Managing a customer service team can be frustrating and difficult, but extremely rewarding. You won't find the same set of challenges and excitement in any other job, save, perhaps a Navy SEAL!
Build Your Team
When I interview prospective customer service reps, I'm always looking for bright, articulate people. They don't have to be well college educated, but it certainly helps. I try to find folks with a strong sense of humor. The other quality I seek is a free-spiritedness.
In the job interview, I ask this question: if a tree falls in the forest and you're not there to hear it, does it make a noise? If a person says “no”, it doesn't make a noise, they move to the bottom of the list. A person who answers “no” is saying they need to be included in the event in order for the event to take place. To me this shows a powerful self-centeredness, and I have no need for self-centered people on my customer service team. It could be, too, that the person hasn't thought much about the question. I have no need for people who answer questions without thinking on my customer service team.
I try to avoid hiring starry-eyed hopefuls. While they have good enthusiasm and the very best of intentions, i t can be hard for them to accept that there are limits to what the company can offer in resolving a claim. I find that the necessary restraints of the company's needs will turn them sour.
Instead, I look for people that have at least some amount of business experience. Former managers and business owners tend to work out very well, as they have a well balanced sense of the needs of both the customer and the company.
Finally, I look for empathetic people. I try to ask questions focusing on other people's feelings, hoping the applicant can put themselves in the other person's shoes. If the applicant can do that, if they're smart and good with words, if they have a sense of humor, and if they have some business experience and are grounded in reality, they're a good choice.
Set Your Goals
Over the years, I've learned that managing a team isn't an end in itself. I used to think that making sure people got to work on time and that they're questions were answered was pretty much all there was to management. That's the supervisor's job. If you don't have a supervisor, then this certainly part of your job. But if you let it be all of your job, not only will you go nuts, you won't progress in your company.
Set goals for yourself and your team. Response times can always be improved. Data from your incoming complaints can always be better quantified. Costs can always be fine-tuned. Projects can always be introduced. Proactive testing and analysis is always available and valuable.
In fact, you need to make sure customer service becomes a part of your company's offering. Once a product or service is sold, it falls into customer service's bailiwick to keep it that way. You can take your department to the next level by helping integrate customer service into your marketing and sales programs. You have a very useful tool in your hands: bright, intelligent, experienced people that are customer focused. That's a powerful tool to any company.
Plan Routes for Your Staff
When I was much younger, I hit many walls in my search for meaningful employment. For one thing, my employment was seldom meaningful. As I think about, I remember my various managers telling me how my dead-end shipping/receiving job was actually an important cog in a much larger wheel, yappita, yappita, yappita. It was until when I found myself in charge of a group of customer service reps that I realized what I had missed. I have never been shown the route through the company to the top. Believe me, I'm no high climber…I like doing a good job and moving up the chain, and I've been a CEO, but it was never my goal. I like building and working with teams to help people.
Your customer service reps need to see a route through the company to the top. Each one of them could someday be the CEO, as long as there's a road to get there. Maybe they start as a CSR, then progress to Lead, Supervisor, to Manager, to Marketing Manager, to CEO. Whatever that route is, make sure you let your CSRs see it.
If you have a route planned out for each of your reps, you'll find that it's easier to keep them motivated and focused on the company's goals. It's a tool you can use during the performance revue to guide them. Don't be afraid to apply a timeline to the route.
