Both advisors and representatives directly handle customers’ questions and concerns. Their routine activities include checking on orders, handling complaints, and answering customers’ questions about company products and services. Though all jobs in customer service emphasize natural friendliness, these jobs also involve becoming trained in company policies and sales strategies before starting work.
Customer service advisors work in basically any business that sells goods or services. That means they work for diverse trades, using the same basic customer service skills. Retail customer service jobs, for one, are abundant throughout the world. Customer service jobs also belong to credit card companies, car dealerships, banks, medical offices (where they are titled ''patient service representatives''), and so forth. These jobs normally train customer service advisors in standard company policies by having them memorize company manuals and handbooks.
Customer service advisors spend much of their time instructing customers on buying options. For instance, car salespeople usually take their customers on test drives and explain to them the special features of each car. In addition, financial advisors at dealerships inform customers of various payment plans for their car, and present them with a slew of payment options. They explain the options to their customers and show them where to sign, once they have reached an agreement on a payment plan. In these car dealership examples, both types of customer service advisors have greater education in their trade that allows them to describe automobile operating systems and financial payments.
Nonetheless, many customer service advisor jobs do not require extensive education. In fact, the majority of these jobs require only a high school diploma, along with perhaps one year of customer service experience and familiarity with basic computer software. These small requirements hold especially true for retail jobs. Retail jobs require employees to assist customers with purchases. Retail customer service advisors inform customers of special deals and sales, assist them in dressing rooms, and persuade them to purchase store credit cards. They also handle returns, exchanges, and refunds.
Retail advisors often receive points for helping customers complete a sale and have points deducted when they do not. If they have good sales points they earn commissions, which make up the bulk of their earnings.
There are also countless customer service call center jobs. Some of these positions may be overnight customer service jobs if the call center is staffed 24/7. These call-center advisors handle inbound calls (calls made to the center) and outbound calls (calls initiated by the advisors). Outbound calls may involve telemarketing if the call center is retail based.
Companies with call centers usually receive many calls per day that demand a full-time staff of call-center advisors. The advisors who handle these calls usually work computers at the same time, doing data-entry work to look up information about callers and their accounts. For instance, a customer may call a retail store asking about the status of an order they completed on the Internet. The customer-service advisor will then ask for the customer’s information and look up the customer on the company database. The advisor then checks the status of the order and informs the customer of the shipping date. Advisors handle stressful calls such as this with the utmost politeness and patience to make a good impression on the customer. Furthermore, they answer each question to the best of their knowledge and research those questions they may not know how to answer.
Again, many call-center jobs do not require specialized education or experience. However, certain industries provide exceptions to this generalization. Customer service advisors who work at clinics, for example, are typically familiar with medical terminology and procedures. They may also have familiarity with claims processing if the customer has questions about insurance matters. Advisors who work at clinics may provide either front-desk service or call-center service, since clinics are usually quite busy. At clinic call centers, advisors spend most of their time redirecting calls to nurses or doctors for customers who have medical questions.
Another emerging requirement for customer service advisors is fluency in Spanish. The Spanish-speaking population growth shows no signs of stopping. Therefore, it reflects well on companies if their customer service representatives can speak decent Spanish.
Even though customer service advisors spend most of their time interacting with customers, they also communicate with managers and other staff. They seek out their managers when confronted with customer problems they are not sure how to handle. They may also consult with staff members when faced with questions concerning these members’ departments. Moreover, their managers often hold seminars that teach new sales strategies and techniques to customer service advisors. These managers may also train them in new data-entry software and provide regular feedback on their skills. In fact, it is common at many call centers for customer service managers to listen in on randomized calls in order to assess advisors on their job performance.
Customer service jobs almost always pay by the hour. If they are retail jobs, advisors may earn a commission on top of their wages. On average, entry-level jobs in customer service pay $12 per hour, while mid-level jobs pay about $13 per hour. Advisors with at least twenty years of experience may earn up to $15 per hour, especially at the same company. Again, these wages leave out commissions, which may be huge if the customer service representative has remarkable talent for the job.
