When it comes to reducing customer churn, improving CSAT scores, and encouraging repeat purchases from your best clients, abiding by these call center best practices are key. This is because, though there are multiple stages in the customer lifecycle where something could go ‘wrong’ – and it inevitably does, since all businesses make mistakes – it’s invariably how your business reacts to these mistakes that either inspires loyalty or outrage in customers.
How Big Of A Difference Will Call Center Best Practices Make?
The data shows, without a doubt, that customer service directly impacts businesses’ bottom lines.
For instance, American Express found in one survey that “seven in 10 US consumers say they’ve spent more money to do business with a company that delivers great service.” What’s perhaps most interesting, is that one good or bad interaction can have ripple effects for (at least) months to come. As reported in the Harvard Business Review, researchers who investigated more than 400,000 customer service related-tweets and subsequently followed up with their owners, discovered that “customers remember good and bad customer service experiences, and they’re willing to reward companies that treat them well.”
But there is one caveat to keep in mind: it’s not a case that the more you spend on customer service, the better the results. In fact, it’s better to put concerted effort into unique points in the customer cycle, and expend resources on particular actions to keep customers happy, to get the best ROI for your buck. Let’s talk about the absolute best call center best practices that will move the needle for your business.
1. Ask For Feedback
Since your agents are literally ‘boots on the ground’ workers, it pays to hear what they have to say – and this extends to implementing their feedback into your sales cycle.
For instance, if your agents’ only capability is to discuss issues with customers, but not actually take any concrete action – whether that’s a refund, a referral to a higher up, a shipping a new product, and so on – they have no power or agency to change an interaction. Discuss with agents what they believe would make customers happy, while also protecting the business – this might mean offering vouchers in lieu of a monetary refund, giving one month free subscription, opening an investigation into their case, and so on – and then implement agents’ feedback.
If in doubt? Trial at one of two customer service centers, and see how it goes. Once agents feel heard, they’re likely to do a better job, exhibit higher satisfaction levels, and overall interact more patiently and empathetically with customers. This will also mean less worker turnover, which is a major plus for your long-term business growth.
2. Empower Your Agents
The better an agent is able to grasp, understand, reiterate, and trouble-shoot a customer service issue, the better.
This means they can help more customers in a set period of time. And, they can overwhelmingly increase CSAT scores while they’re at it (since your clients won’t want to spend all day on the phone either). The solution to empowering agents? Technology.
Specifically, AR-powered customer service tools like Help Lightning, to help your call center representatives to diagnose and resolve an issue the first time round. Here’s a little background on how it works. Customers receive a link to connect via video call with a customer service representative. From there, both parties can annotate on screen, import documents to the call, freeze images, add text, and much more. With merged reality, agents are empowered to understand what a customer is up against. They can now help them solve the issues themselves on that same call. All this without need for a truck roll or further action.
Learn more about some revenue-generating use cases for augmented reality in business.
3. Align Incentives
When you get a good customer service agent, you’ll want to hang on to them. Especially since this is an industry known for high stress and high turnover. The best way to keep your favorite employees is to align incentives: this means outlining and sharing a clear career progression path from day 1.
In other words, the quality of interactions with customers, the happier customers report feeling after a call. It’s the best balance agents can strike between first call resolution rate and time spent on a call. All these are key metrics that should be tracked and measured.
Make sure to reward hard work and excellent results with promotions, bonuses, and even better office perks!Interested in learning more about the benefits AR-powered software could offer your business? Schedule a no cost, no obligation demo here.
