Posts Tagged ‘Call Center Service’

Developing Positive Agent to Caller Relationships

Friday, July 8th, 2011

The key to a successful call center is having highly trained, specialized agents who are friendly and also ensure callers that they are in good hands. Sometimes, prospective clients may be hesitant to commit to something over the phone. An effective call center agent will help callers overcome these fears and turn leads into appointments, order placements, or whatever the goal of the call may be.

Business Identity and Caller Empathy

When handling incoming calls, agents should always identify themselves right away with his or her name and the company they are representing. After politely inquiring about the reason for the call, agents should be patient while letting the caller fully explain their questions or concerns. Allowing the caller to speak without interruption helps develop a trust factor. When the customer is finished speaking, agents should display a level of concern for their needs and follow up with probing, relevant questions to help resolve the issue at hand. As a call center, one of your main goals is to ease any uncertainty the caller may have about making a commitment later in the conversation.

Establishing Desires of Clients

When prospective clients make the very first call to a business, they may not know exactly what they need or even what to look for. This is where call center agents use custom scripting and industry training. Call center agents must ask probing questions to discover the caller’s needs, collect useful information, and develop a rapport.

Eliminating Cancellations

Post-call remorse may occur after getting off the line with a caller who has agreed to set an appointment, purchase a product, upgrade a service, etc. Many agents will rush to get off the phone after upselling, cross-selling, or appointment setting in order to avoid sudden changes of heart from the caller. While this may seem effective, it can actually leave the new customer feeling regretful and panicked. To significantly reduce cancellations, call agents should follow a post-close script that will leave the caller confident in their decision to utilize the business’s services.

Call center agents who develop a healthy rapport with callers are proven to capture more leads and make more conversions than those who do not establish an agent-caller relationship.

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Posted in Call Center Service, Virtual Receptionist, Virtual Receptionist Services | No Comments »

Are You Selling Socially?

Monday, March 21st, 2011

The Internet is a great way to sell, but how do you find the right people online? Check out some of these small companies and web sites that can help your sales force effectively use social media.

  • Online vendors – eBay and Craigslist are great ways to reach a large market, but find a niche market for what you sell. Check out sites like www.clickbank.com or www.amazon.com to find categories or sites like www.etsy.com to direct sell your products/services.
  • Promotion – Once you find the right place, let people know you’re there. Your sales people can promote products on Twitter and create a company fan page on Facebook.
  • Group buying – This is becoming more popular with sites like Groupon, Deals for Deeds and Social Buy. Remember that most of these sites are regional so make sure you find one in your area or one that will sell your products online.
  • Foursquare – This is a powerful tool, allowing salespeople to offer rewards/special deals to loyal customers or new ones. Some businesses offer certain discounts only on Foursquare. It’s a great way to measure the effectiveness of specific promotions.

Regardless of which route you pursue, beware of one thing – preserving your brand. Define your brand and determine how to market it without compromising your authenticity. Then you can use social media to sell your products or services with real results.

If you have advice to share on how to use social media in sales, please share your comments below.

Frances Starr, Director of Sales & Marketing for Alert Communications.  Alert Communications provides 24/7 call answering support including: Call Center Service, Live Answering Service, Spanish Answering Service, Attorney Answering Service, Virtual Receptionist Service.

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Posted in E-ffective Marketing | No Comments »

Don’t Damage Customer Loyalty on Your Web Site

Monday, March 7th, 2011

Chances are your customers will either find your business online or visit your site once they purchase from you. So are you doing everything you can to build customer loyalty online?

I could give you a long list of things to try on your web site to increase customer loyalty, but I’d rather give you some tips to make sure you don’t lose it.

  • Keep it simple – If your web site is too difficult for people to navigate, they will look elsewhere. Use easy-to-read signs to guide them, and make sure your navigation bar is simple and in the same spot on every page.
  • Deliver on promises – Nothing is more aggravating than finding out “guarantees” are only lip service. If you’re not going to do it, don’t put it on your site.
  • Limit bells and whistles – You want people to immediately know what you do. Don’t distract them with flashing icons, pop-up windows and rotating banner ads.
  • Be current – Promote new products, services, discounts and special offers. Tell people when an out-of-stock will return. Don’t frustrate them by waiting until check out to tell them.  
  • Don’t hide your contact info – If it’s too difficult to reach you, visitors may go elsewhere. Offer a variety of ways to reach you – toll-free phone number, e-mail address or a live, online chat.

While you work to discover new ways to build customer loyalty with your online presence, be sure your site isn’t working against you.

Is there something else you’ve done to make sure you’re not damaging customer loyalty? Please share your comments.

Frances Starr, Director of Sales & Marketing for Alert Communications.  Alert Communications provides 24/7 call answering support including: Call Center Service, Live Answering Service, Spanish Answering Service, Attorney Answering Service, Virtual Receptionist Service.

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Posted in Community Service, Cultivating Customer Loyalty | 1 Comment »

Go Ahead, Cross the Line — to Call Center Services

Monday, February 28th, 2011

Have you ever thought about where an “answering service” ends and a “call center” begins? It is not just a numbers game. While a high call-volume certainly requires call center services, you also may need that service if you want agents to do more than simply take a message.

At Alert Communications our call center agents can handle order entry and management via your web site. We develop scripts and protocols to qualify leads 24/7 to  drive higher sales, while up selling and cross selling. Agents can even submit leads to your sales professionals via call transfer, e-mail or fax. Alert agents also support your direct-response advertising on the Internet or on billboards, radio or television.

Our call center agents are skilled at managing emergency-response calls for a variety of industries. For national chains such as Roto-Rooter® and Aire Serv® Heating and Air Conditioning to smaller HVAC businesses, plumbers and electricians there is the need to respond quickly to customer calls and coordinate repairs. Our call center agents follow your specific instructions to contact repair contractors, schedule appointments and manage the repair process through to completion.

You can customize Alert’s call center services to meet your business’ requirements, knowing you are working with agents who receive specific training to gather the information you need quickly and efficiently.

If you need more than just what a basic message provides or your call volumes are growing quickly, talk with Alert to learn more about our call center support services.

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Are you taking advantage of Click to Call on your website?

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

Click-to-call, also known as click-to-talk, allows a person to click on an object to request an immediate connection with someone in real-time either via phone, Voice-over-Internet-Protocol or text. Click to talk requests are most commonly found on websites but can be included in e-mails, blogs, wikis, flash animations or video.

Using Click-to-Call Service for Your Business

When a customer enters their phone number into your Click-to-Call, both your phone and your customer’s phone will ring and you’ll be on the phone together.

Click-to-Call turns website clicks into phone calls, by making it simple for customers to ‘call me now’. Click-to-Call service helps reduce website abandonment, increase lead conversion and improve online marketing analytics. Additionally, a 24/7 call center enables you to instantly respond to your click to call web leads.

Key Features to Look For in your Click-to-Call Services

  • Instant and easy web configuration
    In just minutes you can embed a Click-to-Call link into your website.
  • Hidden Click-to-Call for web form lead generation
    Do you ask your website or landing page visitors to submit their contact info into a web form? With Click-to-Call, you can automatically call back customers and prospects as soon as they submit the form.
  • Advanced phone call routing functionality
    Many Click-to-Call providers can route callers based on your schedule, or connect callers to a regular toll-free or local phone number.
  • Complete call tracking reports about each call
    You may want reports about each call, including the referral source and keyword of traffic to your website, the page the web visitor called from, the duration of the call and more.
  • Insert as a link in a web page, email, PDF, or application
    You can easily use a Click-to-Call anywhere you can insert a link, including a website, email, PDF, social network profile and more.
  • Ideal for web form verification
    When visitors submit information into a web form, trigger an immediate call to verify a phone number, ask survey questions, offer an opportunity to opt-out, and much more.
  • Works on any website or content management system
    Using Joomla, Drupal or WordPress? No matter how you’re website is built you can implement Click-to-Call by simply copying and pasting a few lines or code.

Another thing to consider, if your business is open on the internet 24/7, then who’s answering your click to call when you’re not available.  Using your phone companies call forwarding feature forward your telephone line to a reputable call center when you’re not available and ensure you never miss a new client opportunity.

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Posted in Small Business Tip | No Comments »

Well Trained Answering Service Agents Are a Must

Friday, February 26th, 2010

If ever I’ve been tempted to handle a phone call in a less than professional manner (yes this has happened), I think about virtual receptionists, answering service agents and call-center staff. They don’t have the luxury of letting customers even think they might be gritting their teeth. Fortunately, there’s training available that helps these folks create win-win situations out of the most emotional calls.

The first step is to be able to split yourself into two. (Just kidding, but it can help.) One “you” needs to step back and look at the call from outside all the emotions. The other “you” has to decide how to diffuse the situation. At this point, an agent may benefit from visualizing Robert Plutchik’s flower-petal model of emotions to determine exactly what the customer is feeling. Once he knows that, he knows how to manage the call by asking the right questions and letting the customer know he understands his distress and will help resolve the problem.

Through it all, agents need to remind themselves to hold onto their composure. If they lose that, they lose — period. Plus, they must remember they ARE their customers’ business as far as that caller is concerned. Every caller is important, and should be treated courteously and professionally, no matter the emotions involved. With the right protocol many customer service issues can be handled by the call center.  However, when a call is escalated directly to their client, the call center agent should know how to document a caller’s emotional state so their client can quickly and efficiently handle the situation.

While agents are busy splitting themselves into two, they need to remain flexible throughout it all. Every situation is different, and what worked well with one caller may not help the least with another. It’s important to hit just the right tone with callers. Not aggressive, but assertive enough to take control of the call. And definitely not passive. It’s best to engage the caller, identify and acknowledge their feelings and assure them that they will be helped, while gathering the necessary information in order to do so.

The next time you’re tempted to slam the receiver down or hit “End” on your cell phone, take a deep breath and figure out how to turn the call around. I promise to try and do that the next time I’m “discussing” my prescription coverage with my insurance provider.

Frances Starr, Director of Sales & Marketing for Alert Communications.  Alert Communications is a 24/7 bilingual inbound call center, specializing in professional attorney answering, virtual receptionist, Spanish and business answering solutions.

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Posted in Attorney Answering, Cultivating Customer Loyalty, Virtual Receptionist | 1 Comment »