Empower your marketing team with customer service and management for marketing

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customer service is bias HR a firefighting activity but customer experience requires proactive strategy and execution great managers make sure those two are not too far out of balance what are the qualities of a great customer service manager those who manage customer facing teams need a broad range not only qualities but skills they need to be great at motivating coaching and managing their team's and they have to be ready to jump into the fray to handle the issues that their teams can't solve and to work with the customers that their team's can't satisfy to be a customer service managers to be part manager and part super service rep they need those same characteristics that their reps need and then another skill set on top of that a great customer service manager can be the difference between a team that creates hero class customer experiences and one that gets by with minimal effort and unremarkable results when looking for a customer service manager these five qualities should be at the top of any list of criteria you use number one customer centric attitude when I deliver customer service workshops and trainings one of the most difficult questions I ask clients is this one is your manager the most customer centric person on the team if the answer is no then I immediately know they have a problem if your manager doesn't put your customers at the center of everything they do your team won't either number two powerful communicator nothing's more important to a customer service than communication right of course for managers communication skills are the bedrock upon which their relationships with their team's their persuasiveness with their superiors and their interactions with customers are based managers need to be able to communicate effectively with their teams to tailor their communication to different personalities and communication styles managers must have the ability to influence the stakeholders above them in the organization if they want to ensure their team has adequate resources and can operate with the breathing space needed to manage to strategy instead of to checklist what customer service managers don't just get to manage they often have to do it customer service when the going gets tough the manager gets going managers are often called in to handle the most difficult customer service situations when their frontline teams can't and they need powerful communication skills to navigate these challenging situations number three empathy to burn communication might be the most important skill on customer service but empathy is the most important war great managers have it by the bucketful and besides the empathy needed to solve the difficult customer service situations that managers are often called on to resolve and put these crucial to managing teams great managers are able to empathize with the challenges their teams face on the frontlines I understand how hard it is to recover when a customer yells how frustrating it is to be shackled by outdated or illogical policies and how impossible jobs can be when teams are under-resourced number four the master of priorities a good manager knows how to help their team focus its energy and balance their team's time spent delivering customer experiences with the time spent reacting to customer service issues many businesses struggle with us balance and great customer service managers have the prioritization skills and organizational skills to make sure that the important is not completely subsumed by the urgent to make sure the fires of the day don't engulf the team's entire focus customer service is bias HR a firefighting activity but customer experience requires proactive strategy and execution great managers make sure those two are not too far out of balance number five motivator good managers know how to motivate themselves and motivate their teams they know how to create a culture that doesn't wait for things to happen but that proactively makes them happen and they know how to instill this ethic in their team's great managers try harder themselves and inspire their team's to always be looking for how they can make a difference for their customers their colleagues and the organization ok hiring the right customer service manager can never be reduced to a simple checklist the ideal candidate will be a good cultural fit well understand the job in the industry and will have the hard skills necessary to manage to organizational goals however if you look for the five qualities we just discussed both in your applicants and when evaluating internal promotions you'll find that you can stack the deck for success and give your team the leader it needs to support your organization's customer experience mission well I'm not important you can find me at customers s2 comm where we help you win with experience [Music]