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Do you have product knowledge in customer support?

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When you talk about customer service for any business, it acts as a backbone because consumers are attracted to any service if they are dealt with in a kind and passionate manner. If you wish to be a successful customer service representative, you need to have strong product knowledge because you can only understand your consumers and their queries if you have complete knowledge of what you are representing to them. If you look into successful companies, they establish a strong place in the market due to their customer services. Last year one such company was Spectrum, they worked on Spectrum Customer Service and now they are one of the top internet, cable TV, and home phone providers in the US.

Product knowledge is the key to better customer support. Suppose, if a customer comes with an issue and you don’t even know what the answer is. Do you think you will get a positive response from your customers if you are not able to give accurate information? Well, no one will come back if they don’t get a solution to their problems. You lose your customers if you don’t provide the proper solution.

How to analyze your product knowledge

There are different ways to check if you have the kind of product knowledge that is required or not. The simple way is to see the customer or consumers’ response after you interact with them. Most of the time, there are surveys for the customer to fill and answer if they were satisfied from customer service representative or not. You can ask your customer to fill the survey so you can see where do you lack. The other way is to choose online quizzes related to your product and the score will tell you how much you already know. These are simple ways to test your product knowledge. Once you are aware of your existing knowledge, you can take proper steps to improve it.

Participate in the training

One of the major mistakes that a customer service representative can make is to leave the training sessions that are provided by the company. If you have your own business you should focus on training your employees on product knowledge. There should be weekly training sessions that comprise mainly of the product knowledge. This will enhance the product knowledge of your employees and they will be able to attract more customers by assisting the already existing ones in a better manner. If you are working as a customer service rep at any company, don’t avoid any pieces of training that your company provides as it will help you to perform your job in a better way.

Educate yourself by reading

No one can deny the importance of knowledge. You can read about your product online or ask questions from your senior employees about it. Once you read, you can pin down the important points and save them somewhere. The best practice is to keep all important and relevant information in your closer access so you can retrieve it whenever it is required.

Know how you can handle any shortcomings of your product

If you know your product well, you will know all the pros and cons of it as well. So, when a customer comes with a problem you will know how to tackle such a situation. Now, it does not mean that you should give false information but handle a situation in a manner that you can solve the problem in the right manner. Nothing can be perfect but a perfect knowledge of the product can help you gain the confidence of your customers.

Practice with an imaginary customer

One of the best practices is to make an imaginary customer and interact with him or her. You can also try ‘role play’ and practice this way to have more confidence in your knowledge. Once you have acquired product knowledge, you will need to apply it in a real-life situation as well. Role-play will help you practically apply your knowledge in a real situation.

Watch educational videos

You will get plenty of videos online on YouTube by existing customer service reps and experts. You can watch those videos to educate yourself. Learning is an ongoing process so keep trying and take advantage of every platform that you can avail yourself of. If you are an active learner, you will make the maximum out of available resources.

Coming towards an end

Product knowledge is a powerful tool for a good customer service representation. You can increase your product knowledge in different ways like the ones we mentioned above. If you are an eager learner, you will excel everywhere you go. Remember that learning takes time so be patient and take the first step towards that road.

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Contributors

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