Anyone running a business knows how important it is to retain a good relationship with customers and clients. These people are paying for products and services, after all, and often they will not pay simply for a good product or service — they want the whole package. This means attentive customer service specialists available and ready to be contacted when the need arises. One of the easiest ways for a business to fail is through poor service. Clients and customers become annoyed when they call for help regarding an issue or defect, and they are completely willing to cut ties with a company should their be no answer when they call help lines, for example. Easily, companies like this can fall to the competition if the competition offers better customer service. At the same time, it can be difficult to ask employees to work odd hours and constantly be on that line. It’s also not cost-effective to hire someone in-house to answer calls 24 hours a day and seven days a week. In fact, if you do wish to handle that in-house, you will need several employees. This is why many companies use live operator answering services. Live operator answering services keep the phone lines open and ensure that customer service is up to the standards that it should be. Let’s look into how this service works, and its many advantages.
Working Without A Call Handling Service: The Drawbacks
Many companies do not begin by using a live operator answering service, and they quickly discover the drawbacks to this approach. For one thing, it’s important to remember that 59% of Americans would switch to a different company if it offered a better customer service experience. Good customer service is not a “plus”; it’s a necessity. An estimated 78% of Americans have cancelled an intended purchase due to poor customer service, and 45% will stop an online order if they feel that their questions have not been properly answered. Most Americans do like to have their questions answered over the phone. It makes them feel more comfortable, and the experience is certainly more personal. A big issue that many find with customer service is that it either isn’t available or does not provide the necessary answers. Often, when professional live operator answering services are not used, there either isn’t someone available to answer questions, or the person who does doesn’t know how to do so professionally. Those who work for 24 hour answering services are simply more equipped to do the job and do it well.
After Hours Answering Services: What They Do
Seen as a form of outsourcing, after hours answering services are available 24/7 to answer customer questions. They could be there to field concerns, and for that matter could be acting to walk clients through certain steps, whether they need help troubleshooting or starting up a service of some kind. Due to the nature of such companies, the people answering phones are not overtired, working in normal shifts. At the same time, many are prepared to work at night. This is especially relevant for companies that ship products internationally, as often customer service calls will be coming from different time zones. Usually, these operators will work off of basic scripts, but will do so in ways that are less forced and more natural. In this sense, everyone benefits.
Fielding Calls: The Issues With Keeping Customer Service Answers In House
It’s one thing to have an employee answer customer service calls during the day. This can be handled in-house in some cases. It’s another issue entirely to have employees answer calls throughout the night. Not only is it difficult to find people who can work those hours — they will often need to be compensated to a degree that isn’t affordable for the main company. With that being said, it is much more prudent financially to outsource this type of service. This way, the employer gets the amount of operators they need, while at the same time not overspending.
