Customer experience should be absolutely paramount for any business. Other than a face-to-face meeting, the best way of engaging directly with your customers is by using phone answering services. Phone calls account for a huge amount of customer service communications. Here are some ways that any business can improve their customers’ experiences when dealing with them over the phone.
Predict Demand and Staff Your Site Accordingly
It is important to have the right amount of staff on call at any given time. The only way of ensuring that you correctly staff your business for taking calls is to accurately predict the number of calls that it will be needed to take. Luckily, the wealth of data available about frequent calling times and the common sense projections you can make after, say, the launch of a new product make forecasting how many staff you need relatively simple. Some companies have even taken to using AI to predict surges.
Get a Toll-Free Number
Toll-free numbers are free for customers to call. This arrangement is the industry standard for customer care. There are several toll-free numbers that businesses can acquire the use of through a rental system.
1800 numbers are a great investment for small businesses. They are the most well-known of the toll-free number precursors. When calling in to such a number, a customer is very likely to know that they will not be expected to pay a tariff. Customers are far more likely to be receptive to what your team has to say if they know that they are not being charged for staying on the phone. This is especially important when dealing with customer complaints, when customers rightly expect the bill to be footed by the company they are calling.
Hold Music Is Important
We have arrived at the elephant in the room. Unless your inbound call center is exceptionally well-staffed, there is a high chance that your valued customers will be on hold for some amount of time during their call to you. Hold music is very important. The majority of companies pick from the same pool of looped songs that has been in circulation for years.
Forward-thinking businesses have started to consider hold music as a ‘sonic opportunity’: a time when the aesthetic or ethos of a brand can be communicated through sound. Ditch the Vivaldi and think hard about what your hold music says about how you want to treat your customers. Make your choice based on your intended audience’s tastes.
Treat Your Staff With Respect
Staff working on the telephone can have rather stressful jobs. Dealing with complex enquiries and complaints can often be quite draining, and this has the effect of making them less able to perform well and deliver good customer service. Treat your staff with respect by giving them realistic goals, good breaks and avoiding overbearing surveillance. If your business is a good place to work, your customers will feel the benefits and leave their calls satisfied with the services provided to them.
