Estimated read time: 2 minutes, 26 seconds

Customer support workers are the unsung superheroes of the working world today. So what does a support agent need to become a real-life superhero?

Superpower of Foresight

Sometimes there are certain tickets that never seem to end. No matter how thorough your answer is, after one email there’s always another to come. Don’t waste your time and energy — do your best to stay ahead of the curve. To do so, you will need the “superpower” of foresight. First make sure to collect enough of the relative information on forums, in FAQs, and in various instructions and guidelines to redirect the customer straight there. Second, always compose your answer while keeping in mind what else could be asked after this particular reply, and even what might be asked two replies further. Think of all possible outcomes, and do your best to cover all bases in the first email.

Superpower of Teamwork

If there’s one thing that can make a superhero stronger, it’s their team. But what makes a team strong? Well-coordinated work. In the context of customer support, it means you have to always find the best way to consolidate all conversations you’ve had with a particular customer into a single chain so no one will overlook any detail from it. Don’t keep your allies in the dark! Leave useful comments, and make notes to eliminate unnecessary confusion in replies. Contribute to efficient workflow by taking into account every other agent who worked on the case before, who’s helping you deal with it now, and who will likely work on it in the future.

Superpower of Memory

Many things change as time goes on: products get updated, rules become different, and the nature of cases can change. While keeping up with the progress, you cannot forget that there will still be customers that can put you on the spot with a seemingly outdated question. No matter what it is, it’s best to be prepared. To keep your memory in good shape, assign certain days within each month to go through some cases from the past, systemizing everything to make it easier to access and retrieve at will. However, you shouldn’t turn your brain into a bottomless archive. Instead, find the best ways to make it easier to recollect something that is necessary right away. Pay attention to that, to always remain firm and self-confident like a real superhero.

At the end of the day, everyone on your team is a superhero in their own way. The best way to enable their “superpowers” is to let them go with their strengths.

 


This guest blog post was written by Daria Leshchenko, the Partner & CEO at SupportYourApp – a BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) vendor that provides customer support services for IT companies across the entire world. Daria has specialized in creating and applying methodologies of customer support services for more than 9 years.