5 Best Practices for Call Center Agents to Build Strong Customer Rapport

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“The well-satisfied customer will bring the repeat sale that counts, said James Cash Penney. In order to have higher customer satisfaction ratio, getting engaged with customers is a must thing to do. Companies that apply customer-centric approaches yield higher sales. Adapting this culture means building exceptional rapport with your customers. It is all about creating a comfortable state where your client can speak to you clearly and comfortably.

Rapport building is a major integral part of customer satisfaction interactions. If you fail, you lose the customer forever. But if you succeed you win them for life. Thus, in order to be successful, it is essential that call center agents are skilled and efficient in rapport building. Here are 5 methods they can use:

1) Dodge conversation difference:

Nothing kills a conversation faster than a language mismatch and transferring the caller from agent to agent aggravating an already frustrated customer. Make sure, you route the caller to the right representative at the first point of interaction.

Apart from the language barrier, you must master in routing the calls to the appropriate person in the call center. You should be thorough with; what situation which agent or technician would be connected to. If your caller has an issue which you cannot resolve, then straight away divert the call to the appropriate expert. Shuffling the call too much will not be acceptable by clients.

Your company’s IVR and skills-based routing should be configured in such a way that it routes the client to the right agent every time.

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2) Build a Personalized Connection:

Be humble; treat your clients how you want to be treated. Greet them in a soft tone and apologize for their inconveniences. While talking, let your caller know that you are listening by responding with gentle and soft ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’ as they speak. Don’t interrupt in between; let them finish what they have to say. Building personalized relation requires understanding your client’s needs or at times creating an unfilled requirement. Understand their pain points (if they have any), empathize with them and let them know that you will work on their issue and find a quick solution.

It has been noted that the act of personalizing an approach to customers yields great results in business. Send emails and text messages that refer to customers by their own names. You should be able to conceive a connection with each customer, so they can have a memorable experience each time.

3) Design a quick solution:

An ultimate way to build an effective rapport with your client is to quickly deliver them with a solution. First call resolution is highly appreciated by the clients. You should be keen to solve the client’s issue proactively. You must get into the root cause of the problem to ensure that customers do not call for the same issue again. This should be one compulsory step for the agents in building rapport with their clients.

4) Display a sense of emergency:

Every reply you make to a customer, convey a sense that the issue will be taken care of immediately, or even if it takes a bit longer than assure them that it will be done as soon as possible. Providing that extra comfort to your comfort will help you build in long term relationship with your client. When these practices are put in place customer service level soars, and your performance would be noticed and appreciable

5) Use mirroring method:

Mirroring is based on the psychological principle, where you act similar to the client. If your customer is talking formally then you should also talk in the same way. If they are cracking jokes, tell some jokes relevant to the situation right back. This way the client trusts you faster than the usual times.

It might not be an easy task for you because it is like playing different personalities with different customers. But if implemented correctly, mirroring is an outstanding technique to put the caller at ease and you can quickly win over them.

Building customer rapport is the most important aspect of a call center agent. They have to work hard, exceed expectations and do more than asked to achieve high-quality consistent results. It guarantees customer loyalty and retention, which equates to sales for your company.

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