Customer Service Manager Job Description, Skills, and Salary
Get to know about the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and skills requirements of a customer service manager. Feel free to use our customer service manager job description template to produce your own. We also provide you with information about the salary you can earn as a customer service manager.
Who Is a Customer Service Manager?
The determinant for the longevity of any firm, company, or enterprise is Customer Satisfaction. This is why the place of Quality Customer Service remains cardinal in the corporate world. The Customer Service Manager is tasked with the role of overseeing the Customer service Department and ensuring quality delivery of customer care services. Every Company rises and falls on the strength and quality of its customer care as aforementioned. This entails that the role of the Customer Services Manager cannot be overemphasized.
The CSM(Customer Service Manager) is very important because he serves as a bridge between the Company and its customers. He/She must have Leadership skills to foster administration within the department and good Public Relations capacity. He/She is the immediate image of the Company and as such must have Personal coordination and Self Management abilities. The CSM is the fulcrum of the Company as he ensures quality delivery from other departments in the company. Take, for instance, a customer who has an altercation with a worker in the sales department. The altercation not only generates unwanted rowdiness and commotion in the company but also reduces the speed of service delivery in the sales department.
The CSM is the one that is charged with the responsibility of handling complaints that emanate from customers regarding any of the departments in a company. The CSM typically works for corporations across industries to guarantee that customers don’t feel disjointed, cheated, mismanaged, or even dissatisfied with company activities. They work hand in hand with other heads of departments to develop an understanding of the products and services of their organization or corporation and work towards providing excellent leadership for their departmental workers and ensuring their effectiveness. The CSM’s job is to recruit new employees at customer service and work together to develop systems to fast-track services.
Customer Service Manager Job Description
Below are the customer service manager job description examples you can use to develop your resume or write a customer service manager job description for your employee. Employers can also use it to sieve out job seekers when choosing candidates for interviews.
As stated afore time, the role of the CSM is cardinal for any organization to thrive. These are some of the several roles carried out by the CSM.
- Recruiting customer services staff
- Spearheading, leading, and motivating the customer services team daily
- Giving attention to customer complaints and demands
- Protecting and promoting the image of the company
- Ensuring that customer complaints are looked into by the company
- Serving as the bridge between the customer and the company.
- Ensuring cordiality between the customers and the customer services team
- Ensuring the welfare of the customer services team
Recruiting Customer Services Staff
It is within the job description of the CSM to recruit qualified members of his Customer Services Team. Age is one of the important factors considered during recruitment of Customer Services staff. The demands of speed and efficiency in customer care will not be easy for the aged. This is why you v and middle-aged persons are considered first in recruitment. Another factor considered in staff recruitment is certification. The candidates ought to have passed through formal education up to tertiary level with Diplomas or Degrees for certification purposes. The candidates should also be proficient in the use of Microsoft Word and any other Customer Care App
Spearheading, Leading and Motivating the Customer Services Team Daily
The CSM is charged with the responsibility of motivating his team. Since the goal of Customer Services is ensuring customer satisfaction, the CSM must develop a new way to streamline the several challenges that take place in the public relations section of the company. The CSM therefore should organize training and seminars and if possible invite elite facilitators to enlighten his team on modern ways of fast-tracking delivery and increasing customer loyalty. The CSM is as well at liberty to frequently organize team meetings for appraisals and discussions on ways to improve customer service.
Giving Attention to Customer Complaints and Demands
The goal of every business or corporation is profit-making. Profit-making however is impossible without value creation and customer satisfaction. This is why the CSM bears the responsibility of ensuring that optimal customer satisfaction is realized. The Sales department Manager might be worried more about sales and profits but the Customer Services Manager is more concerned about the feedback from the consumers of the goods and services. Whereas the Sales Manager ensures immediate profit, the CSM ensures longevity through Customer satisfaction.
Protecting and Promoting the Image of the Company
The Customer Service Manager is more or less the public relations officer of the company and must do all within his power to ensure the protection and promotion of the image of the Corporation. When Prices of goods or services increase for example in any corporation, the complaints meter of the company is bound to increase and this can be damaging to the image of the company. It is the duty of the CSM to reduce the impact of the price change by explaining to the customers and giving them assurance of better delivery.
Ensuring that Customer Complaints are looked into by the Company
The Customer ought to be the center of activity for any company. The feedback received from the Consumers must not be taken lightly. It is the duty of the CSM to relay the feedback from the Consumers to the Company and ensure that the company looks into the complaints and comes up with solutions to those complaints. The goal of the Customer Services Manager is to see at least 99% of customers satisfied and give positive feedback. Any negative feedback must be handled with immediate effect. The CSM is closest to the Customer and can tell when the Customer is unhappy, just barely okay, and really satisfied with the Services. He must be sensitive and get to hear the customers out and in many cases ask the
Serving as the Bridge between the Customer and the Company.
The CSM serves as the customer mouthpiece to the company and serves as the company’s ears and vice versa. This entails the sensitivity of the CSM’s role in any corporation. The CSM is an extension of the Corporation and should make the customers feel esteemed.
Ensuring Cordiality between the Customers and the Customer Services Team
On several occasions, there might be altercations between the Customers and the Customer Services Team. The CSM must be sensitive to know when to step in and intervene in such situations.
Ensuring the Welfare of the Customer Services Team
The CSM’s immediate responsibility ought to be his Team. The Life and Welfare of the Team must be of utmost importance to him. If his team grows grouchy or disgruntled for any internal or external reasons, it will affect the quality of the delivery of customer care services. He is the Bridge between the Team members and the company and must insist on the favorable treatment of his team members. He releases his team members for maternity leave, sick leave, and so on and checks on them to ensure their wellbeing.
Qualifications
- Formal Education
A Customer Service Manager must have a track record of formal education. In Nigeria for example, he ought to have passed through Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Institutions. The CSM attends to the uneducated and the educated alike and therefore must be formally educated. He should have knowledge of Business and at the same time Administration.
- Certification
A customer service certification assures employers that the customer service representative or manager has an above-average capacity to perform the job. Certifications are not always a one-time investment. Professionals are frequently required to attend continual training in order to stay current with the newest best practices in their sector. A customer service certification demonstrates to teammates and leaders that a service representative is dedicated to their job and on pace with top performers. Aside from the professional competency associated with certifications, many employers and hiring managers appreciate them financially as well.
If you’re looking for a promotion at your present job or looking for new prospects, certifications can help you negotiate money, benefits, and increased responsibility.
Customer service certifications include help desk accreditation, call center diploma, client services diploma, client services manager diploma, and customer experience diploma. In Nigeria, a CSM can as well have a Bachelor’s Degree or even an MSc in Business Administration.
Essential Skills
- Personal Leadership Skills
The Customer Service Manager must first have personal Leadership qualities. He must not be a sluggard. Before the CSM can motivate a team, he must know how to motivate and improve himself daily through training, seminars, books, etc.
The CSM must also have excellent personal hygiene. As the immediate image of the organization, his hygiene and dressing must be top-notch. These are some of the personal leadership skills a good CSM must possess
- Team Leadership
The CSM is a Team Leader. He is charged with the responsibility of motivating his Customer Services Team. He must be bold yet humble, firm and yet considerate, a Leader par example, and a person of good repute. He should emphasize on excellence in the delivery of service. The Customer Service Manager must be a Leader and not a Boss. He ought to lead by example and give room for criticism from his team members. He knows the individual capabilities of his team members and assigns tasks accordingly. He knows how to restructure his team in cases of illness or leave to ensure that customer service does not diminish in quality delivery.
- Verbal and Written Communication Skills
The Customer Services Department is the Public Relations Department of the Organization. The Customer Service Manager must be a good communicator. He must be grammatically sound and fluent in communication. The CSM should be able to also communicate in the local language to facilitate communication with the local folk. Apart from Verbal Communication, the CSM must be proficient in writing.
- Crises Situation Control
The CSM must know how to control situations. The Customer Services Department attends to customers with diverse character orientations. Some customers might not be amiable in the approach and might flare up at the Customer care desk. The CSM must know how to calm such situations down and teach the members of the Department how to handle such situations.
- Information and Communication Technology
Because of the increase in demand for services at the customer care desk, the Customer Service Manager ought to be proficient and skilled in the use of technology to facilitate ease and efficiency. The CSM must have good knowledge of the Computer and several customer care applications.
How To Become a Customer Service Manager
To Become a Customer Service Manager, one ought to have passed through the following.
- Formal Education
The Bedrock and foundation for any Noble aspiration is education. This is not any less the case for the intending Customer Services Manager. He must first pass through Elementary, Secondary, and Tertiary Institutions to receive training.
- Self Education
This is one of the most important aspects of education. Formal Education is wonderful but it is self-education that makes the difference. It is in self-education that personal skills like verbosity and ICT skills can be added to the skill set.
One must have at least 5 years experience in Administration either in the company or in any other company. It is ideal for an intending CSM to first apply to work in Customer Care first to learn the ropes of administration and leadership before aspiring for the Managerial position.
Where To Work
There are many different working environments available for Customer Service Managers because there are so many firms that need them. You can choose from the following industries:
Retail
Banking
Insurance
Leisure/tourism
Information Technology
Transportation
Government
Are you undecided about which option is best for you? Don’t worry; with so many various industries to pick from, you can always try something new if your present one isn’t working for you. Every Organization, Firm, Company, or Establishment needs a Customer Services Manager. The CSM can work in the Bank, a School, any Company, and any other Establishment one can think of.
Customer Service Salary Scale
It’s the big question on the mind of any prospective CSM: how much money can one make in this job? Well, that depends on the employer, where one works, and how much experience you have.
You can expect to earn between £16,000 and £20,000 per year as a trainee. With more expertise, this can go from £20,000 to £40,000 per year. When you go to a senior management position, your salary will increase to roughly £60,000. The Average Salary for a CSM in Nigeria however stands at NGN56000. The Customer Services Manager should earn between the range of NGN80,000 to NGN180,000