Words that need to be avoided as a customer service agent

When customers face problems with their daily products, they get stuck with their daily work. Dig out the instruction book and there is a customer service line to call. They are calling with a hope that there are some solutions to resolve their problems. As a customer service agent what can you do is to provide the best tone and solutions to the customers to make sure they are satisfied with your attempt.

I used to work for a call center to provide solutions via phone and have gone thru some useful training. I think what I get from the experience is quite useful when it comes to handle customers. There are skills and experiences that I still keep until now. It helps when I am having conversation with customers.

As a customer service agent, there are words you need to avoid during conversations with customers.

1. “Are you sure…” This can cause you in a bad situation with customers as they feel like you are insulting them by assuming they don’t know about what they are doing. Example: One customer called and said that they are having problem with the Internet line and you are telling them that the line is working ok. You ask them to check on the device and they replied with the device is working fine. By then you ask “Are you sure the device is working okay?” Then you will get into a big trouble. For you information, this is what I always get from TM call center.

2. “Try to reset again..” Sometimes most of the problems can be resolved by resetting the machine, but not all. You should ask if the call-in person whether they’ve tried to reset before. If the person already reset the machine for 5 times and you ask them to reset again, you will see the reaction after the quote.

3. “That’s not my job” Some people like to push the responsibility around to the technical person especially front line customer service. That’s totally not right, because you are representing your organization and not just your front line. That makes customers think that they are calling the wrong person.

4. “I don’t know..” Don’t ever think of getting yourself out of the trouble by saying “I don’t know”. Why your company put you into customer service because you are the person with all kind of knowledge to solve customers’ problems.
5. “You’ll have to call….” It’s good to know that your department is not handling this case. So, you ask the person who called with the hope to contact someone else, this will cause you into a deep trouble as well. You can say customer have no knowledge on who to call. Maybe this is the third department they called and “Are you kidding me? You ask me to call another call center again??!!!?

When I was a customer service agent, I enjoyed receiving calls and I always respect customers who call for the solutions. Sometimes I get scolded as usual by frustrated customers, but when you really help the person who needs help, you will feel very proud of yourself. That was one good experience I had in my working life.