Hiring: A Natural Call to Customer Service
by Kate Nasser | 8 Comments »
For years I have been able to spot job applicants who are drawn to service careers. They excel at it. They have an ease, commitment, and skill that makes them, what I call, the naturals in customer service. Theirs is a calling to customer service work and they answer that call very well.
Leaders, spotting and hiring those with this natural calling to customer service work gives your business a competitive advantage. It gives you the trust to empower these naturals to wow the customer. Since they need little if any supervision to deliver outstanding customer service, the customer experiences the ultimate in care and action — in the moment, every time.
What will you spot in potential hires who have a a natural calling to customer service?
Naturals in Customer Service do all these things …
- Accept the absurdity of life without using sarcasm toward the customer.
- Easily adapt; need for control is low.
- Brilliantly balance objectivity and caring.
- Initiate both caring and action.
- Know that they can’t change others — only their own perspectives and reactions.
- Love diversity and are inspired and excited by it. Non-judgmental.
- Exhibit a high sense of ownership and teamwork.
- Understand the big picture and show attention to detail; they follow-through.
- See and hear far more than what the customer is saying and use it well.
- Continuously learn from interactions and quickly reapply this insight.
- Love to serve because of the giving — not to be liked or loved in return.
Be wary of job applicants who say they like customer service work because they enjoy hearing thank you and being appreciated. When the difficult customers are there and the thank yous aren’t, these types become frustrated and do poorly. Remember, customer service work is about caring for others not about the customers caring for you.
Job applicants: If you a natural, you will be happiest working for an enlightened company who sees the business value of outstanding customer service to every customer or working for high end customer care departments (in traditional companies) that focus on their top level customers.
Leaders/Employers: The one thing a natural in customer service does not do well is work in very highly structured scripted departments with loads of supervision and rigid rules. If this is how you operate, select nice people whom you can train to work specifically the way you want them to perform. Your customers will not have the ultimate customer experience yet you will spare yourselves the upheaval of the naturals leaving your company.
©2011 Kate Nasser, Somerville, NJ. For permission to re-post or republish, please email info@katenasser.com.
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach is widely known for her insight and 20 years of experience in customer service for the ultimate customer experience. Her workshops re-energize caring and activate follow-through. See this site for workshop outlines and what so many have said about the results.
I agree with this definitely and would add those that have a good sense of humor – so can laugh at the absurdity. Must have ‘caring’ attitude – like to help people, and their payment is the customer smile and fact were able to help. Equally important is ability to trouble-shoot, whether technical or otherwise, but this is also a natural ability – customer has problem or desire – how do you find solution?
Thanks!
another excellent post!
I would add the ability to both think on their feet – quickly AND think outside the conventional box to find the answers to resolve the issue.
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Excellent post, nice to finally have some breathing space to catch up on your writings. When you wrote…
“Love to serve because of the giving — not to be liked or loved in return.”
That is the ultimate Customer service attribute!