Well that’s a wrap. We hope you’ve enjoyed the 4 customer service tips from our partner Molokini Consulting. Customer Service should be at the forefront of what we do before, after and during the job.

To keep these tips in one place for you, we’ve grouped them altogether and inserted them below for you in case you ever need to reference them.

If you did take away a lot from these tips, Molokini Consulting conducts training programs in their studio at Norwest Business Park, a 30 minute drive from Sydney’s CBD. If you’re looking to further develop you or your team’s customer service skills, we’d highly recommend attending the Customer Service Training on June 30! You can book tickets for this event here!

Tip 1 - The Power of Listening 

Before we begin these tips, I’d like to introduce myself. I’m Cindy Steer of Molokini Consulting and we’re a proud partner of FlatRateNOW. At Molokini Consulting we coach and train a range of clients in the trade space and we love imparting our knowledge to help businesses succeed. I hope you enjoy the tips and take a lot from it!

A core fundamental of customer service is simply listening to our customers. 

A study found that 82% of customers would switch products or service providers after a bad experience with the company's customer service department.

Customers who feel heard will connect with you on a deeper level and in turn, trust you. As a result, this will translate into a higher quote conversion rate.

We don’t know what type of day our customer is having, however, the customer service team member can be the calming influence your customer is looking for. Below are a few ways your team can do this:

• Introduce themselves using a customised script.
• Listen to really understand and take notes of the customer's situation.
• Repeat back to the customer what they think they heard them say.
• Engage in asking questions in regards to the job and encourage the customer to ask any questions they have.
• Stay relevant, polite and on point.

In this clip Simon Sinek references the importance of listening and the power it can bring to any conversation. This can not only be applied to customer service, but also to your internal culture within a team.

To close off this tip, don’t forget the importance of listening. It could be the difference between landing and not landing a job or even making someone’s day!

Tip 2 - Pre-Call Preparation

Being prepared is generally a good thing and can help all areas of life. When it comes to customer service, you can achieve many quick wins simply by thinking ahead and setting up the correct processes before a word is even spoken to a customer.

Pre-Call Preparation achieves positive results in customer service. Encourage the customer service team to maintain a clear and organised work area. 

Here’s how you set your team up for success: 

• Have the correct tools ready to streamline calls.
• Have the Booking Platform open and ready.
• Have the Truck locator screen available (If available).
• Have the Trade Wikki (if available)
• Have a notepad handy to provide any additional information that can help your team when they show up.

To summarise, Pre-Call Preparation can help put your team on the front foot and instill confidence in your team to deliver when it comes to landing a customer.  

Tip 3 - Handling objections and hostilities

Any industry involving customer service presents an opportunity for hostilities and objections to arise. It’s critical that these are handled promptly, consistently and peacefully.

It’s important your team understands that the customer may not always be right, but it’s critical that your approach is thoughtful. Ultimately, the customer is the boss. Without customers, there is no business. This can be hard for the customer service teams directly liaising with customers during times of hostility to understand. Which is completely valid in the face of abuse or heated discussions.

Educating your team on the importance of customer service and having standard protocols in place can alleviate the pressures on your customer team as well as the customer during turbulent discussions.

To ensure objections and hostilities are being handled coherently, coach your team to carry out the following actions:

• Be honest and maintain integrity. Talk to your company values
• Listen to understand
• Repeat back to the customer their understanding to get clarity
• Take the heat out of the discussion
• Ask for a suggested solution
• Acknowledge the suggestion
• Refer to Business Owner/Manager if required
• Keep customer in the loop and let them know when to expect a reply
• Always reply to a customer

We hope these tips help you and your team feeling more comfortable when tackling ojections and hostilities. 

Tip 4 - Showing Empathy 

Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another’s position.

When it comes to customer service, empathy creates a distinct relationship with the customer. We mentioned in the last tip, that without the customer there is no business. Therefore, we should always be striving to understand our customers and learn as much as we can about them.

Entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk places empathy on a pedestal for both leading a team and exhibiting excellent customer service. Specifically in regards to customer service, Gary believes if you endeavour to understand the customer,  you can use that insight to provide value to both sides.

So with all that said, what are some things you can do to show empathy?

• Endeavour to listen! - always seek to understand what your customers want and how you can fulfil this.
• Always respect your customer - most research shows that showing a customer respect is just as important to a customer as actually fixing a problem.
• See the customer’s perspective - this might sound like a simple one, but it’s important we truly endeavour to put ourselves in the customer’s shoes. From this, you can offer a suitable solution or refer the customer to the best point of contact.

We can use empathy to connect on common ground with customers, opening the door to better communication and more positive outcomes for everyone involved.