Customer service duties

Customer service duties

10 responsibilities and duties of customer service employees

1. answering questions about a company’s products or services, 2. processing orders and transactions, 3. resolving issues and troubleshooting technical problems, 4. delivering information about a company’s offerings, 5. providing proactive customer outreach, 6. handling customer complaints , 7. collecting and analyzing customer feedback.

The customer service representative duties do not end at just responding to customers and resolving their issues. Collecting and analyzing customer feedback can also be a part of their customer service job tasks. There are numerous ways to automate feedback collection. Agents may also personally follow up with customers to find out how the solution worked for them. In addition, take notes of their suggestions on what can be potentially improved. Service teams usually collaborate closely with marketing teams on feedback collection and analysis. 

8. Responding to customer reviews

9. developing and documenting knowledge into helpful content.

Customer service employees naturally have a deep knowledge of a company’s products/services. Therefore, a solid understanding of how to use them to get the maximum value. They are usually involved in the development and creation of helpful content for customers and prospects. That may include writing Knowledge Base articles, FAQs, help manuals, how-to guides, troubleshooting documentation, and blog posts. Basically, anything that can help customers find answers, resolve issues, and use the company’s products in the most efficient way.

10. Tracking customer service KPIs and metrics

Those may include:, frequently asked questions, what is a customer service representative, what are the duties of a customer service representative, what makes a good customer service representative, what roles does ai have in customer service, what is a customer service job description in retail.

Want to know more about how to provide exceptional call center customer service? Find out by reading our article.

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customer service task list

Customer Service Checklist: 15 Ways to Provide Exceptional Customer Service

Find out how to provide exceptional customer service using our 15-point checklist.

Melissa Rosen avatar

Melissa Rosen

4 Min read · 1948 shares

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to providing great customer service. But, the best teams operate with the same basic principles in mind.

We’ve boiled them down to a 15-point customer service checklist:

  • Set clear service expectations.
  • Speak from the company’s voice.
  • Listen more than you talk.
  • Provide more than the customer needs.
  • Respond as quickly as possible.
  • Put the customer first.
  • Learn everything about your company’s products and services.
  • Match customer needs with product solutions.
  • Create and follow the chain of command.
  • Help your fellow teammates.
  • Remain calm during crises.
  • Alleviate any point of confusion.
  • Build guidelines to swiftly and fairly resolve issues.
  • Don’t take it personally.
  • Stay professional and polite.

customer service task list

Whether you’re building, managing, or working within a customer service team, use this checklist to evaluate your current practices and, perhaps, add a few more.

1. Set clear service expectations.

Be upfront with your customers to set realistic expectations and protect your own sanity. Promise realistic response times and be clear about your ability to resolve customer complaints.

You cannot solve every problem, but you can be open and honest about what you’re doing to help and when they can expect a response or resolution.

2. Speak from the company’s voice.

Every single customer interaction reflects the thoughts, emotions, and view of the company at large. Customer service agents must live and breathe the company voice.

It should come so naturally that team members can add their own personality to it without ever straying from the core.

3. Listen more than you talk.

Whether by phone, email, or social media, turn up your listening skills to understand the problem behind the problem.

Get deeper into the why to fully understand and resolve the customer’s issue completely. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck going back and forth—frustrating the customer and wasting your own time.

4. Provide more than the customer needs.

Go overboard, just do it subtly.

Give your customers more than just the answer at hand. Answer the next two or three questions they may have to really go the extra mile. Provide links to further resources. Get ahead of future problems or confusion by providing more information in a clear and helpful way .

5. Respond as quickly as possible.

Without sacrificing clarity and empathy, make an effort to respond to customers in a quick and efficient manner. Even if this just means letting them know you’ve seen their message, but need more time or information to provide a resolution. Let them know they are seen, heard, and respected first and foremost.

Answering their actual question is secondary.

6. Put the customer first.

It’s sort of the golden rule of customer service. Go beyond the superficial understanding though, to really create happy customers.

When sending any customer communications, think about what they need to know and prioritize it accordingly. Try not to get bogged down in excuses or technical details, just tell customers how it affects them and what actions they need to take.

7. Learn everything about your company’s products and services.

Leave no stone unturned when it comes to product knowledge. Customer support agents need to know your company’s products and services inside and out.

Why? Not just for problem solving, but because…

Customers don’t always use the proper name or know how to explain an issue. Support reps must be able to draw conclusions and understand the customer’s inquiry by pulling from their endless pit of knowledge.

8. Match customer needs with product solutions.

It might not be in the job description , but customer service reps can be one of your biggest sales drivers .

Encourage your team to upsell customers when they ask about a feature on a different pricing plan. Offer solutions with the business in mind to educate customers on all the capabilities of your product.

9. Create and follow the chain of command.

Hierarchies are sometimes a necessity. As a manager, define who the right person to talk to is and when to reach out them before an issue comes up.

Agents will know who to alert when something comes up, without feeling helpless or leaving a customer stranded.

10. Help your fellow teammates.

Especially in customer service, sharing is caring. Chances are, the customer you’re speaking with today might speak to your teammate tomorrow.

How do you ensure smooth transitions?

Leave notes and add tags to track customer concerns so your co-workers have the full picture before responding.

11. Remain calm during crises.

The true test of a great customer service professional lies in their ability to remain calm under pressure.

The inbox is filled with conversations claiming it’s the end of the world.

Find a way to desensitize yourself to all the mayhem. But, remain vigilant.

When an actual outage or severe service disruption occurs, you’ll need to keep your cool to help as many customers in the smartest way possible.

12. Alleviate any point of confusion.

Leave the jargon to the engineers. Customer support teams should be the liaison between hard-to-grasp technical know-how and the everyday, practical use of your products.

Always keep in mind that the customer doesn’t know nearly as much as you do, they just need an easy answer to their question.

13. Build guidelines to swiftly and fairly resolve issues.

Rules were meant to be followed. At least in customer support. Take the initiative to create guidelines for how to deal with common issues.

Make sure each agent treats each customer the same. Your team will be able to respond quicker, and with more confidence when they know the response is pre-approved .

14. Don’t take it personally.

Customers can be mean (trust me, I used to work at a dating app). Develop thick skin to protect yourself against the grueling job of customer service.

Even better…

Dive deeper into the why to understand where their anger is coming from and acknowledge that it has nothing to do with you.

Also, take breaks. Be good to yourself. Breathe.

What about particularly upset customers ?

15. Stay professional and polite.

Rise above the chaos with an air of diplomacy. Ultimately, your job is to answer customer questions and provide the best possible customer experience .

You’re not expected to make everyone happy. And sometimes, it pays dividends to fire bad customers.

Go into all interactions with courtesy and respect, then world-class customer service will follow.

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Customer Service Representative Job Description

4 min read · Updated on September 02, 2021

TopResume Editor

In order to ensure your professional resume will support your goals, use this customer service representative job description to inform what you should highlight on your resume.

By reviewing job description examples for customer service representatives, you'll be able to identify what technical and soft skills , credentials, and work experience matter most to an employer in your target field.

Customer service representative job description

The Customer Service Representative attracts potential customers by answering product and service questions; suggesting information about other products and services. Process orders, prepare correspondences and fulfill customer inquiries to ensure customer satisfaction.

Requires a high school diploma or equivalent and 0-3 years of experience in the field or in a related area. Has knowledge of commonly-used concepts, practices, and procedures within a particular field. Rely on instructions and pre-established guidelines to perform the functions of the job. Works under immediate supervision. Primary job functions do not typically require exercising independent judgment. Typically reports to a supervisor or manager. The target is to ensure excellent service standards and maintain high customer satisfaction.

Customer service representative duties:

Open and maintain customer accounts by recording account information

Resolve product or service problems by clarifying the customer's complaint; determining the cause of the problem; selecting and explaining the best solution to solve the problem; expediting correction or adjustment; following up to ensure resolution

Maintain financial accounts by processing customer adjustments

Recommend potential products or services to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs

Prepare product or service reports by collecting and analyzing customer information

Contribute to team effort by accomplishing related results as needed

Manage large amounts of incoming calls

Generate sales leads

Identify and assess customers' needs to achieve satisfaction

Build sustainable relationships of trust through open and interactive communication

Provide accurate, valid, and complete information by using the right methods/tools

Meet personal/team sales targets and call handling quotas

Handle complaints, provide appropriate solutions and alternatives within the time limits, and follow up to ensure resolution

Keep records of customer interactions, process customer accounts, and file documents

Follow communication procedures, guidelines, and policies

Go the extra mile to engage customers

Resolve customer complaints via phone, email, mail, or social media

Use telephones to reach out to customers and verify account information

Greet customers warmly and ascertain problem or reason for calling

Cancel or upgrade accounts

Assist with placement of orders, refunds, or exchanges

Advise on company information

Take payment information and other pertinent information such as addresses and phone numbers

Place or cancel orders

Answer questions about warranties or terms of sale

Act as the company gatekeeper

Suggest solutions when a product malfunctions

Handle product recalls

Attempt to persuade customer to reconsider cancellation

Inform customer of deals and promotions

Sell products and services

Utilize computer technology to handle high call volumes

Work with customer service manager to ensure proper customer service is being delivered

Close out or open call records

Compile reports on overall customer satisfaction

Read from scripts

Handle changes in policies or renewals

Customer service representative requirements:

Proven customer support experience

Track record of over-achieving quota

Strong phone contact handling skills and active listening

Familiar with CRM systems and practices

Customer orientation and ability to adapt/respond to different types of characters

Excellent communication and presentation skills

Ability to multitask, prioritize and manage time effectively

High school diploma or equivalent; college degree preferred

Customer service representative skills & proficiencies:

Customer Service Skills

Product Knowledge

Quality Focus

Market Knowledge

Documentation Skills

Listening Skills

Phone Skills

Resolving Conflict

Negotiation

Positive Attitude

Attention to Detail

People Oriented

Problem Solving

Organizational Skills

Adaptability

Ability to Work Under Pressure

Computer Skills

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  • Job Descriptions
  • Call Center and Customer Service Job Descriptions

Customer Service Representative Job Description

Customer service representatives help customers with complaints and questions, give customers information about products and services, take orders, and process returns. By helping customers understand the product and answering questions about their reservations, they are sometimes seen as having a role in sales.

Customer Service Representative Job Description Template

We are hiring a customer service representative to manage customer queries and complaints. You will also be asked to process orders, modifications, and escalate complaints across a number of communication channels. To do well in this role you need to be able to remain calm when customers are frustrated and have experience working with computers.

Customer Service Representative Responsibilities:

  • Maintaining a positive, empathetic, and professional attitude toward customers at all times.
  • Responding promptly to customer inquiries.
  • Communicating with customers through various channels.
  • Acknowledging and resolving customer complaints.
  • Knowing our products inside and out so that you can answer questions.
  • Processing orders, forms, applications, and requests.
  • Keeping records of customer interactions, transactions, comments, and complaints.
  • Communicating and coordinating with colleagues as necessary.
  • Providing feedback on the efficiency of the customer service process.
  • Managing a team of junior customer service representatives.
  • Ensure customer satisfaction and provide professional customer support.

Customer Service Representative Requirements:

  • High school diploma, general education degree, or equivalent.
  • Ability to stay calm when customers are stressed or upset.
  • Comfortable using computers.
  • Experience working with customer support.

Customer Service Representative FAQs:

What is a customer service representative.

A customer service representative supports customers by providing helpful information, answering questions, and responding to complaints. They’re the front line of support for clients and customers and they help ensure that customers are satisfied with products, services, and features.

What are the duties of a customer service representative?

Customer service duties and responsibilities generally include answering phone calls and emails, responding to customer questions and complaints, and walking customers through basic troubleshooting or setup processes. In the case of a sales customer service representative, customer service duties and responsibilities will include selling products and services to clients and processing payments.

Where can I find customer service representatives to hire?

Try looking at free job posting sites . Sites like Indeed, Glassdoor, and Monster are great for spreading the word about your job.

Can I customize the CSR job description?

When you advertise a customer service representative job, you should include details about the position of your company. Feel free to add your own customer service representative duties to our list or edit our customer service agent job description to include the qualities and skills you’d like in your next hire.

Where can I find interview questions for a customer service representative?

After you have created a CSR position description, take a look at our customer service representative interview questions .

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Customer service representative interview questions, health care customer service representative job description, health care customer service representative interview questions, administrative assistant job description, administrative assistant interview questions, sales representative job description, sales representative interview questions.

Process Street

Daily Customer Service Duties

Introduction:.

customer service task list

Customer service staff have  important tasks to do each day . From quickly replying to support tickets and solving issues for their customer base, to replying to online reviews and passing on the feedback to the products team, it's easy for the working day t o spiral into disorder .

Use this  Daily Customer Service Duties template to keep check of your important day-to-day tasks — you can use the template as it already is, or change it to your liking, should you want to add, remove, or edit certain actions.

It's time to own your day.

Pre-planning:

Reread company policies and personal policies.

Reread company policies and any self-written personal policies .

It's important to refresh yourself of the policies  that have been set by your company and yourself. If not , you could be going about your daily customer service duties the wrong way . This particularly hampers productivity — if you have to retrace your steps and go about an action in the right way after doing it the wrong way, crucial time has been wasted.

So you don't have to open external links or documents when running this checklist in the future, edit this template, add two text fields , then  paste your company policies and personal policies in the text fields .

customer service task list

Review today's plan

Remind yourself of what needs to be done  by looking at your  tasks .

The best way to get running with a checklist is to look at all the steps involved . (Re)familiarize yourself with today’s plan before diving headfirst into the day’s duties.

customer service task list

Prioritize tasks

After reviewing, prioritize your tasks by making a list in the form field .

A checklist doesn’t always have to be ticked-off in order. For instance, if you have a 9 am team meeting, it makes sense to have the meeting and then afterward go to step 14 and complete that task before the others.

Some of the tasks in this section are subject to a tool called conditional logic . Conditional logic means that, depending on the answers you choose from the dropdowns, you will then be directed to the next appropriate task. For more information on conditional logic,  there's our Help page .

Check customer channels are working

Check  customer channels  are open and working. 

To be able to do your job successfully, you’re going to need to ensure that the company communication channels are live and working (channels such as Intercom, Gmail, or the telephone line).

If they aren't working, you won’t be able to properly communicate with valued customers. This is extremely harmful  to any business.

Add channel issue information

Add information regarding the channel  issue below.

If an issue has been discovered, it's crucial to note down what the issue was, when it was identified , and whether or not you fixed it. The information can be used to prevent future issues from happening.

Escalate the channel issue

If you can't fix the channel problem yourself,  contact  the appropriate staff member. 

Fixing a technical issue is a matter of importance , especially when it comes to your business' customer channels .

By noting down your colleague's name  and  email address , no matter if they're IT support staff or another customer service teammate, there will be documented information regarding the issue and how it has been managed.

Look for general technical issues

Look for general  technical issues .

A faulty desktop. Buggy software. An unstable WiFi connection. No matter how micro or macro the issue is, stamp out any technological and technical issues before going forward.

There’s no point engaging a valued customer if you’ve noticed the WiFi connection in the office is spotty — if a connection dropout occurs, you’re leaving the customer in the dark .

customer service task list

Add technical issue information

Add information regarding the issue below.

If an issue has been discovered, it's a best practice to note down what the issue was, when it was identified , and whether or not you fixed it. The information can be used to prevent future issues from happening.

Escalate the technical issue

If you can't fix the technical problem yourself,  contact  the appropriate staff member. 

Fixing a technical issue is a matter of importance , and should be resolved immediately .

Reply to unanswered customer messages

Reply to customer messages.

As a customer support team member, one of your main customer service duties is to effectively respond to customer problems, issues, queries, and feedback . A sizeable amount of time should be dedicated purely to replying and engaging with the people who you want to have a seamless experience.

Prioritize your response time (it’s best to tag paying users as high priority, for example) so that high priority users are targeted before others . After replying to high priority users, then make your way to other customers and potential leads .

  • 1 High priority users
  • 2 Paying users
  • 3 Unassigned

Attend morning meetings

Attend morning meetings.

For a customer support team, morning meetings are usually scheduled to help reinforce current and future objectives. A morning meeting may also be set up by a line manager to help guide a new employee.

A stop task can be added here to ensure that an answer is given before moving forward. To learn more about stop tasks and how to use them,  there's our Help page .

Add morning meeting information

Add information for any morning meetings below.

After attending the meeting,  note down the meeting's title , what the topics of the meeting were, and the date/time . 

If only one meeting was attended, use the first text field and date/time field. If you had multiple, make use of the extra fields.

Conditional logic  is present in this section. Depending on the answers you choose from the dropdowns, the order of the tasks will change. To read more on conditional logic,  there's our Help page .

Reply to positive and negative reviews

Write responses to positive and negative reviews .

Gaining positive reviews is crucial for growth. Negative reviews, meanwhile, can have the opposite impact. By replying to both positive and negative reviews, you’re boosting the good while also managing damage-control for the bad, as Liezen Van Loh explains in this post on GatherUp .

For writing a negative review reply, why not try our How to Respond to Negative Reviews checklist ? It will help you to draft and publish a negative review response easily and quickly. 

Tips for writing a positive review

  • Write an original greeting.  Reviewers and readers alike can easily notice copied and pasted replies. Write a slightly different greeting each time and remember to include their name or username.
  • Match their tone.  Positive reviews come in various shapes, sizes, and tones. If the reviewer has written a formal review, be formal in your reply. If they're using emojis, think about using emojis yourself.
  • Be grateful.  Their positive review will bring traffic to your website. Add a line expressing gratefulness for the time they took to write the review, and for the review's content.
  • Mirror some of their words.  Reviewers want to be noticed and heard. Show that you have been reading and listening to them by mirroring certain words. For instance, if they've written a positive review and they mention a customer support team member's name, specifically include the name in your reply.
  • Sign off appropriately.  Appropriately signing off depends on the original content and tone of the review. A thoughtful sign off goes a long way, but only when it makes sense to do so. 

Positive review reply example

customer service task list

Document customer feedback and suggestions

Document  customer feedback in the text field below. 

Customers and reviewers alike will provide both positive and negative thoughts on your product or business. The feedback, be it positive or negative, should be taken seriously as it can be used to better the product and/or the business at large. 

Instead of passing on information to a colleague verbally, use this text box  below to collate the feedback. Then simply copy and paste the feedback into an email that you can send to the appropriate colleague.

Attend afternoon meetings

Attend afternoon meetings.

For a customer support team, afternoon meetings can consist of general team meetings, team syncs, or 1:1 meetings. Additionally, an afternoon meeting may be set up by a line manager to help guide a new employee.

Add afternoon meeting information

Add information for any afternoon  meetings below.

Review new customer information

Review new information and make sure that it's all correct in the database (s) you're using.

It's critical to have customer data, information, and other important details in a digital storage facility. For some companies, they'll be storing data in Excel spreadsheets. Others will be using CRM programs like Close.IO . No matter what you're using, ensure that any new information   is  updated and correct .

Going forward:

Consider what hasn't been accomplished.

Reflect on what hasn't been accomplished  and what could've been better.

Although you may strive for every day to be a productive one, sometimes there are events, tasks, or disruptions that get in the way. Think about what hasn't been accomplished today and what tasks could've been done better, then write it in the below text field for reference. If you need some inspiration going forward, we've written a handy (and free!) customer success guide .

If everything has been accomplished to a high standard, congratulations! Move on to the next task .

Exporting daily report

Export your daily report for yourself or your manager.

Exporting the daily report checklist is a great way for you to have a copy of your completed tasks , or for you to show your manager that your day has been a success . 

With Process Street, a checklist can be exported as a CSV document, a PDF, or it can be printed. For information regarding the process of exportation, we've written this  Export and Print Checklists guide .

Prepare for the next day

Prepare  for the next working day by reviewing the tasks in this template.

There may be times where your daily duties change . Ensure that this template is up-to-date by reviewing the tasks, and then adding or removing tasks as necessary . By doing this before the next day starts, you can then entirely focus on carrying out all-important duties.

See you tomorrow!

  • Kayly Lange -   The 10 Core Responsibilities of Customer Service
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  • Gregory Ciotti -   16 Customer Service Skills that Every Employee Needs
  • Betterteam - Customer Service Representative Job Description
  • Leizen Van Loh - Guide: Responding to Negative and Positive Reviews
  • Salesforce Canada - A Day in the Life of a Customer Service Rep
  • Atul Gawande - The Checklist Manifesto

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Take control of your workflows today.

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  • Performance

Customer Service Checklist: 21 Best Practices You Need to Follow

A customer service checklist brings productivity and efficiency to your customer service operation. It is the perfect helping hand for your customer service strategy. Read these 21 customer service points you want to check to ensure excellent customer experiences.

October 5, 2022

9 mins read

Imagine this: On one hand, the customer support staff is operating on their assumptions. On the other hand, the customer support staff has a specified list of points to be taken care of. The latter sounds like a good idea, doesn’t it?

Every organization’s customer service strategy is different, but there are a few points that you must check to ensure you’re delivering a good customer experience. A customer service checklist helps keep your customer staff on track, gives them direction, boosts productivity, and helps your team deliver great customer service.

We’ve boiled it down to a list of 21 points you must check as a part of your excellent customer service efforts. Read on further to know more.

Why use a Customer Service Checklist?

Customer service is tricky as it represents your brand in front of buyers. It helps if you have specialized agents with a concise system to tackle the customers. Another huge helping factor is including a customer service checklist in your system that helps to improve your customer service performance

It will help your service representatives to tackle problems or queries with lesser errors and improve customer satisfaction. A checklist will also ensure a smooth customer service process and that no steps are missed while resolving an issue.

See for yourself

Keeping is the fastest, simplest way to manage a shared inbox right inside Gmail.

Apart from that, a good checklist helps to:

  • Set a standard brand protocol- A customer service checklist contains a consistent protocol for your brand, irrespective of which executive is speaking to the customer. Maintaining and updating a checklist will also help you to identify loopholes in your customer service experience.
  • Resolve customer complaints with confidence- Customer service executives will feel confident while speaking to clients when they have a clear set of instructions laid out for them.
  • Monitor your team’s performance- A customer service checklist makes it easy for your managers to evaluate customer service performance against the key metrics.

21 Best Practices for a Customer Service Checklist

One standard customer service strategy cannot work for all brands, but the basic principles remain the same. So, use this checklist to create a new customer service quality assurance checklist or update your existing one.

Be accessible to customers

Make sure your customers can contact your support staff with zero effort because you cannot resolve an issue that does not reach you. Customers might get agitated if they cannot reach you quickly, and it might get difficult for you to resolve their issues.

In such a scenario, you need a customer service audit checklist to get such basic things sorted out. Offer an easy-to-access channel to customers like phone support, email, or social media.

You can also opt for customer support software like live chat or chatbot. In fact, 69% of customers are willing to interact with a bot for simple issues.

Listen thoroughly and set clear expectations

Before committing anything to the customer, listen to the entire issue thoroughly. Active listening is an essential part of the customer service standards checklist.

Clients have ample reasons for reaching out to a customer service team, including product information before purchase, reporting technical issues, or expressing dissatisfaction with the product/service. The crux is that the customers want to be heard thoroughly.

So, listen properly, and suggest a solution once you grasp the issue.

Promise a realistic solution and response time

Promise a realistic response time by keeping your ability to solve the issue in mind. Offering unrealistic guarantees will harm the brand as the customer will get more agitated if they are not delivered to them.

You can set clear expectations with the help of a customer service checklist template. Train your customer service reps for solutions and give them an understanding of the response timings. It will help you establish a consistent service delivery for the issues raised.

To ensure realistic customer service expectations, you can also define the roles and responsibilities of your teams in the checklist. Also, encourage the executives to be open with the customers about what they can fix or do for them.

Educate your customer service executives

With 84% of customers becoming irritated by uninformed customer service agents, all your customer support staff must have a detailed knowledge of your product and service offerings. This knowledge will help them to understand the problem and guide the customers with a solution. A good way to do this is by conducting training sessions where the agents can use the products and analyze their features.

Apart from that, give them a manual that states the working process of the product or service. It will further help the agents to provide better solutions to the clients. This training will also help your agents suggest products or services to customers before purchasing.

When your agents know your product in and out, they are more confident in resolving customers’ queries about them.

Create a knowledge base

Many customers are looking for a self-service solution as they do not have time to wait for responses or contact a customer service representative. 39% of customers expect companies to have a knowledge base that can solve their problems.

Self-service options help customers to find solutions at their pace and timeframe. To address the customers looking for self-service options, you should create an intuitive knowledge base and answer the most common questions.

Remember to update the knowledge base regularly so that the customers do not face any issues while looking for a resolution. Create a help center section with a good mix of videos, how-to guides, product infographics, and articles to serve the customers effectively.

Avoid making the customers wait

33% of customers are irritated with waiting on hold and having to repeat themselves to various customer sales representatives. So, ensure that highly specialized and skilled agents attend to your customers.

Give enough practice and training to your support staff so they do not have to call their managers or seniors for help. If such a situation arises, offer to call back the customer with a solution instead of making them wait in line.

Whenever possible, answer quickly as customers want near immediate support on call. You can take your time with emails, as the expected response time is within 24 hours. However, you will be expected to respond in less than a minute with live chat. So, your support staff needs to understand the different response rates based on the communication channel.

Understand the brand voice

The customer service executives represent your brand in front of the buyers. So, they need to understand the tone of your brand and consistently follow it through all the channels. Before onboarding a new agent, proper training and guidelines about the brand voice must be provided. It should be included in the customer service standards checklist to come naturally to all your team members.

Always ask questions

Certain customers will be straightforward and tell you everything about their problem or query. However, some specific customers might miss out on certain information or fail to communicate their issues clearly to you.

In such a case, your customer service executive has to ask questions until they haven’t understood the problem clearly. Also, asking more questions will make it easier for them to get back with a solution.

For example, if the customer faces difficulty on your website, ask them the steps they took to get there and tell them to share a screenshot of the page they are facing a problem on.

The more questions you ask, the more information you can extract, and your resolution rate is faster.

Have a set of answers

These come in handy when customers expect quick responses at odd hours. Have a list of canned answers for simple or general queries, as they will save you a lot of time and effort.

Before creating these answers:

  • Evaluate the standard and repetitive questions your service team handles.
  • Seek help from your support staff as they can collate a list of customers’ common problems.
  • Create responses and share them with all your executives.

Customer representatives can use these answers while tackling buyers on live chats. Alternatively, you can save the responses in the customer service tool for reference.

Although ask your representatives to personalize and send the responses, so they do not look scripted and feel natural.

Keep a watch on your language

This point contributes to the customer service quality assurance checklist. Always use positive language with your customers, making them feel valued and welcomed.

Positive language can also appease an angry customer, so your executives need to be patient and calm. Speaking negatively can affect the brand image and escalate any issue further.

In fact, positive words can affect your customer’s decisions and encourage them to do business with you again.

For example, instead of saying, “We cannot solve your issue for 15 days”, say, “We will give you a solution by the end of 15 days”.

Specify your customer service hours

Customers hate unavailable service agents, and it frustrates them if they have to continue to connect with them endlessly. Instead, clearly specifying your available timings can help to reduce customer churn.

It is not necessary to have a 24×7 customer center available. However, it depends on what you are selling. For example, if you are a third-party travel booking app, you might need 24×7 customer service, but if you are a hosting company, you can choose to have shift timings.

So, add your timings on the website, social media channels, and every marketing material you give. Adding it to a customer service checklist will help you to keep everything in the proper order.

Companies with customers from different time zones can integrate tools like live chat and AI-powered chatbots to be always available.

Focus on building a relationship with customers

Your customers will quickly become brand loyal if you keep them happy and satisfied with your products or services. You can always gain repeat customers by meeting or exceeding their service expectations.

To do that, you will have to build a long-term relationship by adding value to the customer’s journey. Start by delivering excellent service to any issue that they face. Add efforts to make them feel special and try to reward them with gifts or discount coupons.

You must train your service team for the same. Collect the customer’s data on your system. If they contact your service team again, your agents should be able to reply to them with personalized messages.

Answer follow-up questions before they ask.

You will typically run into issues that will undoubtedly have further questions. Do not hold off on answering the follow-up question until the customer asks them. What you can do instead is ask your customer if they have a particular question.

If they say yes, answer it appropriately. This provides the appearance that you prioritize your consumers’ needs and are adept at ensuring their happiness. This also reduces the workload that may arise in the future.

Integrate canned responses

Canned responses are predefined answers to commonly asked questions. These are usually simple questions and often come up in customer support queries. These act as response templates for your customer support agents. Canned responses are generally for pre-sales questions, competitor comparisons, and pricing information.

Providing your customer support agents with canned responses will improve resolution time and support efficiency, boost customer satisfaction and increase customer engagement. To create a good set of canned responses, you should personalize them, organize and categorize them and regularly update them.

Offer personalized customer experiences.

80% of customers claim that if a brand offers personalized experiences, they are more likely to do

business with it. It is valid for every step in the customer journey, so it must also be included in the customer service checklist template.

Ask your customer service representatives to address the clients by their names. Also, ask your customers their preferred method of communication and stick to it while following up and offering resolutions.

At the same time, if a repeated customer reaches out to you with a complaint, offer them a discount on their most purchased item. In this way, you will be able to connect with them better, and the customers will feel special.

Ensure smooth transitions

Train your team to help their fellow teammates. Chances are that a particular customer might speak to 2-3 support executives for different issues. So, it is essential to ensure smooth transitions. Ask your staff to leave notes or add tags to track customer concerns for their teammates. This way, any of your executives will have a complete picture before responding.

Incorporate acting proactively

You are practicing reactive customer service, but do you know what’s better? Proactive customer service! Of course, you don’t have to (and cannot) read minds. It means anticipating the problems your customers may land into.

A good way to implement proactive service is by sending out surveys and understanding your customers’ feelings about your brand. Based on this research, you can conclude and anticipate the problem that may arise after a customer has purchased with you.

Create guidelines to resolve issues swiftly.

It is the most crucial point in the customer service standards checklist. Take some time and create steps for your executives to deal with everyday issues.

Such guidelines will help not only existing agents but also the new ones that you hire. It will enable agents who are confused at any point in time.

The steps will help the team respond confidently, knowing that the company has pre-approved the solution.

Build long-term relationships with customers

Building a long-term relationship with your customers would turn them into loyal brand advocates. Your customers will not mind it if they love your product and service. You must figure out how to add value for customers at each point of their journey.

If you want to have a lasting relationship with your customers, you should:

  • Always try to go above and beyond for your customers.
  • Make an extra effort to make them feel fortunate or distinguished.
  • Make sure you provide excellent service for any problem they have.
  • Provide incentives or rewards for using your brand.

Relationship-building is a long-term objective; thus, your service staff must be educated on it.

Use follow-ups in your customer service strategy.

When you go to a restaurant, and your waiter asks you if you need something else—that’s following up. You should aim to do the same. You do not want to spam your customers with follow-ups but send some whenever needed.

Your customers may not always have the problems you’re suggesting solutions to, but the act of asking it shows that you care. After you’ve resolved a query, you must follow up with questions about feedback or suggestions to avoid any such problems in the future.

Use the right help desk system.

Your help desk system must be good enough to ensure that the team can implement all of the above points. The right help desk system has all the tools and features needed to deliver an excellent customer service experience.

If you’re using your email as a support channel, Keeping is the perfect help desk solution for you. Keeping is designed to convert the good old Gmail. With the collaborative and efficient features that Keeping provides—you will be all set to check every point off your customer service checklist.

Final Words

A customer service checklist is essential for any brand looking to grow and beat the competition. Most customers stop shopping from a brand if they have a terrible customer experience.

So, a checklist helps to define the guidelines and sets a framework for the staff. It allows them to treat each customer similarly and suggest a quicker solution. Usually, a checklist can help a company improve its customer service by responding to queries proactively.

A customer service checklist is an excellent tool for companies serious about offering their clients better customer service.

Sanjana Sankhyan is a freelance writer who specializes in delivering data-driven blog posts for B2B SaaS brands. She helps businesses attract more audience and sales with her writing. If not writing, you’ll find her helping other freelancers improve their work. Find her on LinkedIn or Twitter.

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Core Customer Service Duties & Responsibilities

customer service task list

  • Updated Jan 03, 2024
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customer service task list

As a result, customer support agents have to wear many hats. They are like the face of your company, being on the frontline, always managing the customers. The way they handle, and communicate with the customers, always add major value to the organization as well as the customers. 

There is a saying, “ customer service is not only a department, it’s the job of everyone.” So, at least for the sake of your company, you must define the duties of customer service. 

Sounds fascinating, right? Excellent!

Here’s the comprehensive guide to understanding in detail, the different customer service duties and roles, jobs, and qualifications that exist. 

What is Customer Service?

Customer service is all about providing assistance to existing as well as prospective consumers. The customer support team generally answer all customer queries through live chat, phone calls, emails, voice or video calls, and through social media channels. 

The exact definition of customer service may vary from company to company depending on the manpower and the type of support they are providing. 

Why Customer Service is So Important?

As per a survey done by Salesforce , “89% of consumers tend to make another purchase after experiencing positive customer service.”

Nowadays, you need more than a get idea and capital, to get your business running successfully. From day one, great customer service has to be an integral part of the company’s DNA. 

Customer service created a bridge between the customers and your organization. It helps to make them happy and satisfied customers, thus boosting your sales conversions. With effective customer support , you can easily retrieve the cost of customer acquisition.  The five main reasons why customer service should be important for your business are:

  • Sales conversions
  • Customer retention
  • Chances for upselling and cross-selling
  • Product development
  • Helps to make better decisions for your company

customer service task list

The Basic Duties of Customer Service

Customer support agents deal with the customers on behalf of your company. For providing assistance, they use several customer service channels like live chat, phone & video calls, emails, and, so on. They always try to offer instant assistance and resolve customer issues as soon as possible. 

Customer service duties may vary from company to company depending on the size of the businesses, company requirements, and types of products or offerings they have. Some of the basic customer service duties may include:

  • Replying to customer queries
  • Handling customer complaints
  • Resolving issues as soon as possible
  • Offering instant assistance
  • Troubleshooting all technical issues
  • Monitoring the effectiveness of customer support
  • Arranging training programs for support agents on a regular basis

10 Responsibilities of a Customer Support Agent

What are the duties of a customer service agent look like? Well, a quick look at any customer service representative job description would give a fair bit of an idea. But I have mentioned below the 10 major duties of customer service agents ranging from the frontline and technical support representatives to the customer service managers of the company. 

1. Replying to Product, Service, or Company-Related Queries

Replying to all product or company-related questions is one of the key responsibilities of a customer service agent. So, the agents have to be updated and knowledgeable enough before handling such queries. 

Wrong information may lead to customer dissatisfaction and harm the company’s reputation. Knowing everything about the company and its services is crucial but they have to master it.   

2. Resolving and Troubleshooting Technical Issues

For SaaS or tech organizations, resolving product-related issues, troubleshooting technical problems of customers, and offering technical assistance are some of the important duties of the help desk customer service team. It includes offering support for setting up, customization, upgradation, and maintenance of the service or product.

 For such jobs, the team should possess deep knowledge of the product offerings and some hard skills. 

Apart from assisting customers, many times, the help desk support representatives also closely work with the development team to ensure the optimization of service and improved user experience. 

3. Processing Different Transactions & Orders from Customers

Handling all the orders and transactions is one of the most crucial responsibilities of a customer support executive. It also includes the cancellation of orders, returns, and product exchanges. They need to make sure that all the incoming orders and transactions are rightly processed efficiently and on time. 

Generally, an entry-level customer support agent handles all the order processing-related stuff. 

4. Providing Information About Special Offerings

Delivering information about the latest product offerings also comes under the umbrella of a customer service specialist. In some ways, they are also a part of the sales team you can say. 

However, their basic job is to help customers with issues related to your company, products, or services. They are responsible to offer a positive experience and get you some satisfied and happy customers. 

customer service task list

5. Offering Proactive Assistance to the Customers

“Always be proactive rather than reactive.”

This is the mantra that you should follow to make your customer service a great success. Customers nowadays want more personalized and proactive service from companies. So, those days are gone, when support agents used to wait for customers to poke them whenever they need some sort of assistance. 

Proactive outreach has become a major responsibility of the support team. Now they are expected to reach the customers proactively and offer more personalized assistance. 

Several customer support tools are available in the market which can help your support team to initiate a conversation with the customers proactively. REVE Chat is one of them.

 As one of the best customer support solutions, REVE Chat’s ‘Proactive Chat’ feature allows the support agent to offer instant assistance to the customers much before they even ask for it. 

You can use the proactive approach in some of the below-mentioned scenarios:

  • Informing your customers about the latest product launch or upgrades
  • Asking for customer feedback
  • Assisting customers on various social media channels

6. Dealing with Customer Complaints

Handling unhappy customers is one of the toughest duties of many of your customer service specialists. Basically, for the front-line support agents, being the first point of contact is a real critical job.

The customers are already angry, and some may shout at them madly. But agents should handle such situations tactfully because of several reasons. One, once dissatisfied, chances are most of the customers will never come back to you for doing business. Secondly, it will hamper your company’s reputation. 

Don’t forget, if customers can say good things about you, they can say completely opposite too. So, by any chance, they have to solve their issues as soon as possible. 

To handle such situations, your customer service team needs to be trained in a varied range of customer service skills like how to be polite and soft-spoken, good listener, patient, empathetic, good communication skills, keeping calm, and so on.

7. Asking for Customer Feedback

Apart from assisting customers, getting feedback from them is also one of the important customer service duties. Collecting and analyzing the customer feedback is necessary for your company and there are several ways to automate the whole process. 

The customer service team can directly engage with the customers for getting their feedback regarding the products, or during live chat sessions, they can ask customers to rate the service. After collecting feedback, they need to analyze and take notes of the suggestions if required, on what are the areas of further improvement. 

Your customer service team will work directly with the marketing team for analyzing the feedback reports. 

8. Handing the Customer Reviews

Whenever we plan to buy something, we always search for online reviews to understand what other people think of that specific product or service. No doubt reviews influence the purchase decision. If we get some good reviews, we tend to think positively about that product.  

Customers are also no exception. Customers use several platforms like social media channels or various review websites to give their views. Responding to those product reviews is very important and has become an important duty of customer service. 

So, the support team should thank the customers for their good reviews and should take the negative reviews very seriously. They should contact the unhappy customers to understand what went wrong and try to resolve the issues as soon as possible. 

Don’t forget that a large audience is watching the negative reviews and it will not take much time to spread the bad words. Therefore, your support team should know how to handle unpleasant reviews and turn those into positive experiences.  

9. Tracking Customer Service Metrics & Analytics

Monitoring all the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and analytics are one of the most important customer service duties to discuss. Those KPIs consist of

  • NPS (Net promoter Score) to check how frequently customers are recommending your company or service to others.
  • CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) to measure customer satisfaction.
  • FCR (The First Contact Resolution Score) to measure the number of cases resolved at the very first attempt.
  • ART (The Average Resolution Time) to observe how long on average the support agents take to solve the customer issues.

Apart from these metrics, several customer service solutions also provide information about your support representatives as well as the customers. 

For example, as a live chat software, REVE Chat offers analytics and reports related to the support team where we can get information like the total number of handled chats, missed chats, chat transfers and offline messages, the login and logout times of agents to evaluate how they are performing.

Apart from that, REVE Chat also offers information about the customers who are on your website or mobile application like their geographic locations, pages they are eyeing, used browsers, etc to make your proactive chat invitations much more personalized. 

10. Developing Well Documented Knowledgebase

Because of handling customers regularly, the customer service team is one of the most knowledgeable teams in your company. They actually know the ins and outs of the organization. 

So, from their knowledge, they develop several useful documents for the customers. It may include installation manuals, FAQs, articles, blogs, troubleshooting documentaries, etc. 

All these together allow customers to find information by themselves leading to providing a good customer experience in a much more efficient way.

customer service task list

How to Become the Best Customer Support Agent

To become the best customer service agent , you need to have a problem-solving mindset. You need to be patient, warm, empathetic, and a great teacher for others. Let me give you some tips here:

customer service task list

Be Empathetic with Your Customers

First make them comfortable with you so that they can easily share their concerns with you. It will help you to resolve the issues sooner and get good ratings from them.

Know Your Products in Detail

A thorough product knowledge is very important to provide the right information to your customers. You can also help them to choose the right product or service as per their requirements. Make sure you are also up to date about product upgrades, new launches, discounts, etc.

Always Respect Your Customers

No matter how upset they are, always be professional with them. If you can handle them with respect, you will also get the same in return. Apart from that, resolving their issues will be much easier.

You Must Have Great Communication Skills

You need to communicate with the customers on a regular basis. With good communication skills, you can make those interactions much more professional and effective which helps to create a positive impact on the customers. Be it live chat, emails or phone calls, no matter what the communication channel is, you have to make it professional.

Develop a Great Relationship with the Customer

Being a customer support agent, you need to help your company to build good relationships with the customers. So, relationship- building techniques are mandatory for support agents. It allows them to connect with the customers in a better way. 

Be a Multi-Tasker

Nearly most of the customer service agents need some sort of multi-tasking skills. They often talk to customers over phone calls or live chat sessions, answer several queries, process orders and payments, ensuring that the consumers are happy and they do all these together. So, being a multi-tasker, they need to handle all the work successfully thus diverting their attention from one job to another. 

The Different Customer Service Roles in the Company

Some organizations differentiate customer support from customer service, some don’t. This depends on how big your company is. Smaller businesses, generally combine the different roles of customer service with customer support. 

Mostly, the basic responsibilities of these two are the same. Sometimes, we use these different terminologies to reflect the different values of different companies. 

Let’s look into the different job roles for customer service that companies offer:

Customer Service Agent

 A customer service agent is the face of the company. He works on the front line and directly handles the customers. The job of the customer service agents is basically much more proactive rather than reactive. They proactively engage with the customers to make them aware of the latest product launches, recent updates, upcoming sales, or company-related news.

The total number of handled calls, chats, or emails for them is pre-defined on per day basis.

Remote Customer Support Agent

These remote customer support agents do the same duties as CSRs but virtually. They are highly skilled to manage not only the customers but also other colleagues and managers. 

They also have the duties of troubleshooting technical issues and replying to customer issues.

Customer Support Specialist

This position requires much more than only replying to customer queries. Apart from that, they need some kind of managerial and leadership skills as chances are sometimes they may need to fit into the roles of support managers or supervisors.

Customer  Service Analyst

They generally handle different technical issues related to software, hardware, or different applications. Instead of waiting for customers to poke them for assistance, they deliberately reach out to them for offering tips or solutions much before they ask for help. 

To become successful in this domain, one needs to have a degree in computer science or information technology and a strong educational background.

Customer Service Supervisor

Supervisors generally manage and control the juniors or a smaller part of the whole customer support department. They are mentored by a support manager. They also handle customer queries at different levels.

Excellent communication and leadership skills are really important to apply for this position.

Customer Support Manager

Managers can be called the anchor of the whole customer support department. Their key responsibilities include supervising, training, and tracking progress of the whole support team.

They mostly are the decision makers for customer complaints or any other employee-related issues. They have to be the best mentors and communicators.

It’s Time to Take Action!

Now, you have a better understanding of the different roles and duties that the customer service specialist team plays in your organization. It must be looking a lot, well actually it is! All these different duties and positions can be divided through out your customer service team. 

For building the best support team, you need to invest. The returns are huge: you will get satisfied and happy customers who will come back to again for doing business, the employees will feel appreciated and valued and all these together will give you higher sales conversions and positive brand recognition. 

Providing the best customer support and effective customer engagement are the two most important objectives of your company. Here at REVE Chat, we help you to achieve your goals. Want to give it a try? Start your FREE TRIAL today!

Start a 14-day free trial, no credit card required!

Suvashree Bhattacharya

Suvashree Bhattacharya

Suvashree Bhattacharya is a researcher, blogger, and author in the domain of customer experience, omnichannel communication, and conversational AI. Serving as a content marketing strategist at REVE Chat, she develops contextual and interesting content for customers from different industries and segments like customer service, customer satisfaction, engagement, messaging platforms, etc. Passionate about writing and designing, she pours her heart out in writeups that are detailed, interesting, engaging, and more importantly cater to the requirements of the targeted audience. Her interests include reading, painting, and traveling.

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Customer Service Checklist

  • By Campbell Rodriguez on Dec 29, 2011

Customer Service Checklist

  • Customer Communication
  • Effectively communicate your brand and service expectations.
  • Use age-appropriate greetings.
  • Service all customers the same regardless of their age or appearance.
  • Interact well with customers.
  • Demonstrate competence.
  • Have good listening skills.
  • Make suggestions based on customer comments.
  • Make eye contact with customers.
  • Appear engaged and interested in what the customer is telling them.
  • Shake hands when meeting the customer.
  • Respond to customer e-mails, telephone queries and complaints.
  • Minimize any wait time.
  • Ensure a pleasant and efficient treating of customers.
  • Learn to read body language to see if a customer could use some help.
  • Never discuss customers in front of other customers.
  • Product Knowledge
  • Confidently explain the company's products and services.
  • Able to explain the basic components of each product, features and benefits.
  • Understand how to match specific products and services with particular customer needs.
  • Confronting Conflict
  • Act within the chain of command in conflict situations
  • Understand who can authorize actions or changes.
  • Keep threir cool and calm during conflict situation.
  • Act to diffuse or alleviate the situation.
  • Resolve customer service issues in a fair and equitable manner.
  • Keep emotions in check.
  • Stay polite at all times.
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  • 26 uses today

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22 Customer Service Skills For a Positive Customer Experience

If you work with customers, you need these 22 customer service skills to help create a memorable customer experience.

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Train and onboard your new customer support hires with this downloadable template.

customer service skills

Updated: 01/10/23

Published: 01/10/23

A word to the wise: The customer is in control. Not most of the time or half the time — always .

For those in the customer success or customer service industry, this notion should shape every interaction we have with the customer, both pre- and post-sale. But there's more to it than that. There are a handful of critical customer service skills and sentiments that should inform the way we interact with our customers .

→ Download Now: How to Be a Great Customer Support Rep

Depending on your product or service, these must-have skills may vary a bit — in some cases, some skills will come in handy more often than others. But if you can master the nine we've outlined below, we can promise you'll be better for it.

Customer Service Skills

Customer Service Areas

What are good customer service skills?

  • Problem Solving
  • Flexibility
  • Resourcefulness
  • Positive Mindset
  • Time Management
  • Sense of Urgency
  • Product and Industry Knowledge
  • Active Listening
  • Consistency
  • Accountability
  • Perseverance
  • Attentiveness
  • Persuasiveness
  • Clear Verbal Communication
  • Clear Written Communication
  • Desire to Improve

1. Patience

At its core, having patience means being able to regulate your own thoughts and emotions — even in times of high stress or delay. For folks in the customer success industry, patience is a necessary skill.

Unfortunately. in a world fueled by technology and instant gratification, patience is becoming a bit of a dying art. Both customers and those serving them are accustomed to expediting nearly everything they do, making quick decisions in the process. But this isn't always the right approach.

By approaching customer interactions with a relaxed, thoughtful demeanor, you'll find that it's easier to overcome customer obstacles without compromising the quality of service — and keeping your customers happy in the process.

2. Problem Solving

The primary role of service teams is to solve for the customer, so it’s no surprise that problem-solving is high on our list. Customers reach out to service teams for assistance and it is up to us to provide solutions.

This will require a bit of intuitiveness on your part to figure out what customers need. For example, if they contact you about adding a new employee to their account, you may anticipate providing onboarding assistance to get their new hire up to speed with how to use your product or service.

3. Flexibility

In some cases, process is necessary. But more often than not, too many processes can have an adverse effect on your customer conversations. When we put process before people, we lose sight of the end goal: helping the customer achieve their desired outcome .

If you want to thrive in a customer success role, learning to be flexible will help you hold your own — especially when faced with "on-the-ground" situations and decisions. Rather than viewing customer success as a straight and narrow path, consider all of the ways in which you can help a customer, and choose the path that best suits their unique needs.

4. Resourcefulness

Speaking of flexibility, customers may contact you with issues that may not have a simple solution. For those challenges, it’s important to be resourceful.

Author Todd Dewett explains “It's a skill you have to have because you know what? You'll never have enough time, the perfect skills on your team, or a big enough budget.”

In this field, the probability is high that you’ll be tasked with coming up with a creative solution to accommodate customer needs.

When a customer reaches out to your company for support or advice, they want you to help them. They also want to feel heard in the process.

Some simple ways to prove that you're on their side and committed to helping them include celebrating their successes or showing genuine concern when things aren't going to plan. These small considerations can make a world of a difference when it comes to creating a positive experience across the board.

Consciously remind yourself how you would want to be treated if you were in the customer's shoes. In most cases, this level of mutual understanding can help to put the customer at ease and set the tone for a more productive conversation, despite any frustrations they are experiencing.

6. Positive Mindset

In addition to having empathy, it’s important to always remain positive when interacting with customers and your larger team. Your customer may be frustrated when they first contact you, but your tone and mindset can turn their experience around for the better.

When interactions become tense, don’t take it personally. Remember that the core function of your role is to help and use that as your North Star.

7. Resilience

Another trait that will serve service reps well is resilience. Being on the front lines of customer interactions requires a thick skin. Otherwise, one negative interaction can tank your whole day.

Learn to let go, and approach each new interaction as an opportunity to better serve your customers and retain their loyalty.

8. Proactive

One way to prevent future obstacles is to be proactive. Sometimes you can anticipate a customer’s needs and address any potential issues. Take this correspondence with Semrush for example. I had just signed up for an account and their service rep reached out to answer any questions I may have.

Customer Service Skills: Proactive

What we like:

Instead of waiting until I had hiccups, Semrush reached out with materials to help me through the onboarding process and familiarize myself with the tool. This not only provided a positive interaction but saved me time as I didn’t have to struggle to figure everything out on my own.

9. Efficiency

At the end of the day, customers are looking for one thing: reliable, efficient service. Bear in mind that this doesn't mean grabbing at the quick-fix approach just to get the job done faster. (Remember our previous mention of patience?)

Efficiency in customer interactions is all about determining the most effective systems for helping them arrive at their desired outcome. It requires a careful balance of timeliness and commitment to satisfaction.

One of the best ways to streamline your interactions is to provide prompt, productive service. This involves taking the time to know your product and/or industry inside and out, which leads us to our next point.

10. Time Management

Properly managing your time as a service rep is key to your success and sanity. You may be dealing with hundreds of help tickets per week, interacting with several clients each day. Without proper time management, your workday can become an overwhelming mix of frustration and dread.

Develop a routine that helps you stick to a schedule and allows you to tackle your client’s needs in order of urgency.

11. Sense of Urgency

As a service rep, not only are you tasked with problem-solving, but you must do it quickly. Customers want to know that you are actively trying to remedy their issues.

However, every obstacle is not always a quick fix. To avoid adding to client frustration, it’s important to set timeline expectations. If a problem is going to take a few days rather than a few minutes, communicate that to the client. If possible, give them a workaround option until you can fully resolve it. That way you buy yourself some time while allowing them to continue business with little interruption.

Either way, set timeline expectations at the start, so everyone is on the same page and continue to update clients on progress.

12. Product and Industry Knowledge

Deep-seated product and industry knowledge is perhaps one of the most valuable skills for a customer service or customer success manager to lean into. Gaining and continuously expanding your understanding of the product your servicing affords you the confidence you need to carry out customer interactions with ease and exactness.

A strong personal knowledge base also translates into increased professionalism, enthusiasm, and efficiency. It can function as a competitive advantage and a signal to customers that you're taking their business seriously.

13. Active Listening

Before you help, you need to listen. As the listener, it's your job to gather all of the information you need about a customer's situation to properly uncover and surface a solution.

But active listeners don't only pay close attention to what's being said — they also tune into what's not being said. Oftentimes, being conscious of both will help you piece together a response that is both informed and on-point.

If you really want to prove that you're hearing them, restate their problem in their own words. This exercise forces you to remain engaged and helps to let the customer know you're really committed to hearing them out.

14. Honesty

It sounds cliche, but when it comes to customer interactions, honesty is the best policy. While we don’t want to let customers down, we also don’t want to mislead them. If there is a problem or delay in service, it’s best to just communicate that and apologize for the inconvenience.

During the pandemic, customers experienced all sorts of shipping delays on products they ordered. The boots I had ordered from Modern Vice were way past their shipping window so I inquired about the hold-up.

Customer Service Skills: Honesty

Modern Vice was honest about the delay and their capacity to handle orders. Sure, I was bummed, but I appreciated their transparency.

15. Consistency

Consistent delivery is important when it comes to a customer's perception of service.

With this idea in mind, you should be thinking about providing a familiar sentiment across every touchpoint you have with customers — one that is reflective of your brand's core values and commitment to customer success.

Remember, it's much easier to work on nailing this undeviating experience upfront, as correcting inconsistency issues after the fact can be both costly and time-consuming.

16. Accountability

When you're tasked with assisting a customer, whether it is a transactional support issue or a long-term business relationship, their problems with your product or service become your problems. You own the issues and it's your job to solve them in an informed and timely fashion.

This type of responsibility requires a great deal of accountability — in other words, you need to not only own your actions, but also their implications.

Customer Service Skills: Accountability

Manners took responsibility for sending a damaged product and took steps to make it right. I couldn’t return the item since they didn’t offer international returns at the time, but they gave me a partial refund and a discount to use on future purchases.

Without clear accountability, execution falls flat. And a delay in your response time directly influences a customer's perception of your service quality.

To avoid this, accept responsibility and act accordingly.

17. Perseverance

In a people-facing role, it's easy to feel discouraged and frustrated when you're regularly being knocked down by difficult interactions. Luckily, it's in your control to determine how you respond.

According to Carol Dweck , you can choose to have one of two mindsets:

  • A fixed mindset: Operating under the notion that your abilities, talent, and intelligence are fixed traits that cannot be expanded or strengthened.
  • A growth mindset: Viewing your abilities, talents, and intelligence as traits that you're in control of — traits that you can develop and improve.

18. Attentiveness

While chances are you won’t have a ton of free time as a service rep, providing clients with a bit of attentiveness goes a long way. Take this note from my local spin studio, BYKLYN.

customer service skills example: attentiveness

They checked up on me before the end of my trial period just to see how I was enjoying the classes and address any issues I may have. This was also an excellent opportunity to join as a monthly member. The personal touch was appreciated.

19. Persuasiveness

Sometimes you may not be contacted to troubleshoot a problem at all, and instead will be contacted by potential customers on the fence about purchasing your product.

You don’t want to turn them away by saying the wrong thing. For example, if a customer inquires about a program you are offering that no longer has availability you could say “Sorry, the class is full and we’re not accepting new signups at this time.”

A better, more persuasive option would be “Slots/seats will be available next week, and I can add you to the waitlist so you’ll be notified as soon as spots are available.”

This still communicates that space is currently unavailable like the first option, but instead focuses on when the client can sign up rather than simply telling them enrollment is closed.

20. Clear Verbal Communication

However, whatever, and whenever you're communicating to customers, clear communication is key. Both the words you use and the intention behind them matter. Customers can pick up on insincere, rushed interactions — even over the phone or live chat.

When speaking with customers, try the "Problem, Solution, Benefit" framework. Repeat the customer's problem back to them to confirm you heard it correctly and to show your understanding. Share the solution along with the actions the customer can take to solve the problem. Explain the benefit of the solution to solve the problem as well as to avoid future problems and inconveniences.

Here's an example:

  • Problem: "I'm sorry to hear that your payment method isn't working on our website."
  • Solution: "To resolve this, log into your account and go to Profile > Settings > Payments and re-input your card number. Be sure to include the expiration date and mark the card as your preferred payment."
  • Benefit: "This will ensure your payment method is saved so that all future purchases will be easy and quick!"

21. Clear Written Communication

As mentioned above, both what you say and how you say it can greatly impact customer interactions. This is even more important with written communication like email, where it’s difficult to discern tone.

If troubleshooting an issue over email, clearly communicate steps using bulleted or numbered lists and use screenshots whenever possible. Visual aids are an excellent tool to help users navigate your site and cut down on mistakes.

22. Desire to Improve

The service team’s work is never done. To excel in this role, you’ll need to continuously hone your skills and increase efficiency. You’ll never stop learning.

  • Customer Service Channels
  • Customer Retention

While the above customer service skills address specific ways you may interact with customers, these customer service areas address the larger "themes" you may see in your role (or perhaps how your customer service team is organized).

1. Customer Service Channel Mastery

Nowadays, customer service professionals use a myriad of tools. While the above skills apply to any and all customer interactions, some channels may require different skills and best practices.

For example, the synchronicity of a phone conversation can help solve certain problems whereas the asynchronous nature of email or social media may lend itself better to other issues. Moreover, the different channel interfaces require different language, tone of voice, and levels of explanation.

For example, it's easier to demonstrate a solution over email, where you can include screenshots and links. On the other hand, a phone call may make it easier to chat through an issue with a customer who may not need a step-by-step fix.

Customer service channel mastery is an important customer service area to train and hone.

2. Customer Service Management

Customer service management requires some different skills than working directly with customers. Management should create processes on which representatives (and customers) can rely.

This customer service area should focus on training, feedback, process development, onboarding, product training, meetings, and team alignment.

Customer service management is also responsible for the quality of service — ensuring all representatives serve customers with accurate, relevant, timely information. This can be improved through new guidelines and standards.

3. Customer Retention

Retaining customers is less expensive and more impactful than continuously attracting new ones. The customer journey shouldn't cease when a sale is made — delight is an important component of the flywheel . Not only does it keep customers around, but it also incentivizes word-of-mouth marketing, which can bring in more new revenue than your own marketing.

Customer service is at the heart of customer retention. Encourage your team to solve for the long game of customer service — keeping your customers satisfied ... and keeping them, period.

Master These Customer Service Skills and Areas

By choosing to adopt a growth mindset, you give yourself permission to persevere through challenges and come out stronger on the other end.

If you're looking to build your career in a customer-facing role, prioritize these customer service areas and skills. Your customers will thank you!

Editor's note: This post was originally published in February 2021 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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The 19 Best Customer Service Tools for Every Support Team

Jesse Short

Customer support has become a multifaceted discipline.

Not only are support professionals tasked with interacting directly with customers, they’re also creating self-service content, sending out large-scale communications, and helping customers connect with one another to create peer-to-peer knowledge sharing communities.

Managing all those different responsibilities is made much easier and more efficient with access to the right tools and resources. But with all the possibilities, it can be hard to know where to start when searching for your support stack.

To help make things a little easier, we’ve put together a list of 19 customer service tools to help you create the best support experience possible. Whether you’re just starting out or are a seasoned pro, there’s something on this list that can help improve your performance.

What are the different types of customer service tools?

Before we dive into the list, let’s take a quick look at the types of tools that customer support teams tend to use on a regular basis.

Ticketing system/help desk

Ticketing systems or help desks are software platforms used by support teams to communicate with customers and track incoming requests. They typically bring multiple channels into one shared inbox that can be accessed by the entire team.

The following channels are often managed through a single help desk, though stand-alone products for specific channels also exist:

Email: Email is good for non-urgent issues or for requests that may require follow-up.

Phone: Phone support is great for issues that need to be handled in real time or for requests that are delicate and can benefit from a more personalized interaction. 

Live chat: Chat lends itself to issues that can be resolved quickly without a lot of back and forth.

Social media: Some help desks support the management of customer requests placed on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Stand-alone social media support platforms will also offer the ability to manage and schedule content.

Knowledge base

A knowledge base is a collection of useful information — documentation, how-tos, answers to FAQs, etc. — that make it easy for people to find answers to their problems without needing to ask for help. 

Companies use knowledge bases both internally and externally, and knowledge base software is often included as part of a help desk, but stand-alone tools exist as well.

Community forums

Great for companies with an avid online fan base, community forums give customers a place to chat. Beyond general discussion, forums offer the opportunity for customers to crowdsource answers to any issues they may be experiencing.

Incident management

When outages occur, it’s important to find a way to provide regular status updates to your customers. Incident management software provides features like an online portal where people can check the status of your services and get up-to-date info when an issue has occurred.

Video and image capture software

While most operating systems come with a native way to capture screenshots or create a screen recording, dedicated software comes with features that make your images and videos easier to share, store, and track.

Video hosting

Though text-based help articles are great, adding video to your knowledge base can make your content more accessible. Since videos can take up a lot of storage space, you will need to pick a hosting platform. This can be something free, like YouTube, or teams may choose a paid platform that comes with extra features like analytics and editing capabilities.

Bug reporting

When customers write in with an issue that turns out to be a software bug, you’ll need to have a way to escalate them to the correct team for review and resolution. Most development teams will have their own tracking system in place, so you’ll just need to make sure that members of your support team have access to the software. You may also want to investigate whether your development team’s tool can integrate with your help desk.

Presentation tools

To make sure that the customer voice is never lost in the shuffle, it’s important for support teams to give regular cross-company updates. This process is made easier with good presentation software that will allow you to create well-designed decks quickly.

Video conferencing

Whether you’re walking a customer through your product’s onboarding process or hopping on a call with teammates to troubleshoot a bug, video conferencing software is a must for customer service teams. Look for software that provides the ability to screen share and record meetings for those who can’t attend.

The 19 best customer service tools for every support team

Ready to get started? Here are 19 tools that are guaranteed to help your team deliver amazing customer support.

HubSpot Service Hub

Salesforce Service Cloud

Sprout Social

KnowledgeOwl

Bettermode (formerly Tribe)

Google Workspace

1. Help Scout

Best customer service tool for small businesses.

Since customer support is a multifaceted discipline, it’s helpful to have a multifaceted tool. Help Scout gives you access to a shared inbox , knowledge base software , live chat , and more. It’s a complete customer service platform.

Features like workflows and saved replies help save your team time by automating manual tasks. Self-service tools like Beacon empower customers to find answers on their own and reduce support volumes for your team.

Robust reporting gives insight into the areas where you’re excelling — and where you have room for improvement — all adding up to a better overall customer and agent experience.

Price: Free trial available. Plans start at $20/user per month.

Try the customer support platform your team and customers will love

Teams using Help Scout are set up in minutes, twice as productive, and save up to 80% in annual support costs. Start a free trial to see what it can do for you.

Try the customer support platform your team and customers will love

2. LiveAgent

Best customer service tool for live chat.

screenshot of liveagent's customer service software

As their name suggests, LiveAgent started out with a focus on live support channels — primarily chat. Over the years they’ve developed more tools, creating a multi-channel customer support product.

They have an omnichannel inbox where you can see customer conversations from a plethora of channels. If you take a high volume of calls, you’re able to set up an IVR system. They also offer a number of reporting options to better understand team performance and some automations and integrations to improve productivity.

One thing to note is that many of the features mentioned above aren’t available on their more basic plans.

Price: Free trial available. Plans start at $15/agent per month.

3. HubSpot Service Hub

Best free customer service tool.

HubSpot Service Hub Screenshot

HubSpot is well known in marketing and sales circles for its CRM and other software tools. In the last few years, they’ve expanded their offering to include customer service software called HubSpot Service Hub.

Service Hub includes a number of basic customer service tools like a shared inbox, a knowledge base builder, and live chat software. You also get access to some collaboration tools like internal notes and some basic automation capabilities.

It’s most powerful if you’re using other HubSpot products, as it integrates seamlessly with the rest of their software offerings. 

Price: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $45 per month (includes two users).

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11 Best HubSpot Alternatives for Support, CRM, and Marketing

Best customer service tool for enterprise companies that provide phone support.

zendesk

Zendesk’s support offering is split into two general plan types: foundational support and Zendesk suite. The foundational support plans only include a shared inbox and some basic collaboration tools, but the suite plans support additional channels like voice, live chat, and self-service.

While email and live chat support are pretty common amongst help desks, voice is often handled through a third-party tool. Zendesk Talk is built right into the agent workspace and allows agents to place calls directly from a ticket. The system is capable of recording calls and documenting the recordings and transcripts within a ticket for later review. Depending on the plan, teams can also utilize IVR features to route calls to specific agents or let customers request a callback.

In addition to voice support, Zendesk’s suite plans include features such as automation capabilities, productivity tools like internal notes, and even more advanced features like a chatbot. Zendesk’s functionality is quite impressive; however, given the complexity of implementation, it’s best suited for enterprise companies.

Price: Free trial available. Suite plans start at $49/agent per month.

The 13 Best Zendesk Alternatives for 2024

The 13 Best Zendesk Alternatives for 2024

5. salesforce service cloud.

Best customer service tool for teams that use Salesforce.

Salesforce Service Cloud Screenshot

Similar to HubSpot, Salesforce is best known for its CRM product. However, they have offered different iterations of customer service software for quite some time. Service Cloud is their current offering, and it’s an omnichannel support tool.

You’re able to handle email, phone, and chat requests all within the platform. You can also automate certain manual tasks with AI-powered workflows, like conversation routing to save your team time. If you’re using another Salesforce product, you’re able to see that information in Service Cloud and even update records directly.

Again, similar to HubSpot, the true value of Service Cloud is being able to connect with the rest of your Salesforce tools. 

Price: Free trial available. Plans start at $25/user per month.

Buyer's Guide to Choosing the Right Customer Support Tool

Buyer's Guide to Choosing the Right Customer Support Tool

6. sprout social.

Best social media customer service tool.

Product Screenshot: Sprout Social

Some companies have a decent amount of support requests coming through social media channels. If that’s you, then a dedicated social media tool might make sense.

With Sprout Social, you can manage customer requests from all your social channels in one place. For teams with dedicated support social profiles, Sprout lets you schedule content so that you don’t have to log into each platform to post.

Price: Free trial available. Plans start at $249 per month.

Managing Social Media Customer Service: Strategies and Tips

Managing Social Media Customer Service: Strategies and Tips

7. knowledgeowl.

Best customer service tool for teams that need a stand-alone knowledge base. 

If your company only needs a knowledge base, then a stand-alone tool like KnowledgeOwl could be a helpful addition to your tech stack. The platform lets teams create customizable knowledge bases with the help of a WYSIWYG editor. 

The tool is equipped with user roles and permissions, making it appropriate for internal or external use. For those interested in proactive support, you can allow users access to articles throughout your website or application using the software’s contextual help widget. The widget also includes a contact form for moments when your customers require additional help.

A few other notable features of KnowledgeOwl are its versioning, export, and file hosting abilities. These features are often missing from knowledge base software included with help desks, or if they are available, they come at a premium cost.

Price: Free trial available. Plans start at $79 per month.

How to Create and Organize a Knowledge Base

How to Create and Organize a Knowledge Base

8. bettermode (formerly tribe).

Best customer service tool for building an online community.

Product Screenshot: Bettermode (formerly Tribe)

Bettermode (formerly Tribe) is a tool that helps you empower peer-to-peer knowledge sharing by creating your very own online community. Basically, you’re creating a message board of sorts where customers can post and respond to each others’ inquiries.

As anyone working in support knows, there are certain customers who are almost as well-versed in your product as you are, making them an incredible resource. With a tool like Bettermode, customers get access to that resource, giving them another avenue to get assistance when they need it most.

The price point for Bettermode can be pretty steep for smaller businesses, but it might be useful for larger companies whose online community requires a robust platform.

Price: Plans start at $599 per month.

9. Forumbee

Best customer service tool for teams focused on self-service. 

Product Screenshot: Forumbee

If your company’s support strategy is centered around self-service, ForumBee is an interesting tool to look into. The platform offers both community forums and knowledge base capabilities, giving your customers the opportunity to quickly access important information on their own, while still offering a space for direct communication with your company and other customers.

The software comes with event calendars, user profiles, private messaging, integrations, and reporting dashboards to help you monitor user engagement.

Given that Forumbee supports both public and private implementations of their product, the platform could also be an ideal choice for creating an internal knowledge base and community for employees.

Price: Free trial available. Plans start at $250 per month.

10. Statuspage

Best customer service tool for incident communication.

Sometimes there’s a large-scale issue that requires quick communication to a lot of customers. With StatusPage, you’re able to update your status easily and efficiently.

You can provide updates on your product as a whole or by individual feature. Customers can also see what your average uptime is, as well as see past incidents to further improve confidence in your team and product.

Price: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $29 per month.

Communicating With Customers During a System Outage

Communicating With Customers During a System Outage

11. cloudapp.

Best customer service tool for capturing screenshots and screencasts.

Including images in a response can bring an additional level of clarity that words alone often can’t. A tool like CloudApp allows you to take high-quality screenshots and screencasts to provide that additional context to your customers.

You’re also able to mark up screenshots with text and images to provide further clarity. Each image or video generates a link, meaning you no longer have to upload files to customer conversations, making the whole process that much faster.

They also have an easy-to-use GIF maker to create short loop videos for instances when you need more than a picture.

Price: Free plan available. Team plans start at $8/user per month.

Best customer service tool for video walkthroughs.

With Loom, you can create videos that are embedded onto other screens to provide crystal-clear support for complex issues. You can navigate around the screen during the video, which makes it easy to point out exactly where a customer may need to look to solve a problem.

A link is created for each video, which makes sharing quick and painless. You can also see when and how much of your video someone has viewed, both of which can be useful in a support interaction.

Price: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $12.50/creator per month.

Best customer service tool for adding video to your knowledge base.

You can think of Wistia as a supercharged YouTube but with some specific benefits for support . Many businesses — ourselves included — use Wistia to add video content to knowledge base articles . It’s great because, similar to Loom, you’re able to get analytics like total views and length of time someone watched a video.

Those insights can tip you off to how effective your content is. You’re also able to add chapters to let viewers easily navigate to the parts of your video most relevant to them, saving them time and energy, all while delivering the information they need most.

Price: Free trial available. Plans start at $19 per month.

Best internal customer service tool.

Product Screenshot: Slack

As remote work and distributed teams have become more common, so has the need for a tool that allows asynchronous communication. The tool of choice for many companies is Slack.

With Slack, you’re able to exchange messages one-to-one or in group channels that people choose to join. It’s a great way to cut down on the number of emails you send and receive. Outside of general communication, Slack is a great place for companies to manage IT and other internal support requests.

Beyond internal communication, many support platforms like Help Scout and Zendesk integrate with Slack. Slack channels can receive notifications when a conversation is created, updated, replied to, or closed. This can be especially helpful for smaller teams where folks outside of customer support may need visibility into customer communications.

Price: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $7.25/user per month.

The 6 Best Remote Collaboration Tools for Customer Service Teams

The 6 Best Remote Collaboration Tools for Customer Service Teams

Best customer service tool for creating an internal knowledge base.

We know how powerful a good knowledge base can be for customers, so why not create something similar for internal use? Slab is a tool designed to help companies centralize their knowledge. 

It’s great for information like org charts, employee handbooks, and general contact information. Teams can also store notes from meetings, record operating procedures, and even use it as a project management tool. Slab lets you create checklists and assign tasks to project collaborators, and it allows teams to work on the same document simultaneously.

Slab’s pricing is quite reasonable compared to other internal knowledge base solutions. They offer a free plan for up to 10 users, which, despite being limited in features, still might be a good choice for smaller teams.

Price: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $6.67/user per month.

Best customer service tool for video conferencing.

Though asynchronous communication has its upsides, some conversations need to happen in real time, and Zoom is a great tool for those occasions. You can do voice-only or video calls, and Zoom works equally well for one-to-one and group chats.

We like to use Zoom for one-on-ones and team meetings. We also use it for company meetings and webinars since lots of people can dial into a call without degrading the quality. Further, you can record meetings, so if someone can’t attend live, they’re able to get caught up on their own time.

Price: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $149.90/user per year.

Best customer service tool for presentations.

You can think of Pitch as a super-charged, web-based version of PowerPoint. With Pitch you can create beautiful presentations or proposals to effectively communicate your ideas.

However, the real differentiators are their collaboration features like comments, reactions, and even the ability to do live meetings in the tool to edit together in real time. We tend to use Pitch to present project ideas or give performance updates.

Price: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $8/member per month.

How To Make the Most of Your Customer Support Data

How To Make the Most of Your Customer Support Data

Best customer service tool for bug reporting.

Though you could report bugs in any number of places, having a dedicated tool helps keep track of them to reduce duplicate work and keep everyone in the loop. Jira is the tool we — and many other teams — use to do that.

You’re able to group incidents, update the status of a bug, and even ping people directly if you need a response quickly. Jira has a lot of additional functionality beyond just bug reporting, but it’s the most common use for support teams.

Price: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $7.75/user per month.

5 Steps Support Teams Can Take To Get Product Bugs Fixed

5 Steps Support Teams Can Take To Get Product Bugs Fixed

19. google workspace.

Best customer service tool for team collaboration.

A handful of the tools on this list — Zoom, Pitch, and Slack — are basically paid versions of Google tools. They do have additional functionality and are more robust in general, but if you’re a new team or more budget-conscious, Google’s suite of tools can work in place of some of the tools we mentioned.

You can create an internal knowledge base of sorts using Google Docs. If you need to chat in real time, Google Hangouts is an option. Google Slides lets you create PowerPoint-style presentations, and Google Sheets is great for spreadsheets.

Price: Free trial available. Plans start at $6/user per month.

Foundations of Great Service

Discover the tools and techniques used by high-performing customer service organizations in our free, six-part video course.

Foundations of Great Service

Working with the best support tools

Customer service is a tough job, but it’s made easier with access to the right tools and resources. Be sure to audit your needs regularly and fill the gaps when necessary with some of the helpful tools above. When you do, everyone involved will be set up for success.

Like what you see? Share with a friend.

Jesse short.

After spending a few years working as a support agent, Jesse made the switch to writing full-time. He is a Help Scout alum, where he worked to help improve the agent and customer experience.

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  4. Your list of the top customer service skills: 16 examples

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COMMENTS

  1. 10 Important Customer Service Duties and Responsibilities

    1. Answering questions about a company's products or services Answering both general/specific customer questions about the company's products/services is a key responsibility of many service agents. In fact, knowledgeable employees are one of the most important aspects of a good customer service experience.

  2. Customer Service Representative job description

    Customer service representatives (CSR) duties and responsibilities: Customer service representatives are often a client's primary point of contact with a company.

  3. Customer Service Representative Job Description [With Examples]

    The starting rate for a Customer Service Team member is $17.00/hr ($35,000 per year). We also offer insurance benefits, incentive compensation, and a 401k. This is a great example of a job brief ...

  4. Customer Service Checklist: 15 Best Practices

    1. Set clear service expectations. Be upfront with your customers to set realistic expectations and protect your own sanity. Promise realistic response times and be clear about your ability to resolve customer complaints.

  5. 21 Key Customer Service Skills (and How to Develop Them)

    The ability to communicate clearly when working with customers is a key skill because miscommunications can result in disappointment and frustration. The best customer service professionals know how to keep their communications with customers simple and leave nothing to doubt. 6. Writing skills.

  6. 10 Customer Service Skills for Success in Any Job

    Empathy, good communication, and problem-solving are core skills in providing excellent customer service. In this article, you'll learn what customer service is, why it is important, and the top 10 customer service skills for a thriving business. Build job-ready skills with a Coursera Plus subscription Start 7-day free trial

  7. Customer Service Job Description (Examples)

    Resolve product or service problems by clarifying the customer's complaint; determining the cause of the problem; selecting and explaining the best solution to solve the problem; expediting correction or adjustment; following up to ensure resolution Maintain financial accounts by processing customer adjustments

  8. Customer Service Representative Job Description

    Customer service duties and responsibilities generally include answering phone calls and emails, responding to customer questions and complaints, and walking customers through basic troubleshooting or setup processes.

  9. Daily Customer Service Duties

    Customer service staff have important tasks to do each day. From quickly replying to support tickets and solving issues for their customer base, to replying to online reviews and passing on the feedback to the products team, it's easy for the working day t o spiral into disorder.

  10. Customer Service Checklist: 21 Best Practices You Need to Follow

    October 5, 2022 • 9 mins read Blog Home » Performance Imagine this: On one hand, the customer support staff is operating on their assumptions. On the other hand, the customer support staff has a specified list of points to be taken care of. The latter sounds like a good idea, doesn't it?

  11. 12 Essential Customer Service Skills In 2024

    Getty Table of Contents What Are Customer Service Skills? Why Good Customer Service Is Important 12 Essential Customer Service Skills How To Nurture Customer Service Skills Bottom...

  12. Top 10 Customer Service Duties: Job Roles & Responsibilities

    Updated Jan 03, 2024 If you are in the domain of customer service, you must be knowing that here you need to play different roles every day. It's a crucial profession with huge responsibilities and requires many skills. As a result, customer support agents have to wear many hats.

  13. The Top 5 Most Important Customer Service Standards, According to Consumers

    Pro tip: Use automation to ensure you're giving your customers a response even if your reps are offline. Automated email replies, chat responses, and phone messages are a great way to remind people when they can expect to hear back from you. 5. Stay positive and friendly during customer interactions.

  14. 30 Amazing Customer Service Training Ideas, Exercises & Topics

    6. Personality Tests. This isn't specific to customer support, but it's a good idea for new reps to take a personality test to learn how they work and communicate best with others. One framework you can use is the DiSC profile, which evaluates people's behavioral and personality differences.

  15. 10 important customer service responsibilities (plus skills)

    1. Delivering information about a company's products and services A service agent is usually the first point of actual contact between a customer and business, so your ability to provide general information to customers is key. This may be general information about a product or service the customer already has.

  16. Customer Service Checklist

    28 tasks By Campbell Rodriguez on Dec 29, 2011 Customer Communication Effectively communicate your brand and service expectations. Use age-appropriate greetings. Service all customers the same regardless of their age or appearance. Interact well with customers. Demonstrate competence. Have good listening skills.

  17. 22 Customer Service Skills For a Positive Customer Experience

    14. Honesty. It sounds cliche, but when it comes to customer interactions, honesty is the best policy. While we don't want to let customers down, we also don't want to mislead them. If there is a problem or delay in service, it's best to just communicate that and apologize for the inconvenience.

  18. 10 Essential Customer Service Goals and Objectives

    Improve customer retention. Enhance productivity. Enhance rating and reviews. Collect valuable feedback. Spot improvements for your products and services. Broad goals are sometimes difficult to assess. Make sure to break the goal down into measurable objectives. 1.

  19. 21 Important Customer Service Skills (With Resume Example)

    Key takeaways: Customer service is the support you provide to your customers before, during and after they buy and use your products or services. Excellent customer service should be proactive, personalized, convenient and competent.

  20. 10 Ways to Deliver Consistently Great Customer Service

    4. Respond quickly. 66% of people believe that valuing their time is the most important thing in any online customer experience. Resolving customer queries as quickly as possible is a cornerstone of good customer service. Speed should be of the essence — especially for smaller issues that don't take much time to solve.

  21. The 19 Best Customer Service Tools for Every Support Team

    6. Sprout Social. Best social media customer service tool. Some companies have a decent amount of support requests coming through social media channels. If that's you, then a dedicated social media tool might make sense. With Sprout Social, you can manage customer requests from all your social channels in one place.

  22. Customer Service Checklist

    1. Customer service responsibilities. Consider creating a department in your company which will develop custom service policies, take care of customer service, and treat your clients in the best way. Employees of the department will take the following responsibilities: Communicate and contact with all customers.

  23. 29 winning customer service phrases and 12 to avoid

    1. "Nice to meet you.". This welcoming phrase immediately shows the customer that the call is more than a one-off transaction. Taking the extra step to introduce yourself adds value to the conversation while providing great customer service that helps build a relationship. 2.