Hiring customer service staff

Our economy depends utterly on our collective personal propensity to buy stuff we probably don’t need with money we don’t have. Galling enough? What happens, then, when we discover we don’t like our stuff, or can’t make it work, or don’t want it anymore? Comedy.

“Asking how to find customer service people who aren’t jerks is the wrong question,” said Debra Semans, senior vice president of Polaris Marketing Research in Atlanta. “I think a lot of the time, bad customer service is often a function of bad policy,” she said. “You should ask, ‘How can I support my customer service people so they don’t have to behave like jerks?’”

Semans once called her phone company to drop a fax line in her home, only to discover months later that she was still being charged for long distance services on the nonexistent line. “We hadn’t specifically asked for the long-distance to be taken off the bill,” she said. “It was just bad policy.”

You, of course, can’t make excuses like a phone company.

Companies in the early stages, like yours, usually have enough trouble just figuring out how to run a business. Customer service looks like a happy problem to have – that means you have customers. But too often, startups and small businesses find that answering customer phone calls on a catch-as-catch-can basis suddenly doesn’t work anymore.

“They get a customer base – maybe a hundred customers – and they’ve done nothing to create something called customer service,” said Rick Kilton, president of RWK Enterprises, a customer service consultancy in Colorado. Everyone answers the phones, but no one is keeping rigorous track of what people want, or why. “Kilton’s practice helps well-grown technology organizations sort out customer service kinks, but startups can get a leg up by addressing some problems like this quickly,” he said. “I’ve seen it happen so many times, and it can take a company to its knees. They just can’t handle the volume.”

Software can help lessen the blow. Customer relationship management software ties your sales data to your customers, so you can tell who bought what, who complained about what, and what you’ve done to help.

There are plenty of people looking for customer service work because most people think they can do the job. According to comScore, an Internet search tracking company, more people searched for the term “customer service” than any other occupation in June 2009. An entry-level consumer customer service job usually requires no advanced education and few technical skills – just the ability to calmly help people with sales problems.

Or so it seems.

It does no good to have patient, emotionally-connected customer service people who have no idea what they’re doing and no power to get anything done on behalf of a customer. “Customer service people are an interesting breed,” Kilton said. “They’re typically focused on a technical solution. They forget that there’s a human on the other side of the phone. That might make them condescending, or rude.” For highly-technical customer service workers, the soft skills of communication often aren’t a natural talent, he said. It has to be trained.

You should start thinking about customer service early. Kilton recommends keeping an eye out for internal technical staff with well-developed communications skills to shift to a customer service role, once sales volume begins to translate into customer service volume, then hire a customer service staff around that person.

Customer service matters. But tell that to the folks doing the job. Especially on the consumer side, the pay is usually lousy. According to Payscale.com, regular old-fashioned customer service reps earn an average of $11 to $17 an hour, depending on the market and the rep’s experience. Salary.com pegs the middle 50 percent of Customer Service Representative earn salaries between about $27,000 to $35,000 a year.

Web customer service representatives earn much more – an average of $60,000 a year – because customer support for online shoppers is more difficult and more mission-critical. The same goes for high-tech service reps, who often must have a high degree of technical skill. Customer service supervisors, managers, and directors also earn substantially more. But it takes a while to develop the skills necessary to fill the senior positions.

Companies generally compete using one of four strategies. They can offer the least expensive product on the market. They can offer a better product – cooler, higher-tech, more efficient, et cetera. They can offer a better selection of products. And, they can compete in customer service – giving people exactly what they want and making sure they’re happy to have it.

 “Customer service in America sucks right now,” Semans said. “And I think it’s an incredible opportunity for business.” Your customers can be your best advertisers, but only if they’re not spitting mad at you. She said you should look to your employees for recommendations, and look for people who genuinely want to help others.