What I learned in 4 years Customer Service
Back in 2011 when I was in a position that most fresh college grads face: I had to get a job to pay for college loans and maybe eventually start a career. At the time I was working in a position that I really enjoyed, I was a conservation technician for a very successful landtrust. Every day I worked outdoors in the fields and forests of the Tri-Valley area. I loved it was but the job was unlikely to lead me elsewhere.
I choose to go work for a friend at a gym, hoping it could turn into a leadership opportunity and I’d be able to pay off my loans. It didn’t turn into a promotion and for the next four years I’d be working in customer service in some capacity. The customer service industry can have a bad reputation, but I found that it gave my some invaluable skills and helped shape me into something resembling a decent human being.
The first lesson I learned was that its essential to speak in your own voice. So many companies want their employees to be effective but doubt their personalities so they create elaborate policies and scripts to guide reps through processes. Problem is most agents aren’t great actors so many interactions become stilted and fake sounded, making it hard to have a human connection. Speaking naturally is KEY to having meaningful interactions with customers. I don’t say “have a great day” to a customer because I wouldn’t say that to anyone normally. Honestly I don’t care if someone goes on to have a “great day”, I’d have little control over that regardless. What I do have control over is our interaction right now, and I can make a personal connection in other ways.
Spend any time in customer service and you can experience the full range of emotional reactions from other people. I’ve been screamed at before and had insults spewn towards me. Instead of becoming insensitive to these things I’ve learned that people react this way because A) they feel powerless in a particular situation (particularly when learning that they may lose money) and B) because they are emotionally invested in the business. Understanding this, I don’t need to get angry back but show that I understand how they feel and try to help turn this experience around.
In situations that seem like they are going to become tense I learned to step back and acknowledge the other persons needs— this comes from nonviolent communication. If you just react and put up a wall the other person will do the same. But if you open up and truly show that you understand someone’s frustration or pain they will be more receptive to hearing your explanation and solution.
Most conflicts in customer service occur because of someone’s expectations not being met. Expectations are everything in service, and for the most part they’re set by people’s prior (limited) experiences. These may be with other companies or people and totally unrelated to the situation now. For this reason, consistency of service is KEY. People react based on their own comparisons and standards, not necessarily the ones that a company has created internally. Therefore, setting expectations early for how the service works and what is considered normal or acceptable is vital. If someone gets something out of the ordinary once or twice they will continue to expect it. If something exceptional is done it should be clearly expressed that its just that, an exceptions. Its also important to remember that exceptions do happen and policies shouldn’t take precedence over people’s emotional experience.
These concepts have helped me grow both in my career and as a person. The process of working directly with other people (mostly strangers) can always be challenging but is rewarding too. I hope that people in the service industry can shake off the stereotypes and show that person to person relationships are always powerful.
