Great communication is a contact centre agent’s most useful tool and the best agents have the knack of quickly establishing a good relationship with their customer. If you struggle to build a quick rapport, the outcome of any conversation is not likely to be the one you are hoping for. Building rapport over the telephone.

Any job that involves taking and making customer calls requires excellent customer service agents on the phones, but within a care industry such as support for funeral businesses, it is critical. Customer acquisition and retention rely on the contact the customer has directly with your team as this is the first real idea they have of how the company sees and values customers during difficult times. Here are some of the behaviours an excellent call centre agent will demonstrate within these areas to help you to ensure that you are making the right decisions for your business.

Sometimes empathy can go a long way when it comes to call handling, whether you've got a disgruntled customer on the end of the line or someone going through a difficult time. Compassion and empathy could be exactly what's required in the following three examples...