Skilled: Why Customer Service is More Than a First Job

By Alma P Ángel

Don't let a job in customer service discourage you-let it empower you.

Have you ever worked a customer service job thinking it was temporary or unnecessary because it was not your ultimate career choice? What if you found out you were actually developing critical skills during that job that could prove essential to you

• Language: English
• Publisher: New Degree Press
• Release date: Apr 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9781637301593

Book preview

Skilled

Why Customer Service is More Than a First Job

Alma P. Ángel

New Degree Press

Copyright © 2021 Alma P. Ángel

All rights reserved.

Skilled

Why Customer Service is More Than a First Job

ISBN 978-1-63676-710-9 Paperback

978-1-63730-057-2 Kindle Ebook

978-1-63730-159-3 Ebook

Contents

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Introduction

Part ONE

Chapter 1

What Is Customer Service?

Chapter 2

Soft Skills Explained

Part TWO

Chapter 3

Active Listening

Chapter 4

Emotional Intelligence

Chapter 5

Empathy

Chapter 6

Problem-Solving

Chapter 7

Teamwork

Chapter 8

Managing Stress

Chapter 9

Negotiation

Chapter 10

Overcoming Intimidation

Part THREE

Chapter 11

Careers in Customer Service

Chapter 12

Careers Outside Customer Service

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

Appendix

Introduction

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Former REI CEO Dennis Madsen once said to his mentee, Bryan Pape, If you don’t take care of your people, you won’t have a business to take care of people.¹

Madsen began his career with REI when he was seventeen years old in 1966.² He interviewed with the founders and the manager for a position stocking shelves, and he recalls being the lowest man on the totem pole with a smile.³ ⁴

REI was set up as a co-op, a cooperative organization, from the beginning because the founders wanted to provide products to and support their customers.⁵ In a presentation at the Tugboat Institute Summit, Madsen explained how REI’s co-op structure focused on the customers as the owners, allowing them to become owner members and have an equal vote in REI.⁶ He also explained how REI’s purpose was helping customers enjoy the outdoors.⁷ Throughout Madsen’s employment with REI, the founders’ values and purpose were at the forefront, developing a strong customer focus for him and the company.

In an interview, Madsen explained treating your customers as the investors of your business helps your business to continue.⁸ Putting the customer in the center leads to employees learning to connect with customers. Every customer is unique, and we need to know how to speak to and connect with them to make them feel valued and heard. REI’s structure makes sure customers feel valued by giving them the option to be owners, giving them a stake in the company. 

Madsen’s early employment with REI helped him develop soft skills that led to a successful career within REI, and now as a consultant.⁹ As a frontline employee, Madsen interacted with customers, founders, and management regularly. Successfully interacting with everyone came with communicating effectively. 

Madsen’s rise from stock boy to CEO may not be the most common scenario. Still, I have found that you can develop important skills for your future career through customer service jobs, whether you choose to move up within the company or industry like Madsen did or you choose to move into another industry. 

In my late teens and early twenties, I believed customer service representatives were there to make me happy and solve my problems with the product or service. If I needed help installing a piece of software, I would call, expecting the representative to know how to help me. After I explained my problem, the representative responded with several possible solutions. I wasn’t always patient, so working through different scenarios was frustrating; I wanted my problem solved quickly. 

From other people’s stories about calling customer service, I could tell they had had their expectations too. There was this anger and frustration in their voices when they shared their experiences about how the customer service representative couldn’t do what they wanted them to do. 

Once when I was fifteen years old, I went with my parents to a restaurant. As we waited in the front, I overheard a man on the phone yelling, You need to fix this. This wasn’t my fault. He was angry about something he had purchased and was taking it out on the person on the other end of the call. He definitely let his anger get the best of him, and for this reason, I dreaded the idea of working in customer service, specifically over-the-phone customer service. 

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to avoid it. 

One of my old jobs was at a call center for an online store, and I had an intense call. A customer called angry because what he had ordered wasn’t the shade he wanted. I pulled up his order and confirmed the color code he had selected, and he had received the correct item. However, he still wasn’t happy with it and wanted to return the item. I went over the return policy with him, but it wasn’t what he wanted to hear. He cursed me out very loudly, and I just sat there thinking, Wow, this actually happened to me. I didn’t know what to do or say, but thankfully, he hung up once he was done. 

I never thought I would work in customer service for very long. Fast forward twelve years; I’m still working in customer service, even if it’s not called customer service. I’ve had job titles like administrative assistant and account clerk, and both entailed speaking to customers directly and addressing their concerns. When you’re the first point of contact at a business, all customers interact with you regardless of your official title. 

Customer service can entail many departments, not just the customer service or sales representatives. It can also be assisting suppliers or investors with reports or information they request. Many companies have some form of customer service to help address any concerns customers may have. Without it, companies can lose customers and sales. Between 2017 and 2018, the number of customer service employees grew by 9.2 percent, from 2.8 million to 3.1 million.¹⁰ But customer service representatives are not the only ones who do customer service; they’re just the ones who interact with the final customer—those who purchase the product or service. The number of people who have customer service responsibilities is much higher. 

As of 2018, the three industries that employed the most customer service representatives were restaurants and food services, business support services, and insurance carriers, with 6.63 percent, 5.99 percent, and 4.01 percent of the workforce, respectively.¹¹ These industries may hire the most customer service representatives, but many other industries and customer service roles exist. The forms of customer service can be in person, over-the-phone, online, in retail, or in health care. What they all have in common is interacting with many different people. 

As a young adult, I saw customer service jobs as temporary jobs while I finished school. While I worked in a restaurant and went to school, I met others who also viewed working in customer service roles as temporary. They were students looking for flexibility, professionals who needed extra income, and people in between jobs. Others saw working in customer service as a stepping stone into an industry, but they all assumed they would move on. 

These temporary views prevent people from seeing the skills they can develop through these roles. 

After working in customer service for more than ten years now, I have learned customer service doesn’t end once you move up or out of the role. In any position you take on, you interact and communicate with other people, whether they are external customers or internal employees, investors, or the public. 

I’ve also realized customer service roles help develop your communication skills. By developing these skills early, you can effectively communicate your point when you find yourself in a difficult interaction later. Customer service jobs also help develop the following skills:

Active listening

Emotional intelligence

Empathy

Problem-solving 

Teamwork

Negotiation

Managing stress

Building your confidence

Entry-level customer service jobs are a great way for young adults to begin developing these skills. Once they’re older and looking for more responsibility, they will have the soft skills needed to effectively communicate with and lead others. While working in customer service, you interact with many people; all these interactions are opportunities to practice. When you do move up or out, you will have these skills in your tool bag. 

After working in restaurants and call centers for twelve years, I felt pigeon-holed into customer service, and I didn’t think I had much to bring to other roles. However, when I took the time to reflect on my customer service roles, I noticed these interactions developed my communication skills, and communication is a key factor in anyone’s career. Why? Because you need to build relationships with the people around you, and you do that by communicating and interacting with them effectively. When you work with a team, you want to share your ideas with them clearly, understand questions and respond correctly, and show you can maintain a level head when making decisions. I will use my experiences as a waitress and a customer service representative to provide examples of how these skills will help build your reputation and the trust people have for you.

Let’s explore others who’ve worked in customer service and find out what skills they developed and strengthened through working in customer service. Through these stories, we can learn to take the opportunity to develop these skills early through customer service roles. Developing these skills and having them as a strong foundation will help you build your confidence because you’ll be prepared to listen and respond accordingly to the people around you in any situation presented to you in the future. Don’t let a job in customer service discourage you; let it empower you.

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1 Bryan Papé and Rebecca Papé, Dennis Madsen| Mentor, Friend, and Former CEO of REI, April 19, 2019, in MiiR Empowerful Podcast, podcast, MP3 audio, 1:07:11. 

2 Evergreen Journal, Profit with a Purpose: The REI Story | Dennis Madsen, November 27, 2018, YouTube video, 20:34. 

3 Ibid.

4 Mary L. Grady, Retired CEO Continues Mission – Mercer Island Resident Dennis Madsen Hopes to Encourage Love for Outdoors through a New Foundation, Mercer Island Reporter, November 24, 2008. 

5 Evergreen Journal, Profit with a Purpose: The REI Story | Dennis Madsen, November 27, 2018, YouTube video, 20:34. 

6 Evergreen Journal, Profit with a Purpose: The REI Story | Dennis Madsen, November 27, 2018, YouTube video, 20:34.

7 Ibid.

8 Bryan Papé and Rebecca Papé, Dennis Madsen| Mentor, Friend, and Former CEO of REI, April 19, 2019, in MiiR Empowerful Podcast, podcast, MP3 audio, 1:07:11. 

9 Dennis Madsen, Business Consultant, LinkedIn, accessed January 7, 2021.

10 Customer Service Representatives, DataUSA, accessed August 25, 2020. 

11 Customer Service Representatives, DataUSA, accessed August 25, 2020.

Part One

Chapter 1

What Is Customer Service?

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I’ll have the vegetable soup.

It was a busy Friday night. The restaurant was full of people eating and talking while waiters, waitresses, and busboys were running around taking orders, delivering food, and cleaning tables. I had five tables with three to five guests each, and they all progressed differently with their meals. One table, a family with three kids, took a long time to order, preventing me from checking on my other tables. I would normally check in to see if my customers were enjoying their meals and find out if they needed anything else. I kept looking around to keep an eye on my other tables, and my responses to my current customer’s questions were quick and short. 

The man at the table, we’ll call him Greg, asked, What soups do you have tonight?

I quickly said, Vegetable soup and chicken soup, not pausing between them. My tone was also stressed because I knew one of my tables needed drink refills, and I was taking too long to get them for the table. 

Greg wasn’t happy with my level of service and spoke to my manager later, who then came to me and said, Your table said you were being short with them. 

I realized I failed to make the customer feel valued and important. I was so concerned with everything I had to do and all the tables I was waiting on that I forgot this customer needed my full attention. In that moment, my other tables didn’t matter. Greg and his family should have been my main focus. 

I was doing my job of taking orders and answering customers’ questions, but how I did it was subpar. The how is important, especially in restaurants where your tips depend on how your customers feel about how you provided service to them. You bring the