Digital Skills Needed with the Change in the Customer Service Landscape
Over the last few decades, the face of customer service (CS) has changed rapidly. And, most likely, it’s going to continue changing just as quickly. CS has gone from call centres in the 90’s, to the introduction of email, to live chat and social media. And CS is now steadily moving toward augmented reality and AI. For CS agents, this has meant a huge change in the way they must operate and it means they’re having to develop different skills and abilities than they did ten or twenty years ago. So what skills do operators need now in this digitally-led CS landscape?
Communication and Computing
With so much of CS focused online now, being competent at typing is one of the most important skills. CS is a fast-paced industry, with customers expecting answers faster than ever before. CS operators must be able to respond quickly and competently, without making mistakes. Confidence using a keyboard — and an excellent grasp of the native language — is key.
But they also must be able to decipher what a customer is asking of them. Although the agent may be expected to have a good understanding of grammar, the customer is not. So, from spelling mistakes, to slang and dialects, all the way up to the Queen’s English, CS agents must be able to understand it all. There’s nothing worse than contacting a company about a faulty product and having to explain yourself in three different ways.
And, further than that, CS operators also must know their way around a computer. Operators may be expected to use software like Excel to log certain details. Or, if they’re using a more sophisticated system like Gnatta, they may still have to navigate different websites to call up information the customer is asking for. If a customer wants that exact dress they saw on that advert from three weeks ago on Facebook but they don’t have a URL link, finding a solution falls to the operator’s competency with the internet.
Multitasking
Multitasking is one of those skills that has become more and more important as the CS landscape has changed. With CS becoming so fast-paced and with the steadily rising contact volumes, it’s no longer enough for agents to handle one call at a time. In fact, our sister company, FM Outsource, found that a mix of three webchats and two social media interactions created a perfect blend that improves contacts per hour.
But to achieve that, agents must be able to multitask. Whilst an agent may be resolving one webchat, two more are waiting for a solution, and the customer has just replied on social. That may sound daunting, but not to an agent that has multitasking perfected. They can flip between Facebook and Twitter with ease and be quickly responding to one webchat whilst also checking up on the solution for another. For a true multitasking master, the changes in CS aren’t a barrier.
But for those who are just average at multitasking, you’re not necessarily going to be left in the dust. With software like Gnatta, handling 5 interactions at once becomes a breeze. Our software creates a central view by bringing all interactions into one UI. That means that instead of having to flip between websites, the operator need only click different interaction tabs in the one interface, no matter where the interactions are from. Email, Twitter, Facebook, even SMS, it all appears in one place and responding is the same for every interaction. By using a more omnichannel approach, Gnatta can help operators and make multitasking that little bit easier.
Social Interaction
Despite CS moving toward an online world, social interaction is as important as ever — if not, more so. In the past, agents would talk to customers on the phone, where tone of voice can be a great cue to indicate how a customer is feeling. Telephony allows for snap decisions and means an agent can effectively turn a customer around if they notice they’re becoming emotional; webchat is somewhat similar in its speed, even though it doesn’t allow for auditory cues. And this skill is obviously still useful today; after all, telephony and webchat are still important channels. But when you move CS to social media, it becomes even more difficult to pick up on those cues.
Although webchat is similar to telephony, social posts aren’t quite the same. When a customer — or an operator — posts something to a brand’s social media page, it’s out in the open for everyone to see. Even if a mistake is noticed quickly, you can bet the internet noticed it faster. And, social is a slower channel so if the operator’s response isn’t perfect, it will likely take a lot longer to fix the issue, during which time the post is being viewed by other customers — or potential customers.
So, it’s incredibly important for operators to be sociable and to be able to read their customers’ emotions through just one string of text. For some customers, an indication of frustration could be as simple as placing a full stop at the end of a sentence. Navigating a field that is so socially complex is not easy and that’s why it’s such an essential skill for the modern CS operator.
People who are good at picking up on social cues in real life, are also good at picking up on them over the internet. The ability is referred to as ‘theory of mind’ and there’s even a test for it. The more an operator can read people, the more they’ll be able to pick up on subtle cues online. And, of course, being competent using platforms like Facebook can make a huge difference too since each platform comes with its own cultural norms and quirks that are important to understand.
Is that all?
Not really, no. There are so many intricately linked skills that a good CS operator needs: empathy, intelligence, patience, experience with specific software, time management, problem solving, to name just a few. But as CS has changed and evolved, the above skills are really coming to the fore and we think they’re the new, digital skills that make an operator stand out. If you’d like to learn more about what makes a great CS team, or how Gnatta can help improve your team, check out our website and get in touch!
