Desiring to be a Customer Service Representative

Customer relationship management is used by companies to interact with their customers and find out whether they are facing any problems related to their products or services. This job involves handling calls and emails that are sent by the customers. A customer service representative plays a very vital role in this sector. Customer service representative jobs has a great scope in near future as almost every company is looking forward to taking an extra step to solve the queries of customers and provide great customer satisfaction. Customer service representatives can work part time or full time.

They need to use various communication media like telephone, mails, letters and fax to answer the queries of the customers. The job of a customer service representative is to handle the queries of the customer responsibly and see to it that the query is forwarded to his/her seniors if it cannot be solved by them.

The following are the responsibilities of a customer service representative:

• Offering help and service to the customers regarding the company's product and services
• Quickly responding to the customers' needs by using different ways of communication
• Properly maintaining the records of all the conversations with the customers
• Formulating various programs that might help the customers to get quick response to their queries
• Providing a feedback option to the customers so that they can find out what the customer is thinking about the company's product and whether he is satisfied by the product and services offered by the company
• Leading a team of customer support staff and monitor their working
• Providing training to the staff members and teach them as how to deliver high standard performance
• Regularly meeting with the other managers and discuss with them as how to improve customer care services
• Preparing reports and presentation on the satisfaction level of the customers
• Participating in staff recruitment process to find out suitable people for this position
• Learning details of the products of their companies to handle customer queries

Customer service representatives have to deal with customers all the time and so he must possess the following skills to succeed in this profession:

• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Must be able to provide outstanding performance in work
• Good management and organizational skills
• Good time management skills
• Good knowledge on all the tools that are used for customer service job
• Must be able to maintain records of the customers
• Must have basic computer knowledge
• Must be ready to work in flexible shifts
• Must be capable of handling pressure
• Must be able to handle irate customers smoothly
• Should be patient and must have listening skills too

Customer service representative jobs are open for all individuals, the only important things that are required are: good communication skills and good business management skills. If you have some knowledge on business studies, management studies, consumer service or marketing, then it can be of additional advantage and you can have an edge over you competitors at the time of placement. Many employers opt for students from certain fields like finance or hospitality. A degree is not a must for a person to enter a customer service manager job. After several years of experience you may be promoted to a team leader from a customer service representative.

The person designated as a part time customer service representative gets an average pay of around $30,000 yearly. This pay may vary depending on your experience and talent. Since every company wants to promote its products and to provide good service to their customers, there are huge openings for customer service representative jobs and it is expected to rise tremendously in future. This job has a good pay package in the market.

This job is such that you can rise to a team leader in short time with your hard work and good performance. A customer service representative has bright career prospects as every product or service these days has a customer support department.