5 skills of Customer Service may help you deal with your daily situations more effectively (Part 2)
3. Time management
Everyone has 24 hours per day, but for some people, 24 hours aren't enough.
Everyday, we have a lot of things to do, indeed from tiny to huge. For example, doing housework - caring children; working all day - cooking dinner, driving children to school - going to supermarket, etc. from early morning till late night. And all of us more or less want to complete it within one day. Then, how to do it?
You might have ever heard about "to-do-list" and "Urgent/Important" model can help you control time better, but in my opinion, the best solution which will help you manage time effectively is you need to define what your priorities are at that time. Like the story telling rocks, pebbles and sands by Stephen Covey, time management is about how to set your priorities.
Priority is whatever you think it's very important to you in the specific time (or specific period), i.e. top-urgent homework or target to pass IELTS 8.5 within 6 months. Determining priorities order helps you allocate your resource (time, energy, ability, etc) sensibly, balance work and enjoy your life happily.
One more point that I want to notice before you begin setting priority to manage time is once you plan, try your best to complete it. Don't give up halfway.
4. Complaint-handling
According to psychologists, people have tendency to upset when hearing complaints about themselves, even in small talks. Upset is normal reaction, but sometimes, we have to keep it inside us in order not to lose the atmosphere of talking.
In fact, it's not easy to do that unless you have enough patience.
When I were working in customer care, I used to hear many complaints per day. Some complaints were so harsh that I almost cried while hearing phone. Normally, appearance in my mind at such a situation was a will to reject listening any longer and express upset to the counterpart. But let try thinking if I did so, I would ruin the talking or lose the customers at the very worst. Because of representing as a customer service, putting customer in the top was my priority, I couldn't do as my instinct.
At that moment, instead of thinking about what makes me upset, uncomfortable, and sick, I took a deep breath, thought about something brighter for a while. Then, I felt ready to continue hearing complaints and was able to realize where a problem was. The calmer you are, the clearer you see trouble and the sooner you can find out solutions.
Thus, when you have to meet a complaint, please remember you should take a deep breath, think about what makes you comfortable, funny within a minute. Then, together with listening skill, you can control the talking and change an embarrassment complaint into an easy-going one.
5. Relationship-maintaining
When I learnt Brand Building Basics, Lorrie Thomas Ross told: "The true meaning of marketing is about maximizing relationships". Working in service field gave me a chance to practice this skill usually.
By communicating with many people who had different genders, ages, characters, backgrounds, and needs, I realized that each of them had unique experience which was values to organization's development. Keep in touch with them is a good way to research their behaviours, thinking, habits and those knowledge are a base to improve my service better and better.
As you ever known, building network is difficult yet I must admit keeping it live is harder. A firm and fruitful relationship should be built and cared in trust and sincere by two sides, which leads to grow bilateral credibility. At that time, it's truly your competitive advantage.
The larger network we have, the more opportunities we can reach.
---
I hope my article will be useful you. I really appreciate all your comments! Many thanks! On this occasion, I would like to share a video clip about "7 habits of effective people" by Stephen Covey. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktlTxC4QG8g)
Link part 1: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/5-skills-customer-service-may-help-you-deal-your-daily-sarah-lai?trk=pulse_spock-articles