The difference between good and great is often determined by what you do to push yourself a little further than you thought possible. For home service business owners, being able to take your CSRs from good to great can mean the difference between losing a booking opportunity and growing your business through phenomenal customer experiences. With a few simple tips for your call handlers, you can improve their success rate and provide wow experiences to every customer who calls in. Here’s how:
Communicate clearly: Think about some of the positive customer service experiences you have had. Did the person you were talking to make you feel like your problem was important, that your business mattered and that they wanted to help you anyway that they could? Teaching your CSRs to have a positive tone, to listen attentively instead of just trying to get to the next step and not being passive-aggressive in their responses (“Actually, sir, you are not correct.”) can go a long way to driving positive results. Take these two responses and consider which one you would rather hear:
“So your AC is blowing hot air? Okay, what’s your address?”
“Your AC isn’t working? Oh no, that's not good. It's super-hot outside, Linda. I can only imagine what you're going through right now.”
See how much better the second response is? By using the customer’s name and sincerely empathizing with the customer’s situation, the CSR has gone out of their way to establish an emotional connection and to validate the customer’s problem. From there, the CSR can begin to take the customer down a path to a solution — getting a tech out to fix their broken AC.
Learn to listen: Sometimes, the hardest thing for a CSR to do is to just listen to the customer. Being in a hurry to close a call and not taking the time to listen can prevent the customer from feeling that they can trust your company. The customer may have a question about what their HVAC system is doing or why they can’t get a “ballpark price” on a service call. If your CSR is reading off a pre-determined script and not listening to what the customer is saying, they may be losing an opportunity to create unique value for each customer who calls in to your office.
Your CSRs need to learn to not rely on a script and instead listen to what the customer is describing and seek to understand what their problem is. Once the customer is done speaking, your CSRs need to follow up with additional questions that show they have listened to the problem and that your business will be able to help them.
Train your CSRs
You train your techs to be on top of their game when they get to the customer’s house, so why aren’t you training your CSRs regularly to get your highly trained techs out in the field in the first place? By offering your CSR teams the proper ongoing training to understand the basic skills needed to talk to customers, you can give them the ability to create a real connection with the customer while simultaneously closing the sale for your business.
Giving your CSRs the tools that will empower them to make the right decisions and close more calls will not only give them the confidence to deliver an unforgettable, wow experience, but will also add massive value to every customer interaction.
If these tips were easy, everyone would be using them. The reason why they are simple, but not easy is because it is common sense, but not common practice. Scripts are easy to memorize whereas value-centric behaviors take time and practice to master. There is a lot of work that goes into creating emotional connections with each customer over the phone.
Once you have set the right behavior set in your call center, you'll create more wow experiences, book more calls, and makes more money.