Are you representing your business well? I mean beyond the sales portion of your job. What? There’s more to a salesperson’s job than selling? Well, yeah. After you make your sale, you’re the one responsible for ensuring your clients remain loyal to you and your business. So, with help from the article, “10 must-​Have Customer Service Skills (and how to identify them),” by Vitaliy Verbenko, here are some traits you need to have if you want your service to reach client retention status.

Humanity

The main advantage you have over machines is your ability to harness the power of emotions. You have the capability to understand the emotions of your clients and respond appropriately with your own. The problem is, how often do you actually do this? If you don’t empathize with your clients, personalize your communication with them, and show your caring humanity in various other ways, are you any better than a machine? Utilize your emotional advantage, or your clients will find someone who will.

Positivity

Now, while I said that you should utilize your emotional advantage, it’s important that you only show positive ones. When a client comes to you with a problem, you’re not going to help them by expressing negative emotions and adding your stress to theirs. You need to remain positive to give your clients faith that you can solve their problems. A positive attitude is also the gateway to establishing good business relationships with your clients. If you respond positively when your clients reach out to you, they’ll have fewer reasons to hesitate to come to you in the future, and that feedback is invaluable.

Integrity

Your ability to communicate well with your clients will end up meaning nothing if you’re not proactive in solving their problems. Keeping your word and fulfilling your clients’ needs in a timely manner is the only way to build a solid foundation of trust for your business relationships. If you’re all talk and no action, it’ll only be a matter of time before your clients grow tired of empty promises and move on.

A Proactive Mindset

This isn’t a mindset that’s exclusively for the problem-​solving process. You need to be proactive in everything you do for your clients. You need to be reaching out to them on a regular basis to check in on them and receive feedback, you need to consistently be on the lookout for potential problems and fixing them before they happen, if possible, and showing your clients you are readily available through a number of media (email, phone, etc…). A proactive mindset proves dedication and inspires loyalty while a reactive salesperson is only accomplishing the expected minimum.