Customer frustration exists in every business. It may be due to an unresolved query or due to the hassle caused by the company during the return or exchange of a product. There are a lot of reasons that cause customer frustration. Here’s a list of the top five reasons responsible for the same:
Continue reading “Top 5 factors responsible for high customer frustration levels”
“Salary” is enough for a person to work at a company. But no one would want to work at a company where their efforts go unnoticed, and they could be replaced in an instant. What makes them stick around and stay loyal to a company is the work environment provided to them.
They would love to work at a place where they do not feel dejected and demotivated. Especially when it comes to customer support agents, employee appreciation is something that keeps the agents going despite a variety of customers they have to face every day. Let’s have a look at the best strategies for making your customer support agents feel valued:
Continue reading “Let your customer support agents know they’re really appreciated”
Power lead generation refers to a bidirectional lead generation strategy. It requires you to work with a combination of inbound and outbound lead generation strategies. The process involves the creation of inbound and outbound leads.
Continue reading “Power lead generation: All that you need to know about it today!”
In a typical situation, customer queries are addressed when they arise. Though an instant query resolution would make them happy this reactive approach may not provide you with the desired customer satisfaction level. So, a better option for an inflated customer contentment rate is the “proactive approach”.Now, what exactly is a proactive approach? Well, it means, you solve problems before customers have to call you. With a proactive customer support, you can solve customer queries even before they become aware of them. Let’s see how you can accomplish this highly efficacious strategy.
Continue reading “Proactive customer support: All you need to know about it today”
1.Provide adequate training to all the agents:
Skipping or shortening the training period, based on the fact that some agents need intense training while others do not can lead to the omission of useful experiences. This may further result in feelings of exclusion, inadequacy, and disorganization and in the worst cases, the agent leaving your company. Therefore, you should consider training each agent equally. Make sure that all the agents are subjected to the same training period so they can acquire the necessary knowledge and skills, become acculturated to the company’s values, and cultivate relationships with colleagues. This training period will enhance team collaboration and bond and will further lead to the exemption of agent attrition to a large extent.
2. Schedule the staff appropriately:
One of the most effective strategies in curbing agent attrition is focusing on the work-life balance of employees. This strategy works on the principle of mutual understanding, such that, employees need to understand that the business must meet its customers’ demands, while the business must understand that employees have external pressures as well. Thus, you need to develop a flexible approach creating a number of lifestyle schedule options that give employees more choices, whilst still meeting the business needs. Providing options is a great way of finding a suitable solution and satisfying all.
3. Leverage the power of skill development:
Providing skill development programs is yet another powerful strategy that can help curb agent attrition in customer support centers. As a matter of fact, agents who feel their on the job skill-set is not at all progressive are more likely to disengage with their work and are more prone to leaving. However, all these insecurities can be eliminated and job satisfaction can be increased with opportunities for agents to learn new skills and new technologies. This will help them be more competent and confident, perform their work-related duties and stay longer with your company.
An attrition refers to a common problem when call center employees feel stressed, unrecognized or underpaid. It can further be defined as the rate at which members of staff voluntarily leave the workforce over a given period of time. A thorough understanding of all of the reasons employees resign from call center positions can help determine which factors contribute to the call center’s attrition rate. Thereafter employing effective strategies can help combat this situation:
1. Optimized recruitment:
Hiring the right agents for your team is the very first step in curbing agent attrition. Implementing a referral program as well as allowing agents to work from home can help increase the quality of applicants. Consider personality, communication skills, cultural fit, team-oriented attitudes and the skills of the applicant, while hiring. A clear description of job roles, common tasks and performance expectations will help them know what is expected of them and can opt out of the job if it is not a suitable one.
2. Work towards the empowerment of your team:
Agents should have clearly defined expectations, receive feedback based on these expectations and should know who to talk to when they have an issue or concern. Moreover, they should be involved in business decisions, informed about company goals and strategies and be polled about their experience working in the company. Establishing clear communication channels and including agents in decision-making processes will make them feel more empowered and motivated. This will further reduce the problem of agent attrition.
3. Provide your agents with progressive software and applications:
Providing your agents with progressive call center software that is easy to learn and use, can help them start working sooner and be better at what they do. Providing them with adequate software and applications increases the agents’ satisfaction with their work and reduce agent attrition.
1. IVR analytics
IVR analytics is a highly effective end-to-end call assessment solution that is a part of customer experience strategy. As a matter of fact, the customers who are greeted by linear thinking IVR systems instead of human voices already assume that their self-service experience is going to be less than favorable. Conducting IVR data analysis helps produce valuable insights that answer many important questions. With insights to these questions, organizations can improve their IVR systems, make them more clear, efficient and user-friendly in responding to callers. Thus, IVR analytics contributes to the success and profitability of companies of all sizes by helping to reduce costs, increase and enhance self-service options, improve first contact resolution, and boost customer satisfaction by providing an exceptional customer experience.
2. Predictive analytics:
Predictive analytics consists of a number of statistical techniques from predictive modeling, machine learning, and data mining that analyze current and historical facts to make predictions about future or otherwise unknown events. Using in-depth review of past performance in call volume, service level, handle time, and customer satisfaction, the predictive analysis makes it possible to apply past solutions to upcoming problems. This information can also be used in training to boost call agent effectiveness and enhance the customer experience. Predictive analytics help organizations determine which operational changes would be the most effective at improving the call center’s overall performance. As an added bonus, it also reduces handle time and operational costs by providing more effective communication.
3. Call center desktop analytics:
Call center desktop analytics enables companies to capture inefficiencies, improve security, and explore potential coaching opportunities for phone agents. By viewing the phone agent’s activity during the call and capturing all activity on the agent’s desktop, a company can ensure that the agent is using their systems most effectively, and that the systems themselves are functioning properly. Using comprehensive desktop analytics, an analyst can find and remove redundant tasks that increase call handle time and frustrate both agents and customers alike. This would further help in providing exceptional customer service.
Call scoring is a process that enables you to derive additional benefits from efforts to analyze recorded calls for information. This process can benefit customers, agents and company sales and marketing plans. It provides a systematic means to conduct these reviews and identify the weakest areas of agent performance. Moreover, it lets you know the steps necessary to improve the agent’s performance.
Contact center call scoring can be regarded as a useful training and management tool. Scorecard is an essential element in the entire process. Using this scorecard and setting contact center standards, you can improve your contact center performance. Call scoring can be done by determining whether:
i) the customer was met with a friendly greeting or not
ii) he/ she was asked their name and was it used during the call
iii) the agent keeps a positive attitude across all customer contacts
The very first step in the call scoring process is to determine what elements are important in each customer engagement. This is followed by a process of knowing how each effort should be scored against these pre-determined criteria. As a matter of fact, most of the scorecard elements are fairly standard and are derived from dividing a call into segments. Moreover, the calls can be scored on a 1-10 scale, or 9 in the form of A-F letter grades.
A basic open-middle-close format is employed in many companies. This approach focuses on determining:
i) how the customer is greeted
ii) how the problem or question is resolved
iii) how the call ends
iv) whether the agent was able to answer all questions
v) whether the agent was friendly when the caller was hostile
vi) if any upsell opportunities were missed
Once the scoring has been done, the results can be shared with each agent. Additional training can also be scheduled in cases where the agent performance falls below the expected level.
1.Enhances customer satisfaction:
The quality of interaction between a call center agent and a customer decides the efficiency of customer service which further affects customer satisfaction. Therefore, the agent has to communicate clearly, maintain phone etiquette, treat the customer with respect, maintain a pleasant tone throughout the conversation, and provide resolution to all their queries. As mentioned earlier, call recording helps management check whether an agent has efficiently performed in an expected manner or not. It helps managers to resolve customer complaints in an appropriate manner. Also, it enables the agent to play nice knowing that his / her call is being monitored. Moreover, this forces the agent to be consistently professional in all the calls.
2. Improves security:
An appropriate call recording system can be highly beneficial to a company employing it. It helps reduce inappropriate calls and detect any security problems. It enables you to monitor employee interaction to reduce inappropriate conversations. Call recording exempts the chances of agents using the resources for personal use as it also helps to reduce personal phone calls. However, all the call centers are required to inform the customer beforehand that the call is getting recorded. This, in turn, causes the customers to refrain from using abusive language on the call. In other words, a call recording system actually helps to keep the conversations professional.
3. Corporate liability and compliance:
As a matter of fact, even a simple miscommunication can lead to a potential lawsuit. So, almost all companies have the potential to face lawsuits. Hence, a call recording system enables your company to diffuse many such scenarios. Moreover, new and old government regulations require all companies to be compliant with their business practices. So, call recording also helps to maintain compliance with all these regulatory groups. In other words, it exempts any chances of you being prosecuted or fined.
1. Long term adoption of self service tools:
Showing customers how to utilize self service tools leads to the long term adoption of self service tools which is yet another benefit of co- browsing. It is extremely beneficial when:
i) a company is launching new online tools or updating existing tools or procedures
ii) when specific customer segments are having trouble using online tools
iii) when white-glove service can be provided to top-tier customers.
2. Differential customer service experience:
These days customers ask to co-browse when they contact an agent because they know co-browsing allows them to get help instantly and conveniently. In other words, co- browsing creates a differentiated customer service experience. This exempts the risk of losing customers and results in returning customers. Hence it improves your business performance.
3. Customer service agent satisfaction:
There is a possibility of agents being frustrated when customers articulate issues and agents are required to verbally direct the customer to perform actions online. Thus, providing the agents with technologies such as co- browsing reduces this frustration and leads to an increased efficiency of customer support. Moreover, agents appreciate being given the tools they need to be more efficient and productive so they are able to meet their performance goals.
5. Reduced call handling time and improved efficiency of customer support system:
Co-browse technology helps in the reduction of call handling time. As a matter of fact, the less call-handling time agents will take, the more level of customer service they will provide. Thus, co- browsing promotes efficiency by enabling agents to handle issues more quickly and accurately. It can also be used as a real-time live training tool to help on board new agents and familiarize them with the customer experience quickly and efficaciously. The customers also get satisfied as they get faster resolution and the agents save their time.
Omnichannel refers to a cross-channel business model that companies employ to increase customer experience and improve the quality of customer service. This approach has verticals in healthcare, government, financial services, retail and telecommunications industries, including channels such as physical locations, FAQ webpages, social media, live web chats, mobile applications and telephone communication. Companies that utilize omnichannel contend that a customer values the ability to be in constant contact with a company through multiple avenues at the same time.
Previously customers expected to receive service from an organization on the channel of their choice. Thus companies employed multi-channel customer service technique which made use of voice, email, SMS/text, web, mobile or social media. Omnichannel customer service takes the multi-channel customer service to the next level as with an omnichannel solution that integrates channels to provide a consistent customer experience.
As far as the customers are concerned, channel is the least important matter of concern for them. What’s important for them is finding an answer to their question or a solution to their problem. For this purpose they may reach out via voice, mobile website or over a social media channel like Twitter. In today’s era, as more consumers adopt mobile devices, the lines between channels tend to blur. As a result, customer expectations for the convenience of starting a conversation in one channel and then continuing in another, become even higher.
Omnichannel self-service is a solution to such high end expectations of the customers. It empowers the customer to initiate an activity in one channel, and seamlessly transition to another such that a conversation that begins on Twitter can be continued via text message or phone call with all of the relevant context preserved across channels. Omni-channel solutions don’t require implementing every possible channel and it also ensures the service level, responsiveness, and quality of service received on individual channels and across channels would be exceptionally high.
1.Exemption of customer hesitation:
It is very important to exempt ay kind of consumer hesitation related to the offers you provide in order to increase your conversion rate. People will have conscious and subconscious objections to what you’re saying about your products and offers. You need to address all their concerns and convince them as to why they should avail your services or buy your products. The most suitable technique is to prevent all those hesitations by addressing all the possible issues in your sales copy right away. For this, you have to create a list of all the possible hesitations and objections your potential customers might have and then add information to your sales copy to eliminate those concerns. You can convince people to buy from you by explaining the problems solved by your products, showing off your credentials and proving the value your product offers.
2. Provide clarity in your content:
Your content should have clarity in the sense that it should be understandable not only to the people related to the marketplace you deal in but also to other people. The basic idea is that you shouldn’t aim to write for companies but for people. While creating content or explaining about the products and services that you provide, imagine that you are explaining it to your close friend. This is the best method to inculcate clarity in your content.
3. Craft proper value proposition:
A value proposition is the primary reason for a prospect buying from you. It actually requires you to showcase what is unique about your company, your products, and services. Moreover, it must be communicated effectively to achieve optimal results. All you need to do is to refine your value proposition until you can articulate it in a single, instantly credible sentence. Conversion rate optimization can be enhanced further by optimizing value proposition that involves identifying, expressing, and testing/measuring. This can be achieved using A/B testing.
Outbound marketing is a marketing methodology that tries to reach consumers through general media advertising as well as through in-person contact. Outbound marketing can be carried out in the form of TV advertising, face-to-face meetings, or cold- calling. Through each of these outbound methods, sales leads are generated and then followed up by internal sales representatives.
Some of the best outbound marketing strategies to grow your business are:
1. PPC ad campaigns:
PPC is a short form for pay per click that further refers to a model of internet marketing in which advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. Essentially, it’s a way of driving traffic and buying visits to your site, rather than attempting to earn those visits organically. Your ads will appear as sponsored results at side or top of organic search rankings with PPC on search engines. PPC is the most efficacious way of drawing attention to the latest content or service offerings. Moreover, PPC ads are highly targeted, so, they can generate very high-quality leads.
2. Direct mail:
Direct mail consists of a wide variety of marketing materials, including brochures, catalogs, postcards, newsletters and sales letters. Direct-mail advertising is one of the most effective and profitable ways to reach out to new and existing clients. Direct mail is very effective when it comes to growing a business because it aims at targeted communications. You can actually grab the attention of your desired prospects by leveraging your creativity and the power of your message and presentation. Thus, direct mail is a very direct and powerful way to share your content asset.
3. Tradeshows and webinars:
Events such as tradeshows and webinars provide an opportunity to introduce and define your brand, clarify the solutions you provide and make personal connections with participants. Whether it’s an international trade show or an executive-level webinar, the two-way channel of interaction between customers, prospects, and your company is knowledgeable to them and beneficial for the businesses.
