Customer service centers around support for customer issues, complaints and confusion around an organization’s offering or product. Whether face-to-face, over the phone or through an online chat service, the role is really all about human interaction.
That means honing traits like empathy, patience and strong communication are key to the training process. But it also requires developing a good understanding of whatever service or product you are offering support for.
While it doesn't demand the training that a network technician or fiber splicer may need, working as a support rep in broadband is not just handling complaints. In many contexts, the job acts as first-level troubleshooting for customer network issues — which means it's important to understand the technology you’re working with.
For instance, a broadband support representative, Ginger Lane, told us in an interview that absorbing information on the technology and context of fiber optics was an essential learning curve of the job — and one that she found both challenging and exciting.
"I'm 53, and I've been doing payment arrangements for 20-plus years, so the learning curve has definitely been a little rough for me,” she noted. “There's all kinds of terminology that I'm just not familiar with. And getting up to speed on that has been a bit of a slow process... It’s like another language.”
But the more Lane learned about fiber, the more she found working in the department to be a “breathe of fresh air,” partly thanks the pace of the job, and also how well the technology works.
“I've discovered what a quality product fiber is. Seriously, even though I’m trouble shooting, 95% of the time, I’m like, ‘Have you tried rebooting the modem?’” she explained laughing. “It is such a great product." And that makes for pretty positive customer interactions. “Ninety-nine percent of the time, they just leave really happy," Lane added.
Be it fiber, copper, wireless or some combination, companies will likely provide training tailored to the technologies you work with. But advanced training is not typically necessary for customer service roles.
Additional training resources:
Indeed: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/what-is-customer-service
Dale Carnegie: https://www.dalecarnegie.com/en/courses/248
LinkedIn: https://learning.linkedin.com/content-library/online-business-courses/customer-service-training
Pryor Learning: https://www.pryor.com/training-categories/customer-service/%20Teracom%20Training%20Institute:%20https://www.teracomtraining.com/