Customer Service Virtual Assistant

Customers sit at the core of all businesses. Keeping customers happy is always a priority. This is because without customers, whether in retail or in service, there will be no revenue at all. With this in mind, taking care of customers then becomes a staple of any good business. One way to up the ante in customer support and care is hiring a customer service virtual assistant (VA).

While hiring for good customer care is necessary for all businesses, as a business owner, it is important to balance cost with service. This is where customer service virtual assistants can come in. A customer support virtual assistant can do all your business’ necessary customer service tasks, but at a fraction of the cost of a physical employee.

Not only do you not need to pay for things like insurance, utilities, and other costs associated with a physical employee. Hiring a customer service VA gives you access to a global talent pool. With this access to a wide variety of applicants, whether you need full time or part-time, beginner or advanced, you are sure to find a virtual customer assistant that suits your needs. Plus, a worldwide pool also means that no matter the time of day, you can hire virtual customer service assistants who can assist customers in real-time without ever needing to pay extra for night shifts.

Answering customer calls

One of the most basic but important tasks your customer service VA should do is answer phone calls from customers. They should be able to think on their feet and answer intelligently and patiently.

Resolve online inquiries and complaints

Apart from calls, your customer service VA should be able to respond to website live chat messages, and monitor social media for inquiries and comments on your products or services, and respond accordingly.

FAQ maintenance

As your customer service VA is the one most aware of customer questions and concerns, they can also update your company’s static FAQ to lessen active inquiries.

KPI tracking

No business wants to leave their customers waiting, as it can alienate or anger them. Your customer service VA can keep track of things like response time, percentage of answered inquiries, and other important KPIs.

Keep customer records

With access to the correct tools, your customer service VA can help keep track of customer history, so that it is easier for other departments to analyze customer behavior for marketing and sales plans. This also gives customer service agents a good background of each customer, so that when customers call for inquiries or complaints, they can feel listened to and cared for.

Good communication skills

Customer interaction is the very core of being a customer care virtual assistant, so it is important that VAs in this role be able to communicate clearly and effectively.

Patience and empathy

Fielding inquiries and customer concerns can expose a customer service assistant to many kinds of people in many states of emotion. It is important that customer service VAs remain calm, patient, and understanding of customers, even when the customers are angry. They should be able to inject reason in hot-headed demands, as well as make customers feel like they’re being taken seriously.

Multi-tasking and organization

Customer service VAs have to deal with multiple lines of inquiry constantly and must be able to keep track of the active ones, so as not to anger or confuse customers.

Charisma

Your customer service VA must have charm, as they are the primary connection between you and customers.

Good company value fit

In order to be more convincing and be more empathetic, your customer service VA must believe in your company’s core values and various business lines.

Willingness to learn

Customer service is an ever-changing part of business. There will always be new lines of inquiries and complaints, so it is important that customer service VAs always be willing to learn and try new knowledge, skills, and techniques to increase efficiency and customer satisfaction.

While getting a customer care virtual assistant has many benefits, these same benefits, like the wide global pool, can cause hiring a VA to be overwhelming. Sometimes, it feels like it’s impossible to know where to start. This is where companies like 20four7VA can come in to help.

20four7VA not only vets applicants to suit your specific needs so that you only need to interview qualified shortlisted potential VAs, but they can also help you onboard and track the performance of your chosen VA. You can schedule a no-commitment pre-consultation call to get started.