A lot of jobs today require customer service skills. The goal of the customer service industry is for every customer to have the best experience possible. Being polite and friendly is a must. Knowing your job is a must. Wanting to do your job is a must. Listening is always important. But, there is something that isn’t necessary to do in order to have good customer service skills. It can be more of a risk than a plus.
You’re at work one day, working at a job where customers are coming in and out. You’re working with the general public, you’re a very friendly person, and you want to make each and every customer happy.
Working with the general public can be a difficult task.
You’ll get some nice people, some mean people, some crazy people, and even some people you’ll have to call the cops on. The world is changing, and people today are changing.
We all want to be friendly with each other and have a great experience when we work with customers. We hope to get to know the customers on a more personal basis.
However, with the way the world is today, getting into personal conversations with customers can be a risk. This is especially true when you work with the general public. You never know who you’re dealing with.
You may get a customer one day who ends up being very friendly. They’re really enjoying your service to them and are probably getting ready to give you excellent feedback on your job performance.
That can go down the drain as soon as you start having a personal conversation with them while on the job. You could say something to them, no matter what it is, and it they could get offended. Sometimes, you may think you know a customer’s personality, but you don’t see it until your personal conversation with them offends them. You know your personality, but it could be totally different from the customer’s.
The world is getting very political. If you bring up a political event, your customer could have a totally different view than you. With the way this world is today, that could get ugly and lead to a performance-related complaint rather than a compliment about your performance.
Most of the time, customers don’t want to hear your life story.
They’re customers, so you’re serving them for a business purpose. They may have waited a long time for you to serve them. And, while they really appreciate the good service you’re giving the public, half of the time, they don’t really care about your personal life story… even if they don’t show it.
You see an attractive man or woman come into your workplace, and because of their good looks, you especially want to serve them. They end up being your favorite customer of the day, and you just want to get out that pen to jot down your phone number or ask for theirs. Asking for a customer’s number can go either way. They may think you’re creepy. That could lead to a complaint or just a disappointment depending on how the customer handles stuff like that. You may be lucky and get a date out of it, but you still have to be careful.
You complimenting a customer can be risky, too.
Everyone handles compliments differently. Compliments are nice, and everyone appreciates them in some way, but it’s how you give them that matters. You don’t want the customer to feel embarrassed, and you don’t want them to complain to your manager about it. You can certainly have conversations with customers if that’s how you serve the general public. But, it’s not a necessity, and it can be more of a risk than a benefit, so be careful when you speak with customers.
Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash
