Customer services

What do Customers Want from Their Brands this Year?

The name of the game in the intensely competitive business world is to stay updated. The year has turned and with it many new trends are already starting to emerge for customer support services in 2015. It is essential that the business owners know about these and use the call centers to cater such services to their customers. Often the base of general conceptions is shaken by new findings. There will be plenty of them this year too. At times these findings will shake the core concepts of customer support services. A question has been raging in the customer support circles: do brands really know what their customers want from the customer care representatives?

Statistics Suggest Efficiency Triumphs over Personalization

Over the years many call centers outsourcing companies have been baffled by results. They have tried their best to personalize their services, yet the customer satisfaction quotient has remained low. The thing is: they have missed a vital point. While they were trying to impress the customers with personalization the person on the other end was in search for quick and viable responses. A recent survey conducted by Intelli Response Systems Inc. asked more than 1,000 customers what kind of relationship they wanted with their respective brands and the findings were:

  • Efficiency in transactions was voted by 59%.
  • Need for personalized services were voted by 24%.
  • Saying a professional Good bye was voted by 11%.
  • A likable interaction was voted by 3%.

Every customer service organization is trying to personalize its services. The industry pundits are also indicating that personalization is the need of the hour. However, the survey proves that this is more of a poetic talk than the reality. Most of the customers do not rate personalization as important; they want efficient services that will ease their tensions.

The Solution

Customers needBut the results of the survey however should not instigate you to totally abandon personalization. It has won the second most votes. Customers definitely crave for attention and personalized services. Most of the customers want to be the center of attention when they are speaking with the brand. But delivering efficient services is the most important road map to win the hearts of customers. By being efficient, brands can cater good customer experiences. The agent-customer interactions are an indicator of how much thought a brand has put on the key touch points. If a brand has to survive in the competition, than the balance has to be right. Some of the ways to get the balance right is mentioned below:

Let Employees Find Faults

There seems to be a secret rule book which states that the agents of call centers outsourcing services will be responsible for dealing with customer interactions only. They shall have no say in the customer service policies. This is a waste of opportunity. You have to get the things right. Who interacts with the customers as a part of their duty? It would be the customer care representatives. They are the people who spend all their time talking with customers and thus they are the best people to learn about things customers like or dislike. The representatives should be asked to pin point certain policies that are hindering customer satisfaction. They should be asked to suggest best ways to remove these flaws.

Employ Agents who put the Customers First

If you really want to improve the customer satisfaction ratings then you have to create a culture within the organization that puts customers first. The culture can be changed if the recruitment’s are made with the customers in mind. Instead of hiring seasoned pros that are good at handling customers, the companies should invest in hiring representatives who share empathy and create a positive impact upon the customers. If the customers recall the pleasant experiences they have had talking with your representatives, they will definitely return back in the future days.

Make Communications Clear

This happens a lot with the technical support processes. The fact is certain agents who have a detailed idea about technology that is involved with a certain product start using jargons in their communications. While it may seem very simple for the agent, it becomes Greek to the listeners. To cater customer satisfaction simple and clear vocabulary should be used. The agents should be inspired to use common person's language. They should be inspired by a Rewards program to speak simple words. The practice should be followed for both internal and external communications. Why is it necessary for internal communications? Often a problem is too complex for the agent to solve on his/her own. In such situations the technical team or other departments have to be involved. If the agent communicates with these internal members in a language filled with jargons then there will be a big miscommunication that could lead to customer dissatisfaction.

Understand the Essential Customer Touch Points

To keep the customers happy before and after they purchase products, the companies should engage in research. There is need to identify the key customer touch points. These touch points should be identified for each customer service channel used. Based on the findings there should be special agent training programs devised to make customer interactions even better and more efficient.

Stay Proactive in Approach

No matter whether it is telecom billing OSS or customer support services there is need to take a proactive approach if you want to please customers this year. There should be a special team formed that would look through the interactions of the last day and identify the problem areas. These would be detailed to the customer service agents to avoid recurrences of the same mistake. Addressing the problems on time will help you provide efficient services to the customers.

The paradigms of call centers outsourcing will change slightly in 2015 with the changing needs and mindset of customers. The brands need to identify the problem areas and mold their strategies targeting customer satisfaction.

A post shared by http://www.vcaretec.com/

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