This week on a morning cable news show, an editor at Fortune magazine discussed why Federal Express is such a great company: “When you call FedEx, they pick up on the first ring.”
Call them “pick-up artists.”
Companies that are responsive to their customers, who always have staff ready to answer product questions, to place orders or provide shipment status perform a business function more significant than excellent call center services.
They convey overall company excellence.
We human beings are very judgmental. And we tend to make snap judgments. We’re constantly evaluating everything and everyone around us, and the initial impression sets the tone for the ongoing assessment and ultimate verdict. If a company doesn’t connect positively with a customer in the first minute of interaction, you may fail to form a positive or lasting connection at all.
Including high-quality call center services within your customer service strategy gives you best chance to make a great first impression. If the goal is putting prospects on the path to long-term customer loyalty, then a friendly, knowledgeable and helpful customer service specialist who quickly answers incoming calls makes all the difference.
Want to know the best way NOT to make a great first impression? Force customers to navigate a complicated and tedious IVR system. Or ask them to leave a voice message. Or – worst of all – tell them to “call back during normal business hours.” They’re much more likely to call a competitor.
For companies that do these things, it’s time to hit the call center services re-set button.
At the OnBrand24, our outsourced customer service call center organization is staffed with the kind of “pick-up artists” who help create a climate of excellence for the companies we partner with. We are 24/7 front-line soldiers for our clients’ brands, and our job is to create a positive buzz about our clients and their products.
One way we do this is to constantly examine and assess the quality of our call center services. Call center performance is highly quantifiable and measurable. I tell our agents that “everything we do can be reduced to a number.” One of the most important numbers we watch is “service response” – the amount of time it takes to answer calls. We commit to the 80/30 rule: 80 percent of inbound calls are answered within 30 seconds.
And we usually do much better than that.
By the way, here’s Fortune’s Andy Serwer talking about FedEx on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Mark Fichera, CEO
OnBrand24
Call Center Services
Beverly, MA