No matter how small or big a business is, customer care is the heart of any business. It is very important to provide a good customer service to ensure customers are satisfied and they come back again. When customers are happy, they spread the word in a positive way, making a brand or service popular. This leads to business growth as more people get to know about it.
Customer care executives are the face of a company. Their job is to address every customer's problem with patience, ensuring maximum satisfaction. Besides their core responsibilities, they go that extra mile just to make their customers' day and provide them with best possible solutions. Clients can be annoying, impatient, hilarious and at times good too. But a customer care representative knows how to deal smartly with different people, turning them into happy customers. The job isn't easy but it is very rewarding.
If you want to become one, bring smiles on the faces and increase a brand's value with your excellent service, there are multiple online courses designed to enhance the skills you need to become a successful customer care representative. You can look for online courses after graduation or short courses that you can take up along with your studies.
If you are thinking how a customer care representative works through the day, here is how her daily schedule looks:
The day typically begins quite early (between 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.) with checking the emails that have come overnight and responding to all the queries. There will usually be some inquiries that will need follow up from other departments like in case of a product-return, payment issue or any service-related. During the day there is likely to be at least one team meeting with the unit lead as customer care representatives usually work in teams with a clear reporting structure so that serious cases can be handled by seniors.
Usually, a customer care representative is expected to answer emails as well as calls during a day. Another responsibility is to handle customer calls to resolve their complaints. During weekdays, the call flow is less as compared to the weekends. In some cases, the representative also needs to call customers back to update or provide them with the information they have been looking for. For example, on refund status or respond to feedback submitted by them.
Another thing that a customer care representative needs to do on a daily basis is to keep track of complaints that require more time to get resolved and of the cases that have already been resolved. This practice keeps the work organized and is necessary for reporting on the performance of the unit that the representative is a member of.
While all this is a part of the job, it is also important to always keep yourself motivated and in a good mood if you want to be successful as a customer service executive. If you are positive and filled with energy, you can easily achieve your goal of customer satisfaction.
Here are some handy tips if you are looking to make a career in the field of customer care or customer relationship management:
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Keep calm and be patient
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Be an active listener
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Develop strong communication skills
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Improve your ability to multi-task
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Get familiar with CRM tools and softwares
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Never give up on any situation or customer
While some people think the job of a customer service representative is to simply answer the calls, provide the same set of responses and work like a robot, it definitely goes well beyond that. The job can be quite challenging but involves a lot of creativity and fun while talking to a customer. When managing calls, you might come across different kinds of people and you will experience a lot of personal and professional growth. You will also get many opportunities to lead teams as people with 1-2 years experience in customer care are usually valued highly and required to guide others.
For women, the advantage of specializing in customer care is that there are now companies that allow you to answer and make calls from home. This arrangement provides a lot of flexibility.
Glow & Lovely Careers (formerly known as Fair & Lovely Career Foundation) provides you with free professional courses online related to various industries. It also offers career guidance through a list of career options and career tests online that will help you in your career development . Some of the world's best education partners like edX.org, niit.tv, etc. have collaborated with Glow & Lovely Careers to change the lives of many women and girls who dream of success and a bright career.
