Most customers have had a very annoying or painful experience calling a customer service rep at a cloud call center. Most of these calls are punctuated by the long music the customers have to hold on to the line. And then comes the real kicker – the customer service agent does not get their issue, cannot solve, cannot escalate, or most frustrating, is not even interested in listening to them!
If you wish to get a cloud call center, you must crack the code to good customer service and response. Otherwise, it will be particularly challenging to hold on to your old customers. And remember, a happy customer may only tell five more people about you, but an irritated customer will undoubtedly tell it to a hundred others!
To manage customers with the cloud call center, you and your team of agents must understand the level of customer expectations, the possible issues they may have, have a ready solution to them. If you do not have it available, then reach out to them with it later.
I todays time many organization are using business phone technology to make your customers happy and content. Technology is only a tool to reach out to your paymasters; it is not the solution itself.
Cloud call center benefits accrue over time if you can implement the following seven critical actionable and practical strategies to make your customers satisfied with your support.
7 Actionable Strategies to Improve Cloud Call Center
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Knowledge is Power
Arming your agents with the knowledge of the product or the service you are dealing in, the possible pain areas, and the easiest ways to resolve the issues is imperative for gaining customer satisfaction.
When your agents know to address any customer’s concerns, they will sound confident, in control, and reassuring. These emotions make most customers settle down, even if the real solution is a little farther down the road.
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Always Empathize with Customers
Your agents must empathize with customers calling in with their issues. They must have tried every conceivable way to get things done, and in the end, feeling desperate, they must have called your cloud call center. If they hear an empathetic voice on the other end of the line, they will trust you and your company and will be able to describe the problem entirely and carefully.
On the other hand, an attitude with apathy or an unfriendly manner of talking will put off the customers, and it is more likely they will bear a loss and move out of your company rather than deal with your agents.
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Don’t Apologize, Solve
Customers do not want your apologies if those are the only things you have! Your excuses and apologies would always fall short of a real solution, and no amount of saying “we are sorry,” can take away the feeling that they have been cheated.
To resolve the issue, your customer support reps must first listen carefully to them to identify the root cause of concerns. Once the cause is established, you can either act at your end or guide the customer to take action at their end to resolve the matter.
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Personalize Each Call
More than 70% of customers expected the customer service agents to “already know who they are, where they are calling from, and what product or service they are using.” This was revealed in a study by Microsoft. They also expect the agents to have insights into their previous engagements – calls, emails, and visits – and the crux of the matter.
Unfortunately, for the sale of speed and efficiency, this aspect of customer service is often overlooked. It usually takes little time for each customer service rep to summarize the latest interaction to benefit future communication.
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Improve First Call Resolution
According to Accenture, nine out of ten customers have to repeat the same things to multiple agents, which makes them super frustrated. First Call Resolution (FCR) is a metric showing how many incoming calls were resolved in their first calls.
Improving your FCR will take training, empathy, active listening skills, and knowledge on the part of each of your agents. They will have to take ownership of the process and understand the system inside out to deliver a solution in the first call itself.
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Earn Customer Loyalty, Every Time!
Never assume that the customer is now yours; never assume that they will remain with you forever. A customer can switch her loyalties faster than in the blink of an eye. All they need is a trigger, and you do not want your poor customer service to be the one. Your agents must continuously work to earn customer loyalty.
Customers can shut you out if you do not offer the quality service that they expect. The more worrying part is that you will not even know which customers are leaving because of poor service, and you will continue to poke in the dark.
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Reduce On-Hold Time
No one enjoys being ignored, and if you have put on hold a customer longer than 30 to 45 seconds – they feel neglected. They may also come to think that this is a delaying tactic. According to Velaro, 60% of customers hang up after being put on hold for longer than a minute.
Putting a customer continually on hold also indicates that you do not respect their concerns, their time, and most of all themselves. If your agents put customers on hold too often or for too long, your training and screening are lacking seriously.
If you deliver Customer Delight, Cloud Call Center is Beneficial!
Once you get a cloud call center, you must ensure that when a customer reaches out to you over the phone, she is seeking a helping hand and resolving their problem. They need someone trustworthy to guide them with politeness, empathy, and pleasure.
A single interaction with an unfriendly agent can cost you hundreds of customers s/he may have handled. If you apply the above seven actionable strategies, then you can deliver delightful customer experiences with each call and increase your loyalty base.