Time is not the main thing; it is the only thing!
If you head a customer service team, you know the value of every hour well spent or wasted. As a leader, you should encourage your team to master time management in customer service routine.
And why not? After all, the customer service industry is considered to be one the most time-intensive businesses. Customer service reps can always use some proven time management tips to ease their intense work life.
Businesses are now switching gears by laying more emphasis on providing exceptional customer service. 46% of the companies surveyed by SuperOffice said that offering exceptional and holistic customer experience will be their top priority in the next few years to come.
What does that mean for customer service teams? Of course, more pressure!
How about you? Are you feeling the pressure too?
If yes, then you are in the right place. Here we share some expert tips for better time management in customer service. They will help you master your tasks with ease!
Expert Tips for Better Time Management in Customer Service Teams
Time management is all about managing the 24 hours in a day in a productive way, and good time management tips are invaluable for everyone, from college students to CRMs and CEOs.
However, the tips for college students might be slightly different from those for customer service professionals. In this post, we will tailor our time management tips for the latter.
The customer service industry is no doubt one of the most demanding fields. With these time-tested and expert-suggested time management tips, you can be more productive at work without burning out.
1. Stay in the know of the common customer problems
Customers are not always in a position to self-diagnose the issues they are facing. The responsibility often falls on the customer service staff to analyze the problem as quickly and efficiently as possible. You can collect feedback from your customers using a form. Create an online form leveraging online form builder tools.
A survey by Microsoft indicates that 76% of customers globally expect the customer service representative to be knowledgeable:
That brings us to the first of the time management tips: have a clear understanding of your company’s products and services, and the potential problems a customer may face. You need to identify the problem at hand and also know how best you can resolve the matter.
Let’s say a customer calls about an issue regarding their debit card not working. A knowledgeable customer service rep will ask the right questions to understand the exact problem and fix it with as few instructions as possible.
That way you can resolve a query in a quick time and deliver a memorable customer experience.
What’s more?
You can even drive more sales if you know exactly where to pitch complementary products or solutions that will help the customers accomplish their goals better. If you can do that, it’s a win-win situation.
2. Work in a timeframe
Does it take too long for you to build a rapport with the customer?
If you just said yes, then this is one of the must-follow time management tips for you.
Set a loose timeframe for every call or discussion. If you are ever stuck with a verbose customer, do not hesitate to cut the conversation short and get to the point in a polite manner.
You can always use phrases like: “Without wasting much of your time, I want to suggest” or “Allow me five minutes of your precious time to resolve the matter,” and so on. Since you are emphasizing the value of their time, the customers will not mind crisp conversations. Such a professional attitude will save you time and not offend your customers either.
3. Use a time tracking tool
Time tracking, as the name suggests, helps you control your time better. It’s about keeping a precise record of hours spent on different activities and analyzing your performance results to see how efficient you are.
With the right approach, time tracking becomes one of the easiest time management tips to follow and can get your day sorted out very quickly. So, make sure to adopt a simple yet powerful time tracking tool like actiTIME – it lets you organize tasks and track hours used on them in any convenient format: manually, automatically, on the web, via the mobile app, or through the Chrome extension.
Besides, actiTIME includes a plethora of handy features for automating routine processes in your customer service team, more efficient project progress monitoring, and easier collaboration. Learn more about some of them from this post and don’t hesitate to sign up for a free 30-day actiTIME trial.
4. Delegate your work
Who said that you have to do every task by yourself?
One of the best time management tips, for everyone, is to delegate your work to other team members.
Let’s make it clear; we are not referring to “asking for help.” We are talking about trusting your colleagues enough to transfer some of the important tasks to them completely.
It’s important to hire and train team members who are responsible and able to take on responsibilities without being micromanaged.
We know it’s not easy but when your work pressure is affecting your productivity, you should learn to trust others with some of the work. You can provide clear guidelines and be open to discussions to achieve the desired goals within a specified time limit.
5. Learn to take a break
Yes, you heard that right! Even in the middle of your tight schedule never forget to take small breaks.
An average person’s productivity significantly reduces if they work continuously. After every couple of hours of work, take a break of at least 15 minutes to grab a cup of tea or to breathe some fresh air. That’s all you need to rejuvenate and refocus on the tasks at hand.
One of the fundamental time management tips is to schedule your day in such a way that break times are distinctly marked out. You may even identify the most productive hours for you in a day and schedule important tasks during that timeframe.
There are more ways to track and save time than you think. Pass our quiz to learn more.
6. Use technology to your advantage
One of the most effective time management tips for customer service teams would be to leverage useful technology to help with day-to-day tasks.
You can automate repetitive tasks using automation tools or use chatbots to handle basic customer queries. You can also leverage CRM software to fetch each customer’s data and better handle customer conversations.
One big advantage of using CRM is to integrate different solutions from third-party companies. This way, the possibilities are endless and it is rare to encounter a problem without having a solution immediately available.
Customer service automation tools are becoming increasingly popular. They play a dominant role in simplifying the task of customer service professionals and easing some of their burdens.
Here is a simple example of how Newyork Presbyterian Hospital utilizes an automation tool to address repetitive queries on their website. With a few clicks, customers can find the information they are seeking themselves, without getting in touch with a human:
To make the case even stronger for digital tools, the abovementioned survey conducted by Microsoft puts out some interesting facts about customer service: 85% of the global customers said that they found video chat to be effective in resolving their issues.
As it turns out, your customer service team can also benefit a great deal by automating responses for repetitive queries and utilizing the time saved for more important tasks.
If you have a call center for customer service, then you can use call center software solutions to save time.
Concluding Thoughts
There is no doubt that effective time management is critical to delivering efficient customer service.
With mounting customer expectations, it is imperative that your customer service team incorporates the best time management tips into their daily operations to boost their productivity.
Service providers should never shy away from using automation tools and chatbots to their advantage.
Ready to put these time management tips into practice?
All the best!
