Accessibility Customer Service Training: Fill & Download for Free

I see some great points here, especially from Marvin. I’d like to add my own list, which will focus on specific actions to take your customer service to the next level.Educate ALL your CS reps on your company’s policies, protocols, and standard for customer service. Get everyone on the same level of understanding and practice so that your customer will never meet a CS rep he/she can complain about.Educate ALL your customers, too, about your product and how to make it work. Build a knowledge or a self-help blog for customers that prefer to solve problems on their own.Invest in the right tools. You can’t expect your CS reps to give their best when they’re not working with the best. Select the best applications and tools to ensure your reps can perform at their 100%.Create unique content like videos or vlogs that make it easier for customers to understand your company and product better.Set a deadline for responding to customer requests. Customers hate nothing more than waiting for your action on their query or concern. Train your team to respond faster by setting a deadline for meeting each request and imposing penalties when this deadline is not followed.Avoid passive-aggressive language when addressing customer concerns. Communicate clearly but with empathy. Choosing the right words will make a huge difference in your customers’ impression of your service.Set up social media accounts and maximize them for customer service. Being active on social media will make your brand more accessible to your current and prospective customers.Answer all queries made on social media. Social media users are adept at displaying their dismay over anything. Don’t give anyone the opportunity to do that to your brand.Properly close conversations. Every customer interaction should be properly closed, or to be specific, summarized, assessed and ended with an offer for further assistance. Of course, don’t forget to thank the customer for reaching out to you.Do some grand gestures once in a while. Give your customers the unique and personalized experience they deserve and do it in style. You can send special gifts (discounts, rare merch) for important dates, like your 5th customer-vendor anniversary or the day they hit their first million with you.Besides experience, here at Tenfold we also learned a lot about customer service from the SaaS industry’s leading customer success influencers like Shep Hyken. Tenfold’s CS team has compiled the names of these influential people in a free ebook. Hope you can check it out!

Hi there! A lot of answers here already and I agree with most of them. This is a very relevant question especially in the context of our rapidly changing market. Today, customer service is more important than ever. Not only is it a brand differentiator, consumers also see it as a true test on how companies and businesses value them.There are a lot of advancement in the customer service field and a lot of businesses are still trying to keep up. We have reached a time that one of the most effective approaches to improve customer service is through the use of technology. By 2018, Gartner predicts that more than 50% of organizations will redirect their investments to customer service innovations. As customers demand more, businesses are investing more. Of course, there are still non-technology approaches to improving customer service. And having the right mix of all these approaches will surely help companies and businesses.So how can companies and businesses of today improve customer service? Here are some of the ways:Make sure that your reps have adequate trainingWe all know that customer service reps undergo training before they provide service. But that is not enough. Refresher and additional courses are important to hone their skills better. Companies and businesses must give importance to the continuing education of their reps. A consistent training coupled with a great customer service experience makes an effective and efficient rep.Use tools to provide a distinctive experienceAccording to the 2016 Microsoft State of Global Customer Service Report, 72% of customers today expect reps to know their contact information, product details, and service history as soon as they engage with a brand. Smaller companies with a small number of customers can do this without much effort. But for bigger companies, they need the assistance of tools. There are CRMs and helpdesks that help organize customer data. There are phone systems and email tools that record customer interactions. But there are also tools that can combine the strengths of all these. One of that tool is Tenfold. (Full disclosure, I work at Tenfold.)Tenfold is a software that aggregates data from all existing systems of record a company uses. Be it CRMs, helpdesks, or ERPs. It also captures all customer interactions through phone, email, text, and chat. Tenfold then combines and shows all these relevant pieces of customer information in an easy-to-use floating pop up. Companies that use a software like Tenfold deliver the distinctive and efficient service that customers demand.Reach out before customers complainIt is important that the customer service that we provide today is proactive. This means that you should reach out to customers before they realize that something is wrong. It is about companies and businesses being one step ahead over everything. Customers are more satisfied when they don't have to complain before companies fix an issue or a problem.Create self-service platformsAccording to a research by Aspect, 73% of consumers want the ability to solve product or service issues on their own. That is why customer service of today involves teaching customers how to find answers to their problems by themselves. Successful companies and businesses provide easy-to-access FAQs on their web and mobile sites. They also create product or service forums. These do not only promote cooperation, it also builds communities that develop a deeper bond between business and customer.

In The EndThis is one of my favorite songs by Linkin Park, and I'm not over-fastidious about my music. That is to say, a dearth of dedicated WiFi bandwidth in my childhood trained me to commit myself to the delectable tastes of the more fortunate half of the world that contributed generously to provide seeds on torrents. It has resulted into my metamorphosis into an evolved being that respects the WiFi and refuses to exploit its powers, now that I have unrestricted access to a magnanimous 50MBPS internet plan.It was close to six years ago that we decided to upgrade to a WiFi connection from the cables and dial-up connections that seemed to give the place a Stone Age-esque look. In a few days it was up and running and we marveled at the beauty of cutting-edge technology. Little did we know what was to come.A few months in, I realized the speed was not quite what it used to be. Now, I was aware the billing cycle commenced on the fifth of each month and it was the sixth that day. So MTNL has a 24/7 helpline where, fortunately enough, executives actually pick up on the other end. Bewildered by the drop in speed, I dialed the fateful number that was to become an integral part of my daily routine, and asked them to check the connection. They said they would check it out and let me know. And that was the origination of my tryst with MTNL, WiFi speed, and destiny.Over the years - and I repeat, years - I have called that solitary helpline up more times than I have called my own mother, father and brother combined. If I'd have been part of that coterie of seventh-graders that were privy to the world of dating and had a cell-phone *cue oohs and aahs from other intrigued seventh-graders* then I'm pretty sure my then-girlfriend would have broken up with me out of sheer suspicion. The frequency of my calls was such that if it hadn't been a toll-free number, I wager I'd have ended up selling the clothes off my back to pay for them. Of course the calls had no effect on the speed of the WiFi. The month passed with false assurances of the "system having a problem" and the "network connection having issues". And my WiFi remained devoid of the speed force (watch "The Flash", if you want to understand the reference). We tried everything, from opening tickets, raising complaints, to protesting in their offices. We called their technicians home more than we called our own relatives during the year, but to no avail.Days passed by, turning into weeks, months and finally years, before we finally decided to follow their instructions and replace the entire WiFi line that came into our house. We bought a new router, much to the annoyance of my mother and glee of my father. She felt it was a waste of money. He agreed, but being a software engineer, there's always that lure of upgrading your lives into a new technological standard coupled with the desperate need for faster WiFi that led us to install CAT5 cables and overhaul the entire internet setup in the house. To our utter disappointment, we found no difference in the speed whatsoever. Frustration levels rose with the advent of more members of the family into the world of WiFi with the introduction of more smartphones into the family.The final confrontation with MTNL occurred when we decided to switch to another service provider and called up MTNL for understanding the necessary procedure. They asked us what the issue was and upon summarizing the various Volumes in the MTNL saga, she asked me to hold for a minute.I told her with wry laugh, "I've been waiting six years, ma'am. What's another minute to me.""Thank you for staying on line, please check the internet speed once and let me know"A futile exercise that I've been through more times than the number of breaths I've drawn (probably not a hyperbole), but what the heck. Let's give it another shot. My eyes popped out of their sockets when I saw the speed graph. It was an emotional moment. After all these years of waiting, it was finally right in front of me. I wouldn't put the possibility of a few tears behind me, but I managed to contain myself and uttered in a shaky voice, "Ma'am ..... how?""Sir, actually we had listed you correctly under the x MBPS plan, but somehow the system had been providing you the (x+6) MBPS plan so it never renewed monthly and your speed was always slow. Sorry, Sir."Six Years. I can't even.