Customer Service: Three Issues to Avoid

In this age of instant gratification, the company that can give customers what they want in the fastest and most accurate way possible will lord over the competition. Today’s customers are accustomed to greater options and control, and if you can’t give them what they want, you run the risk of losing their business, not to mention destroy your reputation when they spread the word about you. When it comes to customer service, here are three issues you need to avoid like the plague:

Interactive voice response

People in general hate talking to an automated voice. They want to speak to a real live agent, not an annoying phone menu. Lengthy instructions are hard to follow, let alone navigate.

Lengthy hold times

Lengthy hold times can push away even your most loyal customers. According to research, American consumers have wasted 60 million hours on hold. With the average American’s lifespan at 683.806 hours, that’s like losing 88 lives!

Being transferred to another agent

It can be utterly frustrating to get transferred to another agent and be asked to repeat information all over again. Customers want fast and efficient service and it takes only one unpleasant customer service call for them to take their business elsewhere.

Outsourcing your company’s customer service functions to a reliable call center is an ideal way to deal with these issues. Talk to an expert to learn what these centers offer and how they can help you grow your company.

Five Useful Tips that can Help You Generate Leads

If you’re looking for additional customers, then you may have heard that lead generation is one of the best tactics you can use. That said, this is still a task that may be too broad for you to handle, unless you work with a call center for leads or start off with these simple tips.

First, you might want to entice potential customers by offering limited discounts, whether time- or quantity-based. This plays with the psychological effect that the concept of scarcity has over most people, since they’ll know that they won’t be getting a better deal once it’s gone. Second, you should offer something that your competition doesn’t, like a webinar, free consultation, or a subscription-based blog site. Third, and perhaps most importantly, make sure that you spread the word about any offer or special item through social networking sites, which are where customers frequently congregate nowadays.

Fourth, you need to institute a loyalty system of sorts that grants your most faithful patrons with benefits that are unique to them. This can be in the form of special discounts or referrals to your partners that people tend to get interested in. Finally, don’t forget to send out personalized “thank you” messages to all of your customers. After all, people prefer to work with a customer-friendly company than those that are not as empathic. 

How Can a Call Center Agency Benefit my Business?

It is known that friendly, efficient customer service is what gives any company a good reputation. Unfortunately, creating and building a similar service of your own can be very expensive, especially if you own a small or medium-sized business. Why shoulder all the work if you can outsource it to someone else? That is just one benefit of working with a call center agency.

One major benefit that a call center provides is that it allows your business to take in queries and requests from your customers 24/7. While this may sound like something that can be achieved at a lower cost with voicemail, you should know that people generally don’t like receiving automated responses from businesses. This is because voicemail gives them an impression that you prefer to have a detached relationship with your customers, instead of catering to their specific wants and needs. Besides, working with a 24/7 call center agency is almost mandatory if you have a lot of international clients, as they’ll be making calls to your business during hours that may be opposite of your time zone.

Finally, hiring a call center agency gives people the impression that your business is large and successful. While this may sound like a ploy to deceive your customers, it simply encourages you to put your best foot forward. After all, nobody wants to work with a company that fails to exhibit proper customer relations.