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CartIT customer service is crucial to your company’s success, whether you’re an MSP, a VAR, an internal IT department at a university or corporation, or any other organization providing IT services. Technical mastery is, of course, required. IT customer service mastery, however, is how you build successful relationships with customers and coworkers. As an individual, you use your technical know-how to perform the tasks of your job. You use your people skills, however, to build a successful career.
How to Improve Your IT Customer Service Skills
Work on three general areas to raise your IT customer service skills. IT is different from other customer service positions due to its technical and mission-critical nature. The technical aspects of IT often make it intimidating to end-users, while its mission-critical nature means that peoples’ ability to do their jobs successfully and live rich, personal lives are often dependent upon the systems you build, maintain, and support.
Technical Skills
Focus on your product knowledge on the products and services you support. Have an insatiable curiosity about them. But don’t limit yourself just to those specific products and services. I attended a seminar on the Linux boot process. It was an interesting topic for me and the presenter did a good job. What I remember most, however, was a side comment he made, “The more you know about one operating system, the more you know about them all.” He was talking about Windows, Linux, and UNIX, but his comment applies to information technology in general. Take advantage of every opportunity to learn, even in areas that aren’t directly related to your area of expertise. Of course, you must keep your certifications current and strive to be the best in the world at the technologies you support. People with the best IT customer service skills may excel in one particular technical field while also having an intense curiosity in a wide range of areas. Have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.
Empathy
Empathy’s role in IT customer service is to help you imagine how you would feel and what you would want if you were in the position of your customer or coworker. Often, as technologists, it’s difficult for us to understand the frustration of an end-user who simply doesn’t get computers or other digital systems. For us, technology is a first language. For many others, even extremely smart and talented people, technology is a distant second or third language filled with arcane terminology, jargon, and confusing acronyms. To develop a sense of empathy for your end-users, think about times when you needed help, perhaps from a medical doctor, a mechanic, or even a help desk technician. Recall how you felt when they used unfamiliar terminology or acted in a condescending manner toward you. Remember how frustrated or even angry you felt. Now, think about what that person might have done differently so that you felt cared for and well-served. That’s how you want your customer to feel.
Active Listening
Active listening is an IT customer service skill that ensures you really understand what your customer or coworker needs. When you use active listening skills effectively, the other person feels dignified and respected by you. Active listening means you use your high-level of self-awareness to know when you’re paying attention, full attention, to the speaker and when you’re getting distracted by something you see, something else you hear, or even your own thoughts. You treat the other person with dignity and respect by reacting to what they’re saying, perhaps through a head-nod or even a verbal “uh-huh”. You don’t, however, think about your response while the other person is speaking. A great tip to help you achieve active listening is to pretend there will be a test on what the speaker is saying. If you know there will be a test, you’ll pay closer attention!
Start Improving Your IT Customer Service Right Away
Remember, you can’t change others. You can only change yourself. You can, however, influence others by your actions. By working on your technical competence, your empathy for others, and your active listening skills, you’ll find your work and life more satisfying and fulfilling, You’ll also find relationships, both professional and personal, more gratifying.
Leaders, work with your team on these three areas and you’ll see their customer service skills improve naturally. Be sure to model these qualities in your own work as an owner, leader, and manager.
Individuals, focus on the three areas and you’ll naturally find ways to improve your customer service. Not only will these three areas help you in your professional relationships with customers and coworkers, they’ll also help you in your personal relationships with family, friends, and acquaintances!
Next Level IT Customer Service Training
Enroll your team now in Compassionate Geek IT online customer service training so they can work together, get things done, and take care of customers.
