Regardless of the industry your organization operates in, effective communication with customers helps to build a positive image, increase trust and ensure loyalty. Despite the development of various online communication tools, such as mail, instant messengers and website chats, the phone still remains one of the fastest ways to resolve customer issues. Therefore, high-quality telephone customer service is a key element of success for any business.
Basic principles of telephone customer service
Professionalism and politeness
The first impression a customer gets during a telephone conversation with a company representative often determines their future japan telegram data attitude towards the brand. The operator should always speak calmly, politely and professionally. It is important that the tone of voice is friendly and the answers are clear and understandable.
Active listening and empathy
The client must feel heard and understood. Active listening is the ability to focus on the client’s words without interrupting them and to respond based on the information received. It is also important to show empathy, which allows the operator to establish an emotional connection with the client and demonstrate a sincere desire to help.
Clients often complain that managers one after another refuse to solve the problem and pass the request on to colleagues. Each time, the client has to retell the reason for their request and their requests to the next manager over and over again. Correctly configured virtual telephony will help to avoid such a negative scenario. Thanks to well-thought-out forwarding schemes, requests will immediately reach competent employees. And if it is necessary to transfer the conversation to a colleague, the manager can briefly brief the employee on the situation while the client is waiting on the line.
Fast and effective problem solving
One of the main tasks of telephone service is to quickly and effectively resolve customer requests. It is important not collect video testimonials to improve website conversion rates with trustmary only to answer the question, but also to promptly resolve the problem that the client is paying attention to. The response time and competence of the operator are key factors that affect the level of customer satisfaction.
It’s also about the speed of answering a call. According to statistics, two-thirds of people said they were willing to wait for an answer for just two minutes or less – until they started getting nervous.
Therefore, it is worth monitoring how long it takes managers to answer calls and whether they miss customer calls at all, as this can cause frustration and switching to competitors. It is worth monitoring virtual telephony ar numbers reports, which include, among other things, the waiting time before the manager answers the call. You should strive to reduce this time to a minimum.
We wrote about this using the example of Ringostat technical support – .
Best Practices for Telephone Customer Service
Personnel training and development
To ensure high quality telephone communications, it is necessary to invest in continuous training of personnel. Operators must
- have knowledge about the product or service;
- understand company procedures;
- be able to communicate correctly with clients.
Regular training helps to update knowledge and improve the professionalism of staff.
Using modern technologies
- CRM. A CRM system is necessary for managing long-term relationships with clients and optimizing sales and service processes. CRM allows you to easily maintain a client database, create and automate digital funnels, set tasks and reminders for managers, and much more.
Previously we wrote about how to choose and implement CRM – .
- VoIP telephony. If at least 20% of your customers prefer to contact you by phone to ask a question or make an order, you should think about implementing . After all, outdated analog telephony is absolutely not suitable for the needs of modern business. As well as the usual mobile communication, which, however, is suitable only for personal household needs. But virtual telephony has many functions with convenient settings – from call forwarding to the right managers to a voice menu that allows the client to independently select the desired direction. Such communication, moreover, is much more profitable than others.
Read more about VoIP technology in the article –
- Application for calls and correspondence. Modern clients prefer to use various communication channels: telephone, instant messages, website chat, mail. It is important that all requests are noticed and processed in a timely manner. Unfortunately, employees often miss some messages due to the inconvenience of simultaneously monitoring different applications and interfaces. This problem can be solved by using a single application for working with calls and correspondence. Firstly, it is a program for making calls via virtual telephony, and secondly, it is a single application for processing all messages sent via various messengers and chats. Your employees no longer need to open a dozen different windows – just one application Ringostat Smart Phone.
Find out more about the convenience and functionality of the app – .
A significant advantage will also be integration, i.e. linking the listed tools together. This will allow automatic transfer of data between systems.
For example, in the case of , data on each call, including conversation recording, will be automatically recorded in the system. It will be easier for managers to monitor the progress and state of communication for each transaction. And also to build relationships with each client.
Work will also become easier and more convenient thanks to automation, and there will be fewer errors and forgetfulness.
Regular monitoring and evaluation of the quality of services
To ensure a high level of telephone service, it is important to regularly evaluate the quality of services. This can be done by listening to recordings of conversations or analyzing customer feedback.
If you use virtual telephony for communication, you can also directly monitor the quality of service by listening to managers’ calls. Ringostat, for example, records and saves all calls – the records are available in the call log. Listening to calls allows managers to monitor the quality of service and quickly correct errors before they become systematic.
How to improve your company’s customer service on the phone?
Implementation of customer service policy
A clear and understandable customer service policy is the foundation of quality work. Create a set of standards and rules that will govern communication with clients, including rules of interaction, response time standards, and approaches to resolving conflict situations.
Practical advice: Develop scripts for operators to effectively handle different types of requests and update them regularly based on real cases.
Analysis and improvement of processes
Regular analysis of internal processes helps to identify weak points in telephone service. To improve the quality of service, hold regular meetings with your team and analyze the problems that customers face.
Practical advice: Use feedback from customers and agents to identify common requests and resolve them faster.
Implement service quality assessment systems
Regular monitoring of customer service quality helps maintain a high level of service. It is important not only to track the number of resolved issues, but also to assess how with the outcome of the interaction.
Practical advice: implement a system of call evaluation after each service so that customers can leave feedback. This will allow you to quickly respond to shortcomings.
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