Defining Characteristics of Exceptional Customer Service

Defining Characteristics of Exceptional Customer Service

In today’s competitive business world, you need every advantage you can get to stay on top of your field. While you might have a fantastic product that everyone needs, it will be hard to make a name for your company if you don’t have outstanding customer service to back it up. Good customer service is the backbone of a successful business, and can turn a one-time purchase into a loyal customer. Keep reading to learn what the defining characteristics of exceptional customer service are.

Knowledge

Have you ever called a company with a question, only to be passed around to a number of different representatives who can’t quite give you an answer? It is essential that your customer service representatives be knowledgeable and informed about your product and the way you operate. Customers may have questions about the product itself, shipping, payment methods, and other areas, and it’s most efficient to have one person answer all of these queries. Outstanding customer service is seamless, and a customer shouldn’t have to be put on hold multiple times while the representative searches for answers.

Accessibility

As a consumer, there are few more frustrating things than trying to reach a company during normal business hours and getting a voicemail or a recording telling you to call back later. Your customer service department should be reachable more often than not, and should be prompt in returning communiques from any calls that were missed. Email and live chat are also becoming more popular as customers have less time to devote to calling a company.

Communication

The job of a customer service representative can be stressful, especially if they are not equipped with the information or ability to make the customer happy. A great customer service representative will listen to the customer to thoroughly understand the question or problem, and then provide clear solutions so that the customer feels heard and respected.

Contact One Call Center is proud to offer exceptional customer service to every one of our clients. Call us at 800-278-3347 to find out how we can help your business thrive while giving your customers a positive experience every time they contact you.

Commonly Shared Traits of Successful Business Owners

Commonly Shared Traits of Successful Business Owners

Blog/ Small Business

Running a business is no easy task, and it takes a lot of hard work to make your business a success. There are number of puzzle pieces that must be in place to edge out your competitors, including a superior product or service and an exceptional customer service team. It takes vision, ambition, and dedication to be a successful business owner, no matter what industry you are in. Keep reading to learn what traits successful business owners tend to have in common.

Vision

Perhaps the most basic trait that successful business owners share is a clear vision. In order to be successful, you must be able to picture what you want your company to be today and a few years down the road. Having a vision means more than just an idea for a business—it means being able to put the steps into action to take you from an idea to a reality. Think about what you want to offer your future customers, how you will be different from everyone else in the marketplace, and what you can do to make your business stand out above the rest.

Ambition

It’s one thing to have a vision for a business, and it’s quite another to actually make that vision happen. Successful business owners need to be ambitious and willing to do the work to put themselves out there. This means that you must project confidence in yourself as well as your product, even if you are heading into uncharted waters. Growing a successful business takes time, and an ambitious leader at the helm will make your chances for survival much more likely.

Dedication

Getting a business off the ground is a job in and of itself, but it doesn’t end there. Successful businesses need owners who are dedicated to its continuing success, which means looking for new and innovative ways to satisfy current customers and attract new ones.

Let Contact One Call Center be a part of your business’s ongoing success by turning over your customer service needs to us. Give us a call at 800-278-3347 or visit our website to see how we can help you satisfy the people you need most: your customers.

Biggest Customer Complaints When It Comes to Automated Answering Systems

Biggest Customer Complaints When It Comes to Automated Answering Systems

Blog/ Customer Service

To be a success in business, you must have exceptional products as well as exceptional people that make your customers feel valued and respected. Customer service is more important than ever in today’s digital age, as consumers may feel disconnected and as though they are numbers rather than individuals. Automated answering systems are one of the most frustrating aspects of being a consumer today. Keep reading to learn about the biggest complaints customers have when it comes to automated answering systems.

Getting Lost in the System

An all-too-common experience is when a customer calls a company with a question, only to be redirected numerous times throughout the phone tree without ever reaching a live person who can help. If your business is large enough to necessitate a phone tree, it’s essential to have an option for your customer to immediately be put through to a customer service representative. A customer’s query may not always fall neatly in predetermined categories, so they will need a way to return to the main menu or simply speak to a person who can assist them.

Long Hold Times

There are few things more frustrating than having a simple question and having to wait for a long time just to speak to a person who might be able to help. Customers want to be helped as soon as possible, and the quicker they’re helped, the more positive they will feel about your company. Investigate working with a call center that will help you expedite your customer service to reduce time spent on hold.

Lack of Help

After spending 20 minutes on hold and finally reaching a live person, it’s reasonable to assume that your customer will now be taken care of. However, many customers complain that once they reach a representative, they are unable to help and they end up on hold again or back in the phone tree. Your customer service representatives should have the knowledge and ability to help your customers and avoid this frustrating situation.

Contact One Call Center is here to help you avoid these common customer complaints regarding answering systems. Give us a call at 800-278-3347 to speak to a live person about how we can improve your company’s customer service experience.

Why Small Businesses Have an Edge In Customer Service

Why Small Businesses Have an Edge In Customer Service

Blog/ Customer Service/ Small Business

Running a small business is no easy task. In addition to managing your staff and making sure you’re providing a superior product, you also have to make sure that every one of your customers is getting the excellent service he deserves. With so many responsibilities, it can be easy to let a phone call go or simply forget to return a message. That’s why having a reliable call center at work for you is essential. Read on to learn more about how call centers working for small businesses can give you the edge in customer service.

Personal Attention

If you’ve ever been on hold with a company, you know how frustrating it can be. Big corporations may have many people answering the phones, but few of these people may be in a position to really help the customer. As a small business, you have a unique opportunity to interact with your customers one-on-one, whether that’s in person or via email or telephone. Small businesses rely on word of mouth and repeat customers, so it’s important to give every customer a positive customer service experience in which they feel important and valued.

Ongoing Relationships

Every customer is important to your small business, and you can establish ongoing relationships with different customers to encourage them to come back to you. Making sure every phone call is answered and handled in a timely fashion is just one of the essential parts of a lasting business relationship. Larger companies may have to deal with red tape and bureaucracy to get issues resolved, whereas you can handle any issues that arise on the spot.

Control

As a small business, you can take control over the customer service experience. Because the space between the head of the business and customer service representatives is much smaller, you can train your team in customer service practices to ensure that everyone has a positive experience.

Let Contact One Call Center improve your small business’s customer service with answering services, order taking, and live chat capabilities. Call us at 800-278-3347 to find out how we can help your small business grow and succeed in today’s competitive marketplace.

Understanding How Answering Services Work

Understanding How Answering Services Work

Blog/ Customer Service/ Physicians/Health Care/ Small Business

121198339 Your business may take up the majority of your time, but even with your constant attention, the volume of calls you receive could be more than you can handle on your own. That’s why a wide variety of business owners and service providers trust answering services to handle calls, sometimes 24 hours a day. Doctors and medical professionals can work regular office hours, and relax at home knowing that an answering service will take any emergency calls that come in. Plumbers and contractors can be reached by an answering service for emergencies such as burst water lines. Keep reading to learn more about how answering services work.

What Answering Services Do

Answering services can provide a variety of different services for all different types of businesses. In addition to professions that frequently have to deal with emergencies, answering services are a valuable tool for sales representatives who can’t afford to miss leads just because they’re away from the phone. The answering service gives the caller a human voice to interact with, and lends a much more professional appearance to the business than standard voicemail. Small businesses and people who are self-employed can have calls routed through an answering service to save themselves time answering common questions.

Types of Services Provided

In today’s modern world, answering services can do more than just pick up overflow or afterhours phone calls. Answering services can also provide live online chat help, appointment setting services, and order taking for online stores. With the help of an answering service, your business never has to miss a potential sale or new customer because you can’t get to the phone or the computer. As a business owner, this is a service that can ease your worries and let you truly relax when you are away from your office. If something requires your attention right away, your answering service will filter those calls and let you know.

Contact One Call Center has been family-owned and operated for more than 30 years, providing efficient, personalized customer service for businesses in Arizona and beyond. Contact us at 800-278-3347 to find out how you can put our services to work for your business.

Top Customer Contact Center Trends to Look for In 2014

Top Customer Contact Center Trends to Look for In 2014

Blog/ Customer Service/ Small Business

463140483 No matter how innovative your business’s product or service is, the truth is that your company can’t exist without your customers. Customers are the lifeblood of your business, and it’s important to give them a positive experience so that they turn into loyal clients. Having a consistent and reliable customer service team is essential to a positive customer experience, and with changes in technology, it’s up to you to stay on top of the latest trends in customer contact. Read on to learn about the top customer contact center trends for 2014.

Self-Help Resources

Your customers are just as busy as you are, and may not always have the time to call you for answers to simple questions. Instead of leaving your customers in the dark or requiring them to call you for every query they have, consider improving your business’s self-help resources. Have a clearly visible FAQ section on your website that contains basic information as well as more in-depth help. Compile the questions you get most often and save your customer service team time by posting the answers in a place that’s easy for customers to get to.

Live Support

While a phone conversation with a customer service representative may help your customer, consider going the extra mile by providing live chat or video chat services. It’s more convenient for customers who spend a good deal of time on the computer and need to multitask, and video chat offers a unique opportunity for visual help for customers who are far away.

Bilingualism

We live in a diverse world, and you’d be selling your business short to not provide customer contact options for people who speak other languages than English. Spanish-speaking customer service representatives are essential for the success of your business in today’s diverse and rapidly expanding global economy.

Take your business’s customer service to the next level with Contact One Call Center. With innovative and reliable customer service solutions ranging from appointment setting to live chat, we will represent your company with pride and efficiency. Contact us at 800-278-3347 to find out more about staying on top of customer service trends.

Telephone Sales Techniques That Actually Work

Telephone Sales Techniques That Actually Work

Blog/ Customer Service/ Marketing and Sales

A successful business is the sum of its parts, from the owner to the employees to satisfied customers. In order for a business to become a success and grow, sales must be made. Though technology has made calling a business not as necessary as it once was, you must still have a phone line where your customers can reach you for questions, concerns, and hopefully even a compliment or two. An important part of taking phone calls is turning questions into sales, and browsers into customers. Keep reading to learn about telephone sales techniques that actually work.

Planning

While you might call up a good friend just to chat, your customers are calling you with specific questions they need answered about your company. Make sure your customer service representatives are prepared to respond to the most common questions that come in with specific answers. Not only does this increase the efficiency of the phone call, it makes your business look more professional since your representatives are knowledgeable about your products and services. It is possible to be both professional and friendly at the same time, so consider certain words that will best represent the nature of your business.

Directness

People lead busy lives, and don’t have time to waste on the telephone making small talk. Your customer service representatives should be concise and direct while still maintaining a friendly tone. In today’s fast-paced business world, there’s no time to waste. Make sure your customers get the information they need in a timely fashion from your representatives who can turn a question into a sale in a seamless manner.

Tone of Voice

Have you ever called a company with a question and been greeted by a voice that sounds young, unsure, or nervous? If so, there’s a good chance that affected the rest of your interaction. Rely on a call center of professionals who can speak in a clear, assured manner to give your customers confidence in your company.

There are telephone sales techniques that still work, and Contact One Call Center can make sure they’re incorporated into your business. Give us a call at 800-278-3347 to learn what we can do for your business to increase your sales and efficiency, and to improve your customer relations.

An Inside Look at the Small Business Community

An Inside Look at the Small Business Community

Blog/ Customer Service/ Marketing and Sales/ Small Business

Do you own a small business? If so, you’re not alone. There are approximately 23 million small businesses in the United States, and that number has been growing in recent years. It takes a great deal of hard work and dedication to make your small business a success and compete with big corporations. Providing outstanding customer service is an important part of making your business last in a competitive environment. Whether you are thinking of starting your own small business or you have owned one for years, keep reading to learn more about the small business community.

Small Business, Big Community

You might be surprised to learn that small businesses account for more than half of all sales that take place in the U.S. Though your business might be small, the community of like-minded small business owners is quite large. As shopping local becomes more popular, your small business can benefit greatly since customers are looking for an experience in which they are treated as individuals rather than numbers. Check in your area for meet-ups with other business owners, and don’t forget to look online for resources to help you learn about running a small business successfully.

Economic Impact

You don’t have to sell expensive products to have a major impact on the country’s economy. 55% of all jobs in the country are provided by small businesses, which means your business can benefit the community in more ways than one. Approximately eight million people across the country are employed by franchised small businesses, an especially important figure given the recent economic downturn.

Growth

Small businesses are here to stay, as the number of small businesses in the U.S. has increased 49% since 1982. Big corporations have eliminated four million jobs since 1990, but small businesses have added eight million positions during the same time span. Americans are turning away from relying on corporations, and instead are looking closer to home for jobs as well as products and services.

Running a small business can be challenging, which is why Contact One Call Center is here to help you with a broad range of customer service options. Contact us at 800-278-3347 or visit our website to learn more about the services we provide to businesses just like yours.

A Look at Call Center Management Software

A Look at Call Center Management Software

Blog/ Customer Service/ Small Business

462335881 What goes on inside a call center? While some people may have images of phones lighting up, ringing off the hook, and paper messages flying everywhere, the reality is quite different. Call centers are designed to run smoothly to benefit your business, whether you’re a medical doctor, small business, or self-employed entrepreneur. Certain software programs are used in call centers to make sure that every call gets the attention it deserves, and that no call is dropped or ignored. Read on for a look at the types of software used for call center management.

Queue Management

There are many tasks to be completed in a call center, and a program for queue management helps ensure that these are all done in a timely manner. For example, after taking a call from a customer, the call center may need to place an order with your company and then follow up to make sure the customer is satisfied. By placing these orders and tasks into queue management software, the call center can see which items need to be prioritized. There will be a record of each call so you can rest assured that all of your customers are taken care of.

Quality Monitoring

With the volume of calls received and made by a call center, it’s important to make sure that each call is of the highest quality. Customers should feel comfortable on the phone with representatives, and should receive the best assistance possible. Call centers can follow up with customers for feedback about their experience, and put that information into software that generates reports which show how the customer experience can be improved.

Reporting

A reputable call center should be able to provide reports to its clients both in real-time and historical views. Real-time reporting shows how busy the call center is and how long each phone conversation is lasting, while historical reports give an overview of the call center’s activity over a longer period of time.

Contact One Call Center utilizes the latest call center management software so you can feel confident about our services. Contact us at 800-278-3347 or visit us online to learn how we can help your business with all of its telecommunication needs.

Ways that Modern Customer Service Can Be Improved

Ways that Modern Customer Service Can Be Improved

Blog/ Customer Service/ Small Business

In the digital world, old-fashioned customer service is one area that is often neglected in today’s businesses. By going back to the basics in customer service, you may see more returning clients and higher profit margins. Here is a look at the simple ways to improve modern customer service by following successful methods of the past.

Person-to-person communication

Offering a live person rather than a recording over the phone or FAQ on your website will provide customers with more positive experiences that keep them coming back. When a customer is able to talk directly to a sales representative, he or she will appreciate detailed service that is tailored to his or her needs. In hiring your staff, you should look for individuals who strive to provide great customer service with every interaction.

Streamlined customer facing technologies

If you use e-commerce, you should set up a website that is easy to navigate so that customers can get exactly what they need without frustration. Adding a live chat feature to your site will offer extra assistance when customers need it. Using a web design and marketing expert will allow you to improve the effectiveness of your website so that more traffic is drawn to you digitally.

Customized solutions

When customers feel like their personal needs matter, they are more likely to return in the future. Therefore, it is worth the time to get to know each customer and offer solutions based on these conversations.

If you are rethinking your marketing approach, Contact One Call Center can help you with the affordable solutions you need to provide your customers with the highest level of service. For a closer look at our services—including live chat, order taking, answering, and appointment booking—visit our website or call us at (800) 278-3347.