Author: XACT

When employees are overworked, it can hurt office morale. Employees are likely to feel unsatisfied in their job, and they may also be less productive if burnt out. This isn’t good for anyone! So, it’s important to know what signs to watch for to ensure your employees aren’t taking on more than they should.

Ask yourself these questions to assess your work culture.

1. Does your staff seem tired?

There are several reasons that employees could be tired. It could be completely unrelated to work. However, it’s important to look for various signs and see if they add up to work stress to avoid losing employees to burnout. Pay attention if your employees seem tired regularly and what their workload looks like. How many hours are they putting in? Are they taking breaks? This can help you determine if the exhaustion is work-related.

2. Are employees acting less engaged at work?

If employees are withdrawing and seem less interested in things overall, they may have reached the point of burnout. If you notice this, don’t make any assumptions. Instead, try to have an open conversation with your employee without asking any illegal questions. You could see how they’re feeling about their workload and if there is a way to make the workday go smoother for them. Are there things that would help them get excited about their job again? Let them know that if they’re feeling overworked, to confide in you so you can help spread out the work more fairly.

3. Do employees seem less productive?

This can be a sign that they’re taking on too much. They may be struggling to keep up with all of the plates they’re juggling because we all know that too much multitasking can often hurt productivity.

Overall, pay attention to how employees behave at work. Do they seem happy or disinterested? Do they work long hours on a daily basis? Do they ever take vacations? How is their overall performance when they’re at work? Do they seem stressed? These are all things you can ask yourself as you determine if any of your employees are either burned out or in danger of burning out.

If you find a potential problem at work, look for ways to ease the load for your employees. When employees are happier and have a healthier work-life balance, they’ll be more apt to get the job done well and in a timely fashion. They’re also more likely to be loyal to your company.

Are you looking for projects you can take off your employees’ workload? Reach out to us for your customer service solutions. We’d be happy to help your employees get back to their core responsibilities.

Every business should strive to make their customers smile because when a customer is satisfied, they’re more likely to stick around. But, what are some ways you can keep your customers happy? Here are a few tips.

1. Offer discounts and sales. People love to score a great deal. Periodically, offer specials on your products. Not only does it help you push sales, but it keeps customers smiling.

2. Create a loyalty program. Loyalty programs are great ways to increase customer retention. You can offer specials and rewards for customers that are a part of the program.

3. Offer quality products and services. This one probably goes without saying, but we’re going to say it anyway. A great product or service will obviously increase customer satisfaction.

4. Be entertaining and engaging on social media. Be active on social media. Create content that your audience wants to see. Keep them entertained, and don’t forget to engage with them when they reach out to you.

5. Offer amazing customer service. Customer service agents who exude positivity, are empathetic, offer a listening ear and are knowledgeable on the products/services you offer can do wonders for customer satisfaction.

6. Make it easy to reach customer service. Customers won’t be smiling when they find it difficult to get a hold of someone with a question or problem. Keep them satisfied by offering convenient ways to reach you such as web chat, text and email support. Also, have enough agents available to assist with their outreach. Phone calls don’t need to be difficult either, as long as there are enough agents available so that hold times will be shorter.

7. Offer 24/7/365 customer service. Let customers know they can reach you any time of the day, any day of the week. Customers will appreciate your availability and flexibility.

8. Provide a FAQ page. Make it easy for customers to get information to commonly asked questions. This will allow them to get answers quickly without even needing to reach out to customer service.

9. Offer helpful information. Provide how-to videos on social media, step-by-step instruction manuals with products and other great information on your website so that customers can get the most out of their products.

10. Acknowledge customers. There are multiple ways to do this. You can highlight customer reviews on your social media pages and thank them for leaving you the testimonial. You can thank them at the end of customer calls and messages. You can provide them with a special discount for being loyal to you. And more.

These are just a few ways to keep your customers smiling. If you’d like help improving customer service, visit our website today. We’d love to assist you!

The last thing you want to do as a business is to create pain points for your customers. Making things more difficult for customers will only make it harder to acquire and retain them. So, what do you do? Well, the first step is knowing what needs to change and that starts by knowing what common pain points plague consumers when it comes to customer service.

1. Dealing with unfriendly and unknowledgeable agents

This is one pain point that customers often see. Agents need to be trained in soft skills so they’re better able to assist customers with a friendly and empathetic tone. Agents also need to be thoroughly trained on the business and all of its products/services so that they know exactly how to assist customers when they reach out.

2. Being put on hold for long periods of time

No one wants to waste their time sitting on hold. The first step is to make sure to ask the customer if they have time to wait before putting them on hold. It’s also important to explain to them why they need to be placed on hold in the first place. Also, if the call is being transferred, it’s important to make sure it’s to the right person or department so that the customer doesn’t end up having to be on hold even longer.

Another way to reduce hold times is to have access to several agents and to offer various ways for customers to reach out so that they’re not all using the phone line. In addition, you can consider offering a call-back function, where customers can punch their number in for the agent to call them back.

3. Difficulty finding answers

Customers should easily be able to get answers and solutions. Creating a FAQ page on your website (that’s easy to find) can be a big help. This allows customers to get answers to common questions. Also, offering a web portal on your page can be equally smart. Customers can ask questions on the spot. As an added bonus, this can reduce cart abandonment.

4. Not being able to reach customer service through an avenue that’s convenient for them

Some customers will find it more convenient to call, while others will want to reach out via email, text or chat for support. Offering more than one avenue for customer service will increase the convenience and satisfaction factor among your customers. Also, this is another way to make it easier than ever for customers to find answers to their questions (addressing the pain point listed above).

These are four of the common pain points. As you can see, there are ways to address these and improve customer acquisition and retention. And, we’d love to help at XACT. Please reach out to us today.

In customer service, you never know what type of conversation you’re going to have. You may be greeted by friendly, understanding customers or by ones who are outright angry. Those friendly customers, of course, make your job as a service agent easier, but the ones who call heated can make it a challenge for you. The thing is, it’s the customer service agent’s job to keep the customer satisfied, which means helping those who are upset. But, how do you keep a positive mindset while dealing with these calls?

Try to start your morning off happy. When you wake up, put on some music that gets you ready for your day. Choose something that will make you feel motivated, energized and uplifted. Maybe do some stretches first thing too, to help you feel less tense going into work. And, don’t forget to start off with a good, healthy breakfast. One that contains protein and complex carbohydrates is a good choice. Getting a good night’s sleep the night before can also help you start the day with a better mindset.

When you take good care of yourself, your mental clarity and mood will be in their best state. This can help you tackle your day and maintain a more positive attitude when talking with customers.

There are times when you may feel negative thoughts creeping in. In these moments, try to focus on something positive. Put up inspirational quotes by your desk, trinkets that make you smile, and pictures of your loved ones. Find something to focus on.

When a customer does go on a tirade, try not to take it personally. Take a deep breath, and work to address the issue at hand. Remember that if you keep a calm and collected tone, you’re more likely to appease and even win over those customers.

When you’re able to keep a positive mindset, you’re able to assist customers better and keep them happy. For example, it’s important to use positive language with your customers. This means not telling them, “no, we can’t do that,” but instead saying something like “We’re sorry that happened to you. Here’s what we can offer…” Think about ways you can change your answers to have a positive connotation every time. This is much easier to do when you keep an upbeat attitude. This mindset will also help you keep your cool when a customer calls in upset.

We know it can be a challenge at times to stay positive but work on starting your day off right and refocusing on something positive during those challenging times. You’ll feel better and your customers will be more satisfied.