This continues our series on great call center services customer service begun last week.
7. Account for wide varieties of customer types
There’s no substitute, in a lot of instances, for a telephone-based customer service. We are referring to automated customer service and order processing. Customers wanting basic service are growing more accustomed to automated
service – and some are perfectly content with it, but only if their customer service request is simple. When the customer rejects the automated service and abandons the call it is mostly because they have a complex need and desire a more complicated service than has been offered and requires speaking to a call center services representative. That’s when you need to take a fresh look at your customer support processes to ensure they stay on the telephone long enough to resolve their individual needs.
8. Self-service cannot equate to bad service
Nearly all customer-centric environments have a form of self-service. But operators need to be sensitive to its degree of user-friendliness and how inviting, warm and human that it sounds. This is, admittedly, very basic advice, but it is essential to achieving high customer satisfaction levels. And where self-service ends, human customer service interaction – be it telephone, email response or live chat – takes over.
9. Have able call center services agents
Similarly, call center services operators with complex products and services offerings need to be sure the option to speak to a friendly, helpful and knowledgeable customer service representative readily available on the automated call agenda alternatives. If a high number of customers opt for a live agent, managers need to be sure that there are adequate agent resources to handle the call volume – or else the service level expectation will fall, along with the company’s reputation.
10. The right call for the right call center services representative
If the right call is sent to the right representative, s/he will handle it effectively. There is a lot of discussion these days in the call center services industry about ‘automating the repetitive tasks’, i.e. automation of customer service. It is often assumed that most, if not all, processes can be automated. However, that is not true. The degree of call center services automation should be determined with care, and can be increased or decreased based on the success threshold of the automation process. But again, in most cases, the best alternative is human interaction: the customer speaking, email or chatting with a live call center services order processing or customer service professional.
Mark Fichera - CEO
OnBrand24
Call Center Services
Beverly, Massachusetts
Savannah, Georgia