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To say that customer care is important would be a gross understatement. When nearly 85% of customers say they will go out of their way to spend more money after a positive customer service experience, investing in great customer care representatives isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity.
But what does a customer care representative (also referred to as a customer service representative) do? What type of tasks are they responsible for on support teams? And what are the qualifications that leaders on customer service teams should look for when hiring for these positions? Read on for the answers to all of these questions.
What is a Customer Service Representative?
Customer service representatives are responsible for interfacing with customers. They facilitate relationships between a company and its clients, resolve issues, help to drive sales by cross-selling and upselling, and create memorable experiences that boost brand and customer loyalty.
Yes, you can get a lot done through training, but attracting the right kind of customer service agents really starts with the job description.
Creating the right job description that captures the typical customer service duties and skills necessary for the position will ensure you’re attracting the highest quality candidates.
Customer Care Representative Tasks
Culling together a clear, well-defined list of customer care representative tasks and responsibilities is the first step in creating a thorough job description. Be sure to provide comprehensive yet succinct descriptions that are clear and easy to follow.
Tasks to include in a Customer Care job description:
- Interact with customers to solve issues and questions about products, services, and policies
- Maintain a positive and friendly tone with customers at all times
- Recruit potential customers by recommending goods or services and demonstrating how they benefit the customer personally
- Establish new customer accounts and record account information, like phone numbers or addresses, on your digital platform
- Listen to customer complaints and try to identify the cause of their problem to your best ability
- Identify the appropriate response and strategy to solve customer issues as quickly as possible
- Relegate unique customer cases to supervisors or the appropriate department and provide context when necessary
- Be able to manage large amounts of phone calls, chats, emails, and other communication channels
- Assist customers on placement of orders, refunds, or exchanges
- Ensure customer satisfaction and maintain professional customer support
- Place the customer at the center of the customer service experience
By providing a long yet clear customer care task and responsibility list, you’re setting yourself up to finding the representative who best fits your needs and standards.
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Qualifications for customer care representatives
Just as important as the customer care tasks and responsibility description are the set of qualifications required for the position. If you don’t define the appropriate qualifications for your position, you will be met with a number of under or overqualified resumes and applications.
Customer Care Representative Qualifications to look for:
- High school diploma and general education required, Bachelor’s degree preferred
- Proven call center or customer service experience preferred
- Strong soft skills and communication skills
- Flexibility to work multiple shifts, including during the weekends or on holidays
- Must be willing to take part in required initial training
- Willingness to take and ability to pass background check and drug screening
- Can demonstrate empathy, listening skills, and speaking skills
- Basic understanding of office and computer systems/software
- Can succeed in a fast-paced work environment without being distracted during a customer interaction
- Willingness to become familiar with the products and services of the company
- Can work efficiently and manage time accordingly
- Must have excellent organizational and multitasking skills
With the above qualification list, you’re sure to attract high quality candidates and deter applicants who aren’t quite ready to fill your role.
Clear and accurate qualification and task lists will additionally provide candidates with a first impression of your organization, allowing you to establish a professional relationship with new hires from the get go.
Gladly will transform your care representatives into service heroes
Gladly is a customer service platform for digitally-focused B2C companies who want to maximize the lifetime value of their customers. Unlike the legacy approach to customer service software, which is designed around a ticket or case to enable workflows, Gladly enables radically personal customer service centered around people to sustain customer loyalty and drive more revenue.
The world’s most innovative consumer companies like Godiva, JOANN, and TUMI use Gladly to create lasting customer relationships, not one-off experiences.
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