How to build a rockstar customer service team

The following article is based on a presentation by Michelle Myers at the 2021 Maid Summit, hosted and organized by ZenMaid. Michelle is the co-owner of Pink Callers, a customer service agency for field service businesses. 

When most maid service owners launch their businesses, they’re a one-person customer service team. This is fine in the beginning, but if you want your business to grow, delegating customer service is essential. 

Michelle Myers, co-owner of Pink Callers, a virtual customer service agency, says customer service representatives (CSRs) are the pilots of your company. CSRs guide communication, schedule work, keep clients satisfied, and help you get paid. 

A successful CSR needs more than a phone line. According to Michelle, a rockstar customer service rep requires a business owner’s support in three key areas:

• Tools
• Tech
• Training

“If you get these three areas of customer service dialed in for your team, you’re really going to empower them to be better than they ever thought possible,” Michelle says.

Read on to learn Michelle’s tips for supporting your CSRs in each of the key areas for success.

Tools for customer service success

Cleaners aren’t the only people on your team who depend on the right tools and equipment to do their best work. Here’s a rundown of the essentials for every CSR.

• Dedicated office space: If your office is a high-energy, loud environment, create a quiet space for your CSR. While office space isn’t what you’d typically consider a tool, it’s absolutely essential. The sounds of multiple conversations or people coming in and out of a busy office environment can sound chaotic to a caller and can negatively impact your business. Callers can also tell when the CSR is stressed or distracted, which doesn’t create confidence in the quality of your service.

If it’s impossible to create a quiet and protected space for your CSR in your office, consider having them work from home.

• Multiple computer screens: CSRs receive messages from different platforms all day – phone, text, email, Facebook, Instagram, or live chats on your website. With so much information to process and sort, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and lose track of messages. 

To help your CSR manage all of this input, give them multiple computer screens in addition to their desktop or laptop computers. They can dedicate each screen to a different type of communication. The number of screens you’ll need depends on how many channels of communication your CSR manages. 

• Headset: Help your CSR go hands-free by providing headsets, which offer greater speed and efficiency than a speakerphone.
  

Tech for customer service success

Not all software is created equal. Here’s how to find what’s right for your team.

• Customer relationship management (CRM): Your CRM tracks customer interactions and information and is the main software your customer service team uses. 

If you’re shopping for a CRM, find the one that best supports the way you’d like your customer service team to work and is easy to use. A complicated CRM will be more of a distraction than a helpful tool.

• Dashboard: A dashboard is software that helps you manage all of your team’s tasks. Examples are ClickUp, Trello, Monday, or Asana. 

With a dashboard, you and your CSR can assign tasks and deadlines to specific people. It allows a full-view of everyone’s workload, schedules, and the status of projects. 

You can also use your dashboard to organize frequently used information such as call scripts, pricing, and other customer service information. This helps your CSR access this information quickly if they’re on a call, and is a knowledge base for future employees. 

• Communication: More and more, customers are choosing digital forms of communication over phones to contact businesses. Don’t wait until your phone stops ringing. Invest in digital forms of communication to help your CSR team talk to customers in the ways customers prefer.
  
  Digitize your internal communication as well. Retire group text threads and invest in tools like Slack that help you organize conversations. These tools may seem overwhelming if you’re just starting out, but your company will grow into them, so consider the future you want to build when choosing tools and technology.

Training for customer service success

Invest in training for your customer service team. There isn’t an abundance of training specific for CSRs so you need to be creative and open to training that falls outside the cleaning industry.

Michelle turned to training from Go Time Success Group. While this training is focused on the HVAC industry, there are a lot of crossover themes and topics that can be applied to maid services. 

If possible, buy pre-recorded training you can add to your training program for new hires. 

Ask your CSRs for feedback and suggestions

Create an easy and consistent system to get feedback and suggestions from your CSRs about the tools, tech, and training you’ve provided. 

If something isn’t working, get details to help you find a solution that will work better for their needs. After all, every business has unique processes and finding the ideal toolbox for your CSR may take some experimenting. 

Learn more:

For more resources on how to grow and perfect your cleaning business, check out the replays from the 2021 Maid Summit, hosted by ZenMaid. The summit featured more than 60 presentations from other maid service owners who shared tools and strategies to help you achieve the highest levels of success in your business. 

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