One of the first things you need to understand about customer service is that you can't please everyone, all the time. As such, it's important to train and equip your customer service staff to handle challenging situations with customers over the phone. Make no mistake, this is a crucial part of managing a successful business; happy customers translate to exponential business growth, and unhappy customers can hurt the reputation of your business.

So, the next time your CS teams deals with indecisive, demanding, or even aggressive customers over the phone, you should refer to these handy tips on how to handle difficult customers. In a nutshell, keep your composure, empathise with your customer, and understand that customers are human too.

The Customer Service team at your business will need to pick up a number of skills to help them handle these situations — with grace and composure. Besides empathising, CS reps can use skills such as vocal modulation to help keep customers calm, while the ability to compromise and problem-solve on-the-go are hugely important, too.

A lot of these skills work superbly in tandem with Omni Hotline, which makes the rest of your phone service tasks very, very easy. Customisable phone menus, multiple extensions, call recordings, and even a virtual assistant — everything you need to seamlessly handle inbound and outbound business calls.

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Despite the advancement of AI-based chatbots and the like, phone calls still play a crucial role in business communications today. According to a survey, 86 percent of customers would disengage from a brand following a negative customer service experience — a figure which highlights the importance of phone etiquette when speaking to customers in 2021.

From your opening statements, to putting customers on hold, here are some essential tips on phone etiquette for 2021.

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Selling a product or service over the phone can be a challenging task to fulfil — many people simply don't have the time to speak to strangers anymore. However, it's still possible, provided that sales persons put in the effort required to optimise their persuasion skills.

In a nutshell, there are a number of ways that can help you to be more persuasive on the phone, including the right amount of research prep, while you should maintain an upbeat tone that is both direct an authoritative. For a more conclusive list: 

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At the end of the day, customer service is usually provided by the customer service team in your company. And as mentioned, this is an essential component of a business' success — which is why it's important to create a strong culture of customer service.

So, how can you achieve this? The gist of it: 

• Develop a written training process
• Make customer service a part of everyone's job
• Communicate with your employees
• Give them access to resources
• Allow them to provide support on their own

For more information: 

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How to get customer success?

Customer success is achieved by ensuring that your customers are able to derive their desired benefits from using your product or service — customer service plays a very important role in establishing this. As we advance towards improved business technologies, customer expectations for the quality of service provided have increased. Like with all facets of business, you should always take note of the latest business trends to help you adapt to the ever-changing landscape. And as the New Normal shifts towards remote or hybrid work models, there are a number of trends that help shape good customer service — trends that you need to take into account.

These include: 

• Intensifying personalisation
• Embracing chatbots
• Emphasis on social media
• Customer service reps working from home
• Proactive support strategy

For a detailed breakdown: 

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How to satisfy customers?

Customer service is a crucial factor in the success of a business, as we've covered above. But how do you maximise customer satisfaction? For one, it's essential that you manage and deliver on customer expectations, while an omnichannel communication system will help to open the lines of honest, constructive, and effective communication between all parties.

For tips on maximising the satisafaction of your customers: 

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How to improve customer loyalty?

COVID-19 has had a significantly detrimental effect upon businesses all over the world, across multiple sectors. But these troubled times also mean that customers are looking for more guidance and conveniences from the brands that they trust — which highlights the crucial role played by customer service. The better you can gain, maintain, and increase your customers' trust, the more likely your customers are to be loyal to your brand.

Remember to always support your team's efforts, and to expand your customer service team's resources during this time of economic uncertainty. Be honest and authentic with your customers, and finally aim for convenience and embrace generosity.

How to improve customer service?

To really take things to the next level with regards to your business' customer service, you'll want to employ a couple of useful methods. These include the personalisation of customers' experience, while you should also try to learn as much as possible about your customer prior to any lead conversions.

The final aim here isn't simply to sell. It's more than that — the goal should be to. have returning customers. Show them the benefits of returning to buy more. For more tips on taking your customer service to the next level:

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Without the ability to read visual cues, it can be difficult to handle phone conversations — from personal calls to business communications. But a technique that will undoubtedly improve your phone communication is to improve your listening skills. The better you listen, the better equipped you are to respond with a valueable answer to your customer.

To read about a number of simple techniques to improve your listening skills: 

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Top 5 Tips for Forging Emotional Connections with Your Callers

How to build customer relationships?

Emotional connection is a significant factor in just about any relationship — even the ones that businesses have with their customers. This may seem challenging for those who are providing a service over the phone but there are a few simple methods that companies can use to build relationships with their callers.

It's important to avoid sounding robotic, or forced over the phone. A key to resolving a lot of customer service issues is to forge an emotional connection with those who dial in. This can be done in a variety of ways, including:

• Brief, but personable greetings
• Agent and customer matching
• Giving the customer sufficient time to speak
• Establishing an ongoing relationship

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5 Powerful Customer Service Phrases Your Business Needs to Use

If your customer service team is finding it difficult to say the right thing during difficult moments, we've compiled a couple of powerful phrases that your business can use to balance conflicts — while making sales.

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