Call centres are the face of any company. Their success depends totally on the telephone etiquettes of the staff who receive these calls. It requires a warm, friendly and professional voice, strong ethical standards as well as a solution-oriented mindset to achieve true customer satisfaction. The amount of queries and concerns that call centres handle on a daily basis is of different nature and it can be challenging to deal with customers of different types and temperaments.
At Blake Connect, almost all of our original clients have remained with us today. Our team is known for its high levels of customer service keeping us ahead of other companies. What’s our recipe for success? Profound call centre staff training and dealing with every situation immediately, by stopping it in its tracks and solving the issue in time.
Here are our top tips to ensure call centre excellence and grow customer engagement:
Educate & Train New Call Centre Agents
New call centre agents should be aware of standard call centre etiquettes and operations that they are expected to perform. They should understand the product or service that they are selling and the specifics that go into the business they are responsible for. Furthermore, they should have an understanding of the company’s mission, values as well as its ethics and future plans.
Greetings Are Essential
Your greeting should be audible and clear, it should include the company name, department name and your name. Additionally, at the end of the greeting, you have to assure the caller by saying that you are ready to help. Blake’s contact centre technology, integrated with CRM, helps agents greet the person with his name and creates a friendly impact at the beginning of the conversation.
Listen Carefully & Actively
You need to pay special attention to the customer’s query. The opening statement of the customer will usually tell you the most important information. Once you have listened to the customer, it is very important to give an immediate response, which gives him/her the message that you had listened to what was said. You may not have the answers to all the queries and concerns of your customers. Sometimes, you may have to transfer the call and tell the customer politely that you are transferring his/her call to another person.
Build Trust
Trust is key, not only for the interaction to progress smoothly, but also to build positive brand awareness for the company. Trust is based on ethical principles such as character and competence. It requires truthfulness, honesty, reliability, loyalty and integrity. In order to ensure that your staff is trustworthy, monitor their behaviour and adherence to your company’s values.
Get Maximum Customer Information
Who, what, when, where and how should be covered when taking care of your customer. Blake makes use of an integrated CRM platform to fill in the details gathered so that the customer is not asked the same questions if he/she calls again.
Remember, Customer is King
Be empathetic with customers at all times. If you have to put the caller on hold and the customer doesn’t want to wait, you should offer to have the concerned person call him/her back at a convenient time. Any inconvenience to the customer has to be apologised for. After ending the call, make sure the concerned person calls the customer and solves the issue satisfactorily. Such actions will help boost the credibility of your company.
Always Have a Plan B
Agents should anticipate the unexpected and be prepared to change course when necessary. Agents should always be flexible, welcome the change and keep the customer informed of the reasons for the change.
Alternative for solutions is the most important part of customer interaction management. If you are lucky, the customer may even accept your alternative. Nevertheless, before you end the call, always make sure you express gratitude to the customer for his patronage.
End on a Positive Note
Never underestimate the importance of ending the call on a positive note. Key actions for ending calls include:
– Repeating any action steps you’re going to take to ensure that you and the customer agree on what’s going to be done.
– Asking the caller whether you can do anything else for him or her.
– Thanking the customer for calling and letting him know that you appreciate them bringing the problem to your attention.
Customer Interaction Management is not a simple thing for a company and in order to increase customer loyalty, experience is essential. The Blake Group has proven to be more than ‘just’ a BPO Solution Provider. Our story started over 27 years ago, gaining the trust of some of the nation’s biggest companies setting us apart as one of the most forward-thinking and successful industry leaders nationwide.
Whether you need sales, customer service or quality assurance support, whether it’s low or high volume, whether it’s local or offshore, the team here at Blake Connect has a call centre solution for you.
Contact us for more information.