Job Description for a Senior Customer Service Representative

Seniors are vital to team success.

Senior customer service representatives service both external and internal customers at the same time. A senior has several different responsibilities to her team and to the customers her teammates service. During a typical day a senior is responsible for administrative work, mentoring and taking calls from upset customers. All of this is designed to lessen the daily workload of the team supervisor.

Inspecting Schedule Compliance

Customer service organizations need to track compliance to break and lunch schedules to ensure they have enough representatives on the phone to meet forecast. The senior representative is tasked with validating all unscheduled log outs via internal reporting and then reporting her findings to her supervisor.

Conduct Side-by-Side Monitors

The senior representative sits side by side with representatives on her team and listens as her representative takes calls. This allows the senior to help the representative with areas he is struggling with as he takes calls. This is commonly called "in-the-game mentoring." Once monitored, the senior documents what occurred on the call for his supervisor.

Conduct Mentoring Sessions

A senior often schedules mentoring sessions where the representative he wants to mentor is logged out and not taking calls. This allows the senior to mentor the rep on areas of opportunity without the stress of taking a live call. This is where the senior helps the representative create a game plan for development.

Schedule Peer-to-Peer Mentoring

Seniors work with representatives who excel and place them with representatives who still need help developing skills. This is referred to as peer-to-peer mentoring. The senior must work with his department's Resource Planning (group responsible for staffing) to schedule time off the phones for the struggling representative to listen to the excelling representative. The senior is responsible for tracking the progress by documenting the mentoring sessions.

Talk to Upset Customers

Often customers become upset and ask to speak to a supervisor. The senior representative stands in as the supervisor and takes over the call. Often this is done at the representative's desk so the senior can teach techniques that calm customers down. Other times, usually when service levels are challenged, the senior will take the call at her desk.

References

• CVTips: What makes a good leader