How To Motivate Your Customer Service Representatives

Customer service can be a challenging career path, but it is also one of the most influential. These frontline employees are the face of your business; they represent your brand and are a direct link to your audience. That’s why a strong customer service team can give your business such a substantial competitive edge. In fact, poor customer service is the number one reason customers take their business to other providers.

Your customer service representatives often have to develop proactive approaches to dealing with difficult patrons and confused clients, all while representing your company with an upbeat, friendly attitude. Sometimes that can be a stressful strain on employee morale, productivity and job satisfaction. It’s up to you and your management team to keep them motivated to stay in the game. As an expert in employee recruitment and retention, we here at Pascoe Workforce Solutions have developed five secrets that will motivate your customer service staff to work more productively and provide the highest level of customer care.

Secret #1: Draw out their enthusiasm

Build up the excitement in the workplace. If you show high energy, your employees will be more enthusiastic about the company and their role within it. Have them play a part in the decision making process, allow them to explore creative solutions and let them do it in a vibrant, stress-free workplace environment.

Secret #2: Educate them continuously

Provide additional training and ongoing professional develop for your staff. Encourage them to seek out additional trainings to improve their work performance and increase their opportunity to advance within the company. Education keeps things interesting and reignites an employee’s passion for success.

Secret #3: Empower them in their positions

Customer service representatives are your closest connection to your key demographic. That means they play a very critical role in your success. Give them authority in their positions and let their individual strengths play a role in how they perform their duties. Incentive programs and bonus rewards are obvious ways to achieve this goal, but you can also offer them opportunities to serve on committees, collaborate with other departments and develop strategies to improve overall performance.

Secret #4: Treat them like individuals

No one likes to be thought of as just a name in a cubicle. Companies that take that approach almost always struggle with retention. Get to know your customer service representatives by working among them, conducting informal performance reviews and talking with them in their space. Learning about who they are shows you have respect for what they do.

Secret #5: Be a strong leader

Ultimately, the power is in your hands. If you don’t take action, no one will. When you discover your own individual leadership strengths, you will discover the best ways to motivate your team. You have to be accountable, reliable and approachable. Your team has to want to make you happy; they have to care about your opinion of their performance.

Show you support your customer service representatives by enabling their success. If you set up the workplace as a scaffold for your team, they can reach higher. Apply these secrets to your team and you’ll not only wind up with happier employees; you’ll notice happier customers, too. If you want to see better results out of your customer service team, give Pascoe Workforce Solutions a call. Our employment strategies are tailored specifically to each individual client’s needs and goals.

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