7 things I wish I knew before I became a customer support manager (drawing from real examples)

Before you begin your journey of becoming a customer support manager, you must have a comprehensive knowledge of the value of customers to a business. Customer satisfaction is perhaps the most crucial element behind the growth of a business . Many companies today are going out of business as they suffer from lack of efficiency to satisfy their customers. Whether it is a new customer or an existing one, the customer support team should aim at gratifying the needs of the customers. Here are a few things that you might have realized by now but you always wish that you knew these before becoming the customer support manager:

1. Carrying the Luggage of Negative Energy: There must have been times when you have had a negative experience with one of your customers. Moments like this are hard to deal with but are actually inevitable in the profession of knowledge base. While one negative experience is more than sufficient to ruin your entire day, you must not make that negative energy a luggage. You will never be able to have a fruitful conversation with the next customer if you carry that luggage of negative energy with you. The next customer, that you will deal with, might be actually friendly and would appreciate you for showing the right path. Consider studying the history of the customer before engaging in a conversation with him or her. If it goes wrong, take your time, let it go and start afresh.
2. Becoming Impatient while Answering the Same Question: This is perhaps the most common problem that every customer support manager faces on a daily basis. You might feel disappointed as you are asked the same question as five different customers use the free customer support. Here you need to understand the value of the support that you offer. Each one of these customers got in touch with you because of a problem that they are trying to resolve. Each one of these customers is important for the business as well. As you walk every customer through the same process with utmost patience, chances are high that they will never call you for the same issue again. Being patient with the customer is key to success in this context.
3. Take Your Time to Look into It: There will be times when you will not be aware of the issue that the customer is talking about. Half of this problem is solved if you know your product or service from top to bottom. However, it should always be your prime imperative to look into the issue raised by the customer. Feel free to ask questions if you need further clarifications. Once you get your hands on the solution, you have not only helped the customer but also yourself by developing your own knowledge. So you won't have to waste time when a similar issue takes place again.
4. Ask Questions to Avoid MIsunderstanding: While speaking to a customer, you must know the problem of the customer in detail. Asking questions is the right thing to do under such circumstances. Instead of providing the customer with wrong answer, you can always ask for more details which will in turn help you to resolve the problem without difficulties. Customers might be eager to solve the problem as soon as possible but rushing it can lead to offering the customer with the wrong answer. This will not only disappoint the customer but will also frustrate you for the rest of the day.
5. Understand the Sentiment of the Customer: As a customer support manager, you must possess the capacity to get down to the bottom of the problem and understand the sentiment of the customer as well. Your customer might be tensed when a transaction has gone wrong due to miscommunication. Since ticket support system success depends on the role played by every single player within the organization, you have to be prepared to apologize in case anything by anyone has caused the customer to be dissatisfied with your product or service.
6. Act like Human, Not like a Robot: Many customer support executives prefer reading the robotic scripts either at the beginning or at the end of the phone call. Canned responses are always handy but you should personalize it depending on the situation of the customer. Research shows that 4% of customers actually reveal their dissatisfaction with product while others simply move on. So the number of customers you are dealing with on regular basis is just the tip of the iceberg. Studying information on the customer from previous interactions might help you as well.
7. Remember Your Importance: As a part of the customer support team, you are the first point of contact for your customer. The customer wouldn’t have called you if he or she was not willing to do business with you. Understand the difficulty that the customer is going through, pay attention to the problem and resolve it as soon as possible. A study conducted proved that customers remain dissatisfied with the answers provided by customer support executives half of the times. So, it is crucial to remember that you are not only a part of the customer support team but also the representative of the brand.