Customer Service Archives - Page 2 of 3

Leveraging Technology to Measure Customer Experience

Monitoring, measuring and improving the customer experience is a high priority for most forward-thinking businesses in this day and age. Company owners are largely aware that they should be gathering feedback at various ‘touchpoints’ along a customer’s journey and many do have programs in place to capture the data, either to get an overall rating of customer satisfaction levels or to evaluate experience at each of the touchpoints in turn. However, many businesses are failing to make the most of the technology available to them, gathering only a tiny fraction of the available data, using valuable manual resources to process and analyze the data they do get and presenting the findings in an incomplete or unnecessarily complicated way. By leveraging the latest customer experience technology, businesses can now streamline all areas of the above process: Capturing Customer Experience The first task in measuring customer experience is to capture feedback, and many businesses use surveys and questionnaires to achieve this. However, a lot of data is missed by ignoring sources of unsolicited feedback (e.g. on forums, blogs, social media sites and review pages), and not contacting customers fast enough or by using their preferred platform. For example, a customer who has just made an order for a service using their mobile phone is less likely to respond to an email survey a week later than they are to an SMS survey within the hour. In addition, they are less likely to have rationalized their feedback based on prior or more recent experiences. Social media monitoring and advanced survey platforms are just two forms of technology businesses need to be looking into right now. Integration and Analysis Once sufficient data has been collected, this needs to be collated and analyzed to produce predictive patterns that can inform future business development. The main challenge companies face here is with sampling and use of resources. Incomplete or ‘dirty’ samples (where information has been recorded incorrectly) can skew results, while manual data integration and analysis ties up staff who could be employed doing other things. By implementing automated data integration technology with sample control and cleaning functions can lead to more accuracy and efficiency, and can also avoid flaws such as ‘over surveying’ individual customers. Visual Summaries Finally, there is little use in collecting reams of data and crunching the numbers at supersonic speeds if the reporting at the end of it makes little sense to anyone, especially those in charge of directing business policy. Again, technology can come to the rescue, with programs specialized in enterprise-wide visual access that can be user-access controlled. In this way, data can be summarized and presented in the most appropriate way for the department viewing it. Power and Simplicity – for Every Business Perhaps the greatest news of all is that the kind of technology mentioned above is no longer only within the price range of large, cash-rich corporations. The advance of open source technology and a competitive marketplace has made leveraging technology easier and more affordable than ever. Once the powerful, up-to-date customer experience technology is in place, you will find that employees who had previously been bogged down in data processing and compiling reports can be redeployed to other parts of the business or trained to interpreting patterns in the numbers and to help shape company strategy. Ultimately, everybody in the business, from senior directors to customer-facing agents, will experience more clarity about how the business is performing in the eyes of its customers.

4 Top Tips To Boost Technical Customer Support

Technical customer support refers to a lot of services by which enterprises give help to users of a technology product, for example, cell phones, TVs, PCs, software product or other informatics, electronic or mechanical products. By and large, technical bolster services address particular issues with a product or services as opposed to the provision of training, customization, or other support services. Most organizations offer technical support for the product they offer, either openly accessible or for a fee. Handling the more technical side of customer services can be tricky now and again. At the point when clients require a more accurate solution to a tech test, there’s value in knowing how to resolve the issue in the speediest, best way. While a significant portion of similar core principles of customer service applies, help desk and tech to support regularly require a more specialized touch to ace. It’s significant that many companies roll the assistance desk and technical support roles together. In general, however, the help desk is most every now and again considered the first line of defense for handling initial customer contact and all the more easily corrected tech issues, while technical support is the more particular second level that harder problems get raised to for resolutions that require further expertise. A technical customer support ticket that comes in through telephone, email or any other channel your team uses will frequently hit the help desk, where agents will work to resolve the issue or gauge whether it should be raised higher up the knowledge stepping stool. If it’s a straightforward solution, for instance, if a customer obtained a product that is feeling the loss of a key component and they’d like a new part it’ll get resolved at the help desk level. If a customer is encountering more top to bottom issues with a product that the helps desk doesn’t have a useful answer for, notwithstanding, their inquiry would be knock up to technical support. For instance, if a gadget is acting bizarre and ordinary steps to reboot or reset the device aren’t working, an agent with more intimate technical ability on the product can help handle the issue. Depending on your call center technology organization, your products, and your team makeup, help desk, and tech support may be either united into one role or separated further into a bigger number of levels or department for every role or product line. Rather than the questionable catchphrases, how about, we discuss genuine, noteworthy technical customer service tips that you can use to do what makes a difference and develop your business. 1) Identify and assess the issue level Customer issues of a more technical nature can run the range as far as many-sided complexity and simplicity of resolution, which is the reason it’s vital to pinpoint the issue promptly and rapidly assess whether it’s something that can potentially be solved with a basic fix. Towards one side of the spectrum, a customer may require guidelines on the most proficient method to recoup a lost password or directions to restore a damaged product for substitution. On the upper end, they may need to troubleshoot a sudden device disappointment or report a software stopping glitch they’ve experienced that is never seen. Guiding customers to an important resource like video tutorials, well-ordered directions, and client gatherings that give quick responses to regular tech issues can be an incredible approach to speed things along. However, it’s additionally valuable to recognize more intricate problems early so they can be routed to colleagues with the proper skill to unravel them. 2) Gage the customer’s technical level Utilizing instinct and hints from the discussion or correspondence, it’s useful to attempt to distinguish the customer’s level of technical experience with a specific end goal to decide an ideal approach to help them. For a few customers, something that may appear like a simple fix could be significantly more complicated if they’re not technically inclined. Alternately, a customer with a more prominent level of technical ability may communicate all the more smoothly and get the solution they require from talking with an agent that has more specialized aptitude on the matter. For instance, cable and Wi-Fi connectivity issues are a typical illustration. An educated customer may make sense of a fix rapidly with access to your company’s learning base, while other casual users may be flustered over the thought of chasing around for the reset button. Making sense of a customer’s level of technical ability makes it less demanding to point your team’s response in the correct direction. 3) Check for previous support tickets It’s normal for some customers who encounter technical issues to experience a portion of similar issues or even related ones more than once. Looking into any earlier support tickets logged for a particular customer can give helpful pieces of information that may help speed the procedure along, which is a good thing for every person involved. Previous tickets may have notes that let you guide the customer to a better resolution or fast track them to the correct office to fathom their issues better. 4) Take detailed, useful ticket notes on each interaction Call center agents don’t need to compose a book on each customer, however keeping detailed, precise notes that help understand issues, their unique situation, the proposed solution, and the final result can be priceless both for following common problems and for helping customers who repeatedly reach out with similar problems. Technical custom service software solutions make the way toward tracking tickets and keeping exceptional customer information less tasking. In conclusion, while many individuals consider technical customer support as a cost of doing business, the numbers don’t lie: customer support pays off. It has been found that expanding customer degrees of consistency by 5% builds business gains by 25% to 95%. By utilizing the techniques above, you can be on the way to accomplishing profits like that for your call center technology organization.

How to Blend People and Machines for Better Customer Experiences?

You might be struggling to offer an optimum level of customer service as speed and convenience become more desired. How do you ensure customer satisfaction when they want both speed and traditional human interaction? Here’s how you can blend artificial intelligence (AI) with personal communication within your call centers to serve your customers more effectively. Create a Space Where Artificial Intelligence and People Work Together to Answer Questions Customers are increasingly tech-savvy and comfortable navigating technology without any human interaction. Gartner has reported that the vast majority of customers will manage their connections with companies without ever talking to a person. This means that you have to approach your customers as people who want a certain amount of independence. Despite this, there is still a need for a real person to be on the line. When customers need resolutions to complex problems or are asking a unique question, they usually prefer to speak in real-time with an actual person. You should work on improving both of these areas to dramatically improve your customer experience. When you deliver balanced, quick, and helpful customer service, you get repeat purchasers and loyal promoters. Where Automation Meets Empathy While automated systems will never be as empathetic as people, they can transform the way you assist customers. Technological breakthroughs have allowed computers to become continuously self-learning based on analytics. You can implement AI into your call center and it will monitor how your agents respond to inquiries. The technology will then be able to complete tasks and respond to questions on its own, meaning you can start to rely less on live agents. Using Analytics to Set Up the Process To start blending AI into your call center, rely on analytical tools and data. This will help you find out the best way to solve problems that customers call about. Your implementation will depend on the availability of live support and complexity of the inquiry. For example, you could set up an automated process to instruct customers to speak or enter a specific number that correlates with their question. The AI can provide helpful answers and information for each inquiry while providing a last-resort option to speak to a live representative. This is just an example of how you can utilize AI to streamline your customer service. Personalizing and Branding Your AI You want to provide relevant and helpful service based on preferences and demographics. Tracking trends can help you implement a dynamic call center experience that is automatically customized to previous customer interactions. Keep in mind that even your automated processes should be consistent with your overall brand experience. All content should be in line with your vision and goals. Getting started with automation and intelligence doesn’t have to be a daunting task. You don’t have to overhaul your whole IT department or throw up legacy systems. You can start off by choosing a single product to test your project for 2 or 3 months. Once you have perfected the process with one product, you can expand it across your entire platform. This blog was first published on LinkedIn.

Servant Leadership: A Guide to Modern Customer Service

Because customers have so many more options than they did in decades past, we often refer to today’s business environment as the age of the customer. Technology is at the heart of increased customer options, providing them with the ability to shop online, request a real-time chat with a company representative, browse websites while they watch movies, and offer company reviews on a number of easy-to-use opinion websites. With all of these changes, contact center leaders must be willing to acknowledge the increased need for enhanced customer interaction and outstanding customer service. More often than not, it is not the team of employees that needs to change. Instead, managers and team leaders must learn about the new practice of servant leadership and figure out how changing their own perceptions, habits and attitudes can bring about an incredibly positive shift in the call center. With servant leadership, those in management positions are encouraged to serve first and then lead. Robert K. Greenleaf, who introduced the concept in 1970, encouraged managers and leaders to ask specific questions as they tried out this unconventional new management style. Each question was centered on helping team leaders take note and encourage their employee’s efforts in physical and mental health, personal growth and learning. How Can Servant Leadership Lead to Better Customer Service? If you are like many call center managers, you may be wondering just how changing your style of leadership will lead to your team getting higher customer satisfaction rates. In order to explain this phenomenon, you must stop thinking about being the manager and begin thinking about how you and each employee is an integral part of the team. Once you are committed to this style of thinking, you will be more capable of serving through the following methods: Instilling Pride and Confidence – Though there are several different theories about where the Golden Rule originated, however, the statement of “do unto others as you would have them do to you” is still useful today, especially when managers are working to learn how to serve employees. When you serve them, work with them, and offer praise and sincere encouragement, your team will begin to work harder to exceed yours and the customer’s expectations. Setting the Standard High – Once your team members come to the realization that your style of leadership has changed, they will watch more closely in order to learn what you are doing. In almost every case, once servant leadership has been established, employees will begin to mimic the service-oriented behavior with each other, and with each customer. Exceeding Customer Expectations – When your call center agents begin to truly serve the customers, they will begin to notice what makes them happy and what leaves them dissatisfied. In an effort to offer the best service possible, they may even offer beneficial suggestions in team meetings. Through this process, they will come to not only meet, but exceed employee expectations. Start Serving More Today The sooner contact center leaders take time to put servant leadership techniques into practice, the sooner they will be able to see the results of this service. This cannot be a half-hearted effort that is infused from time to time with the old authoritarian style of leadership. It must be a true conversion toward knowing and serving those you work with. Start serving today and enjoy seeing happiness and satisfaction touch every part of your organization.

Customer Service Automation: A new way to Improve Quality in Contact Center

The modern contact center is always developing and contact centers need to evolve with time and technology. Before evolving your contact center, there are always components to be taken care of for improving and offering superior quality to all customers, which is an Effortless Customer Experience. If a contact center provides an effortless customer experience, the call center needs to develop a definition that the employees can relate to and deliver. To stay ahead of the competition, it’s important for all call center leaders to have an eye on trends. Customer Experience and Service has evolved over a decade with digital advancements. To set yourself apart in the market, you need to incorporate the customer service strategy focused on delivering an effortless customer experience, which includes go where your customers are, engage every employee, collect operational insights and gather competitive information. Here are 5 key differentiators that you need to recognize for a successful customer experience: Customer experience Customer experience reflects how the customer feels about your company and product. It is the mode of interaction between a customer and an organization over the duration of the relationship. Happy and satisfied customers grow from being customers to being loyal advocates. Create an Omni-channel Customers use various channels such as website, live chat, social media, and email. Businesses should be ready to deliver this effortless customer service on any channel. Creating an omni-channel experience for customers expect is crucial for success of any company. Engage all employees The best designed processes and systems will only be effective if carried out by the employees of the company. Rewarding your team is very important. Creating a great culture will be translated straight to the customers. Creating a winning culture is one thing which I have seen over the years that will brings business to the next level. Operational insights Using customer interactions to gather operational insights helps improve processes. This optimizes the customer experience approach, lower call volume and reduces repeat calls for similar problems and positively impacts the bottom line of business. Gather competitive information Gathering competitive insights will help you identify more up-sell, cross-sell opportunities. For a successful customer service, you need to make sure that you have the right employees to handle the customer service job who can deliver an effortless customer experience. The most important thing is to know what to look for in the potential candidates while interviewing them. The key is to understand who they are based on the answers they share during the interview. The days of hiring for Empathy are coming to an end, customers want their issue resolved on the first call therefore it’s important to hire people who can own the situation and take it to resolutions. This includes good communication, active listening, problem solvers and the right attitude to do the job. Hiring the right people that fit into the company culture helps to effectively serve your customers. A person needs to have a mind-set of effortless customer service, which is not only being ready to serve others but a willingness to go the extra mile for creating a truly positive and memorable customer experience and making customers happy. So, what type of employees does your company needs? The answer is simple – deliberate, detail-oriented people will go a long way in meeting the needs of your customers and for your company. The leaders here play a very important role. They are not only great examples for other team members to follow; they are excellent problem solvers, responsibility takers and decision makers. Leadership skills are critical in complicated situations when a customer expects someone to take the wheel and offer them a quick and efficient solution. To stay ahead of the competition, it’s important for leaders to have an eye on trends that have the potential to accelerate. Technology will allow companies to communicate with the customer and add value in new ways. Some of the important innovative trends in customer service are: Contact centers as engagement centers Today’s contact centers are seamless extensions of brands, and a place for constant feedback between your business and your customer’s ¬ a place where you can build personal relationships and transform customers into brand advocates. Customer experience Offering an exceptional customer experience wins some loyal customers. A string of loyal customers who rave about your brand is one of the key things you need to beat the competition. Exceptional customer service is making the customers feel they are the most important for the few minutes you are interacting with them. You assure them that you will do that you can to make their day better. Live Chat We see brands proactively start to initiate chat interactions where a customer is detected fumbling through their online support environment. Chat has emerged as the most natural channel for customers to interact though as it gives customers all-important privacy, as well as the freedom to drop and pick up conversations later. Social Support Technology has made it easier for brands to provide a more compelling customer experience on social. It provides options to seamlessly take interactions off social media to a private phone call with an agent. The company’s Twitter account can tweet back to the customer with a custom link that works only for that customer. But in considering these emerging technologies, many brands are still very behind when it comes to social. Being in this competitive market, I have always believed that a properly developed brand can be worth billions! It’s all about creating the right experience which makes Etech Global Services a market leader. Every once in a while we hear a story about a brand which delivers an incredible customer experience. The experience described needs to be carefully planned, organized, and executed. Your customers are the reason we are still in business, and our job is to serve the customers to the best of our ability. In my opinion, it does not only take a certain person to provide customer care but

How to Enhance Brand Loyalty With Quality Assurance?

Just as important as getting new clients is retaining current ones to grow your business. Although many factors are involved in retention, call centers play a crucial role in building customer loyalty. Consumers want to know that when they have an issue, they will receive exceptional customer service that will resolve the problem. If this happens, the chances of them continuing to do business with and recommending your company greatly increase. Your call center can deliver this positive customer experience through the benefits of quality assurance. Evaluate the Performance of Employees The general purpose of quality assessments is to ensure your agents are doing their jobs correctly. You first must determine if each agent is providing the level of customer service that they are supposed to for clients to perceive your company as helpful and customer-oriented. This includes agents being knowledgeable and clear in their communication. They must also have a balance of friendliness and professionalism, and be able to resolve problems in a reasonable time. If these basics are lacking, you will have to focus on foundational skills before you can build upon them. Obtain In-Depth Quality Assurance Data If areas needing improvement are not readily apparent, you require a superior quality assurance program that can give you more accurate and thorough analytics. It can incorporate behavioral data for a more comprehensive look at agent performance and how it affects customer satisfaction. You can search for specific interactions for reviewal instead of relying on random sampling. Create Custom Coaching for Each Agent The greater options this kind of solution offers allows you to approach employee coaching with more personalization. It informs you of the precise areas in which each employee needs additional training so that you can give useful feedback. Not all agents have the same weaknesses or learn skills in the same way, so a more tailored method will lead to increased and quicker improvement. Enhance Customers’ Brand Loyalty Once your call agents have corrected their mistakes and refined their proficiency in delivering optimal assistance, the rest will take care of itself. The natural significance of pleasing clients will be stronger loyalty to your brand. They will trust your company and will see the reduced effort and improved customer experience. Increase Your Revenue With more loyalty to your brand, business will not only continue but also grow. It will be easier to upsell to current clients who already love you, and easier to gain and retain new ones due to referrals. There is no doubt that your company’s revenue is significantly dependent upon and influenced by your call center’s ability to deliver an extraordinary customer experience to every caller. With so many benefits, it is easy to see the value of integrating a versatile quality assurance program into your call center. It is more than cost-effective; it is profitable for your business. Using the analytics you obtain, will help you gain leverage over competitors because you will follow through best on what every consumer desires: an Effortless Customer Experience. This blog was first published on LinkedIn..

Omni-channel: New Multi-Channel To Customer Service Experience

The one thing in this recent fast-paced and virtual savvy environment which changes more hastily than technology is, the terminology used for references to technicalities and aspects of technology. Two such phrases which occupy the heart of customer service enterprise are “Omni-Channel customer service” and “Multi-Channel customer support”. Often, these two phrases are used interchangeably, however if you dive deep, you’ll find that there’s a big distinction between them. Customer service enterprise is expanding, with the inclusion of new ever developing technological improvements and attention-to-detail parameters and approaches. In such situations, it becomes more and more difficult to manage and regulate as per the norms specified. So, in case your call center is using Multi-Channel Customer Service or if it’s offering Omni-Channel Customer Service, your clients would set their expectancies accordingly. So, it becomes vital to recognize the distinction in these phrases and use it wisely. What is Multi-channel as compared to Omni-channel service? Customers reach out to companies and organizations in a diffusion of approaches nowadays, inclusive of web, text, mobile, e-mail, social media, and phone. Call centers that provide customer service on all of these channels in an included way, instead of in silos, deliver the steady customer experience every customer craves. Multi-channel service actually means the use of a couple of channels while delivering customer experience. Omni-channel service, specifically in retail, provides effortless consistency across all channels. Omni-channel services are vital, as these days, clients are making use of mobile phones more frequently to access the internet, in fact, more than they use desktop PCs. These customers may initiate contact with an organization on one channel and later interact with the company through another, frequently using more than one gadget at the same time. Technology is likewise pushing forth new platforms increasing the customer experience beyond simply gadgets. Technology and Customer Expectations Drive the Need for Omni-Channel Retail Solutions The days of people picking up the phone book to get in touch with companies are long over, as customers moved to the Internet at their home and then to tablets and smartphones to reach out to companies. A recent research study suggests that 63% of U.S. adults use mobile gadgets several times in a month to search for customer support, and 90% of them have had bad customer experience. These consumers are defining their customer experience by how properly businesses manage their interactions on their site, via mobile technology, and across the several channels through which they interact with brands. Getting this right, with steady delivery and relevant content that meets customer desires and needs at the right time and on their favoured channels, is important for success. Delivering an Omni-channel Service and the Benefits of Customer Satisfaction Great customer experience affects the bottom line in several ways: 45% of customers inside the U.S. abandon online transactions if their questions or issues aren’t addressed speedily. 89% of consumers stop patronizing call centers that gives bad customer experience. Customers are 2X more likely to spread bad customer service experiences than that of positive. Consumers are 4X more likely to buy from competitors if an issue is associated with service, as opposed to price or product-related problems. 33% of customers will recommend call centers that offer short, yet useless responses. 17% of customers recommend call centers that offer slow but perfect solutions. 12 positive customer experiences are needed to make up for just one negative customer experience. 70% of purchasing experiences depend on how clients feel they’re being attended to. 83% of clients require at least some support when making an online purchase. That’s why thriving organizations have already shifted their attention to a customer-centric technique with mobile responsiveness being a top precedence. So far, the records indicate that call centers making use of tools and techniques to improve customer experience are winning. Research additionally shows that customers will spend more money with a company that offers a wonderful experience. Customer expectations additionally have an effect on their level of satisfaction, and leading businesses have gone further FAQ pages to offer round-the-clock assistance with services that screens social media and the Internet for mentions by customers and social media experts who maintain a steady presence online. By giving customers a very fast and accurate response on social media, call centers often save their reputations and display a willingness to correct issues to ensure customer satisfaction. Omni-channel customer support experience additionally helps to lessen consumer churn, which attributes to bad quality customer service. Making Multi-Channel Retailing Consistent Call centers must try not to simply provide a multi-channel retailing experience, though. To give a great omni-channel retail experience, call centers must assume that customers will begin an interaction in a channel and then move to another while searching for a solution. But the focus should not be on the channels, rather, it should be on the customer. Customers are too regularly segmented by channel – assuming that the call center has “Twitter clients,” “Facebook clients,” and “mobile clients,” as an instance, when in reality call centers have a set of customers who just happen to interact with them on a large number of channels. Customers’ demands and needs remain consistent across all channels from which they have an interaction with a call center. Consumers should understand their transitions from one channel to another as being fluid. The best call centers are 30% more probable to optimize for omni-channel simplicity to gain consistency and meet the needs of customers across all channels. One of the most effective methods to improve a customer experience is to tap into customer analytics to determine the customer preferred channels and gain insights into the efficiency of the company’s content and knowledge base when addressing these issues in actual-time. Analytics also reveal which channels most efficaciously meet client expectations, so call centers can tailor their technique for laser-targeted, consistent delivery. Leveraging technology that reach customers across all channels and making use of available information to monitor and optimize the customer experience gives modern call centers a

How to Use Analytics to Improve Customer Service

Customer service is not only relevant to conflict resolution but also to customer retention, brand loyalty, and your bottom line. Therefore, it is necessary to do whatever possible to ensure your customers receive excellent service from your call center. Unfortunately, there may be times when interactions between agents and callers are less than ideal. While the goal is to prevent horrible customer experiences from happening in the first place, what if it were possible to stop them as they occur? The good news is that it is. Predictive Analysis Thanks to artificial intelligence technology, you can use a quality assurance program that is capable of using voice data analytics to foresee agent performance. It can recognize keywords and patterns of customer behavior. Finally, it can determine how closely an agent is following provided scripts. It can track the same keywords not only in phone calls but also in social media messages, phone texts, and online live chats. If it detects a potential negative exchange, the alert gives you the opportunity to intervene and redirect the interaction toward a positive outcome. This real-time feature leads to an immediate reduction in low customer satisfaction. The caller will not have to call back to finish resolving an issue or complain to a superior. The only reason the client will need to call back is for future assistance with another issue, having the assurance that your call center will take care of it. Appropriate Management When you are equipped with pertinent, informative data analytics, it will translate into you providing pertinent, informative management to your agents. You can give more personalized feedback and training to agents who need correction. Possible causes of the issue may be: Low self-confidence and self-trust A lack of enthusiasm for the job Problems in their personal lives Burnout from too much work The problem may also lie in poor training, for which agents are not at fault. Having a comprehensive quality assurance system will not only boost additional training but also initial training. You can discern where you and other supervisors need to do a better job in teaching tasks to employees and ensuring they completely understand procedures before flying solo. This will improve customer services and reduce the likelihood of negative interactions. A Valuable Asset Do not underestimate the importance of long-distance customer relations. Just because you do not need to deal with callers in person does not mean their satisfaction is any less consequential. If a caller waits too long to reach a human or receive an answer, you can expect the person to hang up and try a competitor instead. Although automation is convenient and appropriate at times, it can never replace the impact of a solid customer service experience with a human being. Making an emotional connection is essential to establishing customer retention and brand loyalty. The most effective way to take advantage of these benefits is by integrating the right technology and using the resulting data analytics to improve customer services. This blog was first published on LinkedIn.

Artificial Intelligence: A Boon to Improve Customer Experience

Artificial intelligence has been around for a while, and while some wholeheartedly embrace the idea, others are wary of using what is portrayed to be a “robot” in any customer experience. When many think of AI, they think of conversationalist robots, while the truth is that AI has evolved into software programs that can be seamlessly integrated into current programs and become a huge asset to their human colleagues. AI is more than just a programmed bot that can answer the same questions that are included on a company’s FAQ page, and actually has many valuable applications in the business world and more specifically, in the form of customer support. Once companies understand the basics behind artificial intelligence and the benefits of speech analytics, the investment is more attractive and practical to improve customer service in all areas. Why Is Customer Service Important? All companies recognize that good customer service is essential to staying in business, building a brand and gaining the trust of consumers that love your products and services, but many fail to understand WHY customer service is so important. It’s just an assumed fact, but doing the research into why it is so important can help us better understand how artificial intelligence and quality monitoring with speech analytics can improve the experience. Estimates suggest that poor customer service may cost companies in the United States up to 41 billion dollars in revenue each year. AI is intended as a solution to that problem and to give your business the cutting edge to stay ahead of the competition and to cut that revenue loss as much as possible. Studies show that almost 90% of customers become frustrated when they have to repeat their problems and issues to more than one representative. This number highlights the fact that good customer service is more than a bonus for your business. It’s a necessity. A poll completed in 2015 of over 2,000 adults in the United States showed that customers are willing to pay more for a product or service when the customer service experience is pleasant. Close to 86% of them said bad customer service encourages them to switch brands. This shows that good service is vital to consumers, and getting an edge on your competition with better service builds trust in your brand and products. Companies often struggle to find the line between being more efficient at answering calls and resolving problems and keeping customers happy. Consumer issues can take up quite a bit of time for an agent even as the company is pushing for faster resolutions that encourage agents to get off the call as quickly as possible. At the end of the day, your customers need to feel as if their opinions are the most valued thing in your company, and artificial intelligence can help. AI provides faster results and resolutions to issues that commonly plague customers. It can improve the efficiency of employees, create better outcomes customized to fit any client’s problem, reduce call center costs and perform large tasks that would be impossible for a human to complete in the same amount of time. AI is important for more than just chat, and can create a positive experience for every customer that works with your company. To put it in perspective, realize that most Americans currently use some form of artificial intelligence in their everyday lives. With smartphones and tablets, most turn to assistants like Cortana and Siri to get directions, ask questions and resolve problems. As AI becomes more integrated into our day to day lives, experts expect that in a short five years, customers will only interact with a human from a company 15% of the time. The other 85% of the experience will be done with some form of artificial intelligence. Recent Experiences With AI Developers work tirelessly to create an AI system that works with every company in a convenient way, with the ultimate goal being to make life and work easier for everyone. Examples of using AI include Google, who improved their voice recognition technology from 84% to 98% in just two years. IBM’s Watson was released in 2011, and is now 2400% smarter than it was at its release date. Tens of millions of online searches are done each month through voice recognition systems. Every advancement brings AI closer to being profitable and applicable to businesses of all sizes. Some companies have already invested in the technology and reaping the rewards for doing so. Digital Genius: Mikhail Naumov, the chief strategy officer of Digital Genius, says that the company better automates their chat software with a deep learning algorithm. This has been done in two different ways. Historical chats – AI systems are better trained with the help of historical chat logs. Benefits include more accurate responses and more time for customer service agents to handle complex issues that an AI is unable to solve. Naumov believes that because customer service is so repetitive, historical transcripts hold goldmines that are underused. Fact data – The nature of the industry Digital Genius functions in has solid parameters regarding the amount of solutions for a set amount of problems. This makes AI programs much easier for this type of business, rather than business development or marketing, where there are many paths and possibilities that lead to solutions. Inbenta – Inbenta approached AI from the direction that customer service questions come when customers can’t find answers to important questions on a website. Search engines can be mildly misleading and send the customer to a page with no valid information for them. This turns into a phone call to a customer service representative that takes up time and valuable resources. Natural language – To deal with this issue, the company developed “Natural Language Processing” that is a form of AI that focuses more on what the customers means in a query rather than exactly what they type. Bulk email response – Inbenta has also solved the problem of excessive emails that

5 Easy Steps to Build a Successful Customer Support Team

A functional customer support team is essential to the success of your business. Many customers view the support team as the face of the company, and an unpleasant customer service experience can leave them with a bad feeling about the company as a whole and create detractors you don’t need. To avoid this, you must have the right team and customer support services in place from the start. In today’s competitive environment this can and should be the differentiator, especially for a call center team. Here are a few steps that can be taken to build and maintain a successful team. Implement Effective Support Techniques Having the right support techniques in place can help to ensure that clients receive uniformed, quality care every time they contact or are contacted by the company. All techniques should promote treating the customer as the highest priority and must ensure that the interaction is as pleasant as possible. If it is feasible, it can be beneficial to implement outbound customer service practices where the representatives contact the customers on a regular basis to ensure that they are not having any issues. This proactive approach can set you apart and such actions go a long way in the customer’s mind. Utilize Data in Decision-Making You pay for data to be collected on calls and you should get your money’s worth. The collected data can be very helpful during the decision-making process. Things like rings before call is picked up, length of call, hold time, common complaints, FAQ can help you design and maintain the right type of techniques. You must review frequently as customer’s priorities can change, and you must be prepared to change with them. Knowing, tracking and comparing such data can help you to make proper decisions as far as what techniques may need to be deployed, improved, or in some cases removed. Encourage a Team Mindset Customer service practices are most effective when everyone is on-board with the process. No matter who the customer reaches everyone should and must be on the same page. Implement and encourage an “all-hands on deck” mindset. As all team members support everyone, not only will it help to boost customer satisfaction, but it can also create comradery within the group as they can all take pride in receiving positive reviews, high NPS, and in turn build confidence and boost moral within the group. Create a Reward System Everyone enjoys being rewarded and acknowledged for hard work. A reward system is not only a great way to show appreciation, but it also helps to make your customer support team feel valued. Studies show that employees who feel valued tend to be happier and loyal to their companies. You should always reward your team for great work! Set up weekly, monthly, and quarterly recognition that employees can look forward to and strive to achieve. Automate Wisely There are a number of customer support services available that your company can take advantage of. However, you must be mindful to only deploy automated services that make sense and provide the image you want to display. Many customers find too much automation to be impersonal which can leave them with a bad impression. It is important to find the right balance between automation and your customer support team. Research, do focus groups, and be prepared to change what must be changed as often as it needs to be changed as you go through the process of what works and what doesn’t. As you strive to implement or improve your customer service tactics, consider following these steps. Not only can they help you to enhance your customer satisfaction rating, but they may also lead to a more efficient and productive support team that will ultimately lead to more customers.

Guarantee Outbound Sales Success with Metrics

On the surface, your call center is functioning just how it should. Your agents are regularly making calls, your employees are engaged with each other and they seem to be invested in the company. While it may appear that everything is going well, the only way to really judge your success with outbound sales is with metrics. Metrics are the cold, hard pieces of information that tell you exactly where your strengths and weaknesses lie. Call center metrics help you evaluate the value of leads, the strength of the call script, how every agent is performing, and the speed of the technology your agents are using. All of this is valuable information when it comes to making your outbound customer service calls more successful. Call Attempts and Contacts If you want to know if your team is on track, the first place to start is with the rate of calls going out per agent, per campaign and per team. This is called attempts. Once you have your data and numbers in place, you have a comparison point for future campaigns. Now look at contacts from attempts. Looking at the call contacts can help you determine which teams/agents are struggling and which are being successful. Once you’ve pinpointed which are functioning correctly, look to them to figure out how to make your other teams successful. Is it the intro they are using? Is it the technology or agent behavior like dispositioning? Is it a combination of several different things? Once you have a grasp on the data, you can implement new practices that will increase your sucess. Conversion You can make a thousand calls, but unless they turn into actual sales, your campaign will go nowhere. It’s vital that you are measuring outcomes for each lead: Not a real number or invalid Don’t call again or not interested Interested, but needs more time Not the right person to call or unqualified Successful lead converted to sale When you can compartmentalize every connection you make, you can determine if you need to improve your scripting, dialing window, offers, etc. Call Time Your agents should be spending their call time asking the correct questions, fleshing out the main points and coming up with the right solutions. While a script is important to your campaign, you must also be able to let the conversation naturally flow. Keep your agents on point and on message even as they build a relationship with the customer. The amount of time actually spent on a call can directly affect your leads that turn into real sales. Power dialing, CRMs, automation and screen pop ups help save time, but your agent needs to know how to manage their time on the phone. Metrics Forecasting Used correctly, metrics can help you forecast how your campaign will go, and give you an idea of which trends work and which don’t. Using metrics allows you to determine if you are using the right dialing systems, sales techniques, lists and call scripts. You can also set goals that are more realistic for future campaigns or jobs. Metrics can also be used to help you forecast which times of the day are busy and which are less successful. The Template Application Over time, as you pay attention to call center metrics, you can build a template that works for your call center. Adapt this template to each campaign, and your chances of success increase greatly.

How to optimize Customer Service with Quality Monitoring Technology

Any business leader knows that maintaining good relationships with customers is critical to the success and growth of any organization. If customers are happy, they’ll continue using the services you provide. If they’re not satisfied, they’ll go elsewhere. While no business leaders or employee can completely control a customer’s actions, there are steps you can take to optimize customer service and keep clients coming back. Ensuring employees are well trained to provide excellent service will go a long way toward making customers happy. Good customer service is as important in a call center as it is anywhere else. It takes skill for agents to respond to concerns and provide answers customers are looking for. One way to train employees to perform this work effectively is to identify areas where they can improve and steps they can take to make adjustments. Call monitoring technology is available for organizations to review all calls and work with employees to get them to the levels where you need them. With monitoring software, you can record all phone interactions between customers and employees. Then you can meet with the agents one on one and go through every second of the call. By doing this, the employee can hear what mistakes they might have made as well as areas in which they excelled in taking the call. Call monitoring technology allows the employee to understand how they can ask better questions, if they need to change the tone of their voice and how their attitudes and responses can optimize customer service. I f you run a call center, you probably have firmly established protocols on how long calls should take for certain issues and what topics should be covered and avoided. Call center quality assurance is significantly enhanced when you use monitoring software. The use of call monitoring technology helps all parties involved in the call. It benefits the customer because it increases the likelihood they’ll be speaking with a better-trained agent who has learned from mistakes and gained more confidence. The customer will have a better experience and will therefore leave more satisfied. Employees will be equipped with more information and tools to make better decisions for each call. This will help them feel more comfortable in their role and will go a long way in building job satisfaction. Each phone call your call center agents take is important. Make the most of each interaction and use monitoring technology to optimize customer service in each instance. For more advice on creating a Quality Monitoring Solution that helps improve CX or if you would like to learn more about Etech, feel free to contact us at info@etechgs.com. This blog was first published on LinkedIn.

Four Things to Know Before Merging AI to CX

Before you make the switch to utilizing bots which can be more cost effective and less frustrating to deal with, it is vital to keep in mind that they are a means to an end. Implementing them into your current strategy can be advantageous, but keep the following things in mind before merging artificial intelligence in customer service to CX. Not all customers will be satisfied One thing to keep in mind is that introducing bots into your strategy is not for everyone. It is true that now is the time for implementation and some people are open to the idea of dealing with bots, however, not all people are not convinced. Some prefer to deal with humans and will not be satisfied solely communicating with robots. Keep in mind also that despite your belief that the customers will not be able to tell, this is not true and it is wise to have a human being ready to take over for a customer who is frustrated with a robot. It is crucial to script your bot correctly If the bots are not set up properly, the customers will more likely become frustrated. Bots run mainly on scripts because they are not as sophisticated as Al-driven machines. If the script of a bot takes a customer astray, they will become even more frustrated and this can have detrimental effects on your business and reputation. In some cases, customers may even start to migrate to alternative companies and spread the work that their experience on the phone was frustrating. Bots are an agent’s best friend When a bot is capable of taking care of part of the call such as confirming an order or resetting a password, this helps avoid wasting the agents time and keeps them available to answer more specific customer questions or concerns. Bots are not able to provide care to customers Despite common beliefs, it is not possible to form relationships with bots and customers may miss the experience of connecting with a human being on the phone. When there is only one person, the emotional element of the conversation is missing and this can affect the customer’s overall experience. It is undeniable that people appreciate the value of human interactions. Carefully implementing bots into your current strategy can be beneficial to both your profits and the company as a whole. It is important to keep in mind, however, that the value of human interactions is priceless and delivering a high quality customer experience should be a top priority.

Call Center: Myths Vs Reality

There are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to call centers and how people perceive them. They don’t often realize how drastically call centers have changed over the years. Thanks to constant advancements in technology, call centers are transforming the way they do business and deal with customers. Here are three common myths associated with call centers. Contact centers are “cost centers” not revenue generators One common misconception is that contact centers are simply cost centers as opposed to revenue generators. The customer service experience is a top priority. A satisfied and happy customer is far more likely to recommend a company than someone who is dissatisfied. This makes creating a positive experience for the customers absolutely crucial. There is tremendous emphasis on providing quality service which translates into positive promotion and a higher potential for more leads, more customers, and ultimately more revenue. Customers don’t use the phone for support anymore This is one of the biggest myths out there. Customers mostly prefer to speak to agents over the phone, according to research, to resolve complicated issues. The telephone is a great way to connect and get questions or problems solved in a timely manner. Often times customers have to switch from web to phones to get their questions answered. It is much easier to clarify a point when you are able to articulate it. Call center managers are only concerned with cost-per-call and chat-bots are replacing humans Although cost-per-call remains extremely important, customer satisfaction and the quality of service are now the priorities. It is how companies are differentiating themselves from the competition, and new development metrics have been put in place to measure those areas. It is also often believed that chat-bots will completely replace humans in the contact center. This is definitely a myth as that personalized interaction is the foundation of good service. Humans will continue to answer questions and support customers and will always remain critical components of call centers because the value of human interactions is priceless. Don’t get me wrong, bots can be beneficial because they can eliminate the need for agents to have to answer the same questions time and time again, but the critical and complex situations require that agents are always readily available. A lot misconceptions will continue to arise as our technology continues to evolve. Human interaction, however, will always be an integral part of the contact center industry. As bots become more apparent their use will continue to serve as a way to answer quick, easy and frequently asked questions. This will allow the agents to do more to positively influence the customer experience… A personalized, human, experience.

8 Objectives of Quality Monitoring

Your quality program for customer service is the main way your company directly interacts with customers, and that makes it a key component in your strategies to retain customers and to convert first time purchasers into repeat business. This puts a lot of stress on the program, especially if your organization has any questions about the role of quality monitoring. Ensuring that your employees understand your quality monitoring objectives and the overall impact that they have on the company means getting better responses to feedback and better returns on your quality improvement gestures. Individualizing Forms and Procedures The first quality objective should be to move the customer service personnel away from a “one size fits all” method of responding to customer concerns. That means understanding the variety of concerns customers have, as well as using quality monitoring to address any issues with understanding different customer needs and concerns. Keeping Forms Up to Date Your forms and procedures also stop working at the point where they no longer reflect either your customers’ experience or your offerings. Unfortunately, it can take some time for outdated forms and procedures to work themselves out naturally. This is where quality monitoring has an opportunity to take responsibility for not only the revisions, but the proliferation of those documents after each change is made. Avoid Technology as a Cure-All It is tempting to think of technology as the eventual answer to any business challenge, but the fact is that more often than not, the real change needs to be made at the level of human implementation. That means your quality objectives should weigh both what technology is used and how it is used if you are to make the most of the role of quality monitoring in your organization. Track and Share Your Results One of the major goals of your quality team should be to get the entire department excited about quality improvement. That means sharing the results of your monitoring and making sure that everyone understands the ways that these results are used to make the entire organization better. Avoid Being Seen as the ‘Call Police’ There’s no doubt that your quality monitoring objectives include some direct and quantitative goals for your company, and that is great. Being a supportive resource for growth provides an alternative that makes it easier to build rapport and gain cooperation from all the employees in a department. Hold Periodic Calibration Sessions Just as your forms and procedures need to be updated to ensure that they are changed and detailed enough to support your customer support needs, your overall approach needs to be re-calibrated from time to time across the whole department. Use Representative Sampling Many call centers rely on small samples of their overall call volume to make decisions. One of your most important customer experience to move toward representative sampling. That way, you have the confidence of knowing that your results fit the big picture. Use What Works In the end, quality monitoring objectives are about understanding what your company needs to be successful. As you calibrate yours, keep in mind that some objectives might be lower priority for your business model than others. Throw out any that don’t work, and keep on running updates and re-calibrating your procedures until the right balance emerges. This blog was first published on LinkedIn.

5 Effective Ways to Measure the Quality of Your Customer Service

As every modern business knows, there is a strong correlation between success and customer service quality. If you fail to make an authentic connection with your customers, they will simply take their business elsewhere. There are numerous, simple ways to evaluate the effectiveness of your customer service approach. If you are a business owner who is interested in customer service quality monitoring, the five following quality assurance techniques below may be able to provide you with guidance. Look for Flaws or Shortcomings in Your Operation : At times, the quality of your customer service can be linked to an unnoticed flaw or shortcoming in your daily business operations. For example, if you own a restaurant, and your patrons frequently complain about not receiving their dishes on time, the issue could be traced to an incompetent server or cook. In general, remaining aware of your own weaknesses can help you constantly improve your level of customer service. Evaluate the Supply and Demand of Your Products : Supply and demand are a major component of economics and business, but did you know that this concept can also be used to evaluate the quality of your customer service. Satisfied consumers tend to purchase more products from the same company. Simply put, if you are noticing a considerable number of repeat customers or clients on a regular basis, your customer service approach is probably working. Of course, outside economic factors can be major contributors to your data, so you may want to combine this method with others in order to get the most comprehensive snapshot of customer satisfaction. Research the Competition : Many business owners neglect to research their competitors’ approach to customer service. If your competitors have an immensely higher rate of customer satisfaction, you may be able to learn from their techniques. Simply visit or call your competitors’ establishment yourself, or send an employee to see how their approach to customer service differs from yours. If you want the most reliable data, ask your competitors’ customers what they like about the company. Examine the Number of Complaints You Receive : It is impossible to satisfy every single customer, but you can use the number of complaints you receive as a measuring tool. Some people assume that if the number of irate customers decreases it means that the quality of your customer service has increased. This is a common fallacy that causes many unknowing business owners to send their disgruntled customers to a competitor. For the most accurate data, combine this method with others. Ask Customers Directly : Have you ever considered asking your customers for their opinion directly? If not, you may be missing out an opportunity to compile a massive amount of reliable data. Some business owners prefer to ask customers directly, while others encourage them to fill out surveys. If neither of these tactics sounds appealing to you, follow-up phone calls can also help you better understand customer opinions. A Step in the Right Direction If you are truly interested in improving the quality of your customer service, the five tips listed above can point you in the right direction. If you follow them, you will expand your customer base, increase revenue and develop deeper connections with existing customers. This blog was first published on LinkedIn

Four Key Interaction Tips to Welcome Your Customers

If you run a business— no matter what the industry or service may be— you understand the importance of building strong relationships with customers. Giving customers a good experience will keep them coming back to you again and again. In turn, this means growth and stability for your business. However, creating this trust with customers isn’t always as easy as it sounds. It all starts at the beginning from the moment you meet a customer or potential customer. Customer greetings and initial interactions will go a long way in determining their level of satisfaction and whether you’ll see them again. Give Them a Warm Greeting and Welcome If you want to provide excellent customer service, start doing it from the minute your customer walks through your doors or calls you on the phone. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. How would you feel about the business if you weren’t greeted right away or if you didn’t almost immediately see someone smiling at you and asking what they can do for you? The greeting doesn’t have to be anything out-of-this world. Keep it simple but make it friendly. Find Out What They’re Looking For Depending on what your services are, the customer’s needs might not be obvious. Sometimes the customer will make this known, but often, you need to find out for yourself through thoughtful questions or observations. Simply ask how you can be of assistance or if they have any particular preferences that you can accommodate. Ask what you can do to help. Respond Appropriately This requires listening. Customer experience will not be positive if you can’t address needs and desires. When you ask what the person is looking for, be prepared to address those needs accordingly. If you are confused by anything they say or ask, get clarification. Also, where applicable and possible, give the customer a timeline of how long it will take for you to meet their requests. Check in and Follow Up When you go to a restaurant, you appreciate it when a server or manager comes to your table a few times during the meal to make sure everything is all right. The visit can and should be brief, but the follow-up is essential for good customer service. Once the customer has made his or her purchase and is leaving your establishment, ask if their needs were met and then invite them back. Customer experience will go a long way to determining the success of your business. Welcoming clients appropriately will lead to long-term, devoted customers.

5 Essential Elements of Software as a Service (SaaS)

Every business has its challenges and including in-depth research, business plan development, and meticulous execution. Working towards your vision every day leads to success. Software as a Service (SaaS) business is no exception, with its own particular rules, regulations, and best practices. Because there are so many elements to implement, you can manage these tasks most effectively by tackling one at a time. Cost Per Acquisition What does it cost to acquire one customer? When you take into account all of the related marketing expenditures, it quickly becomes clear that marketing can be an expensive affair, especially when done through the wrong channels. Begin by writing down and accounting for every expense in your marketing campaigns, no matter how small or insignificant they look. To calculate your cost per acquisition, divide the total marketing investment by the total number of customers you acquired in that month. If you are a start up the figure might be higher than what you are receiving at the end of the month, however, it should begin decreasing with more subscriptions, but f you continue to spend more money per customer than your revenues, you will ultimately be unsuccessful. Tip: Use customer analytics to determinine which segment results in the highest returns. Churn Rate How many customers do you lose per month? The customers that keep coming back determine your company’s growth rate. Churn gives you the average number of people that leave your site. A high churn rate could mean your product is not meeting the customers’ needs as they expected or as you anticipated. There may be a possibility that marketing is the issue, but you must determine the problem and fix it as soon as possible for business to remain healthy. Tip: Gather feedback from customers before they unsubscribe for you understand the root cause of the churn problem and address it. Monthly Recurring Revenue Closely related to the churn rate, you also need to calculate your monthly recurring revenue. The higher the churn rate is, the less consistent the recurring revenue will be. By the time you place your product online, you have spent a significant amount of money in developing and marketing it. When sales revenues start coming in, you need to understand not just the total but also what portion of it is recurrent. The recurring cash flow you receive each month shows you the sustainability of the business. If the amount is sufficient to run and grow the business, then you are heading in the right direction. However, if the amount keeps fluctuating, you need to re-strategize. Tip: Invest more time in the recurrent customers, and give them great customer service to retain them. Revenue Per customer Once you know your monthly recurring revenue, you know your key customers. Crunch the numbers to understand how much each customer is worth and explore how to grow their portfolio. It is easier and more cost effective to market to an existing client than to acquire a new one, so focus on leveraging those existing relationships. You can up-sell an upgrade of the product or cross-sell a sub-product that will improve the customer experience. Robust leveraging can bring amazing results to your revenues and margins. Tip: Develop systems that increase the revenue you receive from a customer. The systems should add value for the customer so they want to continue using them. Lifetime value And for long term forecasting, understand the lifetime value of each customer. This is a prediction of how much you will be making in the future and the above metrics will inform these predictions. For example, if your current churn rate is low, your average revenue per customer is increasing, then the lifetime value will be high. The lifetime value indicates the most profitable customers to invest in for the best returns in the future. Tip: Let your finance team help you with these detailed calculations. SaaS business is a matter of numbers. If the numbers do not make, then figure out why and make improvements or move on to a more profitable segment. The above metrics are all closely related and they represent how well your product is doing in the market, and what you need to change. If these metrics are aligned with your vision, dedicate your time and expertise to make your SaaS business profitable.

Get Insights to Customer Service Through Quality Assurance

Offering exceptional and seamless customer service guarantees steady business growth, because customers will be satisfied with the services you offer and will become loyal. Loyalty translates into consistent revenues and quality assurance is at its core. Quality assurance is the systematic process of monitoring how well products or services meet specific quality requirements. Most companies have a well- defined quality assurance program, because they know that to meet and exceed customers’ expectations, they need to continuously inspect the quality of services delivered. Poor customer service impacts your bottom line. You start by losing customers, who in turn tell their friends about your service, and then they also leave and the pattern continues. This downward spiral can be disrupted by an accurate focus on the correct customer service metrics. First Contact Resolution Rate : FCR is one of the most important metrics in the contact center. It measures how many customers’ issues are resolved on the first contact. When customers are satisfied with your services in the initial contact, they will trust you and come back again.A high first contact resolution rate indicates a high customer satisfaction rate. Measuring FCR leads to improved customer experiences, because your team will understand which behaviors are correct and which need to be improved. If you start with a low rate and with time it increases, you agents will be motivated, leading to job satisfaction and happy customers. Response Time : How long does it take your agents to respond to customer queries? Response time is the period between when a customer makes a request and the time that they get a response. Slow service indicates incompetence or lack of urgency. If you want to retain your clients, then respond to them in a timely manner. Not every issue can be resolved immediately, however, that does not mean that the customer has to wait very long to get a response.Response time gives you insights into the quality of services you are offering. When your average response time keeps reducing, it means your services are improving and customers are satisfied. Total Volume by Channel : This metric is the baseline of other metrics. It indicates the total volume of inquiries you receive per channel. If you are running a contact center, you attend to customers via different platforms. Measuring which medium customers prefer to use will help you meet them where they are and how they want to be met.It is also important for the company to focus on the channels with the highest return on investments. For example, if your clients like contacting you through live chat, then to offer exceptional experiences, upgrade your tools and ensure that staffing levels are appropriate to the volume. Quality assurance provides these insights into the customer experiences delivered. Abandonment Rates : Your contact center exists to meet customers needs, if they keep abandoning conversations, then there is a serious quality issue that needs immediate attention. Remember customers have many options and with an instant gratification need, you have to give them reasons not to look elsewhere. Statistics show that 71% of customers on live chat expect help in less than 5 minutes. If the handle time is more than that, they abandon the conversation. These rates provide insight into agent speed and staffing gaps. Adjustments you make from the insights gathered, affect the customers directly. Developing and implementing a quality assurance program is the only way to guarantee that your customer service meets the expectations of your customers. Begin by focusing on these metrics, first call resolution rate, response time, total volume by channel and abandonment rates, to transform your insights into the quality of services your customers deserve.

Resolving Customer Grievances on The First Call- Why it is as important as you think

For a business to experience consistent growth, it needs repeat customers. It is more expensive to attract new customers than to maintain existing ones. Every new customer comes through your ability to create content, advertise, make sales calls, follow up, and all that costs you. However, with your existing customers, your main goal is simply to satisfy their needs. When you find ways of nurturing your existing customers, you will generate a steady flow of repeat business. A customer will call you for assistance. How you handle their needs will determine when and if they return. How long it takes you to resolve their problem will determine their level of satisfaction with your services. There are many variables that may cause you not to finalize with the customer in the first call- some of which are out of your control. Nevertheless, your goal should be to resolve customers’ issues as best you can or provide a solution on that very first call. So why is it important? While there are countless benefits here are a few to get you started. It encourages efficient call handling : A phone call is one of the most effective ways of getting assistance from a representative because you get immediate answers. When your team focuses on resolving customer grievances during the first contact, they learn better call handling practices.For example, if a representative is use to escalating calls to the manager, it gives you an opportunity to check why they are not handling the customers. Once you get to the root-cause, which might be a lack of confidence or product knowledge, then you can train it. The next time that representative answers the phone, they will be ready with solutions, not escalations. The result is a satisfied customer who doesn’t have to wait for that satisfaction.Efficient call handling has an impact on your bottom line results. The time spent on a customer will reduce significantly, your customers will be happy with your services, your representatives will be motivated and will enjoy their jobs and often that results in increased profitability and reaching objectives. It has direct impact on customer satisfaction : There is a direct correlation between first call resolution and customer satisfaction. When FCR rate goes up, the levels of customer satisfaction follows suit. Resolving a client’s issue in your first interaction increases NPS. The higher the NPS the more positive reviews your customers will provide. There is nothing like a referral from a happy customer.On the flip side, if it takes two to three calls to resolve a problem, the customer will be frustrated with your services and opt to look elsewhere for better solutions. It is in the best interest of all stakeholders to resolve any issues in that first interaction. A high FCR rate will keep you ahead in the noisy marketplace. It motivates agents : Employees are at the core of a customer interaction. In essence, you measure the first call resolution rate based on the data. That data often tells a story.A high FCR motivates a representative. The more efficient the rep the more likely they are able to be recognized for doing the right things. Working in the call center can become stressful, making it easy for representatives to quit or stop trying to get better. However, when your representatives are motivated, they will overcome the challenges that come with being a representative.Motivated employees will deliver excellent services simply because they enjoy assisting customers, especially when they know how to. It reduces employee turnover : One of the main challenges facing contact centers is extremely high turnover rates. Many factors contribute to the turnover; however, other factors reduce the rates. First call resolution is one of the elements that can reduce churn in your center. Representatives who can resolve an issue in the first contact will feel great about themselves and the organization as noted above.That feeling will raise their confidence leading to increased satisfaction at work. Often it is the customers we must handle several times that create frustration for not only the customer, but the representative. The longer it takes the higher probability that neither party will be satisfied in the interaction. Representatives who deal with those type of customers often find themselves dissatisfied with their jobs, and often it trickles over to their results. In a results driven environment this translates into lower commissions and lower job satisfaction, and ultimately higher churn. While this topic has been discussed, it is one worth revisiting time and time again. The importance of resolving customer grievances on the first call is important to not only the satisfaction of the customer, but the longevity of your representatives. Encourage efficient call handling, train your representatives, provide them the tools necessary to handle those grievances. I assure you that you will see the impact not only to the moral of your team, but in higher NPS scores, and ultimately a happy team, a happy customer equals a higher profit margin.

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