What are the Key Skills to be a Customer Service Manager?

A Customer Service Manager is a professional who is responsible for providing outstanding customer service by leading and motivating their team and developing loyalty programs to increase customer satisfaction and retention. Customer service managed should be an all rounder who’s able to manage the team as well, guide them towards customer service excellence. As Kevin Stirtz said, “Know what your customers want most and what your company does best. Focus on where those two meets”. A good customer service manager will focus on customer’s satisfaction and nothing more.

So, if you’re keen on what skills a customer service manager should have then here’s a list of skills that should be reflected on a customer service manager resume.

1. Team Building Qualities.

Customer service managers need to monitor the performance of their department and provide customer service agents with timely feedback on how to upskill themselves. After the pandemic many companies have cut down on their customer service teams therefore the importance of a customer service manager has increased even more. As a manager they have to make sure that they build their small team in a way that it gives out the best service possible. The work of the team effects the customer service; therefore, one should be able to build qualities of the team to work better towards providing customer service. In fact, according to Pwc, 1 in 3 customers will leave a brand they love after just one bad experience, while 92% would completely abandon a company after two or three negative interactions.

2. Leadership skills.

Every manager is expected to excel in being a leader. Managers are often people with great leadership skills especially customer service managers as they should be able to know how to stay agile and keep their team motivated. A manager with good leadership skill will be able to provide their team with guidance that will enrich the customer experience. In fact, according to Zendesk, 52% of consumers say they have made an additional purchase from a company after a positive customer service experience.

3. Problem solving skills.

An unsatisfied customer always looks for a manager as they believe that the manager will have the essential skills to solve their issues. Therefore, being able to go out of the box to solve a customer’s problem and improving their experience is a key skill for a customer service manager to have. A Lumoa survey says that 99% of Customer Experience and Success leaders believe Customer Experience Management has a positive impact on their business. Thus, a customer service manager should be especially skilled to ensure success for the company. Their problem-solving skills should help them negotiate with their team and customers and ensure that every conflict is resolved effectively.

4. Operation management skills.

As a customer service manager, you are responsible for hiring the right talent with a diverse set of skills so your team is equipped with handling complex sets of queries efficiently. In fact, salesforce says that 70% of customers say service agents’ awareness of sales interactions is very important to keeping their business. Therefore, it’s important that the service manager is someone who knows their job well and has skills to operated well. As a customer service manager, you have to fulfil staffing responsibilities, monitor the processes for your department and audit your departmental operations with a critical eye to see if anything needs to be improved.

5. Communication skills.

What’s a manager if they cannot communicate well? A customer service manager is responsible for holding meetings that drive internal alignment, finding quick resolutions for repetitive complex issues, coming up with solutions to improve customer service, and guiding or coaching everyone on their team. In fact, Harris Interactive, friendly employees or customer service representatives are what make a memorable experience that causes consumers to stick with a brand, for 73% of customers. Therefore, it’s important to communicate well with your teams as it influences how your customers see you. In fact, your communication skills come in handy when you have to collaborate and coordinate with multiple teams to streamline workflows, prioritize and fix the issues at hand.

Being a customer service manager is indeed difficult and requires a bunch of skills as we already mentioned. A manager has to deal with the toughest issues and keep their customer satisfaction from dwindling down, it’s a challenging role to take on where every day is going to be a mix of both good and bad instances. In fact, Gallup states that, 70% variance in team management can be accorded to the quality of the manager. So, next time you’re looking to hire a customer service manager, look for these skills in the resume.