With increasing online and global competition, customer service is becoming an important differentiator for businesses. It doesn’t matter if you are running a multimillion-dollar corporation or a small business. What matters is that you provide excellent service for your customers. In today’s world, that means contact centers.
Some people are surprised that call centers still exist in 2019. Between email, texting, and instant messaging do people still make phone calls? The reality is that most people still prefer to make a call and get immediate help. They don’t want to wait to get a response to email and messages. So, you still need call center phone services to handle support for customers.
Types of Contact Centers
Contact centers come in many shapes and forms. A typical contact center will handle multiple types of communication including voice calls and emails. A call center handles only voice calls.
Some call centers handle both incoming and outgoing calls, while others are dedicated to a specific type. Inbound call centers are what most people are familiar with. Customers can call a number to get a product or service support. Outbound phone call centers handle processes like market research, marketing, providing offers for customers, etc.
Why Contact Center Phone Service is Important
Did you know that 70% of customers will disconnect the call if they cannot speak to a person? While you can use auto-receptionist and IVR options, most people prefer to talk to a human being. It means you need a VoIP call center phone service that can handle any volume of calls. Additionally, the system should be able to connect most customers with a live agent instead of putting them on hold.
Another reason contact centers are important is to retain loyal customers. Customer churn happens when an existing customer leaves your business for a competitor. Research has shown that businesses can reduce churn by 67% if they can solve customer problems in the first interaction. That means a customer should not have to call back repeatedly to solve the same issue.
As a business owner or manager, you understand the importance of contact centers. Did you know that your small business phone system can work for your contact center also? That means selecting the right phone service just became even more important. In today’s digital age, the best business phone system means VoIP phone services. But why should you select VoIP over other technologies?
Here are 10 ways VoIP phone service can improve customer service in any industry.
1. Never Miss A Call
You know how important it is for customers to speak to a live person. Now can you imagine the effect of a customer not reaching your business at all? With call center VoIP phone service, you can make sure your business will never miss a customer call.
You can set up rules so that incoming calls are directed to the next available agent. If all agents are busy, they can be directed to a group inbox to leave a message. You can even mobilize extra staff at a moment’s notice and direct incoming calls to employees working from home!
2. Decrease Response Times
No customer appreciates waiting for a solution to their problem. Few people like to be put on hold or to be passed between different agents. By using VoIP phone service in your call center, you can make sure customer calls are answered within a few seconds. You can use automatic routing rules so all agents get equal opportunities to answer calls.
VoIP systems have many useful features that allow agents to talk to managers or supervisors to quickly solve customer problems. Use them to resolve queries faster than your competition!
3. Allow Agents to be Flexible
VoIP phone systems are location independent. What does this mean for your employees? It means they are not chained to a desk anymore. They don’t have to come into the office to do their work. Give your workers the opportunity to work from home or a coffee shop. It means you don’t have to staff a large office and pay infrastructure costs.
As an additional bonus, you can also recruit the best talent from anywhere in the country. You are not restricted to people who are able to come into the office every single day.
4. Save Costs
Most business owners know that you can save money with VoIP. Practically any VoIP phone service will be cheaper than your existing solution. But how does that improve customer service? By decreasing the costs of phone calls, you can spend your savings on improving processes. Implement innovative ideas to improve customer service in industry-leading ways.
5. Improve Collaboration
Use VoIP phone service to improve collaboration within your business. Hold virtual meetings where agents from different offices can discuss strategies to improve service. Encourage open communication and facilitate collaboration between teams. It is a win-win situation for your business and your customers!
6. Analyze Customer Interactions
VoIP phone service allows you to record calls for later playback. Use these recordings to train new agents. Supervisors can analyze past interactions to highlight the best and worst moments. Give your agents the opportunity to improve their performance with metrics and statistics.
VoIP systems also integrate with CRM/productivity tools. Create call and usage reports to see overall trends in the business. Anticipate demand so you can better serve your customers. Consolidate all your customer information – including call records – in a single location for easy access!
7. Scale Up or Down Easily
Business growth is often unpredictable. Your phone service should be able to handle the extra volume at a moment’s notice. You shouldn’t keep customers waiting just because of unexpected demand. VoIP helps you do handle that.
Businesses pay only for the resources they use, not a penny more. It means you can easily downsize or expand according to your business needs. Say goodbye to long queues and hello to instant response times!
8. Automate Simple Queries
You know that most customers prefer to talk to a live person. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes a customer just wants to know their statement balance or account status. They don’t have to wait in the queue with others, only to have a person give them one number. It’s a waste of time fr clients and your employees.
What you can do is automate these processes with the IVR feature available with any good VoIP phone service. Allow customers to hear quick answers to common questions like payment dates. Once again, this is a good example of everyone winning.
Customers with simple questions can get answers instantly. Employees get more time to handle advanced queries. From a business perspective, you’ve just made your processes more efficient. Everyone wins!
9. Improve Accessibility for Customers
While many customers prefer calling a business for support, there are times when email or text messaging is preferable. VoIP phone service consolidates multiple communication channels into a single interface. That means customers can use whichever method they prefer at the time.
A customer can start the process via email, make a phone call for follow up and get updates on their phone. They and your employees can easily follow up without losing the thread of the conversation.
VoIP phone service can also improve accessibility in other ways. For instance, implement calling from your website through WebRTC integration. With a single click, customers can contact support. No more hunting for the right number to call!
Improving accessibility also enables your business to handle customers with different needs. Older citizens who can’t hear very well may prefer texting. Visually impaired customers may like to speak with a person. Provide more opportunities for your customers to get in touch with you.
10. Provide Cross-selling and Up-selling Opportunities
Instead of having separate inbound and outbound call centers, consolidate all your processes into a single office. This provides opportunities for your support agents to cross-sell and upsell customers on different products and services.
Most people do not like getting offers about products they are not interested in. But you can utilize the opportunity when a customer calls your support teams.
For example, suppose a customer is calling about a specific product. After resolving the issue, the agent can give them information on add-on products, service contracts, and other related services. They can also remind them of upcoming service appointments. This allows your support agents to build a relationship with the customer for even better service. Remember that happy customers are loyal customers.
As you can see, these are just a few ways you can improve customer service with VoIP phone systems. There are innumerable features you can use to customize the system for your business needs. Gone are the days when you had to work with what’s there. Today, if a feature you want isn’t there, your provider can usually build it for you.
Check out how VoIPstudio can help your business improve customer support. Call us today to use our demo and experience the difference yourself!
