Simple Reminders to Improve Customer Service

Every business owner knows how important it is to maintain a healthy relationship with their clients. This is why you need to establish excellent customer service. So when the time comes, your customer service gets a little stale, here are a few tips to shake things up. Read on to know more about it.

• Clarify customers’ concerns

There are times that your customer is not clear with his or her concerns. They may be not sure about the problem or frustrated about it. As a result, it is affecting the whole conversation. To resolve this, you need a very efficient interaction.

Use open-ended questions so you can clearly deliver information. Keep in mind that closed questions tend to deliver confirmation. This will help you control over the conversation. Once you have identified the problem, you may now proceed to a resolution. When you need vital information, use the open-ended question, but make sure to include the word, “exactly.”
For example:
Can you please tell me “exactly” when did you start experiencing this problem?

• Take away the negative energy

Always keep calm when making or taking a call. Set aside your emotions and keep in mind that you are a trained professional. Focus on your goals. There are many ways you can do to motivate yourself. You can read self-help books or browse online for more tips. Improving your work habits can also be a huge factor. For example, reporting to work a few minutes before your shift allows you to do more things. You can establish your mindset and review your goals.

• Be proactive with your calls

Your philosophy should not always be answering to every query, but making an excellent interaction with your customers. If you have new promos, find the best time to offer them. Every call should be responsive, not reactive.

• Transfer calls accordingly

Never let your customer wait for a long time and make sure to transfer calls to the right department. Efficiency and consistency are the main keys to excellent customer service. So make sure the agents know what they are doing. Proper reinforcement should always be conducted.

• Make sure you have enough active agents

As mentioned above, you should not let any customer wait for a long time. So make sure there are enough active agents at their work station ALL THE TIME.

These simple reminders can help you improve your call centre team’s performance. Always remember that every feedback from your customer will reflect your company’s image and reputation. 

How to Improve Your Call Centre’s Metrics

Having a difficult time tracking your team’s performance? Here’s how…

Monitoring the performance of your agents is very important. This is one way you can gauge their improvement and how you can reward them. When creating a monthly scorecard, make sure your metric is clear, accurate, and fair to all agents. Letting your team members know about their performance can not only help them see the areas for improvement. This is also a good motivation tool, which allows them to create another goal for the following months or years.

• Focus on the improvement rather than the result itself

When giving out the scorecards, team leaders and supervisors should discuss every aspect of the result. Keep in mind that the main purpose of this is to help the agents identify their weaknesses. Discuss with them on how to improve their scores. Reward those who have been consistent with their scorecards to motivate others. 

• Reinforce the importance of your metrics 

Make it clear to your members that the individual contribution is to the overall objective of the whole team. This is why they need to excel in every aspect of their daily tasks. Providing discussion logs and incident reports are also crucial. Always remember that these are sensitive issues. By now, you should know how to address your team. Keep in mind that each member has different personalities and may have different views regarding this. 

• Establish goals among different teams 

One way to refuel competitiveness around the office is to establish the same goals among different teams. Create a “Leader Board” so everyone can see their performance and how far they are to reach the goal. You should also make a deadline for every goal. 

• Anticipate the changes for KPI

While having a concrete formula to compute the KPI is important, you should also anticipate the changes you need to make. Keep in mind that the company’s objectives may vary in a span of time. Business growth is one of the biggest factors for these changes. In time, each should contribute more to sustain the requirements of the company. 

• Reward those who are deserving 

Rewarding your agents is very important to motivate the whole team. It shouldn't always be monetary. Simple praises or pat on the back for a finished project is one of the best rewards an employee can receive. Let them know how valuable they are to the team. Be creative when giving rewards. In most call centres in the Philippines, they usually have discount cards or concert tickets for those who are consistent with their performance.   

Call Centre Progress Forecast

Today, BPO companies are booming, encouraging many expats to invest more in the Philippines. Other than cost efficiency, many business owners are overwhelmed with the quality of work they are getting. In this post, we will take a look on how the call centre might look like in the future. 

• Bigger competition among outsource providers:  As we talk about the future, many experts are projecting a cutthroat competition among service providers. Every entrepreneur in the BPO industry is doing their best to improve and modify their system for better recruitment and business flow. Your facilities and equipment can also be a huge factor. As we all know, everything is fast and becoming more and more advanced. 
• The forecast: Complex problem solving?: According to BT survey, 53% of business professionals are saying that the call centre industry would be largely focused on complex problem solving. This means dealing with the concerns that cannot be resolved through self-service options. In line with this perspective, you need to train your agents to be more versatile. There will be more functions and roles to every team member. Your managers should also be more vigilant to avoid discrepancies. 
• Importance of culture and work environment: Recent survey findings also show that call centre offices will still exist for a long time. According to experts, clients find it more valuable and gives them more confidence to work with agencies or companies that have their own offices and facilities. This is mainly because they can focus more on the accounts or campaigns they are handling and there are more risks imposed when you hire a team working from home.: While technology is taking place for people who work from home, the cultural mentality of the industry still becomes more important. 
• Better collaboration and communication in the year 2020: While most call centres in the Philippines are getting more and more systematised in handling multiple accounts, there are still companies having problems with their flow. This is because of lack of unity between shifting teams. This makes it more difficult to find the right information for their customers. 

This is about to change when call centre agents start to take advantage of the new advanced tools like Deep User Profile Content—this is an enterprise-wide directory for better profile and content collaboration. This tool may also be transferred onto mobile devices, marking a huge step in presenting a more proficient and better image to the customer as we head towards the future! 

Getting Ready for Your Next Big Step: Applying for Call Centres

Call centres are still booming in the Philippines, which leads to more career opportunities and is now being targeted by a lot of people, especially fresh graduates making a huge step in the corporate world. Most people think working as a call centre agent is an easy take. They usually think it’s not labour-intensive and often referred to as a dead-end job. This is not entirely true. The truth is, they need to undergo a thorough screening process and there are a lot of benefits you can get. Apart from good compensation, they impose career advancement for individuals.

So before you decide to apply, here are some of the things you need to consider: 

• Make a deep research on the company
• Just like in any job application, it is advisable to know more about the company and position you are applying for. It’s always a plus point if you know something about the company and their expertise. This only shows that you are interested to work for them. For example, if you are applying for sales, make sure you know the products or services they are offering. This can help you during the question and answer portion of the interview. 
• Be prepared with the questions that the interviewer may ask you
• One way to prepare for a job interview is to have an interview simulation with your friends or even yourself. You don’t necessarily need to have someone sit in front of you, although it would be better. Just try to picture out some of the questions that you think they will ask you.  Be articulate and professional at all times.
• Keep calm and wear your best clothes
• In order to be the perfect package in front of your interviewer, you need to look at your best as well. It is always better to look presentable at all times. This can also boost your confidence. Dress up well and formally as much as possible and always keep your composure during the interview process. As every young professional would say, “your resume is just a detail printed on a sheet of paper. It’s how you present yourself and prove you can be more than that.”  

Applying for call centres in the Philippines is not that easy. Just follow these simple steps and you will be on the right track. 

Should You Ring or Should You Reply?

A virtual receptionist is not only tied to the phone. Emails are also used by VRs to touchbase with their clients. However, since telephone communication is their main strength, the contention whether to ring instead of to reply a client is always present.

When is it best to ring (phone) than to reply (email)?

• Ring if, for some reason, your client is upset. When addressing sensitive matters with strong emotions involved, giving an urgent call shows that you care. It also eliminates the possibility of misinterpreting even a carefully-written reply sent through an email. The power of a friendly and concerned tone over the phone can spell a world of difference.
• Ring if you need to explain a complicated call or a long message received. When providing the details of a complicated call or message, you will have to make a long retaliation about it as well. It will take time if you do it on email. You need to find the right words, string them coherently and hope that the client will not have any questions or need for clarifications after that. Calling to explain not only saves you time and effort of explaining, but also provides your client the opportunity to ask you when something is not so clear.
• Reply if it is just a minor, non-urgent matter you need to inform the client about. If it is just to remind your client about an upcoming meeting he will be having (which your client will be most likely informed about too through an alternate route such as a phone or calendar notification), then a simple email should do. Otherwise, calling your client to remind him of every minor detail about his day can potentially be a source of annoyance. 
• Reply if you need to send clients’ files of official documents he specifically requested you to accomplish or gather. The age of snail mail is definitely out and the convenience of an email reply should not be discounted at all costs. 

At the end of the day, if you feel like calling, trust your instincts and go ahead. More often than not, it is easier, quicker and better for virtual receptionists to just give their clients a call than emailing them. You get their attention and you can engage with them with  thorough feedback process. Also, calling allows you to make a great impression. Whenever there is an opportunity to make an impressionable statement, get it. It doesn’t come so often. 

Why you Should Outsource your Customer Service?

More often than not, customer service is the backbone of any business. It indicates success and it’s opposite. While customer service is mostly kept in-house, a good number of small and large businesses today are outsourcing it. 

If you are not one of many industrial organizations still not outsourcing customer services, you might be missing out on a lot of benefits. 

Should you be outsourcing your customer service requirements? You should and we have 4 reasons here to help you do so, if not, even consider it.

Adding help without breaking the bank

More often than not, the quality of customer service can be improved by adding more people to answer the hotline. Increase manpower to your customer service department by outsourcing customer service representatives. Today where the process of recruitment and actual hiring can be done through digital means (Skype, anyone?) it is possible to get the best and most experienced set of people to add to your customer service department with confidence and ease. 

Immediate support available

We are all consumers at some point and all of us share the sentiment that being put on hold for 30 seconds translates to 30 minutes on the customer mood metre. The act of waiting can make customers angry, especially if they are calling to report a problem that needs immediate support as much as possible. 

As you double your customer service capacity, it means you can accommodate more people who are calling the hotline. Minimise, if not eliminate, the waiting time and greet customers who are calling quickly on the first 2 rings. Even if you cannot readily address the issue or the problem being reported, answering the phone immediately is good customer support at its finest.

Streamline customer service in general

Customers call the hotline for a variety of reasons. Some call for a very minor issue while some call for a major disappointment. By outsourcing your customer service needs, you can streamline the entire customer service process.

You can filter the customer’s query according to the level of complexity. If the query is simple, your outsourced customer service representatives can take it. If the query is quite complicated, then your in-house full-time customer service reps have to handle it since it goes without saying that they know more about the product or the service than the outsourced team. 

By streamlining your customer service in general, you can eliminate and reduce customer waiting times, produce happier customers and maintain a healthier customer service operation. 

Make a 24/7 operation possible

Ideally, customer service should not sleep even if your store is officially closed for the day. A 24/7 operation is best to have to give your customers the support they require when they need it. Your availability truly shows that you care.

Make the 24/7 operation possible by outsourcing your customer service. The beauty of outsourcing lies in the time zone. When you outsource people from the other side of the globe, you can achieve business continuity as there are people who will proceed running and answering the hotline even if you are asleep on your side of the world. 

Reap the benefits that only outsourcing customer service can offer. With so many contact centres available, it is certain to meet the provider who will meet your needs and specific customer service requirements. 

5 Ingredients of Great Customer Service

Regardless if it is done in-house or outsourced, the 5 essential ingredients of great customer service apply across. 

It is not a secret that great customer service is necessary for any successful business. What will propel your business to the top is not only the quality of the products you are offering to your consumers, but also the kind of help and support you give them when they need it. It is also quite a waste of time and energy to see everything you have built crumble down with customer services as the sole liability.

Pick up the phone

It is obvious, but the first ingredient to great customer service is to answer the phone. Let these statistics speak for itself. 

• 30% of callers will not bother to leave message when their call goes unanswered. You lose a valuable prospect and a chance to make an impression.
• 62% of callers will not bother to call back if the phone is busy. Why would they bother right?
• 79% of callers will not call back if no one picks up the receiver. Who would anyway?
• And to be put on hold is the last thing any caller would want to be. 60 seconds or less is eternity. We've all been a caller at some point and to be put on hold is not in everyone’s 

Always answer the phone. Do not let it ring on purpose unless you cannot pick up the receiver immediately. 

Make no empty promises

When pacifying an angry client, promising them what you cannot deliver won't do anything good. While it is easy to over deliver just to calm them down, it is best to remain practical at all times. Deliver only what you can and what is allowed by the company. It might even get you in trouble if you promise customers of a solution or an upgrade that you are not in the right position to call. 

Listen at all times

More often than not, the reason why we fail to deliver what our customers expect from us is we fail to understand what their concern is all about. Listening is the only way to avoid misunderstanding what customers need from us. It is also true that listening calmly allows us to understand what the customer’s issue is all about. 

Be kind and respectful

Nothing will make customers warm up to you than a kind and respectful tone on the phone. The voice you keep can also help pacify them on the get-go since they know you will take their problem or request well. A kind and respectful tone will be received well regardless of the demeanour the customer currently has. 

Own the situation

Especially if there is a problem that is completely the fault of the company, you need to own the situation and make the necessary amendments. Own the situation by making the caller aware that you will personally see that the problem will get resolved the soonest time possible. If you need to escalate the issue, inform the caller about that so they know their problem is being treated seriously and with urgency.

Invest on good customer service by hiring people who are best on the job. Invest on training too so you get the customer service reps who will not disappoint you and will not disrupt the smooth flow of your business.