What if mastering a few easy tips could make you infinitely better at your job?
If you work in a call center, then your job revolves around conversations with customers. You likely handle dozens of calls a day, but some calls are more difficult than others. If you say the wrong thing or fail to pick up on customer cues, then it might result in everything from a lost sale to an angry request to speak to your manager.
Here’s some good news, though: By mastering the art of small talk, you can make each and every customer call smoother than they were before. Ready to take your job performance to the next level? Keep reading to discover how mastering small talk can help!
1. Establishing Better Customer Relationships in a Call Center
It’s no secret that working in a call center is a difficult job. Your managers encourage you to not spend too much time on each call. But when you do this right, it means you don’t have much time to establish a solid customer relationship with each call.
However, one small-talk skill to improve customer relationships is to simply focus on the things you have in common with the caller. For example, if they mention being excited to watch the big football game next weekend, it’s fine to discuss your mutual passion for sports.
This technique works well no matter how long (or short) the call is. As famous writer Maya Angelou once said, “people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Focusing on common interests improves customer relationships because they will always remember how good your conversation made them feel!
2. Create Smoother Interactions
Part of what makes customer conversations difficult is that, as the CSR, you have to juggle multiple responsibilities. For example, you need to be able to keep the customer talking while you look up information and resolve their issue. And you may also have to worry about meeting sales quotas while you’re at it.
If you’re not good at small talk, then carrying on conversations while you do all this may be difficult. But one way you can create smoother customer interactions is to express genuine, eager interest in what your customers are sharing with you.
That may sound obvious, but many CSRs focus on trying to sound interesting to callers. When you focus less on sounding interesting but instead sound interested in what they have to say, it will make each call much smoother.
3. Learn More about Your Customers
In some ways, each customer call is different from the one before. Sometimes, customers just need a basic question answered. Other times, though, they may need your help troubleshooting a surprisingly difficult issue.
Either way, the key to helping customers out is to learn more about them and the issue they are facing. One of the best ways to do this is by asking more questions. Ideally, this should be a mix of small-talk questions (like asking how they are doing, how is the weather in their location, and so on) and questions pertinent to their call (such as how long the problem has lasted and what they have tried to do to fix it).
By mixing friendly questions in with more straightforward questions, you get the customer to open up a bit more. When it comes to solving their problem, you’ll have an easier time when they are more comfortable speaking with you. As an added bonus, you may learn more about the customer to help you make a sale.
4. Make Customers More Comfortable
Ever had a customer that seemed almost wary to be on the phone with you? In most cases, this is because customers are uncomfortable with the idea of talking to a stranger. In fact, they are often wary that you are going to try to sell them something rather than helping them.
If you want to make customers more comfortable, one of the best small-talk tricks is to become comfortable with short pauses in the conversation. Some CSRs get nervous about silence so they either end up blurting something out or falling back into a familiar script, both of which may be enough to annoy the caller.
When you get comfortable with pauses in the conversation, it gives the caller the opportunity to volunteer more information, shift the conversation in a new direction, or simply signal that he doesn’t need any additional help. These pauses give you a chance to catch your breath and make sure that everything you say sounds natural rather than forced, scripted, or desperate!
5. Avoid Unwanted Disputes
Nothing is quite as stressful in the call center as an angry customer. While there are multiple strategies to help you defuse a tense situation, you are always better off avoiding that situation.
Believe it or not, small talk can help you end these disputes before they even happen. That’s because most callers aren’t angry when they pick up the phone. Instead, something occurs to make them upset. It might be something you said, but it could just as easily be something like waiting too long before anyone picked up the phone.
Try using some of our small-talk techniques from the very beginning. Express interest in what they have to say, ask plenty of questions, and find friendly common ground whenever you can. This effectively defuses potential angry callers because once they have a relationship with you, the caller is less likely to direct anger at you.
Come Work in the Best Call Center Today!
Now you know how mastering small talk can help with customer calls. But do you know where to find the best call center job to practice your skills?
Here at Seguros Confie, we are always ready to hire eager workers who are hungry for success. Stop dreaming of your perfect job and let us help you find it. Apply today!