When a customer calls your business, they hate being passed around like the mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving. Get them straight to the person who can help them best with the perfect customer service handoff.
When customers call your business, they want to be reassured that they are working with a competent professional organization. And who can blame them? As customers, they are investing money in your product or service. The trick for any organization is to make sure they are effectively handling their inbound callers while not throwing any obvious red flags that would communicate to a customer that the company is poorly organized or managed…
Red Flag: Redundant, Time-Consuming Inquiries
Probably the most obvious red flag of all is being asked the same questions, over and over. At some point, you have probably experienced this yourself. You call an organization and the first agent who answers takes your personal information, asks about the nature of your call, then transfers you. When the next person picks up, they ask you the exact same questions and so on. It can feel like you slipped into some sad, boring episode of the Twilight Zone. Needless to say, this experience can be very frustrating.
This lack of communication internally takes up valuable time for the business and the customer. It also gives a poor impression, causing customers to lose confidence in the competence of a business. In fact, having to repeat information already given accounts for up to 72 percent of unsatisfied callers.
So what is an effective way to avoid this kind of experience and keep it from damaging the perception customers have of your business?
Professional Call Center Service: Effective. Efficient. Affordable.
Hiring a call center partner that specializes in developing processes that provide callers with a seamless and streamlined call experience is not only one of the most effective and efficient ways to handle your inbound calls, but it is also among the most affordable. This is especially true when you take into consideration the time it would take you to develop processes internally, the training you would have to conduct, and the potential damage that can be done when this is not handled correctly. Adding these factors together along with the costs associated with building out and hiring employees to staff an in-house call center makes choosing to work with a proven outsourcing provider not only a smart choice, but a responsible one as well.
Beyond Efficiency: Providing Around The Clock Coverage 365 Days a Year
The whole point of choosing an inbound call center is to provide your business relief and your callers increased support. Luckily, there are call center partners that take this so seriously that they provide around the clock service for their business clients. This is exactly the kind of service you get when you make Acena your live support partner.
With Acena, you connect every caller to a highly trained, live virtual receptionist 24/7/365. During these calls, agents collect preliminary information and determine, based on your preferences, what action to take. This process ensures calls get connected correctly, whether to a technical expert, salesperson or any other pertinent department.
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During office hours, before the handoff, Acena quickly provides you with the pertinent details about the caller before connecting them so you’re all caught up and they don’t have to repeat themselves. From there you can choose to have a call patched through directly to you or taken down as a message. Acena also builds an online log for you to access anywhere to view calls, information and messages.
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During non-business hours, Acena provides the same service with your calls, taking messages or forwarding to on-call personnel when appropriate. This off-hours service provides your callers with what surveys show is the most important aspect of customer service: having transactions handled by a live person, quickly. Thirty-three percent of people said a quick response was the single most important aspect of customer service, more than any other factor. Acena’s around the clock virtual receptionist service means callers will never feel like they have to wait to get their message or inquiry to where it needs to go, even when your business is closed for the day.
Organize Your Internal Communication, Reduce Hold Times
Callers, on average, are willing to wait on hold a maximum of 13 minutes before hanging up or considering it a negative experience. Acena’s call patching and caller handoff service gives your call system a built-in time-saving structure. Virtual receptionists services work with your company to determine criteria for which calls should go where, when and to whom. This systematizes the way calls are connected internally, cutting down on the time it takes to deliver your customer the service they need. With Acena’s expertise in caller handoffs, this organized system for routing calls minimizes hold times and maximizes customer satisfaction.
Get The Most Out of Customer Handoffs
Having your calls answered is only part of successful customer service. Taking the right action with those calls, quickly, around the clock and in a systematized way mean just as much to a positive caller experience. This makes how calls are patched through and handed off as important as the actual call itself. The importance of a perfect customer handoff is easy to overlook, but doing it well can make all the difference for callers who just want a smooth, competent call experience with your business.
More posts you might want to check out:
3 Critical Things to Master For Effective Phone Conversations with Your Customers