The key role of a customer support executive is to lead the customer support representatives and ensure customer delight. This can be observed by tapping multiple responsibilities varying from business to business. Hence, the hiring process starts with analyzing business needs and understanding role requirements.
Step 1: Outline Role Requirements
Recruiters must spend a lot of time understanding the business and mapping out specific requirements. For instance, a technology-based company might look for a customer support manager/ executive with deep product knowledge. A large service enterprise might want a manager who focuses on good communication and problem-solving skills. The business needs can vary, but what all tasks fall under the customer support executive’s jurisdiction?
What is the role of a customer support executive?
- Lead Customer Support Team- A customer support manager trains, manages, and leads a team of customer support representatives. S/he plans and conducts training to enhance customer support service. This includes strengthening soft skills and technical competencies. Additionally, s/he manages the entire team and takes over in case of complexities.
- Ensure Workflow and Operational Efficiency- A customer support manager sets SOPs and optimizes the processes for maximum efficiency. This involves setting standard procedures and employing various tools to automate the process. Moreover, they provide actionable insights to improve the operation execution. This ensures quick problem-solving and better customer service.
- Customer Delight and Retention- Besides leading and managing the team, the customer support executive handles product-related queries. Especially since they have to deal with complex issues that a regular representative cannot resolve. Moreover, they communicate with angry and frustrated customers to understand their needs and meet their expectations.
- Collaborate- The customer support manager has to actively collaborate with multiple teams and build strong relationships with employees and customers. S/he has to connect with other managers to solve customer issues and strategically plan a workflow. For example, they will reach out to the product development team for repetitive customer issues which might need a permanent solution.
So, based on these 4 key roles of customer support executives, recruiters can look for the desired candidate to fill the role. Once they decide on key roles and responsibilities, you can draft the job description and start sourcing qualified candidates. Here is a JD template for your reference.
Customer Support Manager Job Description
Job Brief
Our company is looking for a qualified customer support executive to lead the customer support team and improve customer retention. You will have to manage a team of 40+ customer support representatives and actively cross-collaborate with departments to share insights. Also, you will have to strategize the workflows and training for the representatives to improve customer experience.
Ps:- The job brief shall include the roles and responsibilities, and a peek into company culture and values.
Expectation
- Strong interpersonal skills to collaborate with managers across the firm to share valuable insights.
- Communication skills to handle complex grievances.
- Mentor customer support representatives to enhance operational efficiency.
- Mediate customer grievances with relevant departments to offer a long-term solution.
Ps:- This section will include all your expectations from the candidate based on soft skills or other competencies. Ensure to add only relevant expectations, not to drive away underrepresented candidates.
Responsibilities
- Managing customer support representatives
- Resolve complex customer issues
- Set workflows and operational efficiencies to solve customer issues promptly.
- Plan and train customer support representatives to keep up with new updates
- Possess strong product knowledge
- Assist HR with new hires
- Communicate with other departments to share insights into customer pain points.
- Deploy product engagement strategies for enhanced customer retention.
Ps:- This section can vary based on business needs. Start with core responsibilities and gradually move to less important ones.
Requirements and Skills
- Ability to lead and manage a team
- CRM systems knowledge
- Conflict resolution skills
- Interpersonal skills
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- Technical soundness
- Performance management
Ps:- Do not include “nice to have” responsibilities or skills in this section. This can impact the application rate and might push away top performers.
Depending on your business requirements, you can include more sections like benefits, experience, and much more. Once you draft and post your JD, you can start sourcing the top candidates.
Step 2: Sourcing Candidates With Multichannel Approach
A multichannel approach combines traditional sourcing channels with new proactive strategies to find the most suitable candidate. This includes passively engaging and sourcing candidates throughout the year. Recruiters use platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Naukri.com, etc., to find the top talent instead of relying completely on job posting applications.
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Step 3: Evaluate and Pick the Desired Top Talent
The sourcing and engagement process would get you a strong pipeline of qualified candidates. You must critically evaluate each candidate to find the most qualified customer support executive. But what skills shall you look out for?
What Skills are Required for a Customer Support Executive?
- Technical Skills- The customer support executive must have technical skills matching the product/ service requirements to solve complex customer problems. If the executive needs to understand the product technicalities, how will s/he resolve any technical issues? Hence, clarity of technical background is critical for a new customer support executive.
- Customer Interaction Skills- The executive must have strong communication skills, especially in customer-facing. They must respond well to customer queries while communicating company values and brands. They should actively listen with empathy and handle customer queries with patience promptly.
- Product/ Service Knowledge- The executive must have deep knowledge and understanding of the company product and/ or services. Otherwise, they will be unable to resolve customer issues and support requests. Moreover, with better product understanding, they can identify common issues and communicate them with relevant departments. They will be well aware of product aspects and improve product adoption and engagement.
- Support Workflow and Policy Knowledge- The executive shall clearly understand current workflows and company policy. They must understand how the teams in the organization handle the objection and resolve current support issues. Moreover, they should be aware of the incident and problem process, which is how customers raise support requests and resolve them. Additionally, they must be thorough with company policy to ensure compliance.
- Problem-Solving- The executive must have exceptional problem-solving skills to identify and solve customer issues and support requests. Moreover, they must be prompt to ensure customer satisfaction and retention. They should be able to resolve complex and time-sensitive issues while guiding the team.
- Leadership- The executive leads, trains, and manages a team of customer support representatives. Hence, they must display leadership skills to showcase their ability to supervise and handle customer support teams. This includes highlighting strengths, working on weaknesses, identifying opportunities, resolving internal conflicts, and motivating them to work efficiently.
- Performance Management- The executive plans and trains the representatives to improve their performance and current workflows. Hence, s/he shall be able to evaluate the performance and take corrective measures to enhance performance further.
- Communication Skills- The customer support executive has to have strong communication skills. They communicate actively with customers, representatives, and other departments to ensure a smooth workflow. Hence, they shall communicate seamlessly with all the stakeholders to report and resolve recurring issues. They must communicate with managers across the organization to collaborate on strategic solutions.
More skills make a candidate the best fit for your firm. Here is a list of key responsibilities of customer support executives to look for when selecting the right candidate.
- Technical Soundness
- Empathy
- Communication Skills
- Good Listener
- Problem-solving
- Motivational Skills
- Patience
- Leadership Skills
- Effective Team Training
- Performance Management
- Strategic Thinking
- Emotional Intelligence
Now that you have clear expectations, you can conduct interviews with clarity. You will know what soft skills you can assess the candidate for. Here are a few questions for your reference to get a quick head start.
- Do you have experience in leading and supervising a team of customer support representatives? Can you share some of the effective strategies for managing support teams?
- Do you have experience in training new support staff members? How do you keep them motivated?
- How do you resolve internal conflicts, especially about finding the best way to solve a customer grievance?
- Are you familiar with the software and hardware products used by our company and our competitors?
- How do you delegate tasks? How do you communicate with the team members to discuss their roles and responsibilities?
- Share an experience when you went above and beyond to resolve a customer grievance. How did you handle the situation?
- How do you solve unique customer problems?
- How do you ensure proper configuration of new system upgrades?
- What are some of the critical metrics to measure customer satisfaction? Why?
- Elaborate on an experience of managing customer support requests via ticketing systems & other tools.
- How do you keep track of customer issues & requests?
- How do you stay updated with industry trends and technologies?
- Do you have prior experience in creating support documents for customers?
These questions will help you assess the candidate for various soft skills. You can add more questions, case studies, and other assessments to find the right fit for the position.
Step 4: Hire and Onboard
The final step is to hire and onboard the new executive. Once you have evaluated the candidates, you need to look for these 5 core competencies to choose your next customer support executive.
- Customer Service Mindset
- Outstanding Communication Skills
- Conflict-Resolution Skills
- Creative Problem-Solving Ability
- High-Level Empathy
In addition, you can look for more skills to match your business needs. After choosing the right fit for your firm, you must spend adequate time onboarding them for a smooth transition. This includes setting high-level expectations and familiarizing them with company policies and tools.
They must have clarity over learning objectives and performance goals. They shall learn, collaborate, and lead the team to reflect their competencies and add value to the organization.
Start the onboarding process by sharing all the relevant information and completing all the documentation. This will include a career map highlighting different stages of their journey in the company. Further, explain their role and responsibilities, broken down into a specific timeline. This will give them an idea of how they would contribute to the organization and what perks they will get.
The next step of onboarding is to share learning objectives and performance goals. Also, highlight the core metrics your businesses focus on and learn about their personal goals. The training period could include:
- Client research
- Product and workflow knowledge
- Client meetings and notes
- Understanding product:
- Company Policies
- SOPs
- Compliance and security training
- Resolving customer feedback
With proper training and onboarding, the customer support executive can effectively collaborate for training sessions and meeting department heads. They can lead successful team meetings, identify responses to customer queries, share insights, and add real value to the company.
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Customer support executives play a significant role in customer delight success. They act as a bridge between the customer, product development, and customer support team. They guide customers and resolve all product-related queries, maximizing product engagement. In a nutshell, they become the guiding star for the business to track questions and provide exceptional products/ services to the customers.
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