Soft skills for better support
Customer service always requires a human touch, thus the need for soft skills, more often known as people skills. Instead of simply giving out answers or a set of instructions, it's important that agents know how to take a more people-oriented approach when communicating with customers.
First of all, technical support agents need to learn how to empathize, a trait fundamental to customer service. Agents must show concern, build rapport, and then focus on the essential issues to let the customers know that they are cared about and are considered priority for the business.
Agents handling technical support for call centers also need to actively listen and pay attention with a genuine intention of understanding the customers' problems. This way, customers won't have to repeat information, and the agents can immediately pinpoint the cause of the problem and provide solutions as appropriate to the issue at hand.
Instead of simply being reactive, agents must provide a proactive service by offering additional information relevant to the technical issue encountered. This includes products or services that can further help the customer in the future.
Although good technical knowledge can get the job done, it still needs to be complemented with interpersonal skills. Tech support agents need to apply both hard and soft skills to provide outstanding and efficient customer service to the end users their companies cater to.
Technical support is one of the main offerings of Open Access BPO, an outsourcing firm based in Makati, Philippines. We offer tech support under non-voice and voice accounts and have a team of professional call center agents and certified IT employees that can handle basic or advanced technical issues. Learn more about this by visiting our official website or our Google+ page.
