From Conflict to Resolution: The Power of Assertiveness in Customer Support
What’s common between the following statements?
- “To ensure I understand correctly, you’re saying that…”
- “I’ll be direct — that request isn’t something we can accommodate. However, here’s an alternative that might work for you…”
- ”I want to make sure we resolve this to your satisfaction. What specific outcome are you looking for?”
These are all assertive statements that a customer support agent might use when talking with a customer.
Assertiveness is an essential quality for customer service communication.
It helps you come across as direct and is a good de-escalation tactic when dealing with irate customers.
How to Know if You’re Being Assertive?
The best adage about assertiveness we’ve heard says, “Say what you mean, mean what you say, and don’t be mean when you say it.”
Essentially, assertiveness requires you to be truthful while lending a helping hand.
When you practicing assertiveness in customer support, you want to focus on the following:
- Policy and Service Knowledge — While you might not know everything about a product or service, it’s essential to know your policies and the services you offer, be clear about the ongoing policy for dealing with problems, and convey the service terms firmly. Tell customers if your policy doesn’t allow you to service their requirements, and try to help them the best you can.
- Active Listening Skills — Understanding the customer’s problems is step one. If you’re the first point of contact for a customer, ensure that you note down any issues they’re facing and understand the circumstances that led to them.
- Constant Calmness — Remain calm, even if the customer becomes combative. This ensures that you can get your points across without being rude. Also, speaking calmly will help you de-escalate the situation and make progress with the customer’s issue.
- Clear Boundaries — Saying “No” at the right time goes a long way with a customer. Understanding the problems you can help them with and the things you can’t do will help the customer better appreciate the terms of your service contract. Be firm and respectful about setting boundaries, and explain to them why a particular boundary exists.
- Put Feedback First — Customer support as a function lives on feedback. Customers who give good feedback also become evangelists for your products and can lead to more significant accounts in the future. So, prioritizing proactive support while maintaining boundaries is a crucial indicator for excellent customer service reps.
You will be consistently assertive if you practice these principles. Remember, the core idea is to be truthful and helpful in all your interactions.
In our experience, repetitive questions and multiple channels are the biggest challenges in maintaining assertiveness. So, if you’re struggling to be assertive because you have a massive backlog of repetitive communications, consider using a chatbot that can handle all such queries effectively giving you more time to focus on things that matter more.
Traditionally, the customer service job was limited to phone or in-person interactions. However, the new omnichannel strategies mean that more channels are cropping up daily; in this case, having some things in mind for each channel can be very helpful.
Being Assertive Over Email
- Set Up an Autoresponder — Whenever your office has a holiday or a pre-planned event, set up an autoresponder to tell customers about the event and the deadline you’ve set for a reply. If possible, provide an alternative email address where they can reach an available colleague.
- Send across policy documents — Remember that you can access consumer records in this medium. Provide them with the necessary information about your services and policies to be more helpful.
- Be concise and comprehensive — People don’t like dwelling on long emails, and giving concise information is the best communication channel. Just be careful when providing the information they need.
Being Assertive with Live Chat
- Carefully Identify Issues — Customers often describe their issues vaguely on live chat because it’s a quick platform. Ask deeper questions to understand their issues better and discover the technical nuances of the problem.
- Use a Chatbot — Since people expect 24/7 availability from live chat, it’s vital to buffer your time using a chatbot. A Generative AI chatbot can reply like a customer service representative and filter repetitive requests to give representatives some breathing space during busy hours.
- Be quick and concise — Live chat responses thrive on being fast; giving quick, concise responses will help the customer feel heard. If something will take time, be sure to inform the customer before you go quiet.
Being Assertive on the Phone
- Remain Calm — Be polite in your responses over the phone and be firm about the policies you have in the workplace. Telling customers the truth about your capabilities while calm can help you de-escalate the situation.
- Be Solution-Centered — People trust phone calling to be the channel that gives them the best results. To maintain this, remain solution-oriented and helpful to the customer while telling them about your boundaries.
Being Assertive Over Social Media
- Try to Divert them to Another Medium — Remember that social media accounts are public, and discussing sensitive issues with the public will only affect your brand. Ask the concerned customer to email you or contact another channel for effective resolutions.
- Limit Yourself to Two Messages — Most social media experts recommend that you confine yourself to two replies. This prevents the conversation from escalating.
Being Assertive In-Person
- Adopt a Consistent Tone — People readily pick up on tones in person. Try to maintain a calm and firm voice throughout the conversation and avoid being too meek or loud.
- Listen Without Interrupting — It’s important to keep listening to the customer’s problems when they’re speaking. Customers are much less likely to be angry and combative if they know you’re being attentive and patient.
These tips will help you become more assertive over every channel, helping you improve your customer service skills over time. Adopting an assertive tone throughout your life will make you a more effective communicator.
Assertive = Effective =/= Abrasive
Many customer service representatives fear being assertive at the start of their careers. They’re worried that clear boundaries and honesty can affect their jobs.
However, in our experience, assertiveness leads to better resolutions. It helps customer service representatives de-escalate combative situations and enables them to provide the best available solution constantly.
So, be assertive; it’s the best tone for customer service everywhere.
