Ever wonder how you could be the best service representative you could be? Or would you like to know how to train your service people to be the best they could be? I’ve compiled a list of the top five characteristics of a great service representative. Incorporate them as soon as possible!

1.    Listening skills. They are crucial for every service interaction.  You must be able to determine what the customer actually needs, instead of what you think they want.

2.    Empathy. Understand the customer’s problem from their point of view and have an earnest desire to help solve it. What doesn’t seem like a big deal to you may very well be the end of the world for someone else. It helps if only genuine people-persons are hired.

3.    Ability to go beyond the script. Customer service representatives must be proactive and creative—that’s a killer combination! One way of doing this is to simply not have scripts. No one can get into a habit of following them if they’re not supplied with them.

4.    Patience, kindness, and consideration. Don’t do the first thing that comes to mind to simply solve the problem and get it out of the way! You need to exhaust your options in order to come up with the best possible solution to the problem at hand so you don’t have to go back later and fix your mistakes.

5.    Follow-through. Make sure your customers get what they came in for! Don’t just pass them on to another person who may or may not give them what they need—make sure they’re taken care of.

Isn’t that what you’d want?

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