Customer service roles have changed a lot over the last few years.
Of course, that depends on which business you ask, but these days, it’s not uncommon to see those behind the customer desk doing all sorts of jobs, including:
- Social media management
- Live chat support
- Marketing content creation
- Community moderation
- Email support
- Data analysis
- Sales support
- Technical troubleshooting
- Customer onboarding
And a whole lot more.
Today, we wanted to take the time to dial back to hash out some of the basics. Because at the end of the day, customer service isn’t just a role—it’s a lifeline.
It’s the bridge that connects a business to its customers.
So, let’s get into it, highlighting exactly why the customer service role is pivotal to the success of any business and how to ensure it’s working correctly for you.
What are the Key Customer Service Roles? (and their daily duties)
A customer service role these days is essentially anyone who directly interacts with a business’s customers in one way or another. That part we know.
However, when we actually break this down, the role gets a lot more complex and nuanced, and while a lot of customer service reps get jobs and responsibilities bundled together, the truth is that the landscape is vast.
Here are some of the main roles and what they look like.
Frontline/Customer Support Representatives
The onus is on Frontline/Customer Support Representatives when it comes to direct customer interfacing. Below are their core duties:
- Answering customer inquiries: Representatives handle client questions through various mediums such as phone calls, emails, live chats, or social media, elucidating details about the company’s products or services.
- Processing orders transactions: They shoulder responsibilities for order cancellations, product returns, or exchanges to ensure prompt and efficient processing.
- Resolving issues and troubleshooting: These professionals provide technical aid, fix product/service glitches, and troubleshoot issues to satisfy customers.
- Delivering information: They relay information about the company’s offerings, upselling related products or services, with an eye on enhancing customer satisfaction.
Technical Support Specialists
Technical support specialists are the troubleshooters in the customer service realm. Here is an outline of their daily duties:
- Resolving technical issues: Specialists tackle any technical problems customers might encounter with the company’s products or services.
- Assisting customers online or over the phone: They lend assistance either over the phone, through live chat, or other online platforms.
- Ensuring product functionality: They always stay vigilant to make sure all the products/services are working just as they should.
Customer Success Managers
A key role customer success managers priorities involve:
- Maintaining customer relationships: This involves proactively following up on purchases and feedback, always aiming to create a fantastic customer journey.
- Ensuring customer loyalty: They create loyalty programs and occasionally upgrade memberships to make the customers feel valued and appreciated.
- Addressing complaints and issues: Managers handle complaints gracefully and quickly, resolving the issues as efficiently as possible.
- Managing social media platforms: This involves maintaining the company’s image and managing all social media platforms professionally.
- Engaging with customers: They engage with customers and handle their queries or complaints on these platforms.
- Monitoring and reporting social media performance: They keep an eye on how well the company is performing on each platform and contribute to reports on the same.
Yes, you could hire individual people in your business for each of these roles, but it really depends on the needs and requirements of your business (and, of course, your budget).
However, with this breakdown in mind, you should start to see why employing the right talent for your CS roles is so important and where you may be getting bottlenecks in your business.
Expectations and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Customer Service Roles
Data is an important part of every modern business (those who don’t embrace it fall behind fast), and the same applies to monitoring, measuring, and operating your customer service team.
With good data, you can make good decisions.
However, just like every other role, customer service roles are prone to vanity metrics and dud KPIs.
Sure, one rep answering 200 phone calls a day sounds great, but if the satisfaction rate is under 30% and the other 70% are calling back to sort their problem with another rep, is your department really succeeding?
Let’s break down some of the KPIs that really matter.
General Expectations
- Empathy and active listening: Customer service positions necessitate empathy coupled with active listening. These attributes aid in comprehending the customer’s concerns and effectively addressing them.
- Time management and organizational skills: The ability to balance every customer inquiry efficiently is a product of successful time management and exceptional organizational skills, which are paramount in every customer service role.
- Problem-solving and critical thinking: The objectivity to analyze problems and formulate solutions is a critical skill in customer service agents. By applying cognitive resources, the agent provides optimal solutions to the customer’s issue.
- Adaptability and willingness to learn: Adaptability plays a pivotal role in customer service. As customer needs evolve, agents’ preparedness to acquire new skills to cater to these needs becomes indispensable.
- Product knowledge and technical aptitude: In-depth knowledge of the products or services supported is a non-negotiable skill for customer service agents. This knowledge finds its application in problem resolution and customer education.
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, both written and verbal: Given that customer service interacts directly with customers, possessing superior communication and interpersonal skills, both in writing and verbally, is a prerequisite for efficiency in delivering satisfactory service.
Role-Specific KPIs
- Frontline/Support: Customer satisfaction (CSAT), first contact resolution (FCR), and average handle time (AHT): Frontline or Support personnel are assessed through factors like CSAT, FCR, and AHT. A higher CSAT rating, shorter AHT, and increased FCR imply better performance.
- Technical Support: Resolution rate, time to resolution, customer effort score (CES): Technical Support’s effectiveness can be measured through a higher resolution rate, quicker time to resolution, and a lower CES. These KPIs show the team’s efficiency in tackling technical problems without encumbering the customer.
- Customer Success: Customer retention rate, customer lifetime value (CLTV), Net Promoter Score (NPS): For Customer Success Managers, a higher customer retention rate, higher CLTV, and a positive NPS indicates successful customer relationship management contributing to overall business growth.
- Social Media/Community: Engagement rate, sentiment analysis, reach, and impressions: The performance of Social Media or Community Managers can be tracked through factors like engagement rate, reach, impressions, and sentiment analysis. The higher the positive engagement and sentiment scores combined with shorter reach and impressions, the better the customer interaction through social platforms.
Career Paths in Customer Service
Whether you’re looking into careers yourself or you’re looking into the kind of infrastructure your business should have in the CS department, knowing the career paths in customer service worth is a valuable thing.
Let’s glance at what this entails:
Customer Service Representative
As the backbone of customer interaction, Customer Service Representatives play a pivotal role in upholding a company’s reputation.
Responsibilities:
- Answering customer inquiries: Clarifying doubts about products or services.
- Resolving complaints: Troubleshooting issues and addressing concerns.
- Providing assistance and support: Guiding customers through websites, product usage, etc.
- Processing orders and handling returns: Ensuring smooth transactions and managing returns.
- Maintaining customer records: Tracking interaction history, purchases, preferences, and issues.
Salary: The median annual salary in the US is around $37,920, equating to roughly $18 per hour.
Technical Support Specialist
Tech-savvy individuals excel in this role, providing technical assistance and troubleshooting for customers experiencing issues with products or services.
Responsibilities:
- Troubleshooting technical problems: Identifying and resolving software or hardware malfunctions.
- Providing technical guidance: Assisting customers with setup, installation, and usage.
- Documenting solutions: Recording troubleshooting steps and solutions for future reference.
- Escalating complex issues: Referring intricate problems to higher-level technicians or engineers.
Salary: The median annual salary in the US is around $57,000, with potential for higher earnings based on expertise and experience.
Customer Success Manager
This role focuses on ensuring customer satisfaction and fostering long-term relationships.
Responsibilities:
- Onboarding new customers: Guiding them through initial setup and usage.
- Monitoring customer health: Identifying and addressing potential issues before they escalate.
- Proactively offering support: Providing personalized assistance and recommendations.
- Gathering feedback: Soliciting input to improve products, services, and overall customer experience.
Salary: The median annual salary in the US ranges from $70,000 to $90,000, depending on experience and the company’s size.
Social Media Specialist
With the rise of social media, this role has become crucial for managing customer interactions on various platforms.
Responsibilities:
- Responding to customer inquiries and comments: Addressing concerns and providing information.
- Creating engaging content: Sharing relevant updates, promotions, and brand messaging.
- Monitoring brand reputation: Tracking mentions and sentiment to maintain a positive image.
- Analyzing social media data: Identifying trends and opportunities for improvement.
Salary: The median annual salary in the US is around $50,000, with potential for growth based on expertise and experience.
Account Manager
This role focuses on building and nurturing relationships with key clients or accounts.
Responsibilities:
- Developing and maintaining relationships: Ensuring client satisfaction and loyalty.
- Identifying upsell and cross-sell opportunities: Maximizing revenue potential.
- Resolving client issues and complaints: Providing prompt and effective solutions.
- Negotiating contracts and agreements: Securing favorable terms for both parties.
Salary: The median annual salary in the US ranges from $60,000 to $80,000, depending on experience and the industry.
The Impact of AI and Automation on Customer Service Roles
AI has been taken over the last year or so, and it’s pretty much-changed humanity forever more. It was always going to, and now it’s here.
But remember, AI is a tool for your business to use. A tool to make things easier, more effective, and efficient, and it’s up to you to use it properly. Especially when it comes to using it in your customer service roles.
Here’s what you need to think about.
AI and Automation in Customer Service Agent Roles
Customer service agents stand at the forefront of this change, experiencing a profound transformation in their job responsibilities. The advantage of AI lies in its ability to expedite responses to customer inquiries across various channels, be it phone, email, or chat. Automation, meanwhile, provides a systematic approach to routine tasks.
Thus, agents find more time to deploy their problem-solving skills for complex queries, a crucial element now accentuated, not overshadowed, by technology.
The Effect on Customer Service Team Leads
From a broader perspective, AI and automation have also rendered an irrefutable impact on higher echelons within customer service – the team leads. Equipped with automated reports and AI-driven insights, team leads can now do more than just manage – they can coach.
The leap from administrative task handling to strategic leadership marks a positive change fostered by the advancements in technology.
From Agent to Strategist: A New Career Trajectory
A noteworthy observation of this digital transformation lies in the impressive new career trajectories it opens. As I mentioned, automation eliminates the need for customer service agents to perform mundane tasks, pushing them into the realm of strategy.
This shift not only enhances their problem-solving acumen but also unfolds exciting new opportunities for career growth within this domain. While AI and automation continue to evolve, so too will the future of customer service roles.
Conclusion
And with that, we come to the end of our journey through the world of customer service. As you can see, it’s changing all the time and will continue to do so as the world, expectations, and needs of the customers change, too.
For your business, understand these fundamentals, apply them to your department, and then adapt them to suit your business’s needs.
It’s time to embrace change and leverage technology to your advantage. B