Building a Strong Customer Service Team

By Anne Rose

The pressure can increase to the point that one of your team members lets the stress be heard over the phone. There are more and more demands being made of front line team members, and sometimes the pressure can be heard by your customer. Building a strong customer service team is no easy feat. Here are some suggestions for building and strengthening your team:

Hire the right people

Decide up front what skills, strengths and personality you want on the team. The team creates its own culture based on your leadership. Be clear in interviews about what expectations you have for the job, what will create success and how it will be measured. As you narrow down candidates it's a good idea to have them meet a few people on the team. Let the candidates get a feel for the team they may be working with.

Be a team member as well as a manager and leader

A successful team is only as successful as each individual team member. By viewing each role as an integral part of the team, not as a subordinate, each team member feels valued. This results in greater trust, smoother communication and better individual and team results.

Model the behaviour you want to see

As a leader you are the role model for the team. They set the tone based on you. When things go wrong they look to you for help. After a tough customer call it's important that they feel they can tell you about it - for two reasons: you never want to be broad sided by an irate customer or customer issue, and you want your team to have trust in you. You can information gather after a tough call which allows you to identify any trends in product issues or identify any training or interpersonal issues. The sooner these are identified the better.

Handle problems as soon as they arise

Just as we want customer problems to be handled immediately, it's important to assist in problem resolution as soon as it arises. Here's a watch point: you want to let your team members to step out and try new things, take chances and manage the consequences; however you need to be there as the support system if they need you and to help as needed. Be there, be available and be supportive.