Recruiting and retaining the best customer service managers is critical if we want to grow as a company. Customers are more likely to switch to another company if they do not feel their needs are being met.
To attract the best employees, we must be clear about what we expect in new hires, make the onboarding process quick and painless, have clear organizational structures, and provide backup and support to our customer service managers if they encounter a particularly difficult customer or a particularly difficult question. If we support our customer service managers, they will be able to support our customers and help us grow regardless of what happens in the rest of the world.
What Are Businesses Looking for in New Hires?
When looking for the best customer service managers, it is important to recognize what education, skills, and knowledge are required for such roles. All customer service management positions typically require a background in customer service. Organizations are also increasingly requiring candidates to have a bachelor’s degree in business administration or a closely related field, as well as specialized credentials. Furthermore, we need to look for people who enjoy interacting with others and are eager to troubleshoot and find solutions to any concerns or questions that our clients may have. If we do not have a good idea of what we are looking for in a new hire, we may struggle to find someone who is a good fit and who is willing to stay with our organization for the long term.
Onboarding of New Employees
When we make a job offer to a candidate and they accept, it is essential that we quickly integrate them into our organization’s structure. One critical consideration is how we can reduce ramp time for new hires because the longer this process takes, the longer we will be without someone in this pivotal role in the organization. Filling out HR paperwork, showing new employees the ropes, and giving them the opportunity to shadow someone else in their role to see our business’s procedures in action are all possible components of the onboarding process. If we do not have enough customer service representatives, we risk losing business because we will be perceived as being less responsive to our clients’ needs. Finding ways to streamline the process so that we always have the people we need to provide amazing customer service is critical to our organization’s ability to thrive.
Having Well-defined Organizational Structures
If new hires struggle to understand our organizational structure, they are less likely to provide the best possible service. This includes ensuring that our customer service managers are empowered to consider our customers’ needs and listen to the feedback they provide as the primary driver of our business priorities and actions. Anyone in the company can make actionable changes to their processes based on the feedback provided by customers, instantly improving each customer’s experience.
Getting to a “Yes” should be the goal of anyone who is in a public-facing role. It is the manager’s responsibility to ensure that customers are being listened to. Customers will not feel heard if the manager does not have a thorough understanding of the organization and the organizational structures that are in place. Customers don’t want to be directed to the wrong department or feel like they must play phone tag to have their needs met.
Providing Support for Our Customer Service Representatives
If we want to keep customer service managers, we need to make them feel like we have their back. When dealing with customers, there will always be difficult moments when customers make the customer service manager’s job stressful. This means that managers must be aware that if they encounter a problem, they can seek assistance, brainstorm solutions with others, and will be supported regardless of the actions they must take to assist the customer.
Furthermore, it is critical that customer service managers feel free to find customer solutions without being micromanaged. This includes creating an organizational climate in which a manager can take a moment to pause and take a breath when needed, because burnout is more prevalent in organizations where employees fear being judged for seeking assistance or advice.
