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Monday, March 14, 2011

The Benefits Of An Outsourced Inbound Call Center

Providing your clients with 24/7 customer service support may already be on your company to-do list. But without a proper budget at your disposal, then it just seems like you won't be able to implement the plan. The need for the implementation of your plan might stem from your losing of customers due to unanswered complaints and missed sales due to limited working hours. You'll soon realize that without a 24-hour answering service, you're losing a lot of opportunities. What can you do now?

Well, think about outsourcing. By outsourcing your 24-hour answering service needs to an inbound call center, you can provide your clients with the service and support they need all the while maintaining a minimal amount of expenditure. This is really something to your benefit as you no longer have to hire your own in-house staff to do the work, you can save on office space and be assured of professionalism from your outsourced inbound call center.

Aside from that, clients will be satisfied to know that whenever they call, they will be able to talk to a live operator and not some voice prompt from an answering machine. This way, you can keep your clients with you, address their concerns and still make sales even while your office is closed. Those lost opportunities are now yours to reclaim and with them comes your future success.


Monday, January 31, 2011

Inbound Call Center's Offering: Three-in-One Answering Service

Every company has to pump up its customer service support. Through a satisfactory customer care, the big reward increased customer retention is going to be harvested. How to do this? There are many choices to choose from but the best available solution is outsourcing.

When you partner with an inbound call center, your company will not only be given one type of answering service. Surprisingly, most contact centers nowadays are improving their operations with a three-in-one answering service- an automation, virtual telephone receptionist and live chat support. I bet that with these three tools at hand, wider coverage and better quality performance are reaped.

Automated Answering Service

Automation is too familiar for you. You always hear the recordings when you want to ask something, say for example, credit card balance. Does “Press 1 for customer service, Press 2...” ring a bell? Yeah, right. That one is an example of an automated answering service. This type is used for simple transactions, e.g. inquiry for bank balance. Through this, telephone operators are relieved from easy tasks and can offer more quality time with complex calls.

Virtual Telephone Receptionists

Virtual receptionist is the receiver of phone calls over the telephone. Unlike voicemail and automation, it is done live. This serves as the most important function in customer service support as customers want to make inquiries, complaints, orders and the likes with a live operator, not with the recordings often heard. The fact that callers reach a person is a positive score for the company and satisfying them is a huge bonus.

Live Chat Support

The live answering service expands its coverage to the Internet realm. The constant upward trend of online users, billions in a daily average, has been forcing firms to cater the people over the World Wide Web. Just like a virtual telephone receptionist, a live chat assistant serves a browser in real-time.

With these three mediums at hand, what opportunity could be missed?


Wednesday, January 5, 2011

What Is A Quality Contact Center?

A contact center is the hub of a company's enterprises where all calls and all kinds of contact is processed. Outsourced call centers should work hard for the care of a company's customers because the relationship between them is so fragile and should be given utmost importance.

What are the characteristics of a good contact center? Well, an offshore center should have the best infrastructure and technology that will help phone representatives expertly and carefully process each customer’s inquiry. All representatives need to have the adequate training necessary to provide quality service. They also need to have a good grasp of the culture of the people they're calling and the business as a whole.

Good contact centers have the monitoring capability to look at the day to day transactions between customers and agents, if they have it in place you know what is going on and how your customers are being handled.

Without efficient managers to look after representatives, quality of the service may falter into pieces. These people maintains the great customer care service and business ethics. Training of representatives especially in software is tantamount to the quality of service, so you have to make sure that they train their people really well. The software of the company is the most important tool to consider, your outsourced company needs to have their own software in place and that the data available is fast, reliable and easy to use because the processing of each calls relies upon this. If you have plans of hiring an outsourced contact center to do business with you, hire a company who has everything set up in place.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Maximize Profits Through An Ordering Processing Service

Maximizing profits is one of the goals of any business. However, it takes on added urgency in times of economic challenges like what we're facing today. For many companies, one of the best ways to increase profits is to set up an order processing service.
Hiring another company to take care of the service is a strategic initiative. If you think in house is a challenge you need to find ways to revamp procedures to maximize growth. Start by examining how your people work together to deliver products to your customers.

The cost of errors especially on order processing can take a big bite out of profits. You can categorize out mistakes and ask the outsourced company to address it. Knowing what the errors are can help you look for ways to address those issues.

Make sure that phone representatives are highly trained for a campaign and the company needs to ensure that they receive regular training so that their skills remain at par. They also need to have the right tools so that they will be able to do their jobs in the most efficient way possible.

When you have more sales you have more income, so you need to make sure that customer's orders are answered immediately and accurately. Shop around and contact a company that offers high quality order processing service. They'll not only provide valued customer service but also higher profits for your business.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Live Answering Service as Opposed to Automated Voicemail

Good day! We're sorry to tell you that we're already closed. If you have an inquiry, please leave a message.

For most of us, hearing voicemails doesn't seem to be good, especially when we need something badly. As much as possible, customers should be responded right away. Making them wait creates a bad image for the company. This is generally the reason why, instead of installing voicemails, a live answering service serves by far better.

According to Fortune Magazine, about 80% of callers who receive a voicemail system hang up. Counting each individual as a sales opportunity means a whooping eighty percent of lost occasions. Another study by Sales Digest revealed that callers responding to marketing campaigns are eight times more likely to provide information with a live operator than with a voicemail box.

It is a reality that voicemail does not work. Firms trade customer satisfaction for costs. However, is it more devastating to lose more than 50% of sales prospects than investing a little add-on cost for live answering service?

A survey conducted by ABC Advertising showed that out of 10,000 respondents, 68% confessed that they are not likely to give out information to an answering machine and 11% are undecided.

The inexpensive attribute of voicemail lured companies. They did not know that there was a catch: they save fewer costs by losing a lot of sales leads. Transcending answering service from voicemail to a live operator will dig mines.

Figures speak the truth. Marketing campaigns should be customer-oriented. Having voicemail as answering service doesn't seem to be the taste of the prospects. And adding live answering service to the various customer services will be a great tool to keep the sales pipeline flowing.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Why Should You Outsource 24/7 Customer Service Support?

Outsourced call center services have enabled many businesses to experience dramatic improvements in their operations and profits. The most popular function being outsourced to call centers today is 24/7 customer service support. Companies are realizing that the services provided by call centers can really help in enhancing a business' brand image and improving customer relationships. This is why inbound call centers have become well-known in the business world over the recent years.

Call centers employ highly-skilled and well-trained representatives for handling customer calls. In addition, inbound call centers also have multilingual agents who can speak with people from different foreign countries, helping businesses break the language barrier.

One of the greatest advantages of call center outsourcing is its cost-efficiency. Outsourcing call center services can lower overhead expenditures because companies do not have to invest on new business processes. A call center that has the right technology combined with industry expertise and professional telephone representatives can help organizations save on labor and operational costs.

The success of a business depends heavily on the number of customers, and it is vital to keep them happy and satisfied with superior customer service and quality products. 24/7 customer service support helps in maintaining and cultivating business-customer relationships while reducing costs. Good customer service can generate significant results but businesses can maximize these results by providing round the clock customer support.

Good customer relation is not only essential for generating profits but it also helps in gaining new customers. With help from a customer service call center, your business is given the benefit of having experts to answer questions from your customers on your behalf. Customer care representatives are polite and trained to answer calls like your regular employee would.

Outsourcing 24/7 customer service support is a smart option if you want to improve your customer relationships, gain new business and increase your profits. Customer calls are answered promptly and demands are responded to by highly-capable phone representatives round the clock.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

The Rewards of Having A Live Answering Service

We all know how it feels to call a business for reasons like bank account inquiries or computer trouble shooting – and the response that we get comes from an automated voice prompt. Then this voice prompt tells us to push buttons and select options several times before we reach a LIVE person to actually help us with our concerns. It feels extremely refreshing when we get to speak with a human being right away without having to go through a long frustrating automated process.

If you are a business owner, how grateful do you think your clients would be if their calls are answered right away and their problems are addressed promptly? Most people dislike the idea of calling an 800-number for a simple inquiry or question because it usually takes them a long while to speak with somebody. The best way to alleviate this kind of situation is by letting them have great customer service experience through the implementation of a live answering service.
There are several benefits companies can get from a live answering service:

Manage Call Costs Efficiently. With a quality answering service, businesses can keep call costs down and maintain a high level of productivity. Companies can grow their businesses exponentially because they are saving money by not having to buy and set up new equipments and furnitures. Calls are handed over to and managed by highly skilled operators.

Live Operators. A professional answering service provides telephone services with highly trained live operators to answer calls, take messages and divert urgent calls. Customers do not have to worry about getting voice prompts or being directed to voice mails.

24/7 Service. This helps your company never to miss any incoming call. The service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and you also have the option to include weekends and holidays. You have the assurance that no business opportunity is lost.

In addition to the benefits mentioned above, an answering service company offers different solutions ranging from simple to complex applications. You can choose which service fits your telephone answering needs regardless of your business' size. It also allows you to build and maintain good relationships with both your old and new customers and cater to their demands anytime they call in from any location. Your market base expands and you generate more profit.
A live answering service has the potential to empower your business. Whether you want to cultivate existing customer relationships or create new ones, an answering service is a good way to start.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

An overview of Order Taking As A Service

Some people and even businesses may dismiss order taking as a 'no-brainer.' They might think that there is no sense of urgency in answering phones to take down orders. But for service-oriented businesses, these assumptions are wrong on both counts. Taking down orders requires a skilled professional because order taking is not limited to taking down orders accurately, processing it for payments and delivery, it also includes a thorough knowledge of the product-line.

Accurate processing of orders is an important part of every business operation. A reliable order taking service provider should be able to provide at least:

* Round–the–clock support – Takes care of your business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
* Pre–Sale Support – Order taking representatives should undergo Product Retraining workshops every month to maintain updated product knowledge, making sure they have the ability to answer even the not–so–frequently asked questions.
* Order Fulfillment Assistance – You should receive detailed, real–time reports via a personalized CRM account. A fail–safe service delivery system should be present to allow account transfers to other offices in less than an hour in times of localized catastrophes.

Order taking answering service is not limited to just hotels and flower shops but for any service-oriented enterprise as well, like pet grooming and supplies, restaurants, confectioneries, specialty food, insurance or pizza delivery. These services are actually designed to help businesses deliver quality service through a timely response to customers' inquiries and orders.

An effective order taking and answering service handled properly would gain customers' trust that definitely adds up to the reliability of one's services. If this happens, naturally, what would happen next is that other people would also know about you through the customer's word-of-mouth, thus increasing the chance of having more potential clients. Flower shops that hire answering service call centers are more likely to retain their loyal customers because of exceptional customer service skills by meeting their needs on time. Because of the staff that is specifically tasked to do the order-taking and phone answering – there are no missed opportunities for making sales. Business-owners could focus more on running their shops, and even more on their core businesses, while not being interfered with successive phone calls from their customers. Accommodating customers with their concerns would no longer be an issue. Answering service call centers would guarantee that their business communication goes without any hitches.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Phone Answering Services for Physicians

A number of businesses and professionals have turned to outsourced live phone answering services as a means to answer calls after business hours and during holidays. Clients have been proven, to stay on the line longer and leave a message when they are dealing with an actual person, as compared to a voicemail recording.

Call answering services have been very beneficial to medical practitioners, such as doctors, who spend most of their time outside the office, attending to hospital rounds and other fieldwork which may need their expertise. The office is often left unmanned. As is in business, each call made to the office is considered as the life source of any operation. Clients may contact the clinic at any given time and will be disappointed to reach a machine when they need to make a doctor's appointment or to schedule a visit. In most cases, medical offices hire a receptionist to screen all calls, take down messages and relay them to the physicians. There is, however, a cheaper alternative.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies are also offering inbound answering services, specially customized to fit the needs of the medical industry and its practitioners. When you choose to partner with a call answering company, you minimize, if not prevent, future complications which may result from missed business calls. Your clients and patients will always hear a professional operator on the other line.

With this feature in mind, there are a number of benefits which answering services can provide a medical practitioner, among which is cost efficiency. Partnering with an inbound call center allows each business establishment to save on their operational and training expenses which they will incur if they choose to hire and train in-house staff.

Also, medical offices and practitioners are ensured to have their own 24-hour answering service wherein their phones will be manned and answered professionally during peak hours, after office hours, weekends, and holidays. All answering service call representatives are trained to handle medicine-related calls. Some inbound call centers even hire nurses, paramedical graduates and those who have worked within the medical field as secretaries themselves. You are ensured that all calls coming in to your office will be answered as professionally and as timely as possible.

One other benefit is that patients and clients may leave their doctors messages at any time during emergencies, while the doctor is out making house or hospital calls. With the outsourced staff having medical background, cases wherein first aid information is needed may be provided on the spot. Medical practitioners may also leave instructions with the call representatives on what to do when a certain situation arises or who to refer patients to when he or she is out of town or is unavailable.

Customer service call centers also provide you with a back-up call representative in case your primary call representative calls in sick or is not available for work at a given time. The back-up call representative undergoes the same training as your front liner and has, if possible, the same background as his primary representative counterpart.

In the long run, partnering with inbound call centers with which you outsource your call answering services to will be beneficial to your business as a timely and efficient call answering service eventually means happy customers. Taking care of your clients will greatly benefit your business as they would most probably recommend you and your practice to their family, friends, and colleagues.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Timeliness- a Crucial Factor in Order Processing Service

Timeliness is the key in order processing services. As the world continues to speed up, customers also want products to be delivered in the minimum amount of time possible. Processing orders refers to the way company’s process customers orders. The delivery time has a strong implication on how you value customers.

The general command in terms of product delivery is the idea that customers get orders in the most appropriate time possible. The question however lies on when is the right time to deliver products. When can you say that you have fulfilled your role to deliver products or services on time?

Customer service comes along with any business, same is true with processing orders. Make sure that it works as expected. Timeliness is the most important factor in customer relations.

If your own employees could not handle and meet the speed of order processing then it is high time for you to outsource services with a qualified company. These companies knows what customers really want and that is to deliver orders in the agreed time.

Outsourcing the service benefits your company. Most companies have the system to give the exact price and shipment for the orders. They can also give in the shipping date. Outsourced companies make sure that the flow of delivery could be developed such as eliminating unnecessary steps to make the process faster. Working with an outsourced company's to achieve better delivery time is imperative of your business's growth.

Consider outsourcing your service in taking orders. Look for a company that follows your specifications and are competent enough to best serve your customers. Partner with them to achieve timeliness. It is the most important factor for your company's dramatic improvement.

When considering the importance of the order processing service for your company, hire a company which takes care of your customers order just like it is their own.

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