When your customers call in, they typically have high expectations regarding your center’s ability to field incoming calls and provide satisfactory customer service. If you missed the first part of this series, be sure to check it out. We’ll help you make sure your call center can provide customers with the following five things:
Effective Communication
In the world of customer service, communication is key. In order to address customer issues appropriately, agents should have an exceptional grasp of the language in question. For customer service representatives, it’s also important to remember that communication goes both ways. Not only should agents have superior speaking skills, but they should also have excellent listening and comprehension skills in order to communicate effectively. Understanding customer needs quickly means agents can solve problems correctly and efficiently.
Quick Resolutions
Depending your business’s focus, consumers can call in with a wide range of questions, issues, and needs. No matter the reason for their initial contact, though, it’s important that any agent can assist with and resolve the issue at hand. Unfortunately, many businesses staff their front lines with service representatives who don’t have the capacity or ability to problem solve.
Instead of assigning only low-level tasks to frontline agents, equip them with the ability to offer helpful information, make important decisions, and provide quick resolutions. This may require some staff reorganization or retraining, but staffing your primary channels with capable agents will improve satisfaction and can lead to better agent performance down the road.
Attention to Detail
When customer service representatives answer the same set of questions around the clock, they have the potential to lose both focus and interest. Excellent customer service, however, demands close attention to detail in order to keep consumers happy and satisfied.
For customer-oriented businesses, it’s important to hire agents who naturally have excellent attention to detail. Allowing or even encouraging agents to provide personalized responses can further incite agents to pay closer attention to details. After all, providing scripted responses might ensure consistent service, but it can also cause agents to rely on canned responses that don’t adequately address issues. Asking well-trained agents to go off-script, however, can result in a more personalized response that takes all of a customer’s details into account.
Round-the-Clock Availability
Keeping traditional 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. business hours might seem like a logical solution for a customer service center, but these limited hours don’t always provide adequate coverage for handling issues. When customers demand immediate responses, it’s important to provide round-the-clock coverage.
An after-hours call center is an effective way to provide complete coverage, because it ensures that customers can connect with a live agent at any time of day or night. This can also be a cost-effective solution for many companies, since having after-hours coverage frees businesses from hiring and housing dedicated round-the-clock service representatives.
Call-Back Options
As more consumers demand shorter wait times, businesses must look for solutions that minimize hold times while keeping costs down. Employing more service agents or maintaining an overflow call center are solutions that can shorten wait times but may prove costly if not closely managed.
Offering a call-back option solves this problem from both customer service and cost perspectives. Instead of requiring callers to wait on the line for an available agent, callers have the option to provide a call-back number and then end the call. The customer doesn’t lose his or her place in line, and the next available agent simply calls him or her to resume the call. Most importantly, the customer doesn’t waste time waiting but still receives a resolution to the original issue.
It’s important for any business to meet the increasing demands of its customers. Make sure you can meet these expectations, and you’ll continue to produce satisfied customers.
