8 Qualities That Agents Must Have To Be Effective

What happens if the only human interaction that customers have with a brand is through an agent that works in the contact center? Would not it be essential for that agent to be an excellent “brand ambassador”?

Many companies are in this position. The agents of the call center have a significant impact on the customer experience and, therefore, on the final result of the interaction with the organization. Therefore, the hiring of agents with the appropriate characteristics is fundamental for the welfare of the clients, as well as for the rest of the team.

8 Qualities That Agents Must Have To Be Effective

1) Listening ability

Effective agents are able to really understand what the customer tells them over the phone. Understanding what the customer means is an important component to give them what they need and successfully solve their query, and effective agents know how to do it.

2) Skills For Problem Solving

Once the agent understands what the customer needs, he has to be able to offer a solution. Currently, self-service tools are filtering many of the simplest queries, leaving agents to deal with the most difficult ones. This makes good problem solving skills more important than ever. This not only includes knowing what to do, but also taking responsibility for the problem and making sure it is resolved.

3) Education And Respect

Being warm and respectful can do a lot to reassure a dissatisfied customer. Customers perceive the agent’s involvement in the resolution of their problem over the telephone. Therefore, effective agents should treat all customers with education and respect. In this way, the agents will be stronger in fulfilling their mission of satisfying the client.

4) Trust And Responsibility

Along with education and respect, customers value agents who show confidence. Taking into account that most customers have already gone through self-service solutions when they reach an agent, experts say that at this point customer wants is for the agent with whom they speak to solve their problem.

5) Accuracy

One of the functions that agents have is to update the customer’s data. In the course of servicing a customer, information such as email and address addresses, credit card information, and contact preferences may be updated. Agents must enter this information accurately to ensure a correct and up-to-date customer database.

6) Good Memory

Agents have a large amount of information to track calls received from customers. Knowing the memory information is optimal, but remembering where to find the information is equally important. Well-crafted, intuitive, and easy-to-use databases can complement the agents’ memory, but they must remember how to use and where to look for that information.

7) Self-motivation

Effective agents show initiative when it comes to their job performance. They want to be better, so they value the comments and use them to improve. Therefore, self-motivated agents can have a significant impact on their teams, even inspiring their teammates.

8) Reliability

The contact centers are highly programmed work environments and the performance of the center depends on their responsibility and punctuality. Only a few unanswered calls or agents who arrive late can hurt performance metrics and the customer experience. Agents that are usually unreliable affect the performance of the entire team. It is therefore important that when hiring, customer service centers look for people with a history of good work habits.