Customer Services Archives - Etech Global Services

3 Easy Steps to Improve Customer Service Through Live Chat

Customers are doing more online shopping than ever. Many of them are turning to the internet because they want to be more in control of their transactions. They do not necessarily want to interact with people on the phone and in person. Internet Retailer reports that improved wireless networks and mobile devices are the driving force behind online sales, which are expected to increase by 56 percent from 2015 in the next five years. Businesses that are looking to take advantage of this trend need to do more than create spectacular websites. They need to implement measures that allow them to improve online customer experience. Etech Global Services offers the following suggestions for companies who are looking to use online customer service to corner the market. Accessibility is Crucial : Customers expect a lot from any website they intend to do business with. Whether they are searching for information or looking to place an order, your live web chat tools should not be hidden or obscure. Chat support should also be easily accessible. Your chat boxes should be as intuitive as your websites. They should appear as soon as customers access your sites and they should be easily noticeable and accessible if they are closed accidentally or intentionally. Many customers are not looking to engage with anyone when they are online. However, when they need answers, live chat is often the first source of assistance they seek. Speed Up Response Times : The rate and efficiency at which your online agents respond to customers are very important. So is the amount of time it takes for them to resolve issues. One of the biggest incentives for consumers to do business online is that it allows them to get things done expeditiously on their time. They do not have to pick up a phone and wait to be serviced. Instead, they can get on their tablets, cellphones and other electronic devices to get the services and products they need whenever they want. Regardless of how well your websites are put together, live web chat tools can drastically improve overall customer experience with your online business. As long as assistance is provided in a quick and efficient manner, you’ll gain more customers and increase consumer loyalty. Provide Ongoing Chat Agent Training and Support : Agent training is just as important as the quality of the live chat software you are using. Agents need to undergo continuous training in order for them to maintain their efficiency and productivity. They need to know how to anticipate the needs of customers and how to deliver the necessary results right away. They should also have access to support in case they run into customer situations where they are not knowledgeable enough or equipped to handle them. Live web chat is one of the most effective tools that businesses have in the online world. It helps to bridge the gap and improve the relationship between customers and businesses in a multitude of ways. When leveraged properly, live chat can be a very powerful weapon that can enhance customer service to improve your business’ bottom-line. This blog post published in LinkedIn By Jim Iyoob

Role of Senior Management in Delivering Customer Service

Hundreds of articles focus on customers and agents when it comes to customer service, and senior management role pops up as one of the many points in the article. However, I believe the contact center leadership plays a big role in ensuring that customers receive exceptional experiences. Leadership is about achieving results through others. Dwight D Eisenhower summed it up by saying, “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want to be done because he wants to do it.” Today, I would like to change the focus to the senior management and the significant roles they play in the customer service delivery process. Here are their five key roles;- They Set the standards Before the customer representatives can pick up the phone and answer calls, they need to have a script guideline in hand. Managers draw up these guidelines or scripts based on the results they want to achieve as well as their experience with that brand and customers. They also sit down in meetings and discuss ways to help the company using data intelligence. For example, if the supervisor notices that the average handling time per customer is high, then he investigates the issue to uncover the possible reason the representatives are taking too much time on a call. He then discusses it with the managers to come up with a solution. Senior management formulates the company mission and vision, and they are at the forefront to ensure that all strategies implemented lead the company towards their goal. Without a goal, the organization will walk blindly. They Empower Employees Employees execute the set strategies. What would happen if you have the best customer service strategy, and tools and techniques in place but you do not have great employees to do the work? Absolute failure! Senior management is responsible for hiring the right people for the job, training them on the best practices, inspiring and motivating them to deliver results, monitoring their performance. When you have a knowledgeable team on the ground, you will achieve good results. However, a great leader knows that knowledge alone is not enough to achieve great success; they empower the agents to make decisions on behalf of the organization. An empowered team is an unstoppable team. They improve processes Technology is at the core of the excellent customer service delivery. An agent cannot make the decision to change obsolete equipment, but the senior manager can. The management monitors the trends in the industry and the organization output and makes the decision to upgrade or change the system. They understand the impact that great customer support software has on the level of service provided and are always on the lookout for what is working and what is not. When the team is well equipped, they will be effective and efficient in their work. The best way to support the representatives is to provide them with up to date tools and technology that gives them the opportunity to focus on the customers. They create the culture Senior management helps to create the corporate culture. New employees come and adapt to the existing culture. If the management creates a culture where exceptional customer service is a top priority, everybody else will follow suit. They create a great working culture by leading by example because they know that actions speak louder than words and most people learn by observation. For instance, you can answer some calls in the presence of our agents and show them how to handle difficult customers. They Foster Open Communication For any organization to thrive, they need to have open communication policy. The employees should be comfortable to come to you for assistance. Having a top down communication only will paralyze your effort to deliver exceptional customer service. Open communication brings together people into strong teams. Open communication also means that you provide your agents with all the information they require to meet customers’ needs. When you withhold information from the representatives, they will keep escalating issues to you. Therefore, you will waste time on one customer while the agent could have resolved the client’s problem if he had all the information. These roles of top management, setting standards, empowering employees, improving processes, creating a positive working culture and fostering open communication molds the contact center to deliver great customer services. When the leadership is strong, the representative will be strong.

Understanding and Getting the Most out of Live Chat

No matter what kind of business you have or the industry you’re in, you can always use another way for your customers to get in touch with you. Live chat services are essentially like sending text messages to someone without having to know the other person’s number and sharing messages without needing a phone. With more people preferring to text rather than talk on the phone, offering live chat can undoubtedly improve your service or business. The Advantages of Live Chat The biggest advantage of offering a live chat service is expanding your overall capabilities. You and your employees are able to remain in contact with your customers and audience, no matter where you are. Not only does this give your customer service team the ability to work wherever they like, it can also help reduce your total overhead costs. Another benefit is that you’re still able to ensure your company’s standards remain the same. You can take a look at all live chat transcripts and make sure your representatives are delivering the level of care you’ve built your company on and your customers expect from you. Something else to think about is that live chat services show your business is at the forefront of technology. Younger consumers grew up with instant messaging and are more mobile based, meaning they’re likely more comfortable with live chat than they are with other forms of getting in touch with your company. You also have to consider the fact that many people, no matter how old or young they are, groan at the thought of having to call a customer service number, listening to a recording of menu options, and having to wait for the next available representative. Think of how many potential customers you may have already lost because you don’t offer a method of communication they prefer. Using Live Chat the Right Way Just like with any tool, live chat has to be used the right way if you hope to reap the full benefits. The first thing you want to bear in mind is that live chat should not be used to duck customer service calls. It’s also not a good idea to use live chat primarily as a way to cut costs; there are better and more effective ways to do this. It’s best view live chat as a way to improve overall customer satisfaction and your revenue. Live chat is also an effective way to improve productivity. While customers are dealing with troubleshooting, looking for information, or stepping away from the screen for a moment, your customer service agents can help other customers. One word of caution is to make sure agents don’t take on too many customers at once as doing so can cause more harm than good. Customer satisfaction should always be your end goal. If you aren’t familiar with live chat and its capabilities, start small and ease into it to see how it works for you and your employees. While you’re testing the waters, be sure to ask your customers how they like live chat and how it can be improved. After all, you’re doing this for them, so you might as well give them the best messaging experience possible. This blog was first published on LinkedIN

Providing Superior Online Customer Support

These days, customers no longer shop exclusively through brick-and-mortar stores; online retailers have changed the game, permanently. Likewise, customers no longer expect product support to be delivered exclusively at a store counter or over the phone. Online customer services provide more flexible solutions for assisting clients remotely. As with more traditional methods, however, there are definite dos and don’ts for providing exceptional online customer support. Consistency is Key Similar to marketing, consistency is vital when it comes to a company’s online customer support presence. The tone and information being conveyed to customers should be cohesive across the board, paralleling the experience they would receive via phone or in person. This not only ensures an ideal interaction, but also greater confidence in your brand. Online and On Time Imagine visiting a major retail store and finding its doors locked midday on a Tuesday; you might feel bewildered and think twice about returning in the future. Your online customer support channel must take the same mentality, posting set operating hours to avoid confusion and frustration. Larger companies providing round-the-clock support still must be prepared for hang-ups. Much like a phone recording reassures callers that they are still in the queue awaiting service, your chat service should be provide an automatic response after a predetermined duration. Keep customers in the loop to keep agitation to a minimum. Security Sensitivity Despite the parallels, online customer services vary from other support methods in several ways. Transmitting unsecured data over the Internet is risky, and it’s important that your website makes customers aware of this. Provide them with the ability to send such information via secured web forms or telephone and ensure that your staff is trained to discourage sensitive details from being sent via chat. This includes passwords, personal info, and credit card numbers. Coming on Too Strong It’s helpful if your online customer support is readily available via call-to-action buttons or preset triggers. Trust your client to take the next step, however—trying too hard to initiate dialogue is tantamount to a pushy clerk. In many cases, it discourages interaction rather than encouraging it. If your chat numbers aren’t what you envisioned, consider displaying support agents’ names and/or photos to add a human touch, or decrease the amount of information required upfront to initiate the session. Train for Success Online customer support is all about communication, so make sure your staff is trained accordingly. The technical-minded people who make up your support team might think differently than your average customer, so it’s important that your reps stick with simple, straightforward language. Overly-technical descriptions may further cloud customer issues, exacerbating problems instead of working to resolve them. There are several other ways to promote an ideal customer experience. Make sure to emphasize for your team the importance of conveying a friendly, helpful disposition, which is often more difficult in text. Going beyond agent names and photos, you might implement the use of emoticons to keep the mood upbeat. Last and certainly not least, ensure that your team has the tools to succeed. High-volume support channels should be equipped with ticketing systems to keep responses organized and prioritized. Call scripts, data sheets, and other literature should be readily available so that customers are efficiently provided with clear, consistent information. Conclusion Many contrasts and similarities exist between online customer service and more traditional channels. The most important thing to keep in mind is that your goal is the same, regardless of the platform: staff good people that will deliver a consistent experience for your customers in a timely fashion. By respecting these basic tenants of customer service, your chat—and your brand by extension—are sure to enjoy success. This post was first published on LinkedIn

How to Avoid Self-service Channels Becoming NO SERVICE Channels

As companies look for efficient ways to of offering excellent customer service with the challenges that face contact centers, self-service came into play to ease that burden. It is an option that enables your customers to get solutions online without talking to an agent. Regarding contact center efficiency, a self-service channel will help you deal with the repetitive, steady stream of questions that are low-level and can be answered without the help of an agent. When you relieve your agents of this burden, they will concentrate on the pressing issues that are escalated from the self-service channels. However, there is still a challenge on the customer’s end who feels that they are being ignored or have to fill in a lot of information online to get an answer. Some wonder why no agent wants to talk to them. This misunderstanding of the purpose of the self-service channel can lead to it becoming a no-service channel. Here are tips that can help you avoid your self-service channel from becoming a no-service channel. 1. Educate your customers on how to use self-service channel The main reason that the self-service can become a no service is that customers do not have enough knowledge of how to use the system. To ease the transition from calls and live chat to self-service, you need to educate your customers on how to go about getting the right information on your website. Educating the mass is not easy, but, you can simplify the user interface and also make the process straight forward. Avail a “how to use self-service” page should on your site to give the simple instructions to your customers. 2. Simplify the user interface As mentioned above on educating your customers, the user interface should be simple and easy to use. How many clicks does the customer have to click to get the information they are looking for? Do they have to hit a million links or a few? If they hit so many links, then they will get frustrated and give up, however, if the customer goes through a few links, they will be satisfied with the service. A user-friendly interface that leads the customer to the right information fast will serve its purpose and not fall into the “no service” channels. 3. Ensure your links are working Another key component of ensuring that your customers enjoy the self-service channels is to have working links. When you are updating the information or upgrading the systems, a notification should be available to the customer the moment they sign into the self-service channel. Otherwise, if they start the process only to reach halfway to a dead link, that service will have become a “no service.” Remember that the competition is stiff and customers have little time to keep going round in search of answers. Make their search as easy as possible by having working links. The links should also be few and go on and on. 4. Train your employees on the self-service option Even after doing all the above, you might still encounter customers who call in for help on how to use the self-service channel. All your agents should be knowledgeable about all the options and can explain to the customers how to use the system. Train them on how to handle customer fears and complaints. When customers get the right information from the agents, they will enjoy the self-service, which is a win-win situation. In summary, the self-service channels should facilitate your contact center to offer great customer service experiences. With the above four tips, you can avoid self-service channels from becoming “no service”, and you will end up with highly satisfied customers and employees. At the end of the day, an efficient self-service channel will create value for your customers.

3 Best Ways to Provide Unparalleled Customer Service

As a small business owner, you may not have the dedicated budget for a 24/7 support team. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t take a small, struggling customer support team to one that offers unparalleled world-class support experiences. Regardless of how great your product is or the talents of your staff, one element that customers will remember is direct interaction with your company. Service excellence starts with a consistently helpful attitude, and that begins and ends with your support team. Strengthening an Empathic and Engaged Team Your customer support team is the face of your company, and the experiences that your customers have with them are defined by the skills and quality of the responses they receive. A smart business will always be redefining exceptional service. If you are not constantly on the lookout for opportunities to improve service, then relationships will stagnate and you’ll lose valuable customers. Here are the three best ways to help you focus on providing top-notch service to your customers. Be proactive, but not pushy. Speed impresses customers, but people also like follow-up emails. This shows that you care about the outcome of their resolution with your support team. Make sure not to follow up too many times as this can be perceived as pushy. Remember that you want to be helpful and courteous, not annoying or overbearing. You will have to set up some internal limits for this, but generally two follow up emails are acceptable. Be autonomous. Trust your support team and empower them to make decisions. This helps open up their individual capabilities and their inclinations to truly help your customers. The concept is that the more freedom you given them, the more flexible your team will be when it come to resolving issues for your customers. No one likes a support experience that feels scripted or restrictive. When this is the case, decision-making has been taken away from the support team, leaving the customer without many options. More autonomy can be as simple as enabling your support team to give the customer what they want without the need to obtain approval from supervisors or a chain of command. Be flexible. To ensure that your team is adaptable enough to satisfy the demands of your diverse customer base, you should seek out team members that are amenable and flexible. The ability to handle a talkative customer one moment and an angry customer the next is critical. Being able to roll with the punches and not take anything personally enables them to see through the problem and provide an acceptable solution. It’s important to remember that no matter how proactive you are, you can’t predict every issue, but creating an easily accessible way for customers to give feedback and for your support team to respond goes a long way to resolving unforeseen problems. Listen to Your Customers The critical nature of feedback to customer satisfaction is tremendous A business that is built around delivering unparalleled customer support will see an increased ROI and enhanced customer satisfaction. By developing close relationships with your customers, touchpoints and skills that your support team possesses will emerge. Also, your customers will see your dedication to providing high-quality, proactive customer service.

Social Media Customer Care

Is your call center prepared for customer service through social media? REGARDLESS OF YOUR PERSONAL FEELINGS ON SOCIAL MEDIA, IT IS NO LONGER AN OPTION IN THE BUSINESS WORLD—IF YOU WANT TO SUCCEED, THAT IS. What does success look like? Well, in many ways not all that dissimilar to what it did in generations past—happy customers. You really can boil it all down to that. Satisfied customers will buy from you again and refer you to others. The difference today is that those referrals are not just made while out watering the front lawn in a 1:1 conversation. They are made on powerful platforms that can be seen and heard by endless numbers of people. Now here’s the kicker—those same endless numbers of people can also see and hear negative things about your company. How many is “endless numbers”? According to Erik Qualman in his video on the state of social media, #Socialnomics 2014, six of the top 10 populations in the world are social media sites. Need more? Consider these statistics: 93% of customers’ purchasing decisions are influenced by social media. (Socialnomonics 2014) 14% of consumers report trust in traditional advertising. 90% report trust in recommendations and referrals from peers. (Socialnomonics 2014) 53% of consumers have used—or have attempted to use—social media for customer care needs. (sprinklr) 38% of consumers report feeling negatively about a company if they do not respond in a timely manner to a social post. (sprinklr) In addition, a Nielsen Global Survey shows that online reviews are the second most trusted source of information for products, services and companies. Personal recommendations are the first. Social media is both of these in one Customer-driven Customer Service Delivering customer service through social channels is just one more way that proves how social media has permeated our society. And, it has largely been driven by customer demand. Even if companies did not promote using their Facebook or Twitter accounts to contact customer service, customers went ahead and did it anyway, forcing businesses to respond. Research shows that, not only do customers expect to receive service via social platforms, but they expect responses—fast and around the clock. Any business that chooses to ignore service-oriented questions or comments made on social media can be assured of two things—they will further frustrate already frustrated customers and they will frustrate customers who were not previously so but who did have questions. Where Do You Start? Many companies have not yet taken the plunge into social customer service because they simply do not know how to set up such a program. Where in the world do you start? Wonder no more, we’re here to help. There are two primary things you need to create before launching social media customer service. One of these is a program plan that will guide your efforts and provide a framework from within which your team will operate. The other is a training program which ensures that all appropriate staff members know how to make use of social media for servicing customers—in the way that you want them serviced. Your Program Plan: The Building Blocks Your social media customer care plan should be your blueprint. There are several items that should be incorporated into this foundational plan. Following is an overview of the most critical elements to be included. Channel Identification The first place to start is by identifying which social media channels you are going to use for customer service. As tempting as it is to include as many as possible, a word of caution must be noted here. Do not bite off more than you can chew. It is far better to select only two channels and work them thoroughly with quick response times than to advertise social customer care on several channels with poor response times that only lead to increased customer dissatisfaction. For most businesses, starting with Facebook and Twitter will make the most sense. As you identify which platforms are right for your business, you should also consider creating accounts for your customer service operations separate from your more “marketing” focused accounts. U-Haul does this with Twitter. The company’s main account is @Uhaul while the customer service account is @Uhaul_Cares. Delivering customer service through social channels is just one more way that proves how social media has permeated our society. Response Times Next up should be the hours that you will staff your social customer channels and the time in which customers should receive responses. Research does show that most customers expect online customer service to be available 24/7, but if that is simply not possible for you, it is important that you post the hours that agents are available. You should also publish expected response windows. These should be achievable and give you “wiggle room.” For example, if internally it is your goal to reply to all comments within 30 minutes, you can publicly state that all comments will receive a response within 60 minutes. That sets you up to be the hero when the response is received sooner than promised, rather than being the butt of disappointment when a response is received 5 minutes later than promised. Conversation Monitoring Just as you (hopefully) monitor your current customer service phone calls, emails and live chats, so too should you monitor your social media conversations. There are two reasons that you should be tracking your customer care on social platforms. The first is to ensure that your employees are delivering the level of service that you want and expect of them and that your customers are being properly served. In addition, mining any customer service conversations can give you insights into several things. You can learn about issues with your products or services that help you proactively offer information on your website or social channels or even in product packaging that prevent service “calls.” You can also glean information about how your customers talk about you, your industry and your offerings. Things like keywords and other important SEO elements can sometimes be

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