Customer Service Skills for Tech People

In the world of IT, customer service is both a job role and a necessary skill set. As a job role, it implies fulfilling your customer’s needs and ensuring that they have a good experience. If you work for an MSP, that means they will continue to be your client and speak well of you to other potential clients. If you’re part of an internal IT department, that means they will speak well of your department in evaluations, both formal and informal. As a skill set, IT customer service comprises a list of behaviors, attitudes, and mentalities that you can lean on when delivering a service to an end-user, other customers, and coworkers.

Here are a few important customer service skills every IT pro must hone:

Communicate Clearly

No matter what your work entails, you must be able to communicate clearly. If your job role involves selling, you need to master your sales pitch and your ability to communicate persuasively to grab customer attention, evoke their interest, and push them to buy your offering. If you’re in technical support, you must communicate clearly to frustrated end-users. Even if you don’t see yourself as customer-facing, you still have to communicate successfully with coworkers and members of your leadership team.

If taking inquiries and jotting down complaints and concerns is part of your job role, have a patient attitude and listen before you speak. Active listening is also part of clear communication. If you don’t listen to your customers clearly, you won’t be able to help them in the required manner.

If you’re troubleshooting a technical issue with either hardware or software, you need to articulate your words and sentences distinctly. Pay close attention to detail, and make sure to communicate thoroughly to not leave anything out.

Ask questions to ensure you have a complete understanding of the issue, especially when the customer’s hardware or software appears to have unusual configurations.

Be Empathetic and Versatile

When customers reach out to you for support, help, or instructions, they want to be understood completely. You need to work with the customer and understand the concern from their point of view. Relate to the customer’s feelings first, use appropriate tone and emotion, and communicate with empathy.

On the job, you need to be flexible and adapt to the changing nature and moods of your customers. Customer service professionals interact with multiple customers in a day, and everyone has a different demeanor and mood. Sometimes, it is also possible that one customer exhibits multiple moods. Learn to adapt accordingly and be versatile in the way you interact with your customers.

Be Positive and Patient

Usually, customers contact you because they are facing difficulties or because they are unhappy about a product or service. In times like these, you don’t want to rattle your customer with your negativity, anger, or frustrations. You need to stay calm, irrespective of how the customer is feeling, and approach every problem with optimism and a bunch of possibilities.

Patience is a virtue in the customer service business. As a representative, you may be shouted at or insulted, or your customers may take hours to explain what’s wrong with a certain product or device. Sometimes, a customer may call you multiple times with the same problem. The key is to be patient. Remember that it is your responsibility to solve the problem, no matter what.

Be Attentive and Follow Up

Keeping your customers engaged is your primary responsibility. Give your customers undivided attention so they feel that you are willing to help them. By being attentive to their problems and doubts, you can assure your customers that doing business with your company is a  good decision.

If you don’t have the answer or solution to something, or you’re missing some details, let your customer know that you will find out and get back to them. Then, get the necessary information and follow up with them as soon as possible. You don’t want to annoy your customers by making them wait on you. Deliver attentively, effectively, and in a timely fashion.

From sales pitches to registering complaints, customers often rely on good customer service professionals to make life easier for them. If your company aces customer service, your customers will be loyal to your business or your department. Master these four skills of good communication, empathy and versatility, patience, and good follow-through, and you and your team will be high-performing IT pros.

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.