If there is one thing an entrepreneur to a multinational CEO can agree on, it is the fact that good customer service is essential to running a successful business.
What is customer service?
Customer service encompasses all the employee policies you have that concern your customers, from how to greet them to successful strategies in handling their complaints.
Quality customer service is all about making customers feel valued/important and appreciated by your business.
Why is it important?
Every day you are competing with other businesses for each customer’s money and loyalty. Providing consistently good customer servicehelpsyou gain customer loyalty and essential feedback for your business.
It is far costlier to find new customers than to keep the ones you have. Plus, it helps in reduce turnover (employees will often quit their jobs if they spend too much time with dissatisfied and angry customers).
Providing Good Customer Service
Your employees’ attitudes toward your customers impacts your company’s ability to provide good service and retain those customers. Good customer service training is key to your organization’s success – and that means consistent reinforcement and support to ensure your staff are one of the best reasons your customers stay customers.
It is critical to note that employees specifically trained in the art of quality customer service are the company’s “secret sauce” to providing satisfaction to customers.
Aside from providing customer service training, also ensure good customer service by hiring the right people, developing customer service policies, and conducting surveys among your customers from time to time.
Outsourcing your business calls will help you attain the work-life balance you’ve been aspiring for. It brings a more positive experience to your customers without compromising your productivity and company resources.
Kick the Clutter for Faster Service and Higher Customer Retention
Kick the Clutter for Faster Service and Higher Customer Retention
Are you challenged by keeping up with customer calls or need a way to speed up your firm’s response to their questions? We can help. When your customers call, they do not just want solutions. They want quick solutions from you. This is just one of the many reasons a live answering service can be beneficial to your company.
As a company offering live answering service, we can:
Take your client’s calls promptly and professionally Your clients’ time is valuable. When you keep them waiting too long on the line, they are more likely to hang up and call a company that values their time by answering promptly and responsively. Hiring more staff isn’t always a practical solution especially if you’re just starting out or if you’re only getting a large volume of calls in certain months. Our answering service can take your client’s call anytime of the day and any day of the week. Feel confident we have you covered 24/7.
Do more than just customer service We do more than just answering your client’s queries. Our operatorsalso schedule your current and prospective clients’ appointments and even redirect calls to the appropriate department or office within your company.
Improve your firm’s efficiency Multi-tasking would never improve your productivity. Working on more than one task at the same time, can sacrifice.
This is whymaking your customer response quick and effective is why we’re here. We can make your company shine by taking your client’s calls so you can focus on other areas of your business that would benefit from your focused attention.
This is a win-win solution. You please your customers and improve your productivity at the same time.
Outsourcing your business calls will help you attain the work-life balance you’ve been aspiring for. It brings a more positive experience to your customers without compromising your productivity and company resources.
With the advancements in technology and changing needs of our customers, automation in business is expanding and becoming extremely sophisticated. How would automation work in a call center?
Automation in Call Centers
Call centers will be upgrading and adapting to the latest automation and AI – artificial intelligence — technology to keep up with the competition.
Millennials, now in their 30s and 40s, are the world’s largest market of potential customers and are more drawn toward self-service options than human interaction. Millennials consider themselves more self-reliant and when self-service online doesn’t satisfy their questions or concerns, will opt for a call center agent.
AI is the most common form of automation that we’ve noticed these past years. AI Assistance helps a business set up a series of automated responses to commonly asked customer concerns or questions, offering a prompt reply. When set up properly, customers not satisfied with the response or with a complicated question provided by AI, can be transferred to a support agent, providing that human connection with the ability to triage the issues and provide solutions.
In addition, AI and other forms of automation technology can help analyze the data gathered from the calls as one of the ways to improve customer interaction.
Another benefit of adapting automation is that it can provide a higher level of responsiveness. An example of which is pre-emptive customer service, where calls can be evaluated and triaged to anticipate the needs of the customers based on their preferences and prior queries.
An automated response call service to respond to non-emergency calls can also be a huge help during holidays and late hours when agents are less likely to be available or take more requests.
Why Talking to a Person is Sometimes the Best Customer Service
Even with the advances in technology, today’s automation services are not enough to meet the needs of the customers. Because of this, human agents are still considered valuable assets in a call center.
By having a call center using both automation and human agents, a call center can be more effective in providing customers with a more successful experience and outcome. AI bots can obtain information from customers while human agents can handle that first level of actual customer interaction saving the call center agents to resolve more complex information for customers.
Automation is a good thing and will continue to improve but it doesn’t eliminate the need for human agents. The goal for a company is to use automation successfully while not de-personalizing the customer’s experience. When done right (creating and following a good, structured process), it can be a valuable customer service improvement tool.
Outsourcing your business calls will help you attain the work-life balance you’ve been aspiring for. It brings a more positive experience to your customers without compromising your productivity and company resources.
Bringing in an outside answering service is a big decision for business owners, but can be a great addition. Experienced answering services like Contact One can improve customer service experiences, increase sales, and save you time and money. If you are considering hiring an outside answering service, look for a company with these attributes
1. Excellent Customer Service
When evaluating answering services, first consider the level of service you receive from them! Our priority at Contact One is to train every agent in customer service and phone etiquette because we know that without satisfied customers, an answering service loses its value. There’s no room in a competitive market for subpar customer service. You should also ask prospective vendors about their customer service principles and escalation protocols.
2. Transparency
Look for an answering service that provides complete transparency, taking work off your plate, but keeping you up to date on all necessary information from calls received. Contact One becomes part of your team. Our job is to answer the calls that you can’t, answer questions about your business, and direct callers to the appropriate person/department if they require more assistance. The only thing you will be missing is the burden of answering the calls. Any important information will be sent to the business owner (or other management as directed). When interviewing an answering service, ask what types of detailed call reports you can expect to receive and at what frequency.
3. Knowledge in Your Industry
Look for answering services that specialize in your industry. Contact One has worked for decades with clients in the healthcare, legal, spa and salon, real estate, and contractor industries. Our receptionists will know the things your employees know, and they’ll be able to answer the questions your employees can answer. Ask the answering service about their experience in your field, and what their industry-specific training protocols include.
4. Price
Many business owners don’t realize that the cost of hiring a full-time receptionist is typically considerably higher than the cost of utilizing Contact One’s services. We offer customized packages based on your business’ needs and offer flat-rate services. Answering services should be able to explain their fees and rates to you and what their contract entails (long-term service agreement, month-to-month, etc.).
5. Live Receptionists and Live Chat
Many consumers still prefer to speak with a live person when they have a question or a problem when setting an appointment. In a survey conducted by The Marketing Scope, 62 percent of consumers prefer to talk to a human rather than a machine. That’s where Contact One comes in. Your customers will never experience long wait times and always speak to a real person. And if your business also needs live chat tools, our team can provide those, too.
If you think Contact One could be the answering service for your business, contact us! Experience our first-class customer service yourself by calling (877) 959-0158, or visit our website and chat with us, or contact us by email https://contactonecallcenter.com/contact/.
Why Have an Answering Service for a Medical Practice
Why Have an Answering Service for a Medical Practice
Customer service is important with all businesses, but it is even more essential in the healthcare industry. Lasting patient-doctor relationships rely on continuous communication, even after-hours. When a patient calls, they may be in pain or not feeling well. For this reason, it is important that the patient gets the answers they need quickly. Fast answering and excellent communication gives them a sense of relief and support.
If your practice has a growing number of patients, it can be a challenge to juggle your practice while maintaining communication with patients. This is where a medical answering service can be of great help. Hiring a medical answering service for a doctors’ office is like hiring a receptionist to answer the phone. Incoming calls are routed to live, remote receptionists who are well-trained to handle healthcare-related calls. These receptionists know what information to collect and how to handle it. They can handle basic customer service inquiries, make appointments, and forward emergency calls to the right parties.
Medical emergencies can happen during any time of day or night. If one of your patients needs to make an appointment or speak with a doctor right away, they’ll be relieved to find out that your medical answering service is always available. Your answering team will be HIPAA compliant, be available 24-hours a day, and forward urgent cases to the appropriate extensions. Speaking with a live representative, regardless of the time of day, can make patients feel better about the care they’re receiving.
A medical answering service can also save money for your practice. Hiring and training new employees costs more time, money, and resources. A reliable call center trained in medical answering services has established systems and processes to get the needed work done. Utilizing a medical answering service is a more cost-effective way to delivering top-quality customer service to patients instead of paying for an employee’s salary and benefits. The people who will take your patients’ calls are well-trained, are available 24/7, and are available during holidays.
Think your medical practice could benefit from an answering service? Contact One is a call center based in Tucson, Arizona that provides answering services to various industries. Our team is HIPAA-compliant, available at anytime of day, and will provide high-quality service. Our expertly team of virtual receptionists will provide you with a variety of services.
Call us at 1-800-278-3347 to find out more about what we do, and how your medical practice can benefit from our answering service.
Contact One is more than just a call center. Contact One is the first experience a customer has when contacting a business. We know that first impressions are critically important to a business’s success, so we make it our priority to ensure it’s a great one.
At Contact One, we are proud to go above and beyond the average call center. When you hire our answering services, you can rely on us to provide you with receptionist services, appointment setting, and call center support. By integrating our agents into your team, you can ensure that you achieve the highest levels of productivity and customer service.
Unlike getting another full-time, in-house employee, our answering service can save you more money without compromising customer support. Our call center agents take your calls promptly and professionally, do customer support, schedule or cancel appointments, redirect calls, and so much more. On top of that, you can get these services for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including holidays. Whether your business needs receptionist services, medical answering services, or call center support services, Contact One is ready to manage your calls.We’ll save you time, money, and make sure that no call goes unanswered.
To hire Contact One for your customer service needs, give us a call at (800) 278-3347. We are proud to be a leading answering service in Tucson, and you will find that we are able to dramatically improve your company’s productivity and customer support capabilities. We look forward to helping you find the right solution for your business.
Excellent customer service is crucial to your business’ bottom line. Top-notch support captures new business and keeps valuable customers coming back to you. Being friendly and helpful, however, can be difficult at times when dealing with certain issues and clients. It is important to know how to deliver consistently excellent customer service, and what things to focus on to ensure a client’s satisfaction.
1. Think From The Customer’s Perspective: In order to ensure positive and productive communication with customers, the customer’s perspective must always be kept in mind. Consider tone of voice: a customer who is spoken to in a tone that is courteous, pleasant, and professional is much more likely to respond kindly and calmly.
2. Body Language: Even though you are speaking with a customer over the phone, body language matters. A customer service representative who chews gum or seems distracted during a conversation, projects an attitude that is careless and rude. Make sure that while speaking to a customer, you are attentive, sitting upright, and are not distracted by your surroundings. A customer can tell when you are engaged in the conversation, or if your focus is elsewhere.
3. Learn to read your customers: Customers don’t always feel comfortable telling you they cannot afford your product or service. When a customer starts hinting (or out right asking) about price, offer alternatives. Don’t assume the customer knows all that they need to know in order to make an informed decision. Make suggestions that can save them money. Most of the time the customer doesn’t know what to ask for and is relying on your expertise.
4. Don’t keep callers waiting too long: While being on hold is often a fact of life, many callers get very frustrated with being on hold for long periods at a time. Try to keep their time on hold to a bare minimum, and if you must, make sure to check in with them often to assure them that they have not been forgotten about and that you will be with them as soon as possible. Partnering with a call center can help your business to minimize incoming call wait times.
5. Don’t sound overly scripted: Avoid launching into a script right from the beginning of a conversation. Instead, try to establish a rapport with the caller and take time to ask leading questions and listen. Additionally, being polite is a must so always use “please” and “thank you” when speaking to customers. Be careful not to overuse “please” and “thank you” as this can seem patronizing and may annoy certain callers.
6. Treat callers with patience and respect: Above many things, most callers want to be heard and treated with respect. Callers will often hang up in anger if they believe you are not listening properly or treating them disrespectfully. Be sure to listen carefully while they explain their problem to avoid asking them to repeat themselves. Try to empathize with the caller’s request or issue before offering a solution.
It is important to note that all of these tips can be applied before the sale is complete. There is a common misconception that customer service starts when a customer has a problem. In reality, good customer service starts when you pick up the phone. Giving your client the best service possible will not only benefit the sale, but will lead to return customers in the future.
There is nothing more frustrating than receiving bad customer service from a business. Bad service can range from being kept on hold for long amounts of time, to verbally insulting the customer. Such practices can make a customer feel unimportant, ignored, and angry. The results of an upset customer can be detrimental to a business’s success. This blog will discuss examples of bad service practices, the effects bad service can have on a business, and how to avoid them.
Most people have had some sort of negative experience with a service representative, especially over the phone. One type of bad service is neglect. If a call center answers a client’s call only to put them on hold, it will look bad for that business. This includes constantly transferring a caller. The more people a customer has to deal with, the bigger the chance for miscommunication and increased frustration. A customer will not want to work with a call center that just transfers customers to other people instead of trying to help them. Even if a representative is kind and patient, a customer can still become frustrated when they spend too much time on hold and not enough time moving toward a solution.
Another type of bad customer service is bad attitude. Bad attitude can come from a variety of things. Sometimes, a customer service rep has personal problems that causes them to become easily irritated. Another cause is from a rep not enjoying their job. Finally, being tired can cause a representative to sound bored or not engaged over the phone. Even though a customer can’t see a call representative’s face, they can tell if they are truly interested in helping them.
The third, and most notable type of bad customer service, is verbal insult. It takes an especially bad customer service representative to say rude remarks to a customer. Unfortunately, it does happen. This is a very fast way to establish a bad reputation, as customers who experience verbal insults will likely tell people about it.
The effects of bad customer service can seriously hurt a business. First, it can lose customers. A caller who had a bad experience with a representative from that business will most likely find a different place to take their business. Another effect of bad service is bad reviews. Customers are more likely to review a business after having a bad experience than a good one. People who find your business on social media or the internet can see these reviews, and may choose a different place because of it. Lastly, customers who had a bad experience with a customer service representative often tell their friends and family. This word of mouth press can be dangerous because it can’t be controlled. It’s also hard to change people’s opinions once they’re made.
Luckily, there are many ways to avoid bad customer service. The first is by minimizing wait times. If answering calls is difficult for busy businesses, hiring a call center can help. This will avoid the problem of not being able to reach a business, and avoid long wait times. Another way to avoid bad customer service is by managing anger. Taking deep breaths, and trying to understand why a customer is upset, can help keep an employee calm. It can also help reduce the customer’s anger. Finally, speaking to a customer as if face-to-face with them is a good way to sound enthusiastic over the phone. A customer can read a representative’s tone, so sounding upbeat and interested is important. With an up-beat voice, the caller will feel heard and valued.
To sum it all up, bad customer service isn’t just detrimental in the short-run, but can also have long-term effects. Long wait times, unenthusiastic service, and rudeness can lose a customer, their business, and create a bad reputation amongst other consumers. Good customer service is essential to a company’s success. Even the most simple of calls deserves quality service. This will help keep existing clients, avoid losing a sale, and hopefully increase positive reviews. At Contact One, we pride ourselves on our exceptional customer service. We know how valuable each caller is to a business, and strive to give clients the attention they deserve. To find out more about what Contact One can do for your business, call: 1-877-959-0158!
Customers have been trained to expect fast services. In order to maintain quality customer service, you have to have quick-response system. Technology can give you the speed that you need to get an edge over the competition. Instant chat and answering services will show your customers that you care about their business. Making it easy for your customers to reach your business is essential to maintaining client satisfaction.
Complaints
If a customer is upset about your products or services, and they cannot get ahold of anyone in your company, it will only upset them more. Increasing your answering service efforts ensures that these customers can find someone to talk to when they have an issue so you and your staff can work toward finding a solution.
On Hold
No one likes to wait on hold, but there are times when a business has more callers than staff to handle those calls. You could over-staff but, you will end up having higher employee costs and lower productivity. You could let the callers wait, but eventually callers will hang up and find another company to do business with. Neither of those options would be good for the bottom line. Here are two solutions you could try:
Use a staffing calculator (Erlang-C is commonly used). This will help you calculate the average number of employees needed to keep your average hold time to a minimum. Every customer and business has a different tolerance for hold time, but most studies show that customers are willing to wait for about 18 seconds. You will need your average call time (in seconds), average calls you handle per hour, and what you would like your average hold time (in seconds) to be. You can experiment with different scenarios with your business.
Hire an Answering service for overflow and ask your telephone provider to install “no answer” call forwarding. This will allow you to maintain the most efficient staffing levels, but when you have un-expected influx in call volume your callers will not have to wait for an answer.
Answering Every Call
Customers rarely take the time to express their frustrations, they just go elsewhere. For example, there is a perception that patients will put up with bad customer service from a medical center as long they get to see a doctor. This is not true in today’s competitive environment. Answering the phone promptly, professionally, and providing a one call resolution may be the only chance businesses have to obtain a new patient.
If your customers can always get through to someone at your company, it gives them a better impression of your business. Whether they are calling with a complaint or a question, the ability to talk to a real person helps them gain confidence in your business and your customer service efforts. This might inspire them to help tell other people about your impressive customer relations, which could earn you some new business. No matter the outcome, quick answering and friendly, patient service can only benefit your business.
Running a business is challenging enough. If you find yourself struggling to keep the balance, getting the services of a call center may be right for you.
Unlike getting another full-time, in-house employee, an answering service can save you more money without compromising customer support. Call center agents can take your calls promptly and professionally, do customer support, schedule or cancel appointments, re-direct calls, and so much more. On top of that, you can get these services for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And yes, that includes the holidays.
Why 24/7 Customer Support Matter
Offering 24/7 customer support can be a huge plus in your business. It can:
Boost your sales The “instant gratification” mentality of today’s consumers can work well on your favor if you offer 24/7 customer support. Suppose someone would want to know about your product but it’s 9 P.M. in a country across the globe. If you’re not open for business, your prospective customer will look somewhere else.
Improve your customer service A lot of customers these days expect to receive help when they need it. Whether it’s technical support, billing, or general information, having 24/7 customer support can make a difference. Creating a more positive experience for your customers can consequently boost your company’s image.
Help you save money Hiring in-house employees who can handle customer service 24/7 can be a huge expense in your company. With a reliable 24/7 call center, you can save money without compromising customer support and your productivity.
Contact One has been in the call center industry for years. We have well-trained agents who can do more than just customer support. You can request for a quote by filling out this form here.
