Among the fab customer service vacancies on s1jobs, you’ll find an increasing number of companies looking for staff with webchat potential.
Sadly, this doesn’t mean you can spend your days chatting up hot guys and gals online. If only!
No, it’s all about being capable of aiding customers in person at the help desk or over the phone but also responding in real time to email and social media enquiries.
Now you may be good at the banter, but when it comes to translating your jive talk into words on the page, it’s a whole different ball game.
For a start, you need to be queen bee at spelling and you need excellent grammar.
Text talk and smiley faces may be great for your friends but when you’re conveying a company’s message there’s no room for ambiguity about what you’re saying.
In other words, webchat is a step up in communication terms and you’ll need excellent keyboard skills to pull it off.
Some companies ask for a typing speed of 80 words per minute, without errors, and they’ll test this before taking you on. Now 80 is fast, so fast that if you use only two fingers and look at the keys while you’re tapping, you’re bound to fail.
The good news is this is one of those skills that gets much better with practice, so start speed typing now and you’ll quickly improve.
Grammar is a little harder, but there are lots of guides to help you learn and a little book called Eats, Shoots & Leaves, by Lynne Truss, is not just informative but also funny. And, if you don’t get the joke in the title, you definitely need help.
Customer service professional Jenna Thomson made the leap from phone to webchat for the holiday company she works with two years ago.
Although she was nervous to begin with, she says it has now become her preferred way to work.
“I find the younger customers use it most,” she says. “It lets them sort out their holiday while sitting on the train to work.
“They can ask about different resorts and get an answer really fast, without having to talk on their phone in a busy or noisy environment.
“And the funny thing is I think using webchat has actually made me better on the phone too. It has forced me to organise my thoughts and become a better communicator – because of that I now really love my job.”
For all the best Customer Service vacancies visit s1jobs