15 Customer Service Communication Skills (& How to Improve Them)

Customer service revolves around communication. I should know – I worked as a frontline support rep for nearly three years.

I took calls, messaged customers through online chat, and responded to thousands of emails. I even won an award for completing a record number of support tickets while maintaining a near-perfect customer satisfaction score.

In this post, I’ll list the skills needed for excellent customer service communication. We’ll then dive into each one’s purpose and how you can improve all of them as a small business owner.

15 Customer Service Communication Skills

Here are 15 customer service communication skills that small business owners should master.

1. Active Listening

Active listening is more than just hearing what people have to say. It’s thinking about their feelings and obtaining their genuine opinions. You aren’t just responding to their words; you’re responding to their body language, tone of voice, and any other signals that tell you how the person feels.

How to Improve This Skill:

• Don’t think about your response. Remembering what someone says is hard when you only think about your response. Slow down and listen to the customer before planning what you will say.
• Practice with coworkers. Talk to your coworkers and practice active listening. Pay attention to their tone and body language. It will indicate how they feel about the topic.
• Take notes. If you have a CRM or communication software, use it to take notes that you can revisit later.

2. Problem-Solving

Problem-solving is your ability to think critically and come up with unique solutions. Not every question will have a clear answer – and sometimes, that answer isn’t what the customer wants.

Don’t be afraid to get creative and lean into personalized solutions. Customers will appreciate these efforts because it shows you care about their well-being. It also fosters brand loyalty, which keeps people coming back to your business.

How to Improve This Skill:

• Study your business. You should be an expert on your products and services. It will help you devise creative solutions to tricky or time-sensitive problems.

• Personalize solutions. It’s okay to bend the rules if it creates an amazing customer experience. Get creative and develop solutions that work for you and your customers.
• Identify the customer’s goals. If you know what the customer wants, you can provide alternative solutions to meet their needs.

3. Improvisation

We’re not talking about sketch comedy; we’re talking about your ability to think on your feet.

Improvisation is incredibly important for customer service. You never quite know what customers are thinking, so you have to be ready to respond no matter what.

The best customer service reps adapt on the fly and improvise as they interact with customers. Sure, they understand protocol and when to draw the line, but they aren’t following a script or providing robotic responses. They’re having a genuine conversation with the customer, which creates a better experience for your business.

How to Improve This Skill:

• Practice active listening. The less time you spend thinking about what to say, the easier it will be to respond to customers.
• Get comfortable. It’s easy to talk to people when you’re comfortable with them. Talk to your customers and get used to interacting with them every day.
• Learn about your customers. If you have a CRM, read up on your customers. Or, next time you see them, ask about their interests, likes, and dislikes. It will give you more things to discuss besides your products and services.

4. Conflict Resolution

Conflict resolution is necessary for diffusing tense conversations with customers. Not every interaction will be positive, so you must be prepared to handle people who are upset or frustrated with your business.

While they aren’t ideal, these situations are opportunities to improve customer relationships and develop loyal brand followers. If you can navigate these situations successfully, customers will appreciate your efforts and walk away with a positive memory of your brand.

How to Improve This Skill:

• Focus on the problem. It’s easy for conversations to go off track during a conflict. Do your best to keep the focus on the problem, not your business or the customer. That will help you brainstorm solutions rather than talking in circles.
• Don’t take things personally. When a customer is upset, they won’t hold back against you or your business. You can’t take it personally, as it will only escalate the issue. Instead, take a deep breath, try to relax, and respond calmly and professionally.

5. Time Management

Time management is an underrated customer service communication skill. No one wants to be stuck on a phone for hours troubleshooting a problem. Even if you find a solution, you’ve wasted half your day working on the same issue. It’s not good for the customer or the business that has other calls to get to.

How to Improve This Skill:

• Set timed checkpoints. When I was on the phone with a customer, I would set a time limit of 30 minutes for each call. At 30 minutes, I would ask to move the conversation to email, where I could follow up later. It kept customers happy because we didn’t waste time on phones, and it helped me solve problems faster because I didn’t have to multi-task.
• Provide text-based communication channels. Email and live chat are great for customer service. They give you more time to respond to customers and allow you to think of a thoughtful message before sending it.

6. Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is your ability to interpret other people’s feelings. The better you can read emotions, the easier it will be to connect with customers.

It will also help you avoid aggravating people already frustrated with your brand. These customers give you a split second to react, and what you say significantly impacts their experience. The more you understand why they’re upset, the better your response will be.

How to Improve This Skill:

• Solve for the customer. When I worked in support, our motto was “solve for the customer, not your convenience.” The more you focused on what the customer wanted, the easier it was to provide effective solutions.
• Use free AI tools. AI tools called “sentiment analyzers” interpret how customers are feeling. Use them for text, email, and social media customer service.
• Pay attention to tone and body language. Your tone of voice and body language play as big a role in communication as your words. These details indicate how a customer feels.

7. Empathy

Empathy is how much you care about your customers. After all, great customer service starts with caring about their problems. If you don’t care about what they think, why even provide support at all?

Empathy can make up for a lot in customer service. Sometimes, it can be as important as the solution you’re providing. Some customers won’t be satisfied until they feel like you understand their issue and make a conscious effort to solve it.

Be sincere with your responses. Go the extra mile to show customers you care. Not only will this build a good reputation for your business, but it will lead to repeat sales, too.

How to Improve This Skill:

• Review your company’s mission statement. If you need some inspiration, look at your company’s mission statement. It will remind you why your business matters and how your products and services help customers.
• Check-in with customers. It’s easier to care about people when you know more about them. Use a shared inbox to review important conversations and follow up with customers to develop long-lasting relationships.

8. Writing Skills

Customer service communication isn’t just conducted over the phone or in person. It’s done over text-based channels like email, live chat, SMS, and social media. While verbal communication is very important, writing skills are equally valuable in customer service.

How to Improve This Skill:

• Practice. As someone who has made a career in writing, the more you do it, the better you get at it.
• Read your writing aloud. It’s remarkable how much you can improve your writing by reading it aloud. It helps pick out grammar mistakes and identify ways to make your writing more professional.

• Use a writing assistant. You can download a tool like Grammarly to get feedback on your writing.

9. Teaching Skills

As a business owner, there are plenty of moments when you need to teach someone about your product or service. Customers either want to know why something works the way it does or understand what you are doing to help them.

These are opportunities to build trust with your customers. By walking them through your process, you can show them why they can rely on you to solve their problems. It might take an extra second to explain, but it will help you establish a common ground with customers dubious about your intentions.

How to Improve This Skill:

• Collect feedback from coworkers. If you run training sessions or onboard new employees, ask them for feedback on your teaching skills.

• Build a knowledge base. A knowledge base is a blog that solves common problems with your product or service. It’s a great place to practice your teaching skills, especially in a written format.

10. Nonverbal Communication

Nonverbal communication includes body language, such as eye contact, hand gestures, distancing, and other factors we can visually interpret. Body language plays a huge role in communication because it affects the meaning behind our words.

For example, I’m probably angry if I frown and make aggressive hand gestures. If my head is down and I’m moving slowly, maybe I’m sad or not feeling well.

You can use these signals to create better customer experiences. Ask why they’re feeling down and if there’s anything you can do to help. You’ll quickly connect with people on a more human level than before.

How to Improve This Skill:

• Talk to yourself in the mirror. If you’re unsure what you look like when you talk, have a conversation with yourself in front of a mirror. You can see what your body does when you react to different comments.

• Ask a friend for help. If you notice that you do the same gestures, ask a friend to call them out when they see them. It will help you be more aware of your body language when interacting with customers.
• Review customer feedback. If you have a poor experience with a customer, review their feedback. See if they call out any actions that might have affected the conversation.

11. Feedback

Feedback is a two-way street. You need to be great at receiving feedback, but you also need to be good at giving it.

Receiving feedback means being open to criticism. While constructive feedback is great, we don’t live in a perfect world, and some people won’t polish their comments before voicing them. You might be hit with harsh words and should prepare to handle that.

Conversely, giving feedback is important, too. I’ll say it — customers aren’t always right. But they do have to feel like they’re right, even when they’re wrong. Learning to let them down easily is a crucial customer service communication skill.

How to Improve This Skill:

• Automate feedback collection. The best way to collect customer feedback is to automate it. Send them a survey via email or text, and get alerts when someone leaves a review for your business.

• Ask for customer feedback. Not every customer is quick to voice their opinion. However, you can ask them to provide a review using the Google Link Review Generator.

12. Call Routing

As a customer, getting your call transferred sucks. You have to repeat your story to a whole new person, wasting time and energy over again.

If you work in customer service, you know that conversation transferring is a part of the job. In most cases, transferring the call to another person or channel is better for the customer. They have a higher chance of solving their problem because they’re in an environment more conducive to troubleshooting their issue.

Learning how to communicate this is key to customer service. It will keep your customers happy while putting you in a better position to provide a solution.

How to Improve This Skill:

• Explain the benefit of this process. If you just say it, most customers will understand why you’re transferring them. They want their problem solved quickly, so if you assure them this is the best route to their solution, they’ll be more willing to transfer the call.

• Offer to follow up later. If the customer doesn’t want a transfer, offer to follow up via email or a callback. That will allow you to connect with whoever is needed to solve their problem.

13. Collaboration

Customer service is a team sport. You have to work with customers to find solutions to their problems. Even if you know the best answer to their question, some people don’t appreciate being told what to do. They want to find solutions independently, so you have to guide them to the answer. It takes a little extra time, but it’s worth the customer satisfaction.

How to Improve This Skill:

• Be patient. Sometimes, you’ll explain a solution several times before a customer understands it. Remember, they don’t live and breathe your business, so be patient and remain calm. They’ll appreciate your demeanor as soon as they catch up.

• Provide support resources. If you have support documentation, like an instruction manual, you can use it to back up your solution. It’s additional proof that your idea will work.
• Offer multiple solutions. Even if you know the best answer to the problem, offer the customer multiple solutions and explain the pros and cons of each. Recommend the one that you would use, but give them the chance to choose what they want to do.

14. Presentation

How you present a solution is just as important as its results. Why? Because some customers don’t trust your business. They may have had bad experiences with you or a competitor and think you’re trying to exploit them.

Before you offer a solution, take time to make sure your message makes sense. Provide a clear and concise summary and explain why this solution will work and why it’s better than the alternative options. It will make your communication more compelling and encourage customers to trust your solution.

How to Improve This Skill:

• Review your writing. Be sure to review your writing before you hit “send.” Look for typos, grammar mistakes, and other details that might distract the customer from your solution.
• Take an extra breath before responding. If you’re communicating in person, take an extra second to collect your thoughts. Put the customer on hold if needed and rehearse what you’ll say.

• Provide links, visuals, and other support aids. These elements will make your solution look more credible – especially if data from third-party resources backs them.

15. Confidence

When I started as a support rep, I was terrified to answer the phone. I put almost every customer on hold as I frantically searched for a solution.

But, I got better – not at researching but at talking with customers and buying myself more time. I learned how to put people on hold and explain my solutions clearly. I became a confident support rep, and that confidence created better customer experiences.

How to Improve This Skill:

• Embrace customer reviews. No one has a perfect customer satisfaction score, and if you work in support long enough, you will encounter a few bad reviews. Don’t shy away from these comments; instead, use them as an opportunity to improve your skills.

• Give yourself some grace. If you pressure yourself to be perfect, you will make mistakes. But, if you try to create enjoyable experiences, you’ll find that it’s easier to find practical solutions. That’s because you’re listening to customers and have a better understanding of their needs.

Improving Your Customer Service Communication

Small businesses rely on customer service. It’s part of what separates you from the big-box brands.

Excellent customer service starts with good communication. The more you can connect with customers, the easier it will be to provide effective solutions. Prioritizing the skills on this list will make you a better communicator and prepare you for any support situation.