What Defines Good Customer Service?

As a customer service agent, you are the point of contact for the customers of the companies you work for. You answer your customers’ inquiries, take care of their concerns and answer their questions. This means that the overall satisfaction of your customers is your top priority as a service provider. Makes sense, doesn’t it? But what does that actually mean in practice? To find out, let’s turn the tables: Imagine you have a problem and contact customer service via email or phone. What do you expect from this service and the person you’re talking to? Most of us will probably mention one of the following aspects as a response to this question.

Good service starts with recognising where customers experience friction. Eurostat (2025) reports that 33.1% of EU online shoppers encountered problems with an online purchase in 2023.

Accessibility

Accessibility is the essence of good customer service. Many customers want to resolve their issues immediately and don’t want to have to spend a long time looking for the right hotline or email address or wait a few hours or even days for a response. Neither we as a platform nor you as a talent have any influence on the traceability of the contact data and the operating hours of the services because that is solely the task and decision of the respective company. As a customer service agent, however, during your work hours, you can make sure that you respond to inquiries in a timely manner – even if you don’t have a solution yet. Most customers are satisfied already if they’re shown that their request has been received and is being processed. By the way: There is a live tracker on our platform for you to check when there is a higher volume of calls in one or multiple projects. If this happens, it can be worthwhile to step in spontaneously to improve availability and earn some extra money!

Efficiency

Support quality should be measured through demand, response times, resolution and user feedback rather than a single headline metric. The UK Government’s Service Manual recommends planning support around user needs, monitoring demand and learning from recurring issues.

In customer service, you always play for time. The faster you respond to a question and solve a problem, the more satisfied your customers are. But speed isn’t everything, since every inquiry should not only be handled quickly, but also comprehensively and diligently. Thus, efficiency is the magic word.  The rule of thumb here is: As fast as possible, as diligently as necessary!

Empathy

As a customer service agent, you primarily work with people. Therefore, interpersonal factors are extremely important and are part of a professional approach. Always be friendly and sympathetic – even if there are misunderstandings or if your customer is annoyed. Take your customer’s inquiries seriously at all times, and let them know that you understand their problems and are working towards a solution. Always be honest and transparent while doing this, even if you can’t help them immediately. Your customers appreciate it when they get the feeling that you listen to them, are friendly and open, and actively and diligently take care of their concerns.

Competence

Kindness and empathy are essential, but of course, you should also know what you’re talking about and how to find a solution in the fastest way possible. Therefore, always familiarize yourself with a project thoroughly and conscientiously. Many projects start with an initial training session, where one of our Talent Team Leads (TTL) introduces the project. They will be available to you as a contact person in the further course of the project. If you can't find a solution while talking to a customer, pass the problem on instead of improvising or hiding your insecurities. Competence also means knowing where your own knowledge and responsibilities lie - and where they end.

Good communication

Communication is the key skill of customer service agents. As a highly professional expert in this field, as an independent talent on our platform, depending on your area of work, you will be at the top of your game when it comes to talking to customers or writing texts. This also means that you must be fluent in one or more of the languages in which we offer projects. However, a native speaker level is not always necessary and whether you have an accent or not is irrelevant, of course! Here you can find out more about the different language levels and how to properly evaluate your own language skills.

A mature service process also defines how complaints are recorded, answered, escalated and used for improvement. ISO 10002:2018 provides international guidance for a customer-focused complaints-handling process.

Do you relate to any of these aspects? Become a freelance talent at yoummday and combine a versatile and responsible job in customer service and the support of a strong international community with all the advantages and liberties of working as a call center freelancer. Register today – free of charge and without obligation at yoummday.com!