By Savannah Coulsen

In order for a company to function effectively, it needs to possess a wide range of brand-building qualities that make the company’s daily operations run smoothly. While there are a wide range of qualities that a solid company will have, there are five qualities that a good customer service team will always have. They include:

Product Knowledge
Product knowledge is an important quality for a customer service team to have because its members need to be able to answer questions about the goods they sell. When they are able to do so quickly and comprehensively, the likelihood that customers will grow disgruntled or impatient diminishes drastically.

Emotional Intelligence
Yet another quality that a good customer service team must have is emotional intelligence. Although defined broadly, emotional intelligence is basically the ability to gauge the depth and scope of another person’s emotions and respond appropriately. When customer service representatives possess this ability, they are better able to quickly and effectively respond to the needs of the clients they serve.

Patience
In addition to having emotional intelligence, a good customer service representative should possess patience. This characteristic is important because people who hold this position are reliant on several other individuals to assist them in answering the customer’s questions. In many cases, it can take several minutes for customer service representatives to have members of other departments answer pertinent questions, and having patience helps.

Productivity
A good customer service team is productive. This means that group members do not simply sit around when they are not serving clients. Instead, they make the most of every opportunity by doing things like tidying up their area and helping other group members so that they don’t become inundated in excess responsibilities. A customer service team with a productive mentality is not bound by the belief that their only responsibility is to smile and nod at customers or provide them with solutions to their problems. Instead, they go beyond these basics and work hard to ensure that any need the company has is met.

Effective Communication
A good customer service team recognizes the importance of effective communication. This means that they speak in a clear, simple fashion that can be easily understood. Additionally, they listen carefully to the words of others to ensure that they grasp the significance of the sentences that have been spoken. It is important to note that a big part of effective communication in the 21st century is having the right communication tools such as cutting edge voice mail and text message capabilities. For this reason, the most successful companies will utilize professional business services such as those offered by Global CTI, a company that provides hosted unified communications in California.

If you’re a business owner who wants to ensure that your company is successful, employing a high quality customer service team is the way to make it happen. To ensure that your staff operates at a high level of expedience and excellence, be sure that they cultivate the aforementioned characteristics.

Savannah Coulsen is a freelance  writer in Raleigh, NC. Savannah also loves learning and is a self-proclaimed health guru.