WHAT DOES A CUSTOMER SERVICE SPECIALIST DO?
Published: September 16, 2024 - The Customer Service Specialist provides exemplary customer service via phone, e-mail, and other platforms, ensuring responses are both timely and precise. Responsibilities include acting as a liaison to enhance communication between the customer support team and management, developing service programs, and analyzing feedback to boost business productivity. Additionally, This role encompasses documenting interactions, contributing to team training, and maintaining comprehensive product knowledge to improve customer satisfaction and service delivery.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Customer Service Specialist
1. Customer Service Specialist Duties
- Email Management: Responding to high volumes of emails from various customers.
- Order Management: Ensuring all orders and queries are actioned and responded to in a professional and timely manner.
- Customer Engagement: Keeping in close contact with customers from the start of the order management lifecycle until the end.
- Customer Satisfaction: Maximising customer satisfaction throughout the process.
- Relationship Building: Building and maintaining good working relationships.
- Onboarding Support: Supporting the Customer Service Manager when onboarding new customers to provide superior and smooth service.
- Partner Collaboration: Working closely with key distributor partners, managing orders and related activities through a variety of automated and manual channels.
- Team Support: Supporting the team to manage all customer/distributor contact and queries on a wide range of topics, including delivery dates, stock, documentation, and quotes.
- Multichannel Communication: Talking to customers on all channels including phone, email, and live chat.
- Cross-functional Coordination: Working closely with key partners, including logistics, supply chain, finance, and FedEx, to ensure orders are delivered on time.
- Customer Experience Management: Partnering with the local and global CMO teams to meet the needs of the customer and deliver the expected customer experience at every interaction.
- Case Ownership: Owning each customer case from start to finish to ensure the customer is informed at all stages of the experience.
2. Customer Service Specialist Details
- Customer Assistance: Serving in a Provider Solutions Agent capacity, the Team Lead will assist customers with various issues including ordering products, shipment status/delays, updating contact information, billing issues, returns, and credits.
- Subject Matter Expertise: Serving as a resource or Subject Matter Expert (SME) for other team members.
- Escalation Management: Promptly responding to first-level escalations and determining the appropriate actions to resolve customer issues.
- Operations Analysis: Assisting with analysis or daily operations of the department including running reports and identifying trends in performance and metrics.
- Quality Monitoring: Maintaining and monitoring department quality and productivity including call queues, case queues, credentialing cases, and EDI corrections.
- Staff Scheduling: Scheduling support staff and assigning daily duties to ensure efficient order processing workflow, re-assignment, and delegation of duties based on workload.
- Process Improvement: Identifying opportunities and making recommendations to department leadership for improving workflow processes, operating systems, training programs, reference materials, and quality initiatives that enhance the customer experience.
- Reporting and Appraisals: Assisting the supervisor and/or manager in preparation of weekly/monthly reporting and annual performance appraisals.
- Coaching and Mentoring: Responsible for coaching and mentoring agents with performance issues identified by management.
- Problem Resolution: Communicating with internal management to resolve problems and expedite orders.
- Administrative Support: Performing administrative duties as directed and assisting with special projects.
- Continuous Learning: Keeping current on new plan information and instructions by attending and participating in staff meetings, company-required training programs, and other activities that develop skills, build teamwork, and provide updated information.
3. Customer Service Specialist Responsibilities
- Customer Service: Ensure to provide excellent customer service through phone, e-mail, online reviews, chat, etc., in a timely and accurate manner.
- Liaison Role: Serve as a liaison between the customer support team, management, and customers to improve customer service and business productivity.
- Complaint Analysis: Analyze customer complaints and provide appropriate corrective actions.
- Issue Resolution: Analyze and troubleshoot customer issues to provide an appropriate solution.
- Issue Tracking: Track, follow up, and resolve customers’ outstanding issues in a courteous and timely fashion.
- Program Development: Develop customer service programs to provide outstanding service.
- Documentation: Prepare documentation and reports on routine customer correspondence for future reference purposes.
- Training: Assist in training peers on improving customer support service.
- Product Knowledge: Develop and maintain in-depth product knowledge.
- Feedback Communication: Communicate customer feedback to technical and marketing teams to develop processes for better-serving customers.
- Survey Conducting: Conduct customer surveys about the company’s service/product to obtain feedback.
- Report Maintenance: Maintain weekly reports on customer inquiries, responses, and feedback to develop customer service analytics and trends.
- Sales Support: Assist with other types of sales associate requests.
4. Customer Service Specialist Job Summary
- Customer Service: Provides accurate, time-sensitive, and cost-effective services to mutual fund and stock customers through telephone or written inquiries, enhancing customer value and contributing to the overall success of the business.
- Product Knowledge: Handles various product lines including institutional, retail mutual fund, closed-end, and corporate stock customers.
- Outsourced Service Management: Works closely with outsourced service providers (BNY Mellon, Computershare, others) to ensure adherence to high quality and quantity standards.
- Process Research: Researches and provides information on operational processes and ensures service providers' policies and procedures are followed.
- Policy Drafting: Responsible for drafting policies and testing procedures to adhere to industry and compliance standards.
- Control Monitoring: Responsible for monitoring various daily control routines and documenting results.
- Compliance Coordination: Works closely with MFS management to ensure compliance and operational processes are developed and functional, satisfying new or changing corporate policies, SEC, FINRA, or other applicable industry or regulatory regulations.
- Solution Offering: Offers solutions and proposes alternatives with minimal management support.
- Regulatory Response: Assists with preparing responses to inquiries by the SEC, auditors, or other regulatory agencies.
- Industry Research: Responsible for ongoing research of the mutual fund industry to keep current with industry standards, laws, and regulations.
- Task Management: Performs a variety of duties as assigned by management with periodic supervision and feedback.
5. Customer Service Specialist Accountabilities
- Customer Inquiry Handling: Answer all questions/concerns for customers.
- Issue Notification: Notify the customer of any issues that arise.
- Order Generation: Generate all customer orders as scheduled.
- Work Order Creation: Generate work orders for the warehouse to perform the requested tasks by the customer.
- Operational Communication: Communicate customers' timelines, special needs, instructions, and requirements to the Operations team.
- Team Collaboration: Work with peers and co-workers to help maintain a positive work experience.
- Inventory Monitoring: Monitor the customer’s inventory level and notify/email accounting for approval prior to clearing out the account.
- Procedure Documentation: Generate written procedures for each account.
- Issue Awareness: Keep the Supervisor aware of all potential issues.
- Meeting Facilitation: Actively and professionally participate in, lead, or facilitate meetings, training, or other events.
- Attendance and Policy Adherence: Maintain appropriate attendance standards and adherence to Virtus policies, including the telephone staffing schedule.