The way brands engage with customers in today’s interconnected world is constantly changing. Tied to this constant change is the evolution of customer experience. Over the years, the industry has become better at understanding and implementing measures to enhance customer experience. But there is still a lot more to be done.

Customer relations is one of the most important and difficult to maintain aspects of running a successful business. It’s through attentive, efficient, and friendly relationships with customers that you will be able to bring in new clients, retain existing customers, and receive referrals from those who love your product and trust in your business. But those positive relationships do not develop overnight.

Language is the currency of support. It allows us to produce results when talking to customers over the phone, via chat or over email. But, just as it can allow us to repair bridges that are broken, it can crumble them down, if used improperly. There is no quicker way to lose a customer’s trust than giving them the wrong information or speaking to them in a way that makes them feel disrespected or like you don’t care.

Sometimes even the most experienced agents will face a customer service issue so complex that it leaves them stumped. That’s understandable—after all, as the technology driving many products and services becomes increasingly complicated, the need for guidance from experts on other teams has become commonplace.

One of the most frustrating experiences is to finally win a customer, only for them to stop using your service after a few weeks or months. You spent all that time and money trying to win them over, and the result suddenly vanishes. While there are plenty of reasons for this, one of the biggest is your customer onboarding. If your new converts don’t know what to do or how to use your product or service, then they’re not likely to stick around.

From email to helpdesk, businesses come a long way. As your business expands, so do the needs of your customers—you have to expand your support to social media, you need to be mindful of all the small changes you make to your automation rules, strengthen security, etc. When you’re using a system that works well for small businesses but isn’t designed for scale, it might fail to perform when faced with heavy data.

Great customer service agents are invaluable in any business. Not only can they make your customers happy in an instant, but they can completely change the perception of your company. Finding these great agents, however, isn’t easy. Here are twelve customer service skills all great agents need and what you should look for when building your team…