A quick tip for customer service emails is to create templates that can be used to handle common questions. That way there will be more time and energy to handle bigger more complicated issues that arise.
When employees become overworked it can be bad for their well-being and for the company. Staff that is overwhelmed will be more inclined to make mistakes and miss deadlines. Being overworked can also lead to burnout and increased employee turnover rates. The employees will have a higher level of stress and may even feel unwell more often. These are just a few of the reasons to try and avoid your employees from being overwhelmed by their workload. So, what can you do?
Pay attention to your employees and see if there are any concerning signs. Are any of your employees not making deadlines as readily as they used to? Do some of them seem less productive than normal? Are they working through breaks, staying long hours or putting in a lot of extra time at home? Take notice of these things and talk with your employee if you feel like they might be taking on too much. Speaking of, it’s a good idea to take time to talk with all of your employees periodically. Ask them how they’re doing. Find out what their workload looks like. See if you can help them choose which items should take priority and where they may have more wiggle room to work with. Maybe you can even discuss moving some more menial tasks to others on the team that have more time available. Create a culture where your employees feel comfortable talking with you. You want them to know that they’re not just a number and that you genuinely care about them. Encourage them to come to you when there is a problem. Also, give them kudos when they do a great job.
Consider offering some flexibility. Some of your employees may be feeling overwhelmed because of their responsibilities inside and outside the office. Providing a more flexible start time (as long as they put in their eight hours) or even allowing them to occasionally work from home, can ease some of this burden. This type of schedule can also show employees that you trust and care about them, building a better work culture.
Another way to help avoid your staff from getting overworked is by simply connecting with an experienced and trusted outsourcing company. Allowing the outsourcing company to handle some of these tasks provides your employees more time to focus on the core objectives of their job.
These are just a few ways you can help keep your staff working productively and proficiently. Remember, being overworked doesn’t mean more stuff will get done, sometimes it actually means the opposite.
When you decide to shop from a company that’s new to you, one of the first things you probably do is check their reviews. If a company has poor reviews, you’re unlikely to purchase from them. And one of the things that can really impact a company’s reviews is the customer service provided. By providing better service, you can increase the likelihood of great reviews and not just customer loyalty, but also customer acquisition.
Recent statistics reveal that 57.7% of inbound call centers offer interaction with their customer support over the phone. Further, 66% of call centers globally are in the United States.
Organizations around the world rely on their customer support to deliver superior customer experience because if they do not, their customers will take their business to a competitor.
To increase sales, you must make customer care a priority. Here are some great tips for improving customer service in your organization.
Recently, researchers discovered that 68% of customers will look more favorably at a brand that offers proactive customer service notifications. That is why it is important for your inbound call center to do two things.
One, your customer support should state precisely how long the wait time is to speak with a live representative. Customers want to know how much time you are putting them on hold.
Second, offer a call-back option. That way, a customer will not feel aggravated, having to drop what they are doing and wait a considerable amount of time to get an answer to their question. Having this option will make you competitive, create loyal customers, and boost profits in the end.
One way to help with offering continuing training opportunities is to create agent teams. Call center representatives like to learn from their peers, which helps camaraderie and building confidence. It will help lower employee turnover too, which can be costly.
Further, there should be an ongoing coaching session. This is a way to help your employees hone their techniques, methods, and skills on a one-to-one basis. The more you can help call center representatives to educate them and equip them with the skills and resources they need, the better they will boost the brand’s image with the superior customer experience they deliver.
Remember that the customer experiences your employees give are a direct reflection of your brand image.
When your internal policies are written and structured in a way that is incredibly complex, it will only frustrate workers and hold them back from a job well done. Therefore, you need to give them confidence by empowering them to decide. Making their own decisions will allow them to better help your customers, too.
This means allowing representatives to go off script. They need to know that this is only for cases when the situation demands it. As a result, you find that customer satisfaction goes up and employee happiness increases too.
Are you looking for an extension of your brand? Do you want to trust the right partner to outsource your inbound call center with? At XACT, they organically extend your brand.
XACT offers all the customer contact solutions you need to provide superior customer experiences, such as chat, email, phone, and internet support. They strive to deliver organizations, like yours, seamless customer engagement and support.
Dont wait to contact the professionals at XACT. Your customers will thank you for it!
Managing customer calls is something that virtually every one of the over 33 million small and medium-sized businesses in the U.S. have in common. Of course, taking calls isn’t always optimal or practical.
For example, professionals that rely on on-site work, like electricians or plumbers, can’t always stop what they’re doing to take a customer call. Doctors can’t reasonably interrupt a meeting with one patient to take calls from another. Beyond that, most businesses close down for at least part of the day.
Those demands and realities drive many businesses to use a telephone answering service. Keep reading for some things to look for while choosing phone answering services.
While it might not seem that important, industry experience matters significantly in some industries. For example, an answering service for a law office or a physician has different demands than an answering service for an accountant.
Service with experience in a given industry will understand the unique demands of that industry and can provide a customer-focused experience.
You should also consider how long the service has been in business. While new companies aren’t doomed to failure, the failure rate is much higher with new businesses.
The last thing you need from a call center is for it to close overnight and leave you and your customers hanging.
You should give some thought to the customer service the answering service provides. While it’s not a one-to-one relationship, you can read the customer service they offer you as a signal about the customer service they’ll give your customers.
If they give you shoddy customer service, there is a good chance they’ll do the same for your customers. Remember, getting a customer to leave for a competitor can be as little as one bad experience.
If you can find them, you should look for customer reviews. While there are fewer customer reviews of B2B services than B2C products or services, you can still see them. You can also ask for recommendations for a call center or answering service.
Weighing the relative costs of different services isn’t the only way you should decide, but it is something you should consider. Breaking your budget for a service that gets slightly better reviews or recommendations isn’t prudent.
Instead, you should select a service that offers what you need while bringing good reviews or recommendations.
Choosing your telephone answering service can have a tangible impact on revenue. A good answering service can help you secure or retain business, while a lousy service might cost you money.
Things you should bear in mind include factors like cost, customer service, and industry experience. Don’t forget about factors like time in business and customer reviews.
XACT provides telephone answering services for businesses. For questions about our answering services or to get started, contact XACT today.