You are what they hear? How do I begin to build rapport with callers? Understanding customers is the key to giving them excellent customer service. In order to understand customers, you must begin by building rapport. Focusing on rapport will allow you to gain your customers trust, encouraging their unconscious minds to accept and begin processing your suggestions. Developing a connection or rapport with another person is a crucial part of the communication process. When communication with the customer is strained and customer support agents do not attempt to connect with their customers, things can get ugly fast. Luckily, you will find that the process to begin developing rapport with customers is pretty intuitive. Here are some tips on how to build rapport with customers. Start the conversation with a warm up. This can be as simple as asking, how is your day going so far or what's the weather like where you are today? In most cases, the caller will politely answer you and your warm up will have worked. All you really need to do is set the stage for a relaxing exchange between you and the collar. Use active listening skills. Active listening is the process of reflecting on the caller's problem, and then repeating it back to ensure understanding. Once you have clarified the problem, you must then follow up with questions to help refine your search for the problem as well as the solution. As a bonus, applying active listening skills helps the caller feel listened too. Elevating their level of trust while streamlining your path to the solution. For example, you could say something like, it sounds like you're having trouble connecting to the Internet that must be frustrating, how long have you been having this problem? The active listening combination of question and statement, allows you to clarifies the customer's issue as well as empathize with them, ensuring you lay the groundwork for a trusting working relationship with the customer. Use verbal nods, a verbal nod lets the collar know that you are listening. You can do this by using soft mm-hm, and noises as the customer speaks. These soft acknowledgement noises, ensure the caller that you are engaged in the conversation. Go off script, regardless of whether or not you use a general script when working, try to use your own words and put your personality into what you say. Customers tend to zone out when they hear what sounds like a script being read to them, and are more likely to feel satisfied when they feel that they've received personalized service. And finally perhaps the most valuable tip, be adaptable in your approach. There really is no one size fits all approach to building rapport. Each caller comes to the call with their own set of circumstances. You will have to adapt to the needs of each and every caller. Efficient agents are quick to evaluate a callers mood and tone, and approach them accordingly. For example, if the collar is angry or frustrated, simply apologizing at the right moment can help soothe the tension and break down the barriers, so you can create space to establish rapport. You can also build rapport by setting realistic expectations and goals. Keeping your promises is crucial to customer satisfaction. So giving them realistic expectations for solutions is critical. Customers who are given a false promise or expectation, are far less satisfied than those who are given a realistic expectation up front, even if you're telling them something they don't want to hear. Imagine that a customer service agent talks you through a problem you're having with your phone. The agent is patient, kind, and explains the solutions in a clear and concise manner. At the end of the call, you're worried the issue will occur again. So the agent promises to call you in a few hours to make sure that things are still running smoothly. Hours pass and the agent never calls. Well, your perception of the agent and your experience as a whole, change now that you've been given a promise that wasn't kept. Chances are, your opinion of the experience will be much more negative than it would have been if the agent hadn't made the promise at all. As a bonus, setting realistic expectations for customers, set you up to potentially exceed their expectations rather than setting yourself and the customer up for failure. Remember, don't make promises you can't keep. When developing relationships with callers, it's also important to learn how to recognize and respect cultural differences. It is very likely that your callers will come from all over the world, as you might expect. While focusing on building rapport with callers, it is important to be aware of the ways that cultures may differ from one another. For example, some cultures criticize displays of emotions more than others, believing that emotions may distort reasoning. They may even regard using emotions as unprofessional. It is possible that callers from these cultures, may appear to lack emotion or seem bored and uninterested. Conversely, callers from more emotional cultures, may freely share when they are angry or upset. Keeping these distinctions in mind can be beneficial when navigating conversations with people from different cultures, but it is also important to avoid generalizations or assumptions. Instead, focus on starting each new conversation with an open attitude. Be perceptive of the cultural differences you will learn about throughout the course of your career, and concentrate on adjusting your behavior when you see fit. In other words, be adaptable. At the end of the day, building rapport with callers comes down to treating everyone you speak to with respect. This will help to fortify a connection between you and your customers.
