When it comes to hiring help desk support to provide technical help to your customers, there are certain qualities you should look for. These employees will have a huge impact on your customers and are a representation of your business every time they answer a phone call. It’s fair to assume that customers might be less than thrilled to be calling your help desk and will likely be running on little to no patience. In order for your staff to be able to effectively handle and resolve each situation without conflict, there are certain qualities they’ll need to posses, some of which include: politeness, patience, and multitasking skills. If you’re looking for some new help desk support and are unsure of what to look for in your new staff, check our list of qualities to look for in a good help desk agent!
Active Listening
We can guarantee that no customer would be calling your customer support if they didn’t absolutely have to, so making sure that your staff listens to them when they explain their issue is imperative. Listening to the customer and their issue is only the first step of active listening—the final step is to offer a solution. The caller doesn’t want to only know that you heard them but that you’ll do something about their problem. Listen carefully to their complaint and work to find an effective solution.
Patience
Patience is an absolute must when you’re a call center agent. You’ll likely be dealing with frustrated customers, and the last thing they want is to be greeted by an impatient staff member who’s in a rush to get them off the phone. Help desk agents should take the time to explain things to the customer if they’re having an issue and remain patient with them, even if it takes a little extra time. If the customer’s calling for technical support, patience is even more important since not everyone is technologically advanced, and some may need more careful assistance than others.
Politeness
Being polite is always important, but it’s even more so when you find yourself dealing with an upset client. Maintaining a positive attitude can be difficult when dealing with an angry customer, but staff members need to remember that the nicer they are, the harder it’ll be for the customer to remain angry. Being polite to them regardless of their attitude will likely diffuse the situation and help agents get to the bottom of their problem faster.
Focused
We’re all guilty of zoning out for a few moments every now and then, but help desk employees don’t have this luxury. You need focused individuals who’ll listen to your customers’ needs every step of the way and will hone in on solutions as fast as possible. Being focused will increase the quality of customer service and shorten the length of calls since problems will be solved efficiently.
Accuracy
Customers call help desks for solutions, so being accurate is a huge factor that can affect your success. Help desk support will need to not only be fast on their feet, but they will also need to come up with solutions that actually work. Feeding customers inaccurate answers will only irritate them further, which won’t be a positive situation for anyone.
Flexibility
Help desk support should be flexible and able to deal with a variety of customers, whether they’re extra chatty or are curt and just want to get their problem fixed. It can be a challenge to switch gears every phone call, but being able to adjust to the tone and nature of each conversation will make the difference in the experience that the customer walks away with.
Creativity
A call center job may seem pretty black and white, but sometimes there’s the need for a little creativity. Problems that they may not have encountered before may be thrown at them in a tense environment, and they may need to come up with a solution on their own. You should be able to trust your help desk staff to improvise and use their experience and instincts to solve problems on the go.
Time Management
While you want your call center agents to provide excellent service to your customers, you also need them to remember that time is extremely valuable in this business—the faster they can assist customers, the faster they can move on to the next caller and work through the queue. Being able to manage their time wisely will be profitable for the company and will allow customers’ issues to be resolved as fast as possible.
Technical Skills
Technical skills are extremely important to have since your help desk employees will be providing technical support to those who call in with an issue. You’ll want to make sure that your staff is adequality trained and know what they’re talking about since nothing will aggravate a likely already frustrated customer than speaking with someone who doesn’t know how to help them.
Multitasking
Great call center employees should know how to multitask effectively in order to complete all their tasks in a timely manner. For example, they may need to take notes about a client, and it’s more effective to do this while they’re still on the line since there’s a chance they could forget details once they hang up.
Well-Organized
Call center agents will probably have to balance a few tasks at once, and it’s easy to drop the ball and forget about something if they don’t stay organized. Having a pre-established, companywide organizational system can help—but if you don’t have one, simply encourage you employees to develop one of their own that works for them.
If you’re looking for the best help desk agents to provide unparalleled services to your customers, 3C Contact Services is where you’ll find them. We have a team of dedicated, expertly-trained individuals who would be more than happy to assist your customers with technical help and provide them with quality customer service. We offer more than just technical help desk services; you can rely on 3C Contact Services for customer retention services, direct response marketing, e-mail management, and live chat support among others. If you’re interested in growing your business by not only keeping your current clients but also expanding your overall client base, contact us today to find out how you can get started.
