Call Centres and Customer Service.
20/01/2014 14:37
Call Centres and Customer Service.
Where Does Customer Service Start?
With the boss. They are the leader and as such, they must set an example of perfect customer service. If you don’t show your employees how to give it, they won’t – and they’ll never get better either. It starts at the top and works its way downhill. Everyone in the company must speak to every customer as though they were their paycheck.
What IS Customer Service?
It is a positive way of relating to people, and it lets them know you care about them – their actions, their purchases, and the process they go through to purchase your goods or services. Let’s not forget, your buying process might be expensive, involved and complicated . The goal, at the end of the day, is to have each and every customer leave with a smile on their face, and feeling like they have been taken care of – even though they have just purchased only what they needed or wanted. They should feel like they have done you a favour, and you are grateful.
Why Is Superior Customer Service Important?
A great price is not the only way to keep customers coming back – make it easy for them to deal with you, and they’ll want to return time and time again.
Fantastic Customer Service results in: your employees keeping their jobs; a positive buying atmosphere for first time, and repeat, customers; you can satisfy the information or buying needs of potential customers, you can transform ‘potential’ into ‘actual’ customers.
What’s Next?
Teach and motivate your employees by demonstrating successful customer service behaviours:
· If you’re on the phone when a potential customer approaches, get off – or stop surfing the internet when you get a customer enquiry
· When the person approaches, look up and smile (remember, “paycheck”)
· Ask how you can help, provide information in a pleasant manner, smile, and always ask if you have helped the customer – if they answer no, ask how you can help, until you’ve satisfied their needs.
· Smile, and say goodbye, finishing with encouraging the customer to return if they have any more questions.
· Distinguish your business by offering something none of the others do – great customer service. But back it up consistently, so people can tell the difference between you and everyone else who claims to offer great customer service – make it a key part of your business. Customers will spread the word, and you’ll establish a great reputation – and great things will happen. You’ll not only get new customers, but more business from your existing customers, and then you can increase your prices. Price is not everything, as many businesses tend to believe, but if you give people more, then they’ll be willing to pay more.
How helpful you or your employees are, and how happy the customer is or satisfied with the product, will be the most important feature of the interaction between you and them.
What Can I Do Beyond Customer Service?
How can I keep my customers coming back? By taking the emphasis away from price by offering several payment options, and loyalty programmes.
A national survey on plastic card usage, 45% of respondents said they spent more money at stores where they were loyalty programme members. Moreover, gift cards (similar to loyalty cards) help merchants increase store traffic – 55% stated they needed more than one trip to use the entire amount on their gift card. Plus, they spent more than what was originally on their card.
Electronic payments have become more prevalent than ever – consumers love credit cards because they are safer than cash, easy to use, and offer increased buying power. Debit cards are also fast and secure, and shoppers value flexibility, convenience and security. And electronic checks – secure transactions that verify the availability of funds and automatically transfer money – represent a third, and increasingly popular, alternative to cash. Further, accepting these electronic payments has never been easier. Merchant accounts can be approved in as little as 24 hours. And payment solutions exist for virtually every type of business, from home-based enterprises to restaurants, and online retailers to mobile merchants.
When you offer more payment options to your customers, the benefits are many: access to a wider customer base, high sales frequencies, larger dollar amounts per sale, increased customer traffic, customer impulse buys (more money), strengthened credibility, lower incidences of employee theft.
In addition to credit, debit and e-check acceptance, businesses are using gift and loyalty cards to attract and keep customers.
Plastic card advantages to merchants are undeniable – retailers no longer have to refund cash for unspent balances. For the retailer, this means more positive cash flow and repeat business. And as they are brandable, durable, and easy to carry, they are a great advertising tool. Plus, members-only discounts and other special promotions can be created to increase repeat business.
The Internet.
The internet is a powerful tool – however, you can master every online marketing strategy that exists: sales copywriting, search engine optimisation, email marketing and so on. But you can kiss all that goodbye if you can’t master good customer service.
A customer you’ve managed to cross won’t only tell ten people (who might tell ten more), they could also plaster the internet with lengthy rants on their own blog/s, other people’s blogs, another website or on forums and message boards. And once something is online, it’s there forever.
Mastering Great Customer Service Online.
1. Autoresponders.
Autoresponders are a great tool to make your customers feel like they are being kept in the loop – use them to to thank your customers for their order, welcome them to your opt-in e-mail list, and send them order confirmations and other transactional emails like "your item has shipped" notices. Customers have come to expect these courtesies, but not every online business bothers. Surprise your customers (pleasantly) by adding a coupon for money off their next purchase with you, or some relevant information on the product they’ve just bought.
2. FAQ Page.
A FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page answers most of the questions people might have about your products or services. Create a FAQ e-mail address, such as info@mysite.com, and keep track of the questions actually asked, then reply to the email but also put the answers on your FAQ page. You’ll be freed from answering common questions, and can spend some more time attending to paying customers who need it. You’ll make yourself noticed (for all the good reasons!) – a recent study by Pelorus Group found that a shocking 42% of retail sites take longer than five days to respond to customers. Respond to a customer’s concerns promptly and be repaid with repeat business and referrals. Even an angry customer can be turned around if you pay attention to them, acknowledge your mistake (if you have made one) and fix their problem.
3. Make it easy for people to contact you.
Make your contact page clear, easy to find and place your details on several pages. The worst thing you can do is look like you're hiding or just don't care – maybe create a customer service page with FAQs, contact details of people who can help and other relevant information.
4. Personalize and segment your e-mail messages.
Personalise your emails. Personalise your emails. Personalise your emails. Only 4 percent of marketers personalize and segment their messages, according to Jupiter Research, and yet personalized messages have almost twice the click-through rate of bulk e-mail. Put your customer’s name in the subject heading and throughout the email. Send birthday/anniversary/special occasion offers, information on new products they’d be interested in- in – in its recent "Consumer E-Mail" study, DoubleClick reported that 43 percent of the respondents would respond to "purchasing recommendations based on past purchase behaviour. Collect as many details about your customers as possible, so you can respond to them better. Utilise your email management software to do all the segmenting and personalising, so you can think of ways to better service your customers.
5. Survey your customers.
Research has shown that customer satisfaction is rated higher among people who have been asked what they want, even if what they answer is not acted on. People just love taking surveys! And your customers will feel like they have been listened to just by you asking them what they want and how you can serve them better.
E-Commerce and Feedback.
E-commerce businesses face unique problems when it comes to customer service – and these require unique solutions.
Any business done over the internet eliminates the opportunity for a face-to-face evaluation of your customer’s reactions and signals. You might be communicating with a customer who is upset, but you can’t tell. Communication with these people require greater effort – give them numerous opportunities to let you know what is wrong, why they are upset, to give you feedback and to just complain about the situation they find themselves in. Complainers spend twice as much money as those who have an issue but don’t complain. Take advantage of the fact that the internet provides dissatisfied customers with an avenue to give candid feedback, as they can’t see your reaction! Feedback obtained this way is much more valuable. Customer feedback can also be captured at online or in-person checkouts, or by contacting key customers and scheduling a few minutes of their time to ask them specific questions. If customers tell you they're not interested in the color or they don't like the price, that's important – so deal with it accordingly.
Utilising the Internet for Great Customer Service.
Click-to-call means a customer clicks on an icon on your site, and inputs their phone number. They then receive a call from an agent who can provide a guided online experience, and they can even suggest additional information based on the caller’s details. It can help address consumer buying concerns, encourage up-sells and increase conversion from web-site visitors to actual customers.
Further, the employee can see what page and product a customer is looking at, which enables them to get even more personal with them.
Or, customers can fill out a form with their question, and an employee calls them back or answers via an email. Voicemail is no longer required.
When to Outsource Call Centres.
There are many different calls that call centres typically handle: taking orders, customer service, tech support, qualifying inbound leads, answering service/messages. Unfortunately, there is no guideline as to when a business should outsource their call centre – there are a number of situations when it would be a good decision, and these mostly revolve around planning of resources.
- Significant growth – a major event such as the launch of a new product can suddenly increase the volume of calls into even a small business. Outsourcing can lessen the need for new employees or major equipment upgrades.
- Save money – It can be an easy decision to outsource when businesses reach call volumes that demand a significant capital investment: new phone systems, customer relationship management software, dedicated call center space, or many new employees. Call center service providers spread the cost of employees and technology over many customers to keep their costs.
- Testing and learning – a small company might outsource at first, until they learn the ropes of a call centre and build up captial, when they bring it in house. Larger companies may find it easier and cheaper to use a call center for testing than to retrain in-house employees, when they are interested in testing new technologies or programs.
- Variable volume - Businesses that see significant volume changes that are seasonal or unpredictable, can really benefit from the extra capacity of an outsourced call center. This can include spot overflow, where the service provider is used to cover sudden surges in phone calls, or seasonal assistance.
- Business model shifts – A huge leap, such as that involved in going to a 24/7 tech support, can trigger the decision to outsource. When it comes to the choice of switching to a two- or three-shift operation or switching to a service provider, the choice is easy. Another trigger can be the need to offer support in multiple languages.
Call center outsourcing works best for fairly straightforward sales, service, and support. If a product has complex sales cycles and customer support lines, requiring in-depth troubleshooting, they are generally not suited to outsourcing. Companies that rely on repeat business or referrals can benefit most from a direct customer connection. They should look at all their data – sales, demographic trends and overall market conditions – before making significant changes to a program or product, such as introducing outsourcing.
Internet support and call centres can both help improve customer service, by helping the customer to help themselves – thus enabling you to spend more time generating traffic. Careful investigation will reveal which one is best for you and your business.