What is Customer Service? Job Description and Required Skills

Customer care is an important process in every business, aiming to maintain and enhance relationships with current customers. This job requires dedication and excellent communication skills to resolve requests, handle complaints as well as meet customer needs effectively. Let's learn more about this topic with 1C Vietnam!

1. What is customer care?

Customer care is a comprehensive process that an organization carries out to meet the needs and expectations of customers from the time they first become interested in a product until they have experienced and used it. It is a series of continuous efforts to build and maintain long-term relationships, while providing a positive experience and maximizing customer satisfaction.

2. What role does customer care play?

Customer service plays an extremely important role in the modern business environment. The art of customer service can be considered an important key to building and maintaining long-term relationships with customers. Besides, good sales and customer service skills can also bring great value to the business.

2.1 Improve customer experience

Customer service is not just about solving problems or providing product/service information. It also involves listening and empathizing with customers, helping to build a trusting relationship and creating maximum satisfaction.

2.2 Establish close relationships with customers

One great benefit of customer service is the ability to build a closer relationship with customers. Unlike focusing solely on business goals, customer service is implemented with the purpose of supporting even when it is not directly related to the interests of the business. This helps increase the credibility of the business in the eyes of customers and encourages them to return at different stages of the buying process.

Excellent customer service helps build a trusting and engaging relationship with customers. By focusing on supporting and attending to the needs of customers, businesses send the message that they care and value customers beyond just a transaction. This creates closer interactions, which helps to strengthen the good, lasting relationship between customers and the brand.

2.3 Create a good impression for the business

Caring, supporting and attending to the needs and expectations of customers is an extremely important factor in demonstrating the respect that the business has for them, not simply aiming at business benefits. These actions help customers feel special and worthy of the business's attention. This not only creates a good impression in the hearts of customers but also strengthens and enhances the image of the business in the market.

2.4 Attracting customers

Customer care not only helps generate more potential customers but also promotes positive word of mouth. Market statistics show that when a customer is satisfied with a product/service or brand, they tend to recommend it to 3 other customers. This leads to a rapid increase in the number of customers of the business.

E-commerce businesses and platforms such as Shopee, Lazada or technology ride-hailing services such as Grab, Be, Gojek, often run special promotions for people who refer new customers. The amount of rewards they receive often depends on the number of customers they successfully refer. This encourages positive spread and contributes to the growth of the business.

3. What does customer care include?

Customer service is not just about handling requests and complaints, it also involves building long-term relationships and enhancing the customer experience. Here are some of the tasks that customer service involves:

• Receive and resolve customer requests, questions and complaints through various communication channels.
• Provide detailed information and answer questions about the business's products/services.
• Support customers during the use of products/services to ensure they have the best experience.
• Build and maintain long-term relationships with customers, regularly contacting to provide support when needed.

Respond and respond to product/service reviews on various platforms such as forums and social networking sites to maintain brand reputation.

4. Popular forms of customer care

Tools and channels for customer care include in-person, phone, email, social media, live chat, and forums. Each of these channels plays an important role in supporting and resolving customer issues quickly and effectively.

4.1 Live

This is a type of customer service where the company's employees have the opportunity to directly contact and interact with customers. For example, at stores, showrooms or product launch events, employees not only provide information but also answer questions and support customers directly. This approach is preferred by many customers, because they can experience the product and receive more personal care than communicating via email or other electronic platforms.

4.2 Phone

Phone calls are a common method of customer service. A representative will contact you to provide updates, answer questions, handle complaints, or simply check on order status and customer satisfaction.

4.3 Email, message

Sending emails or text messages is an effective way to communicate and care for customers remotely. This includes notifying, updating new products/services, asking for opinions or providing support when customers need it.

For many businesses today, email customer care has become popular and common. Email not only allows sending messages quickly but also has the ability to contain a large amount of information. Checking email has become a daily habit of most users, helping businesses reach customers effectively and create positive interactions.

4.4 Social Networks

Through social media platforms and online chat services such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc., businesses can interact and take care of customers more effectively. This helps customers easily access the latest information from the business and receive timely support.

4.5 Live chat

Nowadays, consumers tend to search for information about products and services on business websites. Online live chat dialog boxes on websites have become an effective customer care tool that businesses should not ignore. When integrating chatbots, live chats such as Zalo chat, Messenger chat, businesses can enhance customer service capabilities, automatically answer questions and provide immediate support.

4.6 Forum

Online forums are increasingly becoming an ideal customer care tool, bringing excitement and novelty to consumers. Forums create a space for businesses and customers to exchange and discuss products, services and other areas in the industry. In addition, forums also allow customers to connect with each other to share experiences and feelings about any product/service.

Using forums as a customer care tool helps businesses quickly update diverse information on many aspects, reach new customer groups and carry out PR activities simply, without spending too much money. However, to be more effective, businesses should choose forums that are suitable for their business field to reach potential customers.

5. Professional customer care process

The process includes pre- and post-sales stages, from prospecting, branding, to sending thank-you letters and maintaining post-sale contact. Here are the specific activities of a complete customer care solution:

5.1 Pre-sales stage

Before selling, businesses must ensure the following basic steps:

• Research and determine market needs: Businesses need to carefully research and analyze the needs and desires of potential customers to develop appropriate strategies.
• Branding and reputation building: This involves developing a strong and trustworthy brand image to attract and gain customer trust.
• Using marketing channels: Businesses should combine traditional and modern marketing channels such as advertising, PR, and online marketing to best reach potential customers.
• Close interaction with customers: Genuine and effective communication and interaction with customers helps provide accurate information about products/services as well as answer all their questions.

5.2 After-sales stage

The post-sale phase is a critical time for businesses to continue to maintain relationships and increase customer satisfaction. Activities to focus on during this phase include:

• Send thank you and advice letters: After a customer makes a purchase, the business sends a thank you letter to express gratitude and provide useful advice about the product/service.
• Collect customer feedback: Conduct surveys or ask customers for their opinions on their experience using products/services, helping businesses improve quality and better meet customer needs.
• Maintain communication and provide useful information: Use channels such as email, SMS, social networks to maintain communication and provide useful information about products/services, promotions or the latest information from the business.
• Improve support services: Ensure that your business support services are always efficient and professional, thereby improving customer satisfaction and retention.
• Combining promotion of new products/services: During the after-sales customer care process, businesses can organize promotional activities to introduce new products/services, thereby boosting sales and increasing customer interest.

6. Distinguish between customer care and customer service

To clearly distinguish between customer care and customer service, 1C Vietnam suggests some criteria below:

7. How to become a professional customer service staff?

To be successful in this role, employees need to develop excellent communication skills, the ability to listen attentively and understand the needs of customers. At the same time, a deep understanding of the product/service is also an indispensable factor to increase confidence and professionalism in the working process.

7.1 Professional customer care skills

Professional customer service skills are an important factor in determining the success of a business in retaining and attracting potential customers. Here are some indispensable skills when becoming a customer service staff:

• Product Knowledge: Customer service quality is often judged by how well employees understand the product. Confidence in answering customer questions reflects a deep understanding of the product, which in turn helps resolve problems thoroughly.

• Communication Skills: Being able to convey information accurately and concisely is an important element of customer service.
• Listening and understanding skills: Listening and understanding customer needs is the most effective way to come up with appropriate and quick solutions, avoiding misunderstandings and wasting time for both parties.
• Ability to read customers: This skill helps employees come up with solutions that suit the psychology and needs of each specific customer, increasing the effectiveness of interaction and support.
• Customer persuasion skills: In a highly competitive environment, the ability to convince customers of the quality and value of a product/service is a decisive factor in attracting and retaining customers.

7.2 Attitude

Besides professional skills, attitude also contributes significantly to creating a professional customer service staff:

• It is important in customer service to always be confident and proactive in every conversation. This helps maintain a cheerful and friendly support attitude, even when the conversation is going in a negative direction.
• Patience is an important quality in communication and a key element in customer service. With patience, businesses can build long-term relationships and provide quality service to customers.
• Paying attention to and caring about customers’ stories is a way to understand their needs and expectations. This is an opportunity for businesses to improve their products and services effectively.
• Flexibility and tact in handling situations are important factors to ensure that customers receive the best support from the business. No matter what difficult situation they encounter, employees need to demonstrate a professional and flexible attitude to solve the problem in the best way.

In the process of customer care, specialists and managers can apply the 1C:ERP solution developed on a modern low-code platform. 1C:ERP helps manage businesses comprehensively with many subsystems, in which the CRM system stands out for long-term customer management. This system provides many tools to help store customer information, track and interact with customers through the notification system, create and control marketing programs/events,...

8. What is the salary of a customer service representative?

According to the 2023 Recruitment Market Report and 2024 Recruitment Demand Forecast, the salary of customer service staff varies depending on work experience as follows:

• Under 1 year of experience: from 7,000,000 VND to 9,000,000 VND
• 1 to 4 years of experience: from 8,000,000 VND to 12,000,000 VND

According to Glassdoor, the average salary for a customer service position is around VND 10,000,000/month in Hanoi, Vietnam. Total compensation for a customer service representative, including KPI bonuses and performance bonuses, can reach around VND 24,012,960/month.

Customer care is an important activity that helps businesses create a loyal customer base as well as improve business efficiency. Businesses can refer to 1C Vietnam's 1C:ERP solution with a CRM subsystem - automated and professional Customer Relationship Management. The system allows for full scientific recording of customer information on a single platform, providing data to help administrators easily develop effective CRM strategies. If you want to improve customer care activities for your business, contact 1C Vietnam for advice.