Why interpersonal skills are important to customer service

This goes as much for retail as for service providers like banks and insurance companies. This is good news for organisations as well as customers, because it is much cheaper to retain a customer than to go and find a new one—and delighted customers may even go out and find new customers for you! There are a number of things that you can do to ensure that customers are satisfied with your service. These include:. It is perfectly possible to apologise without admitting liability. Useful phrases include:.

It sounds really horrible. There is more about this on our pages Apologising and Crisis Communications. With this focus on customer needs and building relationships, it is relatively easy to identify the skills that are most important for delivering great customer experiences and customer service. Being able to listen to a customer and understand their issue or problem is perhaps the most important skill for good customer service. This, of course, is harder, because you have no body language or tone of voice to help you.

Effective listening requires hearing what the customer is saying—and also what they are not saying, but what may be frustrating them. For example, customers may phone to ask where something is on the website, or keep stopping staff in store to ask about particular items. You can point them in the right direction, but there may be a wider issue about the navigability of your website, or your store signage. Good customer service means identifying—and resolving—these wider issues.

For more about this, you may find it helpful to read our pages on Listening Skills. You may also need to demonstrate to customers that you are listening, for example, by reflecting or paraphrasing what they have just said. This is part of listening, but it is worth considering separately, because of its importance.

As well as listening skills, general communication skills are an important part of good customer service. It is essential to communicate clearly so that customers know what to expect, and what they are getting.

Miscommunications can be expensive, particularly in terms of customer goodwill, but also if you have to do something that costs additional money as a result. Using positive language can help to ensure that you keep customers focused on the positive aspects of the situation. For example, there is a huge difference between:. The meaning is the same, but in the second, there is a sense that you are doing a little bit more for the customer—and you are also closing a sale at the same time!

The key, as before, is to focus on how you are going to meet customer needs, which is much more positive than explaining why you cannot help them at the moment. Our Communication Skills eBooks. Learn more about the key communication skills you need to be an effective communicator.

Our eBooks are ideal for anyone who wants to learn about or develop their communication skills, and are full of easy-to-follow practical information and exercises. Patience is sometimes seen as an old-fashioned concept, a virtue that has little place in our fast-moving world.

Sign in. Career Development. What are interpersonal skills? Why interpersonal skills are important. Interpersonal skills that are important at work. Verbal communication. Active listening. Body language. Conflict resolution. How to improve interpersonal skills. Figure out what you need to improve.

Identify areas of interpersonal communication you can strengthen by asking for feedback from colleagues, managers, family or friends. Watch others. Learn good interpersonal skills by observing coworkers, company leaders and professionals you admire and respect. Watch and listen to how they communicate and what body language they use. Note details such as their tone of voice, speed of speaking and how they engage with others. Apply those traits to your own interactions and relationships.

Learn to control your emotions. Wait until you are calm to have conversations with colleagues. You are more likely to communicate confidently and effectively if you have a positive attitude and are not stressed or upset. Reflect on your interactions. Keep notes or a journal about your conversations and interactions at work so you can learn how to handle or communicate things better.

Consider whether you could have reacted differently or used certain words or body language more effectively. Note positive interactions, as well, so you can understand why they were successful. Practice your skills: Put yourself in positions where you can build relationships and use your interpersonal skills.

For example, you might join a group that has organized meetings or social events. This could be an industry-specific group you found through a professional organization or a shared interest or hobby group. Attend events to learn and observe how to communicate and behave with others. Acknowledge others. Pay attention to your friends and colleagues and make efforts to interact with them. Compliment coworkers on their hard work or good ideas.

Bring your colleague a cup of coffee. Ask team members how their week was or what their interests are to get to know them better. Offer to help someone who is having a bad day or a difficult time.

These steps can help you build stronger, more positive working relationships. Avoid distractions. Put away your phone or mobile device when interacting or communicating with others. This one is pretty self-explanatory. Customers are going to get angry.

Sometimes at you specifically. The ability not to take offense will go a long way in these emotionally charged situations. Anger on your part will only make the situation worse. Tenacity is the drive to reach a successful resolution to the problem despite the work it might require.

Tenacity is a motivation to go beyond the status quo in order to help a customer have a positive and enjoyable experience. Cultivate that quality in yourself and your employees for a truly stellar customer service experience.

Staying positive under pressure, often in the face of antagonism and negative emotions, can have a calming effect on the entire situation. When you stay positive, you can influence the angry customer to calm down and take a better view of things.

That makes finding a solution so much easier. Sometimes, the simplest way to solve a problem, is to be decisive : make the decision and then stick to it. Encouraging employees to make decisions, and then backing them up after they do, can bring about a quick resolution to most problems.

It can even keep problems from ballooning into something monstrous. If an employee is presented with a complaint and the solution is obvious and simple, give them the freedom to be decisive—to make the decision on their own. That simple act of being persistent in trying to make the customer happy, can go a long way toward solving the problem. The customer will see your concern and soften her attitude accordingly. No two problems are ever the same.

Because of that, resolving the wide variety of issues that may pop up can require a healthy dose of creativity. Encourage creative problem-solving to make your business stand out. A sense of humor can go a long way to defusing a sticky situation. Just make sure you are never laughing at the customer. If they make a joke, fine, laugh along.

But never insult the customer or make light of their situation, even in a funny way. Assertiveness means taking control of the situation and doing what needs to be done to reach a successful conclusion.

Assertiveness and decisiveness often go hand in hand. When dealing with customer problems, try not to be meek or passive. This can cause the customer to lose faith in you. That said, try not to be aggressive. Such negative behavior can cause the customer to take offense. Assertiveness occupies the middle ground between those two extremes. Be confident and speak accordingly, and will come across as assertive.

Some customers will accept your solution right away.