Chapter 3
Customer Service Skills
for User Support Agents
Learning Objectives
• The importance of communications skills and customer
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service relationships
Reasons for careful listening and reading
How to build and communicate understanding
Important aspects of effective speaking in a support
interaction
How to develop an incident management strategy
Strategies for difficult clients
Other components of excellent customer service
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continued
Communication and interpersonal skills
are important to learn and use
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
are often more challenging for new support
workers to learn and use than technical or
business skills!
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A Customer Service Ethic
• A customer-service ethic
• an organization-wide philosophy
• shared by everyone
• viewpoint: client relationships and client satisfaction
are the most important aspect of a business
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Satisfied versus
Dissatisfied Customers
• Satisfied customers are likely to be repeat customers
• Dissatisfied customer incidents usually take longer to
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handle
Dissatisfied customers generate:
• Lengthy incidents
• Repeated help desk contacts
• Complaints and ill-will
• Incidents that must be rerouted
• Product returns and refunds
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A Customer-Service Ethic translates
into a commitment
• Provide users with information, service, or solution they
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need
Explain to customers what can be done for them if the
problem cannot be solved
Treat clients with respect
Communicate to clients when they should expect to
receive the service or information they need
Return calls or e-mails when promised
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Communications Skills
for Customer Service
• Three essential communication skills
• Listen carefully
• Build understanding
• Respond effectively
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Listen Carefully
• Problem description
• Language used to describe the problem
• Clues to caller’s experience level
• How the caller describes the problem
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• Tone of voice
• Use of technical terms
Strategy: Look for a communication skills course to build
listening skills
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Build Understanding
• Develop empathy with a client
• Empathy: An understanding of and identification
with a client’s situation, thoughts, and feelings
• Example: “It sounds like you’ve had a frustrating
morning, but I think I can help you with this...”
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Build Understanding (continued)
• Try to express the problem in your own words
• Communicate to a client that you view him or
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her as a person rather than a phone call or a
problem
Techniques:
• Visualization
• Inclusive language:
• Smile!
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We, rather than I
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Respond Effectively
• Recognize the importance of a sincere greeting
• Icebreaker
• First impression
• Example: This is Joel in Computer Support. Thank
you very much for calling. How can I help you?
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Use Scripts Appropriately
• Script
• Prepared sequence of questions and statements used
to handle parts of an incident
• May include decision points and branches to handle
different situations
• Tip: Don’t read lengthy scripts or responses to
questions; restate the response in your own words if
possible
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Use Tone and Style Effectively
• Use clear, succinct speech
• Speak slowly but not so slowly as to sound
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condescending
Use short sentences
Avoid a rising inflection at the end of sentences
Avoid empty phrases
Phrase communication with clients positively
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Relative importance of
elements of communication
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Develop an Incident Management
Strategy
• Incident management strategy
• Techniques, tools and strategies that support specialists use to
move through an incident effectively and efficiently from
initial greeting to the end of the incident
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Goals of Incident Management
• Provide user with information she or he needs
• Manage stress levels for both the user and support agent
• Ensure that the incident progresses from start to finish in
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an effective and efficient way
Make the user more self-reliant
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Resources for
Incident Management
• Organizational policies on incident management
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philosophy and expectations
Strategies covered in training programs
Observation and imitation of respected senior support
agents
Personal communication style
Feedback on strengths and areas for improvement
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Incident Management Suggestions
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Customer Service and
Personality Types
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
• A test that measures basic personality on four
dimensions
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Customer Service and
Personality Types (continued)
• Four Dimensions:
• Where do you direct your energy?
 Introversion (I) versus Extroversion (E)
• How do you process information?
 Sensing (S) versus Intuition (N)
• How do you make decisions?
 Thinking (T) versus Feeling (F)
• How do you organize your life?
 Judging (J) versus Perceiving (P)
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Customer Service and Personality
Types (continued)
• Use:
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to help understand how users and coworkers use
different approaches to problems, communications, and
learning
Examples of 16 possible types
• ISTJ (Introvert, Sensing, Thinking, Judging)
• ENFP (Extrovert, Intuition, Feeling, Perceiving)
• Each person is a mixture of the 4 types
• No personality type is correct or best
• Most people are a mixture of pure types
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Strategies for Difficult
Clients and Incidents
• Difficult client is one who requires special handling
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strategies because the user is angry, not communicative,
rude or abusive
Focus on:
• the specific problem
• getting the needed information to the client
• providing excellent customer service in a respectful
manner
• getting on to the next incident
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Callers Who Complain
• Give ample opportunity for the user to voice complaints
• Use empathy
• Don’t take the complaint personally
• Tip: Remember that complaints can be a valuable source
of feedback
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Calls from “Power Users”
• Power user is one who is technically knowledgeable, or
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thinks they are, or who believes they warrant special
treatment
Use inclusive language that makes the user feel like a
member of the team
Use an authoritative tone
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Incidents that Get off the Track
• Refocus the incident
• Apologize for lack of prompt resolution
• Summarize the basic problem information
• Offer to continue to work toward a solution
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Users Who Are Upset or Angry
• Let users vent their anger
• Reassure user that the problem is an important one and
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that you are willing to help resolve it
Remember that angry users may continue to vent
Avoid defensiveness
Don’t sound patronizing
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Users Who Are Abusive
• Abusive user is one who is rude, uses inappropriate
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language, or makes personal attacks on a support agent
Goal:
• First transform an incident into one where the user is just
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angry (no longer abusive)
Then work to satisfy the needs of the user (result is a
successful incident)
• Follow the support organization’s policies and
procedures for this type of incident
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Users Who Are
Reluctant to Respond
• Use very simple language
• Avoid technical jargon
• Try different kinds of questions
• Give positive feedback when the user provides useful
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information
Suggest exchanging information in a different mode (email, chat session, face to face)
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Users Who
Won’t Stop Responding
• Use behavior that indicates the contact is over
• Summarize the incident and describe the conclusion
• Thank the user for calling
• Express your belief that the problem is solved
• Use short answers that don’t provide a lead-in to
additional conversation or communication
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Client-friendly Web Sites
• Support Web site is primarily a one-way method of
communication via the Internet
• Cost effective method of user communication
• Customer-service ethic applies to Web site design
• Common purposes:
• Provide product information
• Take sales orders
• Contact technical support
• Provide software updates and downloads
• Communicate with end users
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Criteria for
Evaluating a Support Web Site
• Content •
• Organization
• Format
• Mechanics
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Accurate
Up-to-date
Well-organized
Avoids information overload
Avoids graphics that download slowly
Organized by clients needs
Uses small units of information
Effective navigation aids
Correct spelling
Correct grammar
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Comprehensive Client Services
• Excellent customer service is based on specific values,
attitudes, and actions
• Clients are the primary reason for the support organization’s
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existence
Willingness to take extra measures to satisfy clients
Ability to provide client satisfaction depends on adequate
support resources (staffing, equipment, budget)
Excellent client service skills apply to telephone, face-to-face,
and written communications
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Chapter Summary
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Communication and interpersonal skills are the
foundations of excellent customer service
Listen carefully to a user’s problem description,
language and tone
Build understanding by restating a problem and
through empathy with a user
Respond effectively with a greeting, use of scripts and
an appropriate tone and style
Develop a personal incident management strategy
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Chapter Summary (continued)
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Basic personality types can help explain differences in
communication, learning and work styles among users
and coworkers
Difficult incidents and users require special skills and
strategies
A support Web site is cost-effective, but its design
should be client-friendly
All forms of communication with users benefit from a
comprehensive approach to client services
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