling up customer service skills is a good idea any time of year, especially during the holiday season. 

Below are a few steps you can take to boost your customer service abilities. 

Make a Plan 

Before setting out to improve your customer service skills, consider what you are trying to achieve. Consider key performance indicators that you are trying to improve. These can help guide you, so you’ll be improving your skills in ways that are measurable and specific. 

With one or more clear goals in mind, you can develop a strategy and have a purpose in mind. 

Get Feedback 

Any type of feedback, whether it’s positive or negative, can help you improve your skills. Positive feedback can help you realize your strengths, while negative feedback can help you realize the areas where you need to improve.   

To be fair, receiving negative feedback can be challenging. The best approach to dealing with negative feedback starts with not taking it personally. Try to frame negative feedback as a challenge you need to overcome. When you get negative feedback, consider its value, where it’s coming from, and how you can use it moving forward. 

Because of the value of feedback, it needs to be an essential part of your training. Seek out feedback from managers, co-workers, and any customers with which you interact. 

Ask for Colleague for Tips 

For whatever reason, many people think of training as something that passes from management to workers. However, training shouldn’t be just a top-down exercise. Training from colleagues can be extremely valuable, and when we learn from our peers, it turns learning into a shared, collaborative experience. 

Use Tools Correctly 

With the proper resources in place, you are more able to level up your customer service abilities. Any tool that you use should improve your process and help you provide better service, whether that service is to customers, clients, managers, or co-workers. 

Most customer service jobs have some type of software platform that ties together various aspects of the job on a single system. Most platforms allow a representative to handle, fix, and track various issues. When used properly, a good platform makes you a lot more productive and efficient, so be sure that you are optimizing the way that you use your customer service platform. If there are problems with your program, bring them to the attention of your employer. 

Consider Your Company Culture 

To level up your customer service abilities, you shouldn’t just concentrate on technical abilities and training exercises. You should be trying to improve with the idea of being more involved in the culture of your business. 

When looking to get more engaged in your company, the company’s stated mission and values are a good place to start. Also, ask those in management about where the company is headed and your role in that journey.   

Digging into the company culture will help you with the “why” and “how” aspects of your customer service training. 

We Can Connect You to Best-Fit Customer Service Jobs 

At Career Concepts, we are dedicated to helping people find best-fit positions, including those in customer service. Please contact us today to find out how we can help you.