Showing posts with label telephone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label telephone. Show all posts

Friday, August 22, 2014

The Importance of Call Center Phone Etiquette

Running and managing a call center is among the most challenging aspects in the world of business. Call center agents are required to not only provide customer support but also take orders, deal with customer complaints, etc. With so much to work on, sticky situations are almost inevitable.

Running a call center can also turn out to be one of the most rewarding tasks in a business. The manner in which situations are handled when they arise can mean the difference between the retention of loyal customers and losing customers. Good customer service begins the very moment a call center agent receives a call. If you are wondering how to gain more business through your call center, you may want to start by looking at your agents’ phone etiquette.

Training

The most important thing that managers sometimes overlook is the great need for training. Whether your call center is being handled by one or two people or by a large team of agents, training is the key for overall success. It is advisable for small and large business owners to ensure that every person who responds to customer queries and concerns on the phone has been trained. Basically, any person who answers the business lines should have undergone training. It is up to the business managers and owners to ensure that employees apply company phone policies and best practices. 

Here are some of the things that should be observed to improve phone etiquette:
 
Consistency
 
When it comes to consistency, it means making sure that everyone answers the phone consistently. If a call is an in-bound call, it is important to indirectly let the customer confirm that they got the phone number right. Most importantly, the agent’s hello should be brief. Employees should be trained to mention the company name first followed by their names. This simple introduction should be enough. 

Don’t interrupt the customer

No one loves being interrupted, especially when they are expressing dissatisfaction of a service. In this regard, never interrupt a customer who is complaining. Business managers and owners should ensure that this is achieved regardless of how difficult it might be. Employees should be trained to listen to the entire problem regardless of how long it takes. This is particularly more emphasized if the employee handling the call intends to hand of the call to another member of the call center. It leaves the customer feeling well taken care of.

Knowledge of how to use the phone system

Ensure that every employee with permission to respond to business calls knows how to use the phone system. Does everyone know how to make use of the hold button? One of the worst things your employees could ever do is to the put phone to their chest with the intentions of muffling the mouthpiece for them to speak amongst themselves. Customers might hear things you really do not want them to hear. In such instances, the hold button is your best friend. 

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Thursday, April 17, 2014

What Makes the Telephone the Most Effective Channel?


Some people believe that the traditional telephone is the most effective medium to provide customer support.

These days, the customer can communicate with the contact center through many channels. The telephone is just one among them. So what makes the telephone so special?

Thanks to the easy availability of multiple contact channels, customers now want the freedom to decide how they should communicate with the contact center. They may even switch between channels. For example, they may start the communication with an email and then switch to phone or social media, or web chat to discuss the same issue. No matter what medium they choose to contact the call center, they expect nothing short of excellent customer service. This poses many challenges for the call center. This also calls for a system that allows the call center agents to see the customer's messages across all mediums in one place. They should also be able to see the caller's profile and history for effective handling of the problem.

While such systems are available at the moment, the cost can be prohibitive. And hence the organization should carefully decide how the agent should respond when customers communicate through multiple channels. A telephone call is still the most effective way to respond. More sophisticated systems may be available, but nothing can beat the telephone in terms of efficiency and affordability.

Email communications can be quite time consuming. Tweets are very public. Verifying the identity of someone who contacts you through the web chat can be difficult. Text messages should be linked to a CRM system. A telephone call, on the other hand, is quicker. This is the channel a customer will prefer if they expect an instant reply.

When the customer makes a call, they can get to the point faster. Now this gives rise to another question. Are your agents capable of handling these calls properly?

The call center agent may have access to a sophisticated system that gives complete details of the customer across all channels. However, if the agent is too busy and takes time to respond, the call center fails to win its objectives.

Research reveals that even in inbound contact centers, up to 40% of the calls are outbound. This is because the call center has to return the calls and respond to emails. One way of getting around this problem is to install an outbound dialer to field calls.

This system will ensure that important customer promises, for example the promise to call back, are not forgotten. Call backs can be automatically set up or by the call center agents. If there is an efficient dialer, the customer will not have to call the contact center to follow up.

Thanks to precision dialing technology, tweets, chats and emails can also be fed into the dialer to send a fast response to customers. It is also possible to blend SMS with outbound dialing campaigns.

Once you have the right system in place, the contact center will work more efficiently and seamlessly. This may also encourage the customer to stay around and appreciate the improvement.

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