With more and more options for consumers these days, largely in part to technology and the Internet, one of the major determining factors consumers use to decide to buy products or services is how easy it is to reach the business if they have questions or need support.
While many consumers enjoy being able to research and find information about products and services online, they still want options to reach a live person without having to jump through hoops to get to one.
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Five Secrets to Building a Customer Centric Business Culture
Although it may sound counter-intuitive, the way to create a culture in your business that eats, sleeps, and breathes customer service and appreciation begins with creating a good environment for your employees.
Whether they’re manning a register or working the lines at a call center, your employees are your company’s direct line of contact to its customers. Create a positive environment that nurtures employees and encourages them to have positive interactions with customers, and the battle is already won. Businesses with a culture where employees aren’t valued trickles down to the customers in terms of unenthusiastic service and even outright complaints about the company from workers to customers.
For companies seeking to build a strong employee culture that teaches workers to value customers, these tips may help:
- Hire to the culture – Make sure you have the right people in place. Hire employees who have constructive, customer-friendly personalities.
- Communicate the culture – Develop buy-in by explaining your customer service expectations. Don’t just give orders. Explain the whys behind the importance of the culture you’re establishing. Make sure your expectations are clear and unambiguous, and give plenty of concrete examples when explaining concepts to employees.
- Incentivize performance – Make providing top notch customer service worth your employee’s time and effort. Bonuses, raises, or even occasional gift cards recognizing superior service can go a long way toward encouraging the culture you want to take root in your business.
- Teach the culture – When employees fall short of your customer service goal, don’t berate them. Use the situation as a teachable moment to explain how they can improve service next time.
- Lead by example – Managers should exhibit the behaviors they wish their employees to adopt regarding customer service. Employees do not respond well to leadership that doesn’t practice what it preaches.
Personalized Communications is a 24-hour inbound call center that has provided answering services for clients since 1975. Personalized Communications uses state-of-the-art hardware and software, including T-1 circuits to ensure all calls are answered. Company staff members are highly trained, and Personalized Communications has a low rate of turnover, ensuring that our clients have an experienced, qualified call center staff handling calls.
For a reliable Dallas answering service, Personalized Communications offers the technical infrastructure and trained staff medical practices need.
Signs It Is Time to Consider Call Center Services
Being able to provide your customers, clients, and vendors with exceptional customer service has become an important factor to being able to run a smooth operation. Not only will you develop dedicated customers who will return to your business time and again, but you will also attract new customers, often from the feedback and recommendations of your existing customer base.
However, finding the time to ensure your customer service levels remain high and growing the business can be challenging. Take the time to review the following five reasons to see if it is time to outsource some or all of your call center services to maintain happy customers and grow your business even more.
- Your employees cannot keep up with their daily tasks and projects because they are spending too much time on the phone talking to customers.
- You are spending more resources than you planned on customer service, from hiring new employees to creating a dedicated customer service department.
- Your employees lack proper customer service training to address a wide array of possible scenarios.
- You have lost focus and no longer have time to concentrate on the core business objectives and goals.
- You are having difficulties keeping up with your competition.
There are many benefits your business can gain from outsourcing customer service calls to an experienced answering service. First, the call service takes care of all hiring and training requirements and frees you up to concentrate on core business objectives. Next, they tailor their services to fit your needs, from taking calls during peak times to answering calls 24/7 on nights, weekends, and holidays, so your business is never “closed” any more.
Further, not only will your employees have the time they need to work on daily tasks and projects, but you also will be able to maximize your resources and ensure your customers are receiving outstanding customer service experiences. For more information about call center and answering services for your business, call the experts at Personalized Communications at 1-800-606-9898 now.
The Importance of Customer Service Etiquette
Proper customer service is essential to ensuring your customers and clients receive the level of attention they deserve. Often the first impression a business makes is directly through its employees’ interactions when people call the business or visit. The quickest way to turn off customers and send them running to your competitors is not taking the time to realize the significance of proper etiquette.
Whether you are speaking face-to-face or over the phone with someone, they can hear the friendliness in your voice and tell whether you are smiling. So smile and be warm, while speaking in a friendly tone, much like the person was your friend. However, do not get too carried away, as your goal is to assist the customer, not use them as a sounding board to complain about all the things going wrong in your life.
Take the time to ask the customer probing questions to determine exactly what they are calling about or the reason for their visit to your store. If the customer has an issue you cannot fix or are not sure how to resolve, be honest and tell them you will do your best, but need to get help from someone higher up.
As you are speaking to the customer, remember to get their contact information, a call-back number, and other relevant information you can use to help resolve their problem. Once you have listened to why they are calling and taken proper notes, reinstate what you heard back to the customer in the form of a question for clarification, which will ensure you did not miss anything.
Last, take the time to follow up with the customer after resolving their issue to find out if the customer is truly happy with the results or if you need to take other actions. By providing your customers with the highest levels of customer service, you will develop long term relationships, which are mutually beneficial for both your business and your customers.
For assistance with answering calls and call center customer service, contact Personalized Communications today at 1-800-606-9898 to learn more about our customizable solutions.
Tips to Successfully Navigate Event Registration Processes
The first impressions your company will make with attendees is during the event registration. If your registration processes are not efficient, take too long, or require people to stand in line an excessive amount of time, you will not be off to a good start. Here are several tips to help you better prepare for event registration and ensure everything goes off smoothly.
Tip # 1 Allow Attendees to Pre-Register for Your Event
Getting as many people as you can to pre-register ahead of time will drastically cut down on the number of people, who will have to visit your registration desk on the day of the event. There are several methods to enable your guests to take advantage of pre-registration, such as using a professional event registration service that monitors all incoming registrations from your website, emails, and phone calls.
Tip # 2 Keep Pre-registration Open as Long as Possible
Take pre-registrations up until the very last minute. Even if you do not have time to mail badges and event information packets to last-minute registrations, these people can skip your main registration line on the day of the event and go to an “express check-in” table to pick up their badges and information packets.
Tip # 3 Have Plenty of Space and Staff on Hand
On the day of the event, make sure the registration space is sufficient to accommodate all of your guests. The last thing you want is a long, snaking line around the building. Additionally, take the time to train all staff prior to the event.
Tip # 4 Provide Detailed Directions and Signs
For anyone who pre-registered, make sure you included detailed directions on how to get to the event and where they should proceed upon arrival. There should be no reason for them to have to stand in line once they arrive onsite. Further, make sure there is detailed signage put up to direct people to the correct locations, such as registration, pre-registration packet pick up, and so on.
For further tips or professional event registration assistance, contact Personalized Communications at 1-800-606-9898 today.
Medical Answering Services Provide Lifeline to Patients After Hours
Patients’ needs don’t end when their physician’s office closes in the afternoon. Many patient needs, such as reporting side effects from medication or inquiring about new symptoms, happen outside the traditional hours of 9 to 5. For patients and physicians in the Dallas area, a medical answering service can provide a critical connection outside office hours.
Medical answering services specialize in answering calls for physicians’ offices after normal business hours. Trained professionals handle calls, listening carefully to information provided by patients and taking appropriate steps to help patients resolve situations.
With the help of medical answering call centers, patients can call and check on appointments, change appointments, or schedule new appointments at any time of the day. Call center staff have access to clients’ scheduling books and can easily make changes to appointments.
A call answering service can also refer important calls to doctors or nurses. Situations such as an adverse reaction to medication or new symptoms may require the attention of trained medical professionals. Call center staff can quickly refer these calls to appropriate personnel, ensuring that patients are able to connect with doctors when the need arises.
Professional medical call services also have highly trained staff who understand HIPAA regulations regarding patient confidentiality. These professionals will ensure patient information is maintained in a manner compliant with HIPAA.
In today’s society where products and services are usually just a few taps on a smartphone away, the medical industry must evolve to meet the expectations of an “always on” culture. Call centers can help medical practices meet these expectations. Thanks to medical answering services, health care practices never need worry about missing an important call from a patient. They also ensure that doctors and nurses’ off hours aren’t constantly disrupted, as the services will ensure that only calls requiring a doctor or nurse’s care gets forwarded to them.
Personalized Communications is a 24-hour inbound call center that has provided answering services for clients since 1975. Personalized Communications uses state-of-the-art hardware and software, including T-1 circuits to ensure all calls are answered.
Company staff are highly trained, and Personalized Communications has a low rate of turnover, ensuring that our clients have experienced, qualified call center staff handling calls. For a reliable Dallas answering service, Personalized Communications offers the technical infrastructure and trained staff medical practices need. 0 Comments
Important Customer Service Statistics You Need to Know
Poor customer service experiences have an impact on your business operations. Unfortunately, many businesses do not take the time to consider just how much a bad customer experience will affect them. Did you know U.S. businesses lose over $41 billion annually, due to poor customer service? In addition, 76% of people use customer service as a test to determine how much a company values them.
While a great deal of time and research has been spent on customer service trends, one thing to remember is they are constantly changing, largely in part to advances in technology and the role it plays. To ensure your customers are receiving the highest levels of service and attention all of the time, you might want to consider obtaining additional support and help from an experienced Dallas customer support and answering service.
Why Customers Switch to Competitors:
- 44% of consumers will switch to a competitor after receiving poor customer service.
- 25% decide to switch simply because they were kept on hold or had to deal with a complex automated phone system.
How Customer Frustrations Impact Business:
- 54% of consumers become irritated if they are not able to speak to a live person immediately.
- 38% of consumers stop doing business with a company for two years or longer after a bad experience.
How Consumers Share Bad Experiences with Others:
- 95% of people share their experiences with others.
- 45% post bad experiences on social media sites.
- 88% of potential customers read reviews online to make purchasing decisions.
Why Demographics Are Relevant:
- 59% of Millennials share bad experiences online through multiple channels.
- 52% of business-to-consumer and 66% of business-to-business customers avoid buying from a business after a bad customer service experience.
- 45% of women will not do business with companies that provide bad customer service, and avoid those with which they have experienced such service for over two years.
It is not difficult or costly to provide outstanding customer service when you obtain help from an experienced U.S.-based call center, like Personalized Communications. Contact us now at 1-800-606-9898 to speak to a representative, and learn more about our flexible and customizable customer service solutions for your business.
Sources:
http://www.insightsquared.com/2015/04/100-customer-service-statistics-you-need-to-know/
Why Should You Make It Easy for Your Customers to Reach You?
With more and more options for consumers these days, largely in part to technology and the Internet, one of the major determining factors consumers use to decide to buy products or services is how easy it is to reach the business if they have questions or need support.
While many consumers enjoy being able to research and find information about products and services online, they still want options to reach a live person without having to jump through hoops to get to one.
Making your business accessible to customers begins by evaluating the following:
- Business Contact Number – Your main contact number needs to be easy to find on your website. Remember to place this number on all of your web pages, not just the “Contact Us” page. Your contact number should also be available on any of your social media sites, telephone listing sites, and even in the traditional paper phone book.
- Customer Service/Support Hours – You are no longer limited to only providing customer service and support during your normal business hours. For your off-hours, holidays, and weekends, it helps to ensure customers can always speak to a live person by utilizing professional telephone answering services.
- Live Instant Messaging – Some business have enabled live web-chat through their websites for customers who want to send text messages and receive immediate responses. Just be careful to avoid directing people to call for every question or concern.
- Email – It never hurts to have a support email address posted on your web pages and “Contact Us” page. In addition, you can use a form on the “Contact Us” page to generate emails to your customer support department.
- Social Media – Both Twitter and Facebook are great sites to use to communicate with customers and answer their questions. However, you will want to remind customers for faster responses to either pick up the phone and call, or use live instant message.
By offering your customers a wide range of contact options, it will show your customers you care. For assistance with extending your customer support options and other customizable and flexible solutions, contact Personalized Communications today by calling 1-800-606-9898.
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