Why Order Taking Is Vital for Small E-Commerce and Catalog Businesses

Why Order Taking Is Vital for Small E-Commerce and Catalog Businesses

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An effective order taking procedure is the backbone of any business that sells directly to customers. If a customer is left waiting on the phone for too long, or if your company doesn’t have after hours support to communicate around the clock, your e-commerce or catalog-based company may well lose important sales.

 

Here are some a few reasons you should consider partnering with an experienced call center to handle your order taking process:

 

  • Close Sale Around The Clock. Most businesses do not have the resources to keep staff members on call to communicate with customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week—but an experienced call center does. When you work with a call center, you’re effectively expanding your company’s availability to 24/7 with no changes to your business hours. In today’s fast-paced global marketplace, where doing business frequently means dealing with people in different time zones, this is an essential feature for any e-commerce company.

 

  • Improve Customer Service. Effective customer communication is vital to any business. With a call center handling your order taking process, representatives will be available to answer customers’ phone, email, and live chat questions. Having friendly customer service agents leaves customers happy with their purchases and impressed by your company’s professionalism and commitment to service.

 

  • Build Your Customer Base Quickly. With all of the time-commitments and headaches of launching a new business, you may neglect your fulfillment and customer service processes. Outsourcing order taking to an experienced partner can help smaller businesses support a quickly growing customer base with top-notch service. A call center can help a new e-commerce or catalog business avoid lost orders, unanswered questions, and other hiccups.

 

At Contact One Call Center, we specialize in helping businesses manage their incoming calls and order fulfillment. Our areas of focus include secure order taking, after-hours chat support, disaster preparedness, and more! We have been providing dependable services to our customers for three decades. For more information about how Contact One Call Center can help your business, give us a call today at 1-800-278-3347.

The Importance of Attitude In Customer Service

The Importance of Attitude In Customer Service

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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 in kind.

As this video explains, body language also matters: A customer service representative who chews gum or seems distracted during a conversation, projects an attitude that is careless and rude. For more tips on ensuring good customer service, watch the full clip and stay tuned to the Contact One Call Center blog.

Contact One Call Center is a family owned and operated call center that provides answering services, after-hours support, secure messaging, and much more. If you would like to learn more about how we can help your company grow, contact us today by calling 1-800-278-3347.

More Customer Service Articles:

  1. These Resources Provide Additional Information About Customer Service And E-Commerce
  2. The Importance of First Impressions
  3. Improving Your Customers’ Experiences
  4. Reliable Strategies for Building Customer Trust
  5. Three simple tips for better customer service

Comparing DIY Appointment Setting with A Call Center Reservation System

Comparing DIY Appointment Setting with A Call Center Reservation System

Blog/ Contact One News and Updates/ Customer Service/ Marketing and Sales/ Professional Services/ Small Business

If your business makes appointments on a regular basis, you ought to consider whether handling appointment scheduling yourself is the best use of your time. Here are just a few of the reasons why handing your appointment setting duties over to a call center can be extremely beneficial for your business.

 

  • Save Time. Scheduling appointments yourself means taking time away from your other duties in order to ensure that scheduling is done properly. That time could be spent on more productive work that is integral to your business success. Appointment scheduling is also a highly repetitive task, which means that a significant portion of your day will be spent doing something that utilizes none of your business skills or any special insights.

 

  • Avoid Mistakes and Upset Customers. In a small business, employees typically carry many different responsibilities. When employees become overwhelmed with too many tasks, they can all too easy to make mistakes or overlook appointments—which makes for angry, dissatisfied customers. A call center offers organized appointment setting that reduces human error. A call center will employ friendly customer service professionals who accurately schedule appointments and leave customers with an excellent impression of your organization.

 

  • Ease Growing Pains. The more your business grows, the more difficult it will be to handle appointment scheduling on your own. Keeping up with a rising number of phone calls and appointment requests can overwhelm a small company. Instead of struggling to deal with a continual flood of calls, you can have all appointment scheduling matters handled on your behalf by an experienced call center. A call center can also help you add live chat and other support features to your business website, to further improve the booking process.

 

Are you looking for a solid solution to your business’ appointment setting and messaging challenges? Contact One Call Center provides answering services to businesses around the country. If your company is looking for help with customer service, after-hours service, or secure messaging, we can help. To learn more about our capabilities, visit us on the web today or call 1-800-278-3347.

Check Out These Articles For More Tips On Improving Your Customer Experience

Check Out These Articles For More Tips On Improving Your Customer Experience

Blog/ Customer Service/ Marketing and Sales/ Physicians/Health Care/ Professional Services/ Small Business/ Tourism/Hospitality

Customer satisfaction is essential to a healthy and growing business. Read through these customer service resources to make sure you’re providing top-notch support. Call Contact One Call Center at (800) 278-3347 for professional and courteous call center service—we are a multi-lingual service!

  • Would you like to know more about the connection between customer service and customer satisfaction? Check out this article from Chron.com.
  • This Mashable.com post features tips on improving your online customer service.
  • NBC offers this great article on how to make customers happy.
  • USAToday.com provides these tips on how to follow up with your customers.
  • Do you know if your customers are happy? This post details the impact of customer service on overall customer satisfaction.

More Helpful Answering Service Articles:

  1. Renewable-Energy Legislation
  2. How to Show Appreciation to Employees
  3. Arizona Council on Small Business
  4. Get More Customer Service Tips For Your Business With These Links
  5. The Importance of Attitude In Customer Service

How to Make Callers Happy

How to Make Callers Happy

Blog/ Customer Service/ Marketing and Sales/ Physicians/Health Care/ Professional Services/ Small Business

A positive customer service experience is essential for building a satisfied customer-base. A dissatisfied customer will tell many more people about their experience than a satisfied customer, so it is your business’s purview to ensure that customers hang up feeling happy and taken care of. Here are a few tips to keep callers happy:

  • 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.
  • 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 use an overuse “please” and “thank you” as this can seem patronizing and may annoy certain callers.
  • 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.

Are you ready to let the professionals handle your calls? At Contact One Call Center, we offer courteous, knowledgeable customer service in multiple languages. To learn more, please give us a call at (800) 278-3347.

Additional Answering Service Resources:

  1. Download this App to Get Small Business Tips on Your Phone
  2. Customer Service and First Impressions, how well does your company perform?
  3. IF YOU PRACTICE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING, YOU DO NOT BELONG IN A CUSTOMER SERVICE JOB!!!
  4. Customers will pay 9% more for excellent customer service.
  5. Patient Wait Time and Customer Service

What’s Your Business’ Unique Value Proposition?

What’s Your Business’ Unique Value Proposition?

Blog/ Marketing and Sales/ Professional Services/ Small Business/ Uncategorized

[iframe src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/WDOlnekQz7E?rel=0″ width=”100%” height=”309″]

Does your business have a Unique Value Proposition (UVP)? Having a UVP has been shown to boost business, so make sure to get the facts by watching this very informative video clip.

Your UVP explains why your company can offer a product or service experience that no one else can. It is a tag line or statement that essentially explains what your core services are and what sets you apart from the other guys. Identifying your UVP means you will never be at a loss for words when someone asks what your company does. It will give potential customers a reason to come to you instead of your competitors.

Call Contact One Call Center at (800) 278-3347 to learn more about how we can enhance your business’s customer service experience. We are available to answer any questions you may have about our services.

Common Signs Your Business Could Benefit from Live Chat

Common Signs Your Business Could Benefit from Live Chat

Blog/ Customer Service/ Marketing and Sales/ Physicians/Health Care/ Professional Services/ Small Business/ Tourism/Hospitality

Not having a proper customer service department basically renders advertising and word-of-mouth useless. You can’t get new customers if you don’t connect with when they reach out to your business.

Live chat is a customer service offering that provides website visitors the option to chat live via instant messaging with a customer service representative. This service can be available 24/7 and is easy and affordable to implement. Below are a few signs that your growing business could benefit from live chat.

  • You receive a high volume of emails and phone calls. If your business is constantly dealing with incoming calls and emails, many of which are regarding the same topics and questions, online live chat may benefit you. People are often likely to dismiss a business that cannot answer their questions right away, and live chat is a great way to offer an instant mode of communication with a real live person, which your potential customers will appreciate.
  • Your customers have already moved on to a competitor by the time you call or write them back. All too often, after a potential customer has left a voicemail or sent an email, they will simply move on to the next available business instead of waiting for a reply. With live chat, you can stop losing new customers to the other guy due to communication hiccups. Online chat means that your customers will always be able to get the answers they want, when they want.
  • You are organizing a large event and need to handle reservation questions. When planning a seminar, conference or fundraising event, you will see a spike in call and email volume. This influx of reservation requests and questions related to the event can be tough to handle. Don’t risk losing attendees because you cannot handle the call and email volume in a timely manner. Getting live chat effectively supports event questions and sign-up requests, so that all of your guests can feel well taken care of.

Are you ready to take your customer service to the next level? Call Contact One Call Center, the premier nationwide answering center, at (800) 278-3347, and we will be happy to get you started.

Find Out More About Streamlining Your Customer Service Process At The Following Websites

Find Out More About Streamlining Your Customer Service Process At The Following Websites

Blog/ Customer Service/ Marketing and Sales/ Professional Services/ Small Business

Whether you run a medical facility or own a small business, take advantage of the resources that a call center can offer. Learn more about customer service and management strategies from the following links:

 

  • Read three tips for providing excellent customer service in this Entrepreneur article.

 

  • The latest United States Census shows that the number of Hispanic residents is increasing, driving a greater need for a bilingual answering service.

 

  • Read more about the increase in the Hispanic population in this article from the LA Times.

 

  • This website from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provides an overview of the rules of HIPAA.

 

  • Learn how to build customer loyalty with suggestions from this Forbes.com article.

 

Contact One Call Center can help you with all of your answering service, after-hours support, and disaster preparedness needs. Call (800) 278-3347 to learn more.

What to Look for in A Medical Answering Service

What to Look for in A Medical Answering Service

Blog/ Customer Service/ Physicians/Health Care/ Professional Services

When you are operating a medical practice, it is important to have an answering service that gives your patients the support they need. Due to confidentiality regulations and the urgent nature of medical calls, a medical answering service must be evaluated in great detail. When choosing an answering service for your practice, look for the following features:

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Use Square to Make Point-of-Sale Easy and Cost Effective

Use Square to Make Point-of-Sale Easy and Cost Effective

Blog/ Marketing and Sales/ Small Business

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/square-card-reader/id335393788

Tired of paying credit card fees and dealing with a pesky merchant account and unreliable credit card processing hardware? Square Card Reader is a new app developed by the founder of Twitter that allows anyone with an Apple phone or iPad to accept payments.

Increase the success of your small business and your level of customer service with the Square Card Reader app from iTunes. Without any contracts or monthly fees, you can accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover right from your Apple device. (more…)