As a business, managing and training customer service reps can be very tedious, especially if you aren’t exactly sure what your customer wants. It is a bit of a shot in the dark because you never know how a customer is going to react to the way you treat them. Fortunately, though, there are five basic steps, thanks to Forbes, that you can follow during customer interactions that will always work in every business situation.

Welcome them: The first thing you should do is welcome the customer, whether that is over the phone, through a response to an email, or in person at the store. Thank them for coming and make sure your customer service knows they need to be welcoming. One example would be that representatives should smile when talking on the phone. Even if they can’t be seen, the customer can hear that they are happier in their voices.

Ask about their needs: They are calling or coming into the store for a reason. If you don’t ask, you won’t ever find out what they want and you won’t be very effective in resolving the issue. Of course, sometimes they tell you why they arrived without being asked, and in those instances, this step can be skipped.

Provide a solution: Based on their question, customer service reps need to be prepared to find a solution, whether it is something they can do on their own or if it is something they need help from management to resolve.

Listen to their wishes: As part of the solution to the problem, you need to ask them about their wishes. If you don’t ask what they want to happen, you might resolve their issue in a way they still aren’t happy with. Even after resolving the problem, listen in case they have other concerns that need to be addressed.

Goodbye and please come back: After resolving the problem, it is important that you give them a warm goodbye and ask them to come again soon. Even if you don’t follow everything strictly, you need to always start with a hello and end with a goodbye to make them feel welcome.

Not always the best way to market

The most important thing to consider in this method of customer service training is that it won’t work in every type of interaction. It is a good method to follow on social media, in emails, in phone calls, and in person. But it isn’t the best way to work when someone is texting customer service. When texting you, customers are typically hoping you to get a quick, fast answer to a question. They don’t want to sit and wait for you to go through all these steps. They simply want a quick answer. Because of this, it is a good idea to have ai chatbots available to answer questions through text. If they don’t need the human element of hellos and goodbyes, it just makes sense to let artificial intelligence answer the question instead.