Unless it is a legal obligation in their industry, SMEs are often reluctant to record customer calls. They may hesitate for financial reasons, because they doubt that they will be useful or because they are unsure whether doing so is legal. Continue reading
There will always come a time when a company needs to invest heavily to upgrade technology or infrastructure so as to keep their contact centres efficient. However, there is also a myriad of low-cost improvements that will make a world of difference to customer satisfaction. Continue reading
Complaints are never pleasant to hear but they are a reality of customer service. No matter how committed you are to excellence, no business will ever be able to please everybody all the time. Continue reading
If you think about contact centres, you may be picturing a massive operation with thousands of agents in anonymous little cubicles. While it is true that large companies may have a need for something that size, even a smaller company can benefit from using a team dedicated to communicating with customers. Continue reading
The growing popularity of automated services, email communications, web chats and social media when it comes to contacting companies’ contact centres all highlight the same phenomenon: customers don’t like to wait for an agent to take their calls. Continue reading
Ahead of social media, emails and mobile Apps, chat is the fastest growing communication channel in contact centres. Immediate and more personal, it gives customers instant replies to their questions and is more cost effective for call centres. If you don’t already have agents dedicated to manning chat services, here are the reasons why you should. Continue reading
It is well-known that there no longer is any brand loyalty. Unless you are Apple, customers will switch to your competitors if they offer something better or your customer service isn’t what they expect. Continue reading
In this day and age, we like to think of ourselves as educated consumers who make decisions logically after shopping around and weighing pros and cons. However, is it really true? Everybody can recall instances of purchasing something they absolutely didn’t need just because they wanted it. And if shops line the checkouts with chocolate snacks, it is because ‘impulse buying’ is alive and well and our decision-making process isn’t as logical as we would like it to be. Continue reading
Understanding your audience is crucial to the success of any company. Likewise, being able to predict your customers’ behaviour will enable you to prevent undesirable outcomes, which is particularly useful for contact centres. Continue reading
Business is all about numbers and statistics, which is understandable as they are the only objective way of setting targets and measuring results. However, many aspects of customer service are not so easily quantified when they involve customers’ perceptions. Continue reading