Are Your Customer Service Skills Up to Snuff?

Customer service is a key part of IT. In fact, according to CareerBuilder, IT consulting is one of the “five careers where customer service is key.” If you’re looking for a position in an IT department or for an IT company, know that employers place a high value on candidates’ ability to communicate — a fact underlined in the Computerworld Forecast survey, which stated that the two most important abilities employers seek are “the ability to collaborate (cited by 66% of the respondents) and the ability to communicate with business users (62%).”

But just what kind of skills do you need to be able to provide good customer service? Customer service “soft skills” include effective listening, problem solving, and the ability to communicate. Developing these skills gives you the follow advantages:

• You can resolve support issues more quickly — Your ability to communicate is crucial to solving the problem. You have to be able to get the information you need from the user, and then present the solution in a way he or she understands.

• You can give users a positive view of IT — Good interpersonal and problem-solving skills help users to trust and be comfortable calling on IT rather than trying to solve problems themselves.

• You can encourage users to be more open to new technologies — Helping users become comfortable with new technologies can potentially convert them into IT advocates.

 Tips to improve your customer service skills

You know that you need technical savvy and experience in IT to do the job, but to provide good customer service, you must also cultivate your interpersonal skills. Here are a few tips that can help you improve in those areas:

• Communicate in a friendly, professional, and respectful way. Use an icebreaker, empathize with the user’s concern, and communicate in clear, professional language free of technical jargon.
• Listen to the user. Pay full attention to how he or she describes the problem, and work from that information. Confirm that you understood the user correctly. Active listening in this way builds the user’s trust and gives you better information to solve the problem.
• Assume responsibility. Reassure the user that you are the right person to handle the request and are there to help. Provide your contact information for follow-up. Explain the problem-resolution process if explanation is needed.
• Ask the right questions — those that are aimed at diagnosing the problem.
• Take good notes. Document your meeting with the user and provide a detailed report of the issue.
• Be honest — and realistic. Say “I don’t know” or “I will need to look into that further” when you’ve made your best effort and still are not able to resolve the issue.

Customer service matters

By following these customer service best practices, you’ll improve your chances of achieving the best outcome for the user — which helps the organization and also reflects positively on you. If you’re interested in pursuing training to improve your customer service skills, a variety of programs are available, such as those offered by the Technology Services Industry Association and CompTIA.

[cta]Get in touch with Go2IT at info@go2itgroup.com or 866.424.1233 for more information and resources to help your customers.[/cta]