Customer Service Manager Skills: Tips for Improvement

A customer service manager oversees and motivates a team to ensure that it renders a consistent customer experience. They leverage management skills to build good customer relations, train and develop, help teams achieve performance goals and improve customer retention. Learning the skills necessary to succeed in this role can help you determine if this is your right career path. In this article, we discuss common customer service manager skills, examine how to improve these skills, explain how to demonstrate them in the workplace and explore how to highlight these skills on your CV.

Customer service manager skills

Customer service manager skills are the behaviours and abilities that differentiate a manager from the other customer service team members. Here are some of the skills that can help you succeed in your customer service manager role:

Leadership skills

As a manager, you require excellent leadership skills to lead and motivate your team to perform their roles. These skills can help you stay agile and ensure that your team offers the best customer service, improving customer retention. Your attitude as a leader can influence your team and their work environment, which is why being relatable and approachable can be valuable. Leadership skills can also help you balance your control while delegating tasks so that employees can learn to make autonomous decisions, improving their confidence and skills.

Related: Leadership definitions (qualities and how to improve)

Communication skills

As a customer service manager, you may interact with customers, your team, other managers and staff within the organisation. Excellent communication skills can help you hold successful meetings, delegate tasks and guide or train team members. These skills can also help you interpret complex concepts into easily understood terms, helping you to articulate your ideas.

Listening skills are also crucial for customer service managers, as they allow you to hear your team's ideas and challenges so as to develop solutions to improve customer service and business operations.

Related: 10 communication skills to add to your CV (with definitions)

Time management skills

You may spend a few minutes with a customer as a customer service manager. It's important to this time effectively so that you can understand what a customer requires, which can allow you to offer them the best service. Time management skills may also help you balance your time well, since you may serve many customers in addition to supporting your team daily. These skills can also guide you in completing other roles in the office to ensure you meet deadlines.

Effective team training

One of the best ways to help prepare your team and build their confidence to answer customer questions is to offer them training frequently. To provide an effective team training session, you can observe what aspects your team could improve on or ask them what they'd like to learn. Effective training can help your team improve customer experience and their customer service skills. It's beneficial to make these training sessions interactive so that you can learn of any challenges they may be facing when serving customers. Ascertaining this can allow you to improve various working processes.

Related: What does good customer service look like? (With examples)

Patience

As a manager, you may still experience busy times that require you to interact directly with customers. Sometimes, your team members may refer customers to you when they cannot solve their issues or provide the services they require. It's important to be patient and calm, even when a customer expresses frustrations. Your ability to be patient, even in challenging situations, can help customers feel that you appreciate and respect them.

Persuasion skills

As a customer service manager, you may create promotional messages for your company's products. Persuasion skills can help you create compelling messages by using keywords that encourage customers to buy the products. You may also use these skills to convince customers who might have an interest in finding information about your services at the start to try the services. This can help you to retain and attract new customers.

Related: What is persuasion? A guide on how to you use this skill

Industry experience

To be an excellent customer service manager, it's essential to have industry experience so that you understand what your team's roles are like every day. Having experience in pleasing customers, addressing their concerns and resolving issues calmly and effectively can help you advise and guide your team in handling such situations. Industry experience can help you be more relatable, improving your relationship with your team.

Analytical skills

To be a successful customer service manager, it's crucial to create strategies that improve the work environment and make work easier for your team. Excellent analytical skills can help you analyse data you collect from your team, customer feedback and satisfaction surveys, which may help you to make informed decisions. You can improve your analytical skills by being more observant and developing attention to detail.

Problem-solving skills

There may be times when you speak to an unsatisfied customer. Problem-solving skills can help you listen to the customer's complaints calmly and find a solution that works for you and the customer. You may also use these skills to effectively resolve conflicts amongst team members. To resolve challenges, be sure to listen carefully so that you understand each person's perspective and remain unbiased.

How to improve your skills as a customer service manager

Here are several ways you can use to improve your skills as a customer service manager:

1. Know your customers

Often, the best way to improve your customer service skills is to understand the expectations and needs of your customers. You can research customers' questions and concerns about the company's products or services, helping you to find out which areas to improve. You may also ask customers to inform you of their requirements and desires, improving your in-depth knowledge of the product and industry. With this knowledge, you can learn the best way to interact with customers and you may also gain confidence in answering their questions.

2. Be personable

As a customer service manager, your team relies on you for guidance. It's important to remain friendly, engaging and approachable so that your team can feel comfortable communicating their concerns or ideas to you. Speak in a friendly and calm tone and provide affirmations to let your team know you understand them. Your body language can be a means of communication between you and your team or customers. Consider maintaining eye contact and an open posture when addressing others so that they know you're approachable.

3. Find a mentor

Consider finding a mentor to guide you as you develop your career. You can request that your mentor monitors your work and provides constructive feedback. That way, you can learn what skills require improving so that you can work on them.

Related: Helpful mentor feedback examples (with definition and tips)

4. Invite feedback

To learn of areas to improve, consider asking customers for feedback. This can help you learn their needs and expectations and improve customer service. Feedback can also help you monitor your team's behaviours, for it allows you to learn which employees best serve customers and who receives the most complaints. With this information, you can offer rewards and know what type of training to conduct.

5. Continue learning

To improve your skills, continue learning. You can enrol in short courses to enhance specific skills, such as communication and leadership skills. You may also study books and learn from your colleagues by observing how they handle various issues in their line of work.

Demonstrating your skills as a customer service manager in the workplace

Here are tips you can use to demonstrate your skills as a customer service manager in the workplace:

Respond promptly

To demonstrate your time management skills, respond promptly. Many customers appreciate speedy responses to their enquiries. So consider responding to all customer emails and phone calls as soon as possible. You can also tell them how quickly you aim to assist them.

Be an active listener

Being an active listener can help you understand what a customer or team member says before formulating a response or judging their views. You can use this skill to empathise with customers and team members to ensure you understand their concerns before offering to help them. You can demonstrate this skill by rephrasing questions to ensure you understand what others require.

Related: How to improve your communication skills (with steps)

Show empathy

Empathy is the ability to understand someone else's perspective. As a customer service manager, it's valuable to empathise with your customers to fully understand how they feel in different circumstances. You can demonstrate empathy in the workplace by treating your team and customers with patience and respect. Let them know you understand how they feel and plan to do what you can to provide the best service.

Highlighting your skills on your CV

When applying for customer service manager jobs, consider highlighting your skills on your CV. One of the best ways to highlight them is to include a separate section for skills. You can list them in bullet form to make them easier to read. Check job advertisements to know what skills employers require from candidates applying for the role. Include these in your skills section. If you have a section for accomplishments, demonstrate how you used these skills to attain these achievements. You may also give further details in your cover letter.