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sThis article on Emerging Technologies was originally posted in CallCentre Helper a leading contact centre magazine in the US on Wednesday, January 16th, 2019.

1. Robotic Process Automation

How does Robotic Process Automation (RPA) work?

RPA mechanises each of the activities that are required to resolve a customer query from the contact centre, back office and beyond in the quickest time possible. By automating manual processes which are of a simple, transactional nature and require little (if any) subjective judgement the contact centre can give advisors other tasks, of greater value.

What benefits do these technologies bring to the contact centres?

The value of RPA is in making the workforce more efficient. These technologies also eradicates human errors in many processes, helping to prevent costly mistakes and consequently sustain high levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty. RPA also frees employees from the burden of monotonous, repetitive tasks, allowing them to focus on performing more enjoyable tasks. This increases employee engagement and leads to a better overall customer experience. Other key benefits of RPA include; automating updates and alerts, maintaining consistent customer communication and providing employee desktop support aids.

2. Passive Voice Biometrics

How does Passive Voice Biometrics work?

Passive voice biometrics verifies each caller’s claimed identity during the first few seconds of a call through natural conversation with an advisor, or even before the agent picks up the phone. Also, these technologies can trigger advisor guidance or fraud protection actions when needed, in a superior way to the initial voice biometric implementations, which mainly involved text-dependent speaker authentication.

What benefits do these technologies bring to the contact centres?

Passive voice biometrics brings the same benefits as earlier biometrics systems, but it is even more accurate and helps to deliver a more seamless customer experience. These benefits include; speeding up traditional verification methods, being a proactive anti-fraud measure (allows the contact centre to create a voice signature for fraudsters) and enabling other secure services. What is meant by “enabling secure services” is that voice biometrics can be used for self-service functions as well. These include password resets, digitally “voice signing” documents and gaining access into secure systems.

3. Internet of Things

How does the Internet of Things work?

The Internet of Things, in regard to the contact centre, involves connecting each contact centre system, computing device and product together, via the internet. While the Internet of Things is something that many of us will have in our houses, to connect our phones with our televisions and so forth, it can be used to the same effect in the contact centre.

What benefits do these technologies bring to the contact centres?

As the Internet of Things continues to develop, forward-thinking contact centres are already seeing a number of benefits. One of which is by automatically detecting problems. So, if a washing machine starts to fail, with the Internet of Things the device can transmit a message to the organisation that it needs fixing – removing the customer from the process altogether. With this interconnectivity, call volumes will likely fall, there will be an increase in the number of data sources that are available for analysis and the contact centre can increase its proactive engagement with customers. While the technology is in its early stages of development, many companies such as DHL, Hitachi and Rolls Royce – are all using in the Internet of Things across their organisations, in the hopes of generating ROI.

4. Smart Desktops

How does Smart Desktops work?

In many contact centres, advisors will have to use multiple systems to gain access to all the necessary customer data. However, a smart desktop would:

• Hide architectural complexities
• Use a single sign-on – i.e. advisors don’t need to log into numerous different systems
• Use an intuitive User Interface (UI)
• Offer smart guides – which can analyse conversations and give advisors feedback

What benefits do these technologies bring to the contact centres?

The main benefit that smart desktops bring is that they reduce advisor effort by mechanising, guiding, and presenting useful information about the customer and the query type. This helps to boost productivity, while improving the flow of contact centre conversations. As well as this, smart desktops can guide best practice, so when faced with a challenging call type, advisors can check user guides to seek additional support. Furthermore, smart desktops encourage collaboration by connecting advisors with other departments. For example, the advisor can just use their desktop to connect with someone in finance to help solve a customer issue. Even the simplest smart desktop which integrates all the disconnected CRM, back-office systems and multichannel communication into a single UI can help to generate an ROI.

5. Soft phones

How do Soft phones work?

A soft phone enables anyone to make phone calls from their general-purpose computer without having to invest in specialised communications hardware. The latest soft phone models provide plug-and-play functionality. These can be found within communications platforms such as Skype for Business, Jabber and Aura.

What benefits do these technologies bring to the contact centres?

Soft phones are becoming ever-more popular as contact centres move away from traditional PBX hardware. They allow advisors to take calls from any device, anywhere, and efficiently manage their calls via their desktop, without the need for additional hardware, such as handsets – helping to reduce cap-ex. The soft phone also provides features such as call management, personalised settings, call status dashboards, and much more besides. Aside from the savings on company-wide call hardware, soft phones enable workers to be more productive as they can more readily manage calls and liaise with supervisors and colleagues – as well as improving the experience for advisors.

6. Wireless Headsets

How do Wireless Headsets work?

Wireless headsets are a technology that enables workers to move around their workplace more freely. The latest technologies provide a range of up to 150 metres without affecting call quality and, as office space is continually being squeezed, they are also focused on improving density without affecting the call experience.

What benefits do these technologies bring to the contact centres?

The customer journey is changing in contact centre where automation replaces routine, transactional calls. Complex enquiries and complaints are reserved for business-critical calls with human interaction. In accordance with this, it is beneficial for contact centre advisors to be more mobile, so they can move around the office, to consult with other team members or to look through documentation.

Providing greater mobility improves employee productivity by enabling users to move anywhere to source the information or advice they need to resolve the customer’s enquiry. By using wireless headsets, the contact centre will more than likely see improvements in individual or collective productivity, percentage of calls successfully resolved, the speed of resolution and the number of agents in a single space without having an impact on call quality. Each of these factors will potentially result in a significant ROI.

7. Predictive Analytics

How does Predictive Analytics work?

This technology uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to find patterns in the huge volumes of data that is associated with customer interactions. It then uses these ‘patterns’ for predictive scoring and discovery of key business insights. Interaction analytics tools, which already have the capacity to automate call categorisation and scoring, use AI and ML to accelerate the process of identifying patterns in the large volumes of data.

What benefits do these technologies bring to the contact centres?

Being an interaction analytics tool, predictive analytics has a number of uses that can benefit the contact centre. Some of these include:

• Predicting outcomes to interactions, such as the potential to close a sale, or the likelihood of customer churn
• Surfacing new trends or points of interest – such as the causes of increase in key metrics (call handle times, call volumes, dissatisfaction, repeat contacts), or agent performance challenges
• Providing this early insight that enables the contact centre manager to brief agents. This way they handle emerging customer needs and expectations more effectively

8. Mobile Screening

How does Mobile Screening work?

Mobile screening is a technology that identifies the network status of mobiles before you attempt to contact them. This provides a means of avoiding invalid, switched off, or roaming numbers. By interrogating the mobile network, screening technology is able to determine whether or not the intended device is contactable. If a device is unavailable, rather than send the call, the screening software stops the call being made automatically. It then moves straight to the next number for interrogation.

What benefits do these technologies bring to the contact centres?

Generally one in three mobile phones either switched off or roaming overseas. Also, bad or disconnected numbers typically account for 10-15% of most calling lists. So, there are economic and strategic incentives to introducing mobile screening. Also, contact centres are able to save on connection costs by avoiding unreachable numbers and identifying bad or disconnected leads. Filtering out these individuals increases internal efficiency. This eliminates time wasted trying to connect calls, and potentially boosting connected calls by up to 40%. According to West Unified Communications’ research, mobile screening can cut connection costs by 50% and increase talk-time by 37%. This means that contact centre can expect a considerable ROI and improved productivity.

9. Chatbots

How do Chatbots work?

A chatbot is a piece software that can be used in calling or messaging applications. It automates processes for a customer in a manner that simulates human interaction. By conducting a conversation via audio or text methods. Chatbots are typically used in dialog systems, with the simplest systems scanning for keywords within what’s been input by the customer. They then matches that with words and phrases it recognises, so it can then respond appropriately.

What benefits do these technologies bring to the contact centres?

Chatbots are now sophisticated enough to be able to provide a ‘human’ approach to automated communications, taking on some of the day-to-day, mundane tasks and simpler requests. This allows for a personalised service without draining the usually corresponding human resources. When aligned with an effective brand voice, some are even charismatic. Also, chatbots have infinitely more stamina for long hours than their human counterparts. This allows for 24/7 contact at consistent service standards.

Moreover, chatbot interactions collect large amounts of data that can be used to improve and review exchanges with the customer, monitoring an individual’s purchasing patterns and behaviours. Finally, chatbots can identify the route that customers have taken across a site to reach them, spotting where organic traffic generates well, and where traffic is or isn’t converting into sales and proactively engage with customers as a motivator or a guide.

10. Cloud-Based Solutions

How do Cloud-Based Solutions work?

Cloud-based contact centre solutions are a growing trend within the industry, with more organisations investing in cloud contact centres. Depending on the size of an organisation, cloud contact centres are an evolution of the on-site call centre system to a cloud-based system, which is usually adaptable.

What benefits do these technologies bring to the contact centres?

Cloud contact centres, like NICE CX One, offer a unified suite by combining omni-channel routing with technologies. Services such as workforce optimisation, analytics, automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI), allows organisations to:

• Increase and reduce size with full elasticity to address immediate operational needs in a pay-as-you-go model
• Focus their energy on customer experience and innovation rather than on infrastructure integrations
• Connect customer journeys in a highly personalised way across all channels
• Turn smart, state-of-the-art analytics insight into results in real time
• Unlock employee potential, and engage, motivate, and optimise the workforce

For too long contact centres have been seen as a ‘necessary evil’ as opposed to a ‘strategic advantage’ in business. However, due to changes in technology we are finally beginning to see a shift in a change of mindset. Why? 

In a market of full employment, culture and customer service are core to a businesses brand. The need for reliable customer service in a competitive business environment is a necessity. But in my view, another element that is really driving this change is the contact centres. They have the ability to deliver value to other departments within the business.

Just think about the value it can deliver to your sales, marketing, and back office teams. This is down to the vast amounts of information we can gather about your customers. Then it’s no wonder it has been instrumental in driving better customer service. Technology has enabled us gather, not just their demographics and account data, but also their wants and needs. In addition with the growth of artificial intelligence we are able to capture conversations. Which we then transform into insights on buying behaviours. This begins with in-depth analysis of cross-channel customer interactions. Enabling us to fully understand customers’ expectations, needs and wants, and how well it is responding to them. We can deliver this through interactions across all points of contact; phone, email, chat etc.

So, how does this translate into value for your various departments?

When you consider your sales department, it provides an understanding of how best to respond to your customers. Especially when you are up-selling or cross-selling. It then lets you know exactly who and when to offer your products and services to. Your marketing department can gather valuable information about how your customers feel and gain insights on your competitors. This allows you to adjust your campaigns on the fly to achieve a greater return on your investment.

With breakthroughs in real-time decision making and enhanced technology platforms, routine processes can be automated. Your back office team can be intuitively guided to achieve the best possible outcome in even the most complex interactions. It also ensures that human interaction does not deviate away from the policies and procedures that have been integrated into your processes. In the past, information like this has been impossible to obtain and act on without expending great effort or expense, hence the reasons that contact centres have developed such a bad name. But, by having it readily available and easily accessible companies can now substantially improve performance. Both at departmental and business-wide levels.

It’s a long road, but we are getting there.

Let’s be honest though, we still have work to do . . . a huge majority of call centres operate offshore in places like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Philippines and South Africa as it provides businesses with a perceived economic advantage. Some may think that this is a good way of doing business, but in a lot of cases they are just large centres with a lot of bums on seats. Because of the locations, do they really carry out a needs analysis to assess whether or not they can support their partners with relevant solutions for the client.

In CallPageboy, we approach every customer in a similar fashion, whereby we gather information on industry experience, cultural fit, operational fit, technology fit and how we need to scale based on the opportunities we can deliver. The beauty is we never close, so 24/7 we are there for you gathering these insights to help you realise your long term strategic goals.

Our aim is stop being seen as a ‘necessary evil’ and to shift the dial so we become a strategic business partner. We can do this by becoming the conduit for valuable information for your various departments throughout your organisation.

This article on Artificial Intelligence was originally posted by Peter McGuire for the Irish Times on Thursday, March 7th, 2019.

Young people have stopped picking up the phone to complain. Instead, they’re increasingly likely to do business over web-chat, messenger or Twitter. As artificial intelligence advances, it’s likely we’ll all be chatting with even more automated and intelligent bots. Even if they appear on the surface like a human customer service agent.

In February, the CEO of Citigroup, Mike Corbat, suggested that “tens of thousands” of people who are currently working in their American bank centres are likely to be replaced by machines. A few days later, a report from two economists at University College Cork suggested that two in five Irish jobs might be supplanted by Artificial intelligence, with administration and customer service roles at particular risk, although another economist later suggested that their report was “overstated” and “fear-inducing.”

So what’s the reality for contact centre workers?

What jobs are at risk?

Dorothy O’Byrne is managing director of the Customer Contact Management Association (CCMA), which represents contact centre management and encourages knowledge sharing and continuous professional development in the sector. “Customer service has evolved with new social media and digital channels,” she says. “Less calls are being handled and there is a lot of messaging, web-chat and automation coming into contact centres. From our perspective, the industry is growing and thriving and the challenge is recruiting people. And as an industry, we embrace AI: it means that companies can do more in customer service. Using simpler, more transactional activities supported through tech and the higher value tasks handled by more skilled advisers. Our members see opportunities to up-skill staff to handle more complex queries.”

O’Byrne says that their members are already using technology to engage with and understand their customers. “Artificial intelligence can do incredible things but you need to use data to establish patterns and knowledge, and this means we need people with data analysis skills. So the roles might change, and the operations might become more sophisticated but, even with the advances to date, we haven’t seen significant job losses in the industry – indeed we’re seeing more recruitment, particularly at eir.”

Micromanagement

Ian McArdle, telecoms national officer for the Communication Workers Union, represents workers in the postal, IT, telecoms and contact centre industries, and he’s dubious about claims that increased automation won’t lead to job losses.

“Telecom Eireann (the precursor of eir) once employed 15,000 people but, the advent of better technologies and more sophisticated platforms, that fell to 3,000. Pay in the sector is typically quite modest and it’s usually considered to be entry-level work. It’s quite heavily managed and that can make conditions quite difficult if a centre isn’t well-run. Staff turnover can already be quite high. Automation can perhaps improve productivity and enhance the customer experience, but it can also lead to further micromanagement.”

Intercom, an Irish firm that provides large and small firms with software that allows them to better communicate with their customers, is one of the firms that is disrupting contact centres and reducing the need for staff. Des Traynor, Intercom’s co-founder and chief strategy officer, says that traditional firms such as Domino’s pizza are increasingly becoming internet businesses, while the movement of software firms like Adobe and entertainment companies like Spotify and Netflix into subscription models means that customer loyalty and relationships have become more important. “There’s no point in getting a customer who leaves after a month. We knew that our tools could unlock customer relationships and loyalty, and our core intuition since launching intercom in 2011 – that every business needs this – has proved correct.”

Changing times

Younger customers in particular don’t really want to pick up a phone anymore and expect to do business by web-chat and text. “Bots are able to do and more,” says Traynor. “Things change: WhatsApp and text has disrupted voice calls and, indeed, tech-based chat – which didn’t exist ten years ago – has changed how we communicate. The old ‘call centre’ with people on headsets has changed. Today, we see a more quiet room with people talking to customer via messaging.

“Tech changes jobs, but while the numbers working in agriculture fell from 50 to just two per cent, we didn’t see more unemployment. This is because new tech evolves jobs, it doesn’t kill them. ATMs meant more bank branches opened. As a result, the cost of business decreased and productivity rose. So, we created more jobs. And nobody’s calling for the abolition of cars as a way to bring back jobs in the horse and cart industry.”

New technology

Barry Aldworth, a senior media officer with AA Insurance, says that tech and AI are becoming more important. We have already deployed in both of our Irish contact centres. “The AA app is often the only way in which an AA member will contact us to report their breakdown. It tells us where they are and what’s wrong, and we then have a mix of intelligent software and intelligent people to make sure we send the right resource. The customer can track us on the app in real time until we arrive.

For our insurance, administration and customer service, we have technologies like web self-service, web-chat and web-bots. We see these becoming more important in the future but not directly instead of our contact centres. I suspect the mix will be different but right now and for the foreseeable future. We are hiring staff, not just for these roles but across the board.”

Humans still want to talk to other humans

Michael Madden, professor of computer science at NUI Galway is a principal investigator with the Insight Centre for Data Analytics. He believes that humans still want to talk to other humans. “Empathy and comprehension are important for people, particularly if they’ve encountered a problem [with a product or service],” he says.

“Machines are still a far distance from replicating anything close to empathy or common sense. Tasks such as balance requests and transfers can be automated quite well but there are tasks that require common sense – such as picking up a mistake that leads to a transfer of €10,000 instead of €10 – which a machine is not going to pick up on. Computer systems can outperform humans in a clearly and crisply defined set of narrow fields, such as chess or Go, or reading handwritten digits to convey handwritten zip codes to barcode. But they are nowhere near artificial general intelligence.

“Occupations don’t get automated, tasks do. Jobs are different from 15 years ago, but predictions of mass unemployment or short working weeks have not happened; we are having this conversation at 7.45pm and are both working late. So I’m always skeptical of these claims.”

McArdle, however, says that change is inevitable and we need to prepare for it. “It’s hard to predict the extent of how jobs will be impacted, but automation has wiped out a lot. Especially for younger workers are low-paid and cannot meet the rising costs of living. It means that we need a policy of properly funded lifelong learning. So people who lose jobs can retrain, and good, decent employers who recognise collective bargaining rights.”

Crunching the numbers: Artificial Intelligence and contact centres in Ireland

• 60,000 : The estimated number of people working in contact centres and shared service in Ireland*
• Employers include : Fexco, Blizzard Entertainment, AIB, Sky Ireland, Paddy Power, Paypal, SSE Airtricity, eir, Virgin, Vodafone, Voxpro, Eishtec, Convergys
• €29,652 : Average salary in administration and support services roles
• 160 : The number of staff working in the AA’s administration, customer service and insurance contact centre
• 750 : The number of in-house customer care jobs that eir intends to fill
• 450 : The approximate number working at the Insight Centre for Data Analytics. Through an initiative between researchers at DCU, UCD, NUI Galway and other institutions. This has received over 100m in funding and with over 80 industry partners
• 600 : The number of people employed by contact centre disruptor Intercom, including at least 200 in Ireland

*According to CCMA Research

The phrases ‘cold calling’ and ‘outsourcing’ can send chills down the spines of many business people.  It’s often viewed as an intimidating, difficult, and a boring process. Because of this, they generally get ignored. However, outbound telemarketing campaigns can be a great way to reach new prospects. You have the option to communicate a message, gather feedback, and determine what the next step should be. In a normal process, somebody in sales should make hundreds of cold calls so they could set up appointments and generate leads, often with a low conversion rate. However, most sales people prefer to close sales and not instigate them, so outsourcing the task is never high on priority lists. Here are some tips when considering outsourcing your telemarketing to CallPageBoy:

We specialise

If cold calling is an effective way to introduce your company to new prospects, then don’t ignore it. Instead of getting your sales team to devote time to prospecting, why not use an outsourced telemarketing group like CallPageBoy to make a high volume of calls. This way we can find you the decision makers and provide quality leads for your own sales team. If you leave the prospecting to us, then your salespeople can spend all of their time selling and closing. Your company can produce more revenue in the same amount of time. Furthermore, your own sales team earn more commission, doing what they love, and they’re more satisfied with their jobs.

Estimate your call volume

In most cases, your call volume drives your headcount, software needs, phone system and the office space you’ll need.  If you’re thinking about outsourcing, these are the first questions we will ask:

• How many calls will we need to make and over what period?
• How long is the campaign and do we just need to call a certain number of potentials or is it an ongoing initiative?
• Are we calling into different time zones?
• Are there certain days of the week, month or year that are most important when making calls?
• If you were making the calls, then how many calls you can complete in an hour?

This way we’ll have a basic estimate on the number of calls and hours we will need. Remember that it’s tough to get decision makers on the phone. A good sales person may only have a handful of quality conversations each hour and everything else is usually a callback.

Budget for everything

Don’t forget the incidentals as these are costs that can sneak up on you. If your budget is skyrocketing, it becomes harder to generate a return. These are the considerations that we need to make:

• Headcount
• Headsets & phones
• Workstations
• Long distance charges
• Extra phone lines
• Software licenses
• Bonuses and incentives
• Management

Develop a good script

We can work with you to develop good scripts that we will keep fine-tuning. We need to capture peoples attention, build value, and close; a good script will help us do it consistently.

• We will make your scripts conversational, simple, and focused on the end goal.
• It helps if you listen to calls as we are developing and refining your script. What looks good on paper may not work on the phone.
• Get feedback from your team as well.

We make it fun

Telemarketing is a tough job and turnover is a big issue. We aim to keep the energy high and our team are never bored or unhappy. Believe it or not, it comes through in their voice.

This article was originally posted by Peter Dorrington for TTEC on April 5th, 2019.

We’re experiencing an explosion of choices. The digitalisation of industries allows consumers to source nearly anything they want from anywhere in the world. And this has led to the commoditisation of most products and services. As a result, companies need new ways to connect with their customers and differentiate themselves from the competition. Enter emotions. I’ll explain why emotions play a vital role in driving excellent customer experiences (CX).

Customer engagement is emotional engagement

As I explained in my recent CX Workshop, “Customer Experience, It’s How You Make Me Feel,” in today’s world more choice often means more complexity, and humans always try to simplify complexity. This gave rise to many goods and services becoming commodities with few differences in product quality. The ease of access and ‘on demand’ services also weakened customer loyalty. What’s more, measures of satisfaction are no longer predictive. Therefore, we need to understand customers better so as to deliver tailored, personalised experiences. Our perception of an experience is complex, being driven by past emotions and social norms. Experiences are also judged by logic and feelings. And what a consumer takes away or recalls from an experience will drive their next decision with your company. Therefore, it’s critical to understand how emotions can drive an exceptional CX program.

The heart of the customer experience

Humans hate complexity, they’re looking for simplification. What that means for many organisations is don’t offer customers more confusing choices, make the decision process simpler for them. For example, highlight the key differences between similar products or explain how the products complement other products. Saving time for the customer by simplifying the selection process creates value and can generate positive emotions. What else can companies do to leverage the power of emotions in driving better customer experiences?

Read more…

Every company has goals for their business and one of these is, more often than not, to increase their overall revenue each year. In order for companies to do this, they need to ensure that their customer and client database are satisfied with their products and services. However, to get their customers to this stage, they need to have an effective lead generation strategy. Most individuals are unaware of the role that call scripts play in generating and nurturing a lead to the point where they become a loyal customer. When most people think of call scripts they often imagine a call agent sitting at a desk and reading from a generic piece of paper. This is far from the truth. Call scripts have proven to be extremely useful tools for lead generation. By having the right resources and understanding the needs of the potential customer, a call agent can provide a positive customer experience from the first point of contact.

Benefits of Call Scripts

Used as part of a lead generation strategy, a call script can:

• Provide consistency – Having a call script ensures that a customer will receive the same quality of response and service provision regardless of which agent answers the phone. These call scripts are crafted specifically for each company and ensures that each customer has the same experience with your company and brand.
• Increase satisfaction and loyalty – Call agents who have been efficiently trained at frequent intervals will understand the changing face of the customer service industry and will have the appropriate knowledge to effectively communicate with customers across a range of channels such as social media, live chat and over the phone. This in turn will lead to increased levels of loyalty and satisfaction among customers.
• Increase in-house productivity – A call script can be incorporated into your CRM and IVR systems, allowing call agents to easily access customer information and therefore, respond to their needs more efficiently.
• Relate to real customer experiences – Over time, by listening and understanding your customers, a call centre can adapt real life experiences and scenarios into their call scripting meaning that they can truly empathise with customers and provide them with a positive customer experience.

At Call Pageboy our aim is generate quality leads for our clients to ensure more sales and ultimately, more revenue. Our lead generation services include call scripting, appointment setting, data collection and diary management by an expert sales team. If you are interested in learning more about our call centre services, please don’t hesitate to contact us here.

This article was originally posted by Datamark on September 19th, 2018.

It’s no secret; technology runs the world. It is intertwined with almost every single one of our daily functions and tasks. It helps run our personal, professional and social lives. The world of technology is both fascinating and complex. It is also extremely competitive. In order to remain relevant amongst a myriad of brands, companies need to craft a competitive niche and build reliance with its customers. Branding is vital in the technology sector. Consumers want to have trust and confidence in the brands they interact with.

That is why companies do not need the distraction of having to design, build, and maintain an in-house contact centre. This time-consuming task leaves little to no time for brand enhancement. But branding isn’t simply placing your logo and design on your product. Yes, product recognition is important, but having it be synonymous with great customer service is equally as important. Outsourcing your contact centre can alleviate that problem for your company.

Read more…

This article was originally posted by Michelle A. Shell and Ryan W.Buell for HBR on April 15th, 2019.

When people feel anxious, it’s human nature to turn to others for help. For example, an apprehensive taxpayer might want guidance from an IRS agent in interpreting a new tax law. A distressed patient might want to speak with a nurse when making sense of his blood test results. This type of behaviour is quite common. Yet many companies in high-anxiety settings – like financial services and healthcare – are funnelling nervous customers to self-service technologies (“SSTs”) – kiosks, websites, and smartphone apps – isolating them at the precise moment when they’re most keen for connection. It is clear that these technologies are a less expensive customer service option to offer than human support. But what’s less clear is the toll these self-service interactions may take on customers. Is it an effective way of helping customers deal with their concerns? Or is it exacerbating customer anxiety and doing long-term damage to customer service relationships?

In our research, we set out to understand these questions. Through two lab experiments and one field experiment conducted in financial services, we found that anxious customers interacting through self-service technology feel dissatisfied with their decisions even when those decisions appear aligned with their goals. Their dissatisfaction reduced their trust in the service provider. But our results also reveal how a simple, and surprisingly low-cost, change – offering access to a readily-available human – can reverse the negative effects of customer anxiety.

The domino effect of customer anxiety

We set our research in the financial service industry because it is riddled with uncertainty and complex decision-making known to provoke anxiety and distress for its customers. In our first experiment, we simply wanted to understand how situational anxieties – those outside of the company’s control – can crossover to affect the way customers feel about their service providers.

Read more…

When businesses think of outsourcing services to a call centre, they often presume that this just involves services that handle overflow call volumes, after hours support and diary management. While this is true, many are unaware of the fulfilment services that they can also avail of.

Outsourcing these services can be extremely beneficial for a company regardless if you are or are not already using a call centre service provider. During periods of the year when customer demand may be higher such as the Christmas or summer periods, a fulfilment service will both store and dispatch all your company material eliminating the need for you to.

What benefits does it offer?

A fulfilment service offers the following benefits to companies:

• Provides flexibility – Allowing a third party call centre to store and dispatch materials such as welcoming packs, marketing materials, brochures and application forms means that your company no longer has to get bogged down by storage issues and manual handling. This ultimately gives you more time to focus on the aspects of your business that matter most.
• Reduces costs – Without the worry of handling fulfilment services, this will cut down on in-house expenses tremendously. For example, extra staff will not be needed nor will storage space, utilities, moving equipment and packing supplies. Outsourcing means that you are only paying for certain services rather than incurring unnecessary overhead costs.
• Provides access to improved technology – A call centre has access to the latest technological improvements in software and hardware machinery. By outsourcing these services, you ensure that your company’s database, inventory and shipments are kept up to date.

At Call Pageboy Contact Centre, our dedicated fulfilment department responds to your customers needs and requirements either via post or email within minutes of them getting in contact. We integrate our email system with yours so that our agents can reply to your customers directly from your domain. For postage requests, we dispatch all order from our storage space and ensure all customers next day delivery. If you would like to know more about the services that we offer, please don’t hesitate to contact us today.

This article was originally posted by Amanda Roosa for Zendesk on February 25th, 2019.

Omnichannel is the new buzzword in the customer service industry, and everyone is trying to get a piece of the action. However, is this hype real, and do you need to become the next expert in it? In layman’s terms, an omnichannel solution integrates all your customer service channels in one place to maintain context and end siloed conversations. It also allows your team to quickly reference who the customer is, what conversations they’ve had and what they may have bought from you in the past. In short, yes, omnichannel is all that, and more. But how do you know when it’s time to switch to omnichannel customer service? If you’re wondering whether you’re in need of an omnichannel customer service solution, below are some tips on what you should look out for:

Low agent capacity and/or overworked agents

Is your ticket volume increasing? Are your agents feeling overworked and stressed out? No matter your agent capacity, if your agents are inundated with emails, calls, and inquiries, and feeling overloaded, something needs to change. In the world of customer service, there’s nothing more stressful than your ticket backlog rising due to a lack of resources. If your agents are constantly switching between channels, user interfaces and unable to communicate and collaborate in real time, there are serious consequences—think low CSAT, low ASAT, and a general lack of support efficiency.

Service is inconsistent across channels

Another telltale sign you need to integrate your customer service channels: if your team is delivering inconsistent support across channels. Do you make customers repeat their issue over the phone if they’re transferred to another person? Or, say a customer emails you about an issue, doesn’t receive a response, and now they’re calling you but you have no idea they already emailed you. Customers don’t know which channel to trust and in an age of distrust in companies, that’s a mistake companies can’t afford to make.

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This article was originally posted by Datamark.net on September 12th 2018.

For public health to continue to progress and improve, pharmaceutical companies need to invest their time, money and efforts in what they do best; developing medicine by completing the necessary research for effective treatment. Their primary focus is on scientific advancement, not in worrying about establishing a functioning contact centre for their customer care. By establishing an outsourced partnership, pharmaceutical companies can gain multiple benefits for their company. Here are a few reasons why pharmaceutical companies should consider an outsourced contact centre.

Provided training, facilities, and technology

An outsourced contact centre is an alternative to an in-house contact centre for pharmaceutical companies looking to provide an exemplary customer experience. Because outsourcers provide the training, facilities, and technology needed for great customer care, pharmaceutical companies can keep their focus on medical advancement and not on developing call centre agents to properly handle their customer care. The facilities and technology expenses are covered by the outsourcer by spreading it across multiple clients, keeping the pharmaceutical company’s costs relatively low.

Trust that your brand and product will be well represented

Outsourced contact centres employ highly trained and experienced agents. The agents can be trusted handling the company’s brand and product. Agents are trained to be an ambassador of a brand, continuously creating favourable experiences for the customer. Agents at outsourced contact centres are trained by expert management and support staff in quality assurance by using the most trusted and modern technology and methods, improving the quality of service the customers receive.

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This article was originally posted by Shaista Haque for Ameyo.com on September 22.

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Technology is advancing on a daily basis at an alarming rate. It is inevitable that all businesses will need to adapt to these changes in order to continue competing in their respective markets and to satisfy customers. These updates also determine the level of expectation that customers will have of a company’s service support and operations.

Investing in call centre technology can help your company raise the bar in terms of customer service provision. Not only will it allow you to increase productivity and communication but also and most importantly, customer loyalty.

Benefits of Call Centre Technology

Today’s customers have become accustomed to being able to contact a company on their own time and terms. The customer journey has entered the era of omni-channel communication and businesses need the right technology in order to keep up. These advances in customer service technology provide the following benefits to companies:

• Customer insights – The various big data platforms and software programs that are now available to call centres can provide a company with extensive insights into their customer database. From having instant access to data on behaviour, customer interactions with the company and their satisfaction levels, a company can accurately improve the customer journey. This will ultimately provide deeper insights for marketing strategies, lead generation campaigns and product innovation.
• Evolving support software – As technology progresses, so does the ability of customer support services to adapt and talk with their customers across a wide range of channels and methods. Call centre technology allows call agents to begin a conversation with a customer on live chat and carry it across to phone or email without disrupting the conversation and keeping the customer journey consistent.
• Increased security – An outsourced call centre provider can offer a company back up services in the event of a disaster. This means that all your company’s and customers information will be kept and held in a secure space. For example, if your company experiences a power outage, a call centre will be able to continue providing your customers with high quality customer support regardless of the hour and will update database information so that your company can have peace of mind knowing that your data is secure.

Here at Call Pageboy Contact Centre, we believe that the most successful part of a call centre is the technology infrastructure and resources that it offers. Our resources allow us to offer our clients and their customers 24 hour support, responding to customer needs in a quick and efficient manner.

If you would like to know more information about investing within call centre technology, contact us today.

This article was originally posted by Mansi Bhatia for Ameyo.com on March 13 2019.

Are you still in two-minds about whether your business really needs self-service support since you already cater to most of the channels such as an email, voice and even social media to some extent? Well, the answer is simple – Yes and for good reason. Self-service usage increased from 67% in 2012 to 76% in 2014 (Forrester). Which is only going to increase with the changing times. The millennials, also known as the digital natives are tech-savvy and rather comfortable with finding and implementing the solutions on their own, without seeking help.

If we go by this logic, then offering self-service support not just makes sense but is actually the need of the hour. Having said that, how should be the businesses incorporate it into their customer support strategy? By having a helpdesk software which comes with an array of self-service options. Let us look at some of the ways to offer self-service support to your customers as well as the agents with helpdesk software.

#1. Customer Portal for Ticket Management

A customer portal is basically the go-to place for customers to request services or raise support tickets. Having an effective customer portal significantly reduces the workload of the agents as the customers are now able to raise a ticket and even follow up on the same using the portal. This in turn also help in improving the brand reputation. To further instil a sense of authenticity and add credibility to the portal, it is always a good idea to align its look and feel according to the overall theme of your brand. Such as using the same colour scheme and adding the brand logo.

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Recognised as the digital-savvy generation, millennials are categorised as individuals who were born between the early 1980’s and mid 1990’s. They are a generation of hyper-connected, tech-savvy and busy multitaskers who seek convenience from the brands they interact with. They see themselves as self-expressive individuals who can influence fellow millennial purchasing behaviours by sharing their personal experiences. Statistics show that as high a number as 40% of Millennials refer to online reviews and testimonials before purchasing a product.

The importance of millennials to companies in today’s world can be seen in their spending power. By 2020, the millennial population is projected to spend $1.4 trillion shopping each year. Therefore it is necessary for companies to adapt to this generation’s preferences in order to stay relevant and maintain their position in the market. And the biggest shift in preferences that companies have seen and will continue to see over the years is in the customer service arena as millennial expectations appear to be quite different than those of generations past. Companies must realise that they need to adapt and become the business millennials want to interact with and purchase from. They need to become more flexible, and provide a more personal, seamless and responsive omni-channel customer experience in order to please this powerhouse of a generation. In order to get a better understanding of how to please this age cohort, one must be aware of their expectations and how they are redefining customer service:

Self-Service Generation

Having grown up well and truly into the Information Age, and during a time when advancements to the internet and technology were progressing, millennials have been used to having access to easily available information. As a result they tend to have a “Self-Service” approach to customer service, hunting information and searching FAQ’s and online communities if they encounter a problem with a product or service, before contacting a company directly. Therefore, companies should show they respect the opinions of millennials and have as much product/service and company information as possible directly on their websites in order to reduce the need for customers to contact them directly. This in turn will benefit the company, as their agents will have more time to deal with the complex  customer service issues.

Personalisation is Preferred

In comparison to previous generations, millennials are more trusting and willing to share their personal information in order to have a more personalised customer experience. Relevance is very important to millennials and so when they contact your customer support, they expect you to know their service history and provide a customer service experience that it not generic, but relevant to them. For a business, this means ensuring you have an intelligent CRM system updated with customer details so you can impress millennials with your knowledge of their needs.

Brand Engagement is Expected on Social Media

As social media is second nature to millennials,  they expect brands to have a presence across all social platforms. According to Microsoft’s State of Global Customer Service Report, about 47% of millennials have previously used social media to voice their opinions about a negative brand experience. Companies need to recognise that social media is a customer service platform and utilise it to respond to their unhappy customers in order to maintain customer satisfaction levels and keep their brand image intact.

Fast Response Times are Crucial

Millennials want fast responses when they reach out to customer service. Time is of the essence for this generation who are always on the go, they don’t like to waste time in a call or live chat queue waiting to speak to a customer service representative. Similarly if they reach out to you on social media, they expect you to respond in a fast nature. In addition recent research suggests that no single KPI has a bigger impact on customer satisfaction than first-call resolution. This is something which is particularly true for millennials who don’t want to be transferred to another agent taking up more of their valuable time. As a result, companies need to have adequate staff working to ensure they can answer all customer queries in an efficient manner. Segmentation of the different customer service topics and queries should be in place to ensure that a customer is connected to an agent who is trained and knowledgeable in the field of the query, reducing the need to be transferred.

Omni-Channel Support is Imperative

Millennials tend to prefer alternative forms of contact over phone calls.  As mentioned above, social media is a huge part of their daily lives, along with messaging apps. They show preference to forms of customer service that are instant and mobile, allowing them to respond quickly wherever they may be. They are hyper-connected individuals with smartphones, smartwatches, tablets and laptops galore. Therefore it’s important to make sure your business offers a consistent and seamless customer support service across all devices.

Call Pageboy Contact Centre understands the importance of providing high quality, omni-channel customer service. We offer a range of customer support services to help businesses in their goal of providing a seamless, hassle free customer experience journey. If you would like to know more about the services that we offer, and how we can help your business, get in contact with us today.

Customer service is a dangerous thing to undervalue. As competitive advantages such as price and location are becoming less relevant, providing excellent customer service and a seamless customer experience are becoming more important. Particularly in today’s era where one bad customer experience can spread across an online community, tarnishing your brand identity in a matter of minutes. A company must remember the importance of every customer interaction, both positive and negative, in order to keep the company’s image intact.

The Negative Effects of Bad Customer Service

To ensure optimal customer service, it is paramount for a company to understand what is expected of them from consumers, and what constitutes as bad customer service. According to a recent American study, 75% of customers believe it takes too long to reach a customer service representative. On average consumers will wait 11 minutes on hold before hanging up, with these times reduced to 5 minutes for online customer service. Poor customer service can be very damaging to the business as 50% of people will scrap a planned purchase or transaction because of bad service, while 51% of customers said they will never do business with a company again after one negative customer experience. As a result $62 billion is lost annually by companies, due to bad customer service.

To make matters worse, this negative customer experience can have a detrimental effect on brand identity. With the rise of social media in the past few years, today’s world is more connected than ever before. Social media outlets provide consumers with a platform to voice their complaints to an increasingly connected online community. The same study shows that the average person will tell 15 people about a poor service experience, versus the 11 people they’ll tell about a good experience. Therefore it is crucial for companies to recognise the influence social media has and the negative effect poor customer service can have on brand identity.

The Positive Effects of Good Customer Service

The study in addition demonstrates how consumers on average are willing to spend 17% more to do business with companies that offer great excellent service, with Millennials willing to spend 21% more. All these statistics combined show how brand and customer service are more intertwined than ever and companies must be very diligent in how they deliver customer service. Excellent customer service provides the following benefits to a company’s brand identity:

• Protects Brand Name – Having excellent customer service ensures helps preserve the brand name. This is important as it improves recognition, creates trust in your brand, helps support your marketing efforts, builds financial value and inspires your employees.
• Attracts New Customers – As the statistics show, having a reputation for providing excellent customer service is proven to be attractive to potential customers. With this better reputation comes increased word of mouth recommendations, which decreases advertising spend, thus helping increase profits.
• Retains Existing Customers – When your customer service is exceptional and exceeds expectations, customer satisfaction levels increase, and with that comes customer loyalty. Increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits anywhere from 25% to 95%.

Call Pageboy Contact Centre understands the importance of providing high quality customer service. We offer a range of customer support services to help businesses in their goal of providing a seamless, hassle free customer experience journey. If you would like to know more about the services that we offer, and how we can help your business, get in contact with us today.

This article was originally posted by Ameyo.com.

There has been a lot of buzz around Customer Experience (CX) emerging as the key differentiator and driver for growth and sustenance in consumer industry. But, what exactly is customer experience and what makes for a great customer experience? Gartner defines it as “the customer’s perceptions and related feelings caused by the one-off and cumulative effect of interactions with a supplier’s employees, systems, channels or products.” Forrester Research defines it as: “How customers perceive their interactions with your company.” Clearly the two basic elements of the definition are perception and interaction.

To simply put CX is how a customer perceives the brand through all the interactions across the customer life cycle. In the modern digital era, customers are well-informed and hyper connected than ever. With a growing number of communication channels, brands are increasingly turning to technology platforms as a way to improve customer experience across channels.

Customer Experience vs Customer Service

A great customer experience begins with a warm greeting from highly trained and knowledgeable call centre agents. In recent years, the expectation of customer service provision has increased greatly. With numerous ways to get in touch with a company and continuous developments in communication technology, customer satisfaction has become harder to achieve. A call agent can have a huge influence on how a customer views a company. If your customer has an enjoyable interaction with a call agent, they are more likely to return in the future. If they receive a bad experience then you run the risk of losing a customer. Therefore it is hugely important for a business to invest in employee training. Making sure that call agents have the knowledge and skills needed to provide customers with the level of service they deserve can have a big impact on the overall reputation of a company. It’s important during the training process to make sure that call agents:

• Have a great attitude – When you think about customer service agents, you imagine someone who has a friendly demeanour and a smile on their face, day in and day out. Ensuring call centre agents display a positive attitude and outlook when interacting with customers is essential to making sure that customers will receive a positive customer service experience when communicating with your company.
• Have the appropriate product and service knowledge – There is nothing more frustrating for a customer than having their call answered by a call agent who is unable to answer their question. By providing high quality client specific training, call centre agents become experts in your business and can provide your customers with the correct support and help that they need.
• Know how to display effective communication skills – Top notch communication skills is vital for working in a call centre environment. Training ensures that call agents know the correct way to handle an array of customer service scenarios. Each company will receive communication from customers who are disgruntled as well as satisfied with services and products. Call centre agents are trained to understand the customer’s needs, listen patiently, respond in a clear and warm tone and provide an effective solution to your customer’s problem while ensuring customer satisfaction during each interaction with the company.
• Understand the correct escalation procedure – Agent training outlines the correct escalation procedures that should be taken by call centre agents. If the situation arises that a call agent is unable to resolve a customer’s query, they will be able to transfer the customer to the correct department without hesitation to ensure that the customer receives the appropriate support that they need.
• Show a willingness to constantly improve – Customer service provision is constantly changing and developing. A call centre agent needs to be flexible to change and know how to adapt new customer service practices to meet customer needs. A high quality training program provides call agents with the skills to work towards targets and KPIs to ensure that business goals are met. By undertaking ongoing training and feedback, a call agent can ensure that their performance levels and standards are kept high.

Call Pageboy firmly believes that each call centre agent plays an integral part in delivering high quality call centre services. To ensure that our client’s customer is kept at the heart of everything we do, we focus heavily employee training, encouraging and motivating our call centre agents to excel at their roles. Call Pageboy provides an initial induction programme and continuous training and feedback to our team through weekly meetings and quarterly training programs. If you are looking for a new career opportunity, check out our online careers page or get in contact with us today to see how we can help you elevate your career today!

This article was originally posted by Gemma Harding for Callcare247.com on October 31, 2018.

In a recent survey by Liberis, the concerns and aspirations of 200 UK SMEs for business growth in the coming year were clearly spelled out. What do SMEs need – and how can a virtual receptionist help them to achieve this? First let’s look at the challenges SME business owners are facing.

What do SMEs need?

• 58% of SME business owners say their main priority is to reduce costs
• Competition is seen as the greatest challenge that businesses face
• 39% are looking to grow their business in the coming year
• The two things that most wish to achieve are a healthy work-life balance (28%) and the ability to reduce wasted time by planning ahead (17%)

How can a virtual receptionist help your business overcome these challenges?

Focus on Growth – Not being able to see the wood for the trees doesn’t quite describe one of the main barriers to business growth. The real challenge is not being able to escape the present to plan for the future. Those phone calls and that admin can constantly distract you from the pressing need to plan for growth. A key benefit of a virtual receptionist is taking you away from the front line. They provide the space you need to focus on growth. They can help you maintain a healthy work-life balance by reducing ‘wasted’ time and allowing you to plan ahead.

Give Yourself the Edge – Customer service can be the key differential in winning customers. And it is certainly the main tool you can leverage to retain customers. It costs around five times more to sell to a new prospect than to sell to an existing customer who previously enjoyed the buying experience. Ensuring you offer a better customer experience than your competitors is critical. Virtual receptionists are faultlessly professional, trained call handlers. They offer impeccable customer service. In a business environment that is characterised by the threat of competitors, gaining the edge on the customer service you offer may help you reach the tipping point to secure that sale.

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The growth and success of a business depends on its ability to attract new customers. While a business can smooth sail along if it has excellent customer retention, it cannot reach its full potential and thrive without a bank of new customers to fuel growth. And so a company will look to lead generation methods to generate new sales leads.

Lead generation is all about finding the right target groups and the individuals within these. If a business has a good quality process, it will make it easier to find the right customer. However many companies still to this day have poor lead generations strategies and many fail to generate good quality leads as they don’t have the correct tools in place. Generally speaking, they tend to lack either some or all of the following:

• A process for qualifying/disqualifying leads
• A process to convert the qualifying leads
• Buyer personas mapped out correctly

Finding potential customers and successfully reaching them is a long and difficult process, and so it is no wonder that many companies get it wrong. The process combines the various marketing actions that businesses can take to reach these potential customers. These marketing actions can either be technology-based which refers to database collection and using other internet based computer programs, or else they can be people-based which refers to direct contact through telemarketing or events. Which a business uses is up to them as both methods of lead generation provide the same advantages for a business:

1. Enables Business Growth – Lead generation drives traffic to a website, thus helping acquire new customers which in turn increases a business’ sales and revenue. Having increased revenue ensures that a business is able to achieve growth.
2. Increases Efficiency – Automated lead generation software ensures outbound marketing is more efficient. Having the appropriate technology not only frees up time that would otherwise be wasted, but it is also more cost efficient as it enables both marketing and sales to work in unison, thus closing any communication gaps that might have previously been problematic.
3. Awards Competitive Advantage – Companies that use lead generation are always a step ahead of their competition. If they can acquire new customers and do it more cost and time efficient than competitors, well then their business has the market advantage.

Having a lead generation specialist will help a business a lot in both generating new leads, and working with the ones it already has. A lead generation specialist can offer a lot of good services but for most businesses, particularly B2B, the most important thing is to generate new leads from outbound telemarketing. At Call Pageboy our aim is generate quality leads for our clients to ensure more sales and ultimately, more revenue. Our lead generation services include call scripting, appointment setting, data collection and diary management by an expert sales team. If you are interested in learning more about our call centre services, please don’t hesitate to contact us here.

For many businesses, Christmas can be the busiest time of the year. As always, strategic planning is hugely important but even more so in the run up to this particular season. Most companies will hire additional staff to cover the festive season but if it’s extra customer support that is required, outsourcing to a call centre could be the answer to a company’s problems. Doing so will not only alleviate stress and pressure on in-house staff but also ensure that loyal customers have their queries resolved, and new customers can have their calls answered, increasing the sales opportunities for the business. Here are some of the many reasons why you should outsource your customer support during the Christmas holidays:

Call Volume Prediction

Trying to predict call volumes can be very difficult for any business during the Christmas season. There can be periods of extreme high call volume and periods of the complete opposite. The average business may struggle to make these predictions accurately, and be left unprepared as a result. A call centre however, has the experience, expertise and technology to accurately predict these fluctuations and be able to respond effectively.

Alleviates Staff Shortage Concerns

During times of high volume, handling calls quickly and efficiently is essential. Many businesses will hire additional seasonal staff to meet these high demands, however this tends to be cost ineffective as they still have to pay the staff during the slow periods when they might not be needed. With a call centre, there is a large number of agents readily available to meet company demands and they will only be assigned to a business on an on-needed basis.

Ensures Efficiency

As mentioned above, it is important to handle customer queries and complaints as resourcefully and efficiently as possible, to ensure customer satisfaction. Call centres have the capacity to offer support over a range of platforms such as phone, email and digital communications. This ability to offer omni-channel solutions means they can quickly deal with customers based on the level of service they require.

Aids Customer Retention

It’s cheaper to retain customers than it is to acquire new customers and so while seeking new sales opportunities is always important, so too is maintaining current customer satisfaction. Outsourcing customer service means that customers receive the attention and special care they deserve that the otherwise too busy in-house staff might not necessarily be able to give them, ensuring that they keep spending their money with the business.

CallPageboy contact centre provides customer-centric services to a range of different industries. Our call centre technology ensures that a business maintains desired customer care service levels while also reducing company costs. Our expert call agents work across all communication channels including telesales, email and social media in order to solve customers’ issues, 24/7 365 days a year, ensuring customers’ queries are never left unanswered. The holiday season is there to be enjoyed, and a business owner can enjoy them fully when they know that their businesses customer service is still running smoothly while they are relaxing. For more information on how we can help your business, get in contact with us with today.

This article was originally posted by Tanya Bansal for Ameyo.com on October 31, 2018.

All businesses will inevitably encounter negative customer feedback at various stages during the lifespan of their company. As much as we all hope that this won’t happen, it is impossible to ensure that our customers will be happy and satisfied 100 percent of the time.

With accessibility to the Internet improving on a daily basis, it is much easier for a customer to share their negative experiences and views online for all to see. The most important part of receiving negative feedback is how your business decides to handle it. React correctly and you may be able to diffuse the situation quickly. React badly and you can be sure that events will escalate further.

Although it can often be hard to deal with negative customer feedback, it’s essential to not take it on a personal level. Below are a few best practice guidelines which you can follow when handling negative reviews and comments from disgruntled customers:

• Assess the situation: If a customer is discussing your products or services in a negative manner either online or to your customer service agents, it is important to understand what triggered this response. Identify the issue that your customer is experiencing and determine whether their complaint is valid or not.
• Respond immediately and appropriately: It is always important to acknowledge and reply to the customer as soon as possible in a respectful and sincere manner. Regardless of how you may feel personally as a business owner or a company employee, be courteous and thank the customer for their feedback.
• Take it as a ‘golden opportunity’: Always use negative customer feedback as an opportunity to see where you can improve your business. Customer feedback may highlight products, services or business processes that are sub-standard. By taking action and making a customer know that their voice was heard shows that your company cares about its customers.
• Follow up: Following up with a customer after receiving a negative customer complaint proves how much their loyalty means to you as a company. If you ensure that they are happy with the solution that you provided, it can improve customer satisfaction and retention levels.

As a call centre, we train all of our agents on a frequent basis to make sure that they are able to perform correctly in all customer service scenarios. Our agents are trained to understand customer needs and provide effective customer solutions. In a situation where a call agent is unable to resolve a customer’s complaint, we follow the correct escalation procedures to make sure your customers receive the support that they need. For more information on how our call centre services can help you manage customer feedback, contact us here.

This article was originally posted by Datamark.net on June 16, 2017.

With deregulation of markets in many areas across the U.S., competition is heating up for players in the utilities sector. Electricity, gas and water providers are competing on the basis of costs, eco-friendly production and customer service. Building efficient production and delivery systems and finding green energy sources are the core competencies of utilities. But customer care may be best when it is placed in the hands of a specialty provider. Here’s four reasons why it makes sense to turn this function over to an outsourcing partner:

1. Outsourcing helps manage the costs of customer care.

Utility providers are experts in building electrical, gas and water infrastructure and delivering supplies to customers. But customer care may not be a core competency, and it can be costly to set up an in-house contact centre: You need to invest in facilities, telecommunication and network infrastructure, desks and cubicles, and computer stations. You need to establish HR recruiting and training teams, and a budget for salaries and benefits…and the list goes on.

It makes better sense to turn the customer care function over to a specialist provider who has already made the investment in facilities and infrastructure, and who can handle hiring and training of staff. Your costs become transactional and controlled by contractual agreements, which can make annual and long-term budgeting and planning easier. Good cost management, including transparency of cost factors is also helpful when the time comes to explain rate increase requests to regulators and customers.

2. As more competitors enter the utilities sector, customer care becomes a differentiating factor.

Deregulation of the industry has opened the doors for more competitors. Electricity providers, for example, will battle for a big share of the market by establishing themselves as leaders in low rates, reliability, eco-friendliness and customer service.

Delivering reliable, efficient power through various means is a utility’s core competency, but customer care is often better left in the hands of an experienced specialist provider. Utilities should find a contact centre services provider that understands the industry and is prepared to handle account creation, billing inquiries, power outage reports and other issues 24 hours a day in a professional and friendly manner.

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This article was originally posted by Infinit Contact on June 29, 2016.

Providing exceptional customer service nowadays requires businesses to not only have the ability to collect real-time data, but to respond to it in real time, too. Access is important, but that’s just the beginning. This is because data is meaningless without the real-time responses that customers demand. If you want to be ahead of the competition in terms if customer service, real-time data should be coupled with real -time response as often as necessary. It’s increasingly becoming the main differentiator that will set you apart from mediocre brands.

Here are three real-time data strategies you can implement today that will engender customer loyalty and long term success.

1. Decipher context clues when analysing real-time data.

Knowing what your customer is doing now is not nearly enough. You should look within the context of the bigger picture to help you piece together what the appropriate response is at that precise moment. This means that you need to be familiar with your client’s past actions and what they did before you arrived at this point.

For example, for a specific customer complaint, you’d be dealing with the issue differently if the same customer had called about the same complaint three times before in the past week, compared to someone calling for the first time. It would help to get as much data as you can from various sources. Collecting as much historical context on a specific issue will inform how you’ll resolve it for each specific case.

2. Use data from mobile and social media to move swiftly.

Businesses are now privy to real-time data, thanks to mobile and social media. It’s the closest thing to having someone personally tell you what a customer is up to at any given moment. This is a goldmine of data that you can use to help you decide what your next marketing strategy will be, but you need to respond fast. Using what you know in real-time will give you a real edge, considering that the latest research says that 75% of people expect a customer service response via social media within one hour.

Monitoring social media will give you a sense of what your clients are thinking and doing at the moment. If you also know the details of your business operations, you can use this to make critical decisions that will impact the bottom line. From product inventory to new product pushes to launching new campaigns, you can integrate real-time data with marketing strategies that align with your business goals and sales projections.

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Here at Call Pageboy Call Centre we are delighted to announce that we have recently been awarded the ISO 27001 certification. While we already have the ISO 9001 certification, we are delighted to have been awarded the latest 27001. The 27001 international standard relates to how we as a company manage the security risks associated with the holding of our clients confidential information. By being awarded this certification, we can prove to our clients and other stakeholders that we are managing the security of their information to this globally recognised high standard. In addition, the ISO 27001 standard provides a framework for information security management best practice that helps organisations comply with regulations such as the European Union General Data Protection Regulation.

What are the ISO Standards?

The International Organisation for Standardisation is a worldwide federation that promotes and develops the facilitation of the international exchange of goods and services. The standards ensure that products and services around the world are safe, reliable and of good quality. The ISO has a number of standards covering almost every industry from technology, to food safety, to agriculture and healthcare. The ISO 27001 standard, as mentioned above is directly related to the management of the security of assets such as financial information, intellectual property, employee details or information entrusted to us by third parties. It can help small, medium and large businesses in any sector keep information assets secure.

Benefits of Achieving the ISO 27001 Standard:

While there are a number of internal benefits for us as a company being awarded this accreditation, it is our customers who reap the most rewards. Having the accreditation allows us to:

• Keep our customers confidential information secure
• Provide customers and stakeholders with confidence in how we manage risk
• Allow for secure exchange of information
• Enhance customer satisfaction
• Consistency in the delivery of our service
• Manage and minimise risk exposure
• Build a culture of security within the company
• Protect the company, assets, shareholders and directors

We are delighted to have achieved this accreditation and combined with the ISO 9001 standard we already hold we are proud that are dedication to provide our customers with the best possible call centre service has been successful.

This article was originally posted by Vandita Grover for Martech Advisor on July 24, 2018.

As the lines between offline and online are blurring, store retailers and online retailers are both redefining the way they function to engage customers and create better experiences for them. Amalgamation of online and offline marketing strategies makes purchasing more rewarding and easier for the customer. Listed below are 5 ways online and offline customer experience are coming together:

1. Online/Offline Framework

Brick and mortar stores have invested in creating better store experiences. For instance, Walmart has combined the online and offline experiences of customers. You can order a product and check if it is available at a store near you for pickup, even if it isn’t, you can still order, and have it shipped to your local Walmart, ready to be picked up, free of cost.

Similarly, online retailers are also toying with the idea of opening up physical stores at select locations for their customers who prefer to pick the products themselves. In January 2018, Amazon opened its first cashier-less grocery store, Amazon Go in Seattle. You can simply waltz into the shop with Amazon app on your phone, pick up items and walk out without worrying about checking out or paying up. You would be billed via your Amazon account. A cool idea that saves your time standing in a queue and lets you handpick your grocery items.

2. Data Harvesting to Understand the Customer Journey

Nowadays companies are gathering data from all possible sources to gain insights into their customer base. The more customer data you have, the better you can analyse and research how offline and online customer journeys are correlated. The data you can harvest comes from your web traffic (session duration, most visited pages, visitor acquisition, keyword rankings etc.), social media analytics, email surveys and analytics, retail foot-fall (store visits), online or offline queries, coupons or vouchers used, time spent on mobile app and much more.

Warby Parker – a digital-first – eyewear frames brand has opened numerous brick and mortar stores in an era where retail is struggling to stand on its feet. Warby Parker gathers information on where their customers are, where they work or travel, population density, number of eyeglass customers and pre-existing customers in an area before deciding on their store locations. Reviewing data points of customer behaviour, tracking user (anonymous) movement from cell carriers and proprietary statistical algorithms assist the brand to figure out a lot about the best place and people to target with the best strategy.

Read more…

This article was originally posted by Chris Theriault for ICMI on March 8, 2017.

Contact Centres, as an industry, have been around since the advent of telephony technology.  That technological era has also enabled us to measure and track contact centre activity quite accurately.  For too many years, contact centres were focused on operating contact centres as efficiently as possible, not providing outstanding customer experience. Our early ability to track and measure activity resulted in a series of metrics being adopted to monitor the overall contact centre performance. These traditional metrics include average handle time, average wait time, occupancy, idle time, and service level among others. These metrics largely have a philosophical basis in Fredrick Taylor’s “The Principles of Scientific Management”, which still have a certain degree of operational relevance.  Even though managing to those metrics resulted in running contact centres efficiently (and thus became the new norm to benchmark against), it also resulted in contact centres blindly managing to those metrics alone, without any analysis of how they are servicing and satisfying their customers’ expectations today. In true Fredrick Taylor style, we still will find those same metrics present in most dashboards and reports used today.

But what about measuring customer experience?

The issue with traditional metrics is that they are largely inward facing to a company. Customer service has evolved since those early days and the relevance of traditional metrics have waned in the current age of customer engagement. It is a fair question to now ask if these traditional metrics still make sense as the benchmark?

Today, contact centres increasingly understand the importance of providing excellent service to their customers, and as a result, they are adopting a customer-centric engagement approach. All aspects of customer contact need to be weighed for effectiveness and striking the perfect balance to maintain a continuous relationship. For organisations to compete and differentiate themselves, departments such as marketing, sales and customer service must coordinate their varying points of contact across all channels – not to inundate the recipient, but to strategically keep the relationship alive.

Read more…

Growth is the key to success for any business. Without it, a business cannot keep up with its competitors in the industry and will ultimately fail. There are a number of ways a small business can grow and a virtual receptionist service is one of the most simple, offering a number of opportunities for growth: 

Provides 24/7 Support – A virtual receptionist gives a business the ability to provide support to their customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It allows customers to have their queries answered in real time, showing customer appreciation which in turn increases customer satisfaction. This superior customer service and increased customer satisfaction should result in positive word of mouth marketing, allowing you to get a step ahead of your competitors and ultimately experience business growth.

Cost Effective – Outsourcing your virtual reception services will help save the business money. The cost of a full time employee and all the expenses that accompany them such as paid time-off, healthcare, training, resources etc can weigh heavily on a growing business. Outsourcing is a fraction of the price, thus allowing you to reinvest the money you save into growing your business.

Increased Productivity – Without a receptionist (or virtual receptionist), employees are forced to take time out of their duties to answer the phone. This interrupts the flow of work, wasting valuable time and decreasing productivity of the team. By outsourcing a virtual receptionist service, you could eliminate these distractions, allowing your team to focus on their daily tasks which would help the core of the business and its future growth.

Helps Generate Leads – Your business’ ability to grow depends on its ability to attract leads and convert them into customers. This is something which can’t be done unless all phone calls are answered, no matter what time of the day, to nurture potential leads. Similarly, phone calls need to be given the appropriate attention in order for the customers query to be answered, something which often isn’t done by pre-occupied in-house staff.

Call Pageboy Call Centre’s virtual receptionist service ensures that your customers receive the highest level of service at all times while adding to customer satisfaction, loyalty and overall customer retention for your business. Our call agents use a variety of methods such as call patching, SMS texting and email integration to ensure that your customers have all of their queries answered in a friendly and professional manner. Our expert call agents work across all communication channels 24/7 365 days a year, ensuring your customers’ queries are never left unanswered. For more information on how we can help your business grow, get in contact with us with today.

The concept of disruption is interesting. If you ask most business people to name a company that is known for being a disrupter, you’ll hear answers like Amazon, Uber and Walmart.

Walmart disrupted local businesses when they came into a community. Uber disrupted the taxi-cab industry. And, Amazon started out disrupting bookstores and eventually moved on to disrupting the entire retail world.

While the companies just mentioned are household names, you don’t have to be a big company to disrupt. You can be a tiny company. Disruption is not about disrupting an industry. It’s about disrupting your competition. Doing something that is so noticeable that it pulls customers to you. So, here are five ways you can compete – and disrupt – your competition:

1. Stop comparing yourself to your competitors – This is a big one. Start comparing yourself to the best customer service companies you do business with. Today’s customers know what great customer service looks like. The companies and individuals who deliver amazing service set the benchmark for everyone.
2. Be amazing on social media – Social media is meant to be social. And, when it comes to customer service, it’s not just about responding to complaints. It’s an extension of your marketing and allows you to connect with your “community. It’s an extension of your marketing. Be appropriately bold and visible.
3. Respond quickly to every customer inquiry or comment – A quick response time can make a customer say, “Wow!” It shows you care, that you’re paying attention and that you want to do business. A quick response time creates confidence, which is one of the keys to creating customer loyalty.

Read more…

The idea of standard business hours has become a thing of the past especially for customer oriented companies. Having an after hours call service can be an invaluable advantage for your business especially for those companies who may not have the internal resources available to provide their customers with round the clock support.

It has become the norm for customers to expect your business to provide support services at all times. An after hours answering service can offer your business the ability to provide a high level of customer service across numerous channels such as email, SMS, social media and more.

Below are some of the advantages businesses experience by using an outsourced after hours call service:

• High level of customer satisfaction – Being able to support your customers with any query they may have and provide them with a solution at any time of the day goes a long way when it comes to ensuring a high level of customer service and satisfaction. This is especially true for those customers who may not have the opportunity to contact you during business hours due to working themselves or for those who prefer to research at night. After hours support services ensures that they are accommodated at all times.
• Boosts reputation – 24 hour call support can have a positive impact on your overall business reputation. By ensuring customers receive a high quality customer service experience whenever they may get in touch increases the possibility of referrals through work of mouth and recommendation.
• Seamless communication – Call agents are trained to provide open and clear communication to your customers across a range of multiple support channels. Be it email, SMS or social media your customers will able to get touch with a customer support call agent and have their problems solved when they are on the go or while sitting comfortably at home.
• Greater peace of mind – After hours call service ensures that your customer service will continue operating even when your in-house staff has gone home. With this guarantee, you can relax in the knowledge that your customers will continue to be provided with the support that they deserve.

Call Pageboy Contact Centre is an ISO 9001:2008 accredited call centre based in Dublin. Our call agents are trained in providing around the clock support and believe in the importance of providing a level of familiarity when representing your business and brand. For those interested in availing of our after hours service, we invite you to meet the agents who will be working for you and see the service in a live working environment. If you are interested in joining us for a site visit, contact us here.

This article was originally posted by Marianne Wilson for Chain Store Age on June 20, 2018.

Sixty-four percent of consumers said they have avoided a brand because of a bad experience they had within the last year, according to a global survey by customer experience management firm Medallia. The findings reveal that customer experience is the top reason consumers cite for choosing a particular brand when making a purchase.

According to the “Customer Experience Tipping Point” survey, the demand for a positive customer experience is especially high in the United States, and while loyalty is on the decline, expectations are on the rise, particularly among younger groups of consumers. For example, 30% of Gen Z and 22% of Millennials surveyed indicated that their expectations of customer experience in online retail are higher today than they were two years ago.

Also, U.S. respondents reported significantly higher expectations than European consumers for personalized experiences, real-time response, and ability to chat with a live agent.

“They [consumers] expect to have a seamless and positive experience and if those aren’t met, consumers know they have options,” said Rachel Lane, solution principal, Medallia. “For companies looking to create a competitive edge, having a strong brand recognition, or even stellar product isn’t enough. Customer experience is the tipping point, and without a strong plan to create and maintain a positive experience, businesses will lose out.”

The study also revealed that:

• A single bad experience can cost a brand a customer. Forty-six percent of U.S. mobile network customers said they are likely to switch brands after having one bad experience.

• Every touch-point matters. Customers expect their experience to be seamless and efficient on and offline. For instance, 56% of online retail shoppers and 49% of retail offline shoppers expect consistent levels of service across physical and digital channels.

• Customers don’t want to be responsible for fixing a company’s mistake. According to the study, 70% of consumers report that they expect an immediate response when they submit a complaint.

Read more…

The call centre has evolved significantly in recent years and is continuing to do so with the most sophisticated technology and infrastructure being utilised. Yet despite this, call centre agents still need to at the top of their game with human interaction playing a huge role in the customer experience. Call centre agents need a particular set of skills in order to deal effectively and efficiently with the customer care queries encountered on a daily basis. While these necessary skills may be developed within the call centre environment, they will also stand to you outside of the office. From everyday uses to helping your career, here are five essential skills you’ll learn from working in a call centre that will stick with you for the rest of your days:

Communication – Call agents need to find a balance when communicating with customers between having a professional manner, giving thorough answers, and still being conversational and friendly. Agents need to remember that customers do need that human touch and small talk is always appreciated to make the customer feel comfortable, yet they need to remember that customers value their time and so communication should be concise. Developing these to a high level within a call centre will benefit all agents as communication skills are vital throughout all stages of life.

Patience – When customers contact a call centre, they usually have a query or an issue that needs fixing and so it is not unlikely for them to be discontent at some level. Call centre agents need to have patience in these circumstances and let the customer explain the issue in full, never reacting negatively to an unhappy customer. If the solution to the problem is technical, which is true for many cases, call agents need to remember that the customer may not possess the technical knowledge needed to understand in full and so must ensure to remain calm and patient while providing an explanation. Being able to keep calm under pressure is something that not everyone can perfect, however after working in a call centre this is a skill that will stand to you for rest of your life.

Organisation – Call centre agents have a variety of responsibilities they need to undertake (all at once) from phone answering, note taking, and updating the CRM system, all while trying to answer the customer’s query. As a result of this multitasking, exceptional organisational skills are necessary to reduce errors during the provision of customer care. While one may enter the call centre environment with what they believe to be good organisational skills, they are sure to develop these greatly and leave with exceptional organisational skills.

Initiative – Part of working in a call centre involves using ones initiative on a daily basis. Dealing with multiple customers everyday means encountering an array of different customer issues, some of which you might not have dealt with before. As a result, call centre agents need to be able to think outside the box and use their initiative to find a solution to the customers problem, building their level of responsibility. Using ones initiative to problem solve is an everyday part of life that call centre agents will have a better grasp of from their experience within a call centre.

Adaptability – Call centre agents need to have a level of adaptability to them. They may have a friendly, understanding customer one minute, and an annoyed customer with little patience the next. Their environment changes with each call they receive and they need to be able to adjust and make changes in response to this. Flexibility is key for call centre agents and this is something that will benefit them for the rest of their days.

All of these are a good set of transferrable skills to have that will stand to you for the rest of your working days. If you are looking for a new career opportunity, check out our online careers page or get in contact with us today to see how we can help you elevate your career today!

This article was originally posted by Shep Hyken on hyken.com.

There is an old saying in the real-estate industry: The three keys to success are location, location and location. I have a similar take on the customer service and customer service world. The three keys to customer experience success are consistency, consistency and consistency.

Of course, there is much more to delivering an amazing customer experience, but if there is something that is a non-negotiable to creating customer loyalty, it is a consistent and predictable experience – one that customers can count on every time they do business with you. The entire experience must be consistent. You can’t be great one day and just okay the next. The moment there is inconsistency, you start to lose the customer’s confidence, and ultimately you might lose the customer.

So, let’s talk about the different ways an organisation delivers a consistent experience.

• The quality of the product or service must be consistent. Whatever the company sells must meet the expectations of the customer, every time. It doesn’t matter how good your customer service is, if the product doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do, the customer will find another company that better meets their needs.
• The different channels customers interact with you and your organisation must be consistent. Today’s customers connect with the companies they do business with in multiple ways. The traditional way a customer communicated with a company was in person or on the phone. Then along came emails, then chat, then chatbots. And, then there are social channels and other messaging apps. This is all part of the digital revolution, and the modern customer expects to have a consistent experience regardless of the channel.
• The attitude of the people who work at the company must be consistent. I’m not suggesting that everyone be a clone of each other. It is the positive attitude and the effort the employees make to take care of their customers that must be consistent. It shouldn’t matter if the customer talks to John one day and Jane the next, everyone comes to work with the plan to do their very best, every day. Regardless of who picks up the phone or responds to a message, the customer will always have a good experience.

When customers talk about the consistent company, they will say things like, “They are always so helpful.” Or, something like, “They are always so friendly and knowledgeable.” When they use the word always followed by something positive about the company, you know there is consistency. Delivering a consistent experience creates confidence. Confidence can lead to trust. And, trust leads to potential loyalty.

This article was originally posted by datamark.net on October 18th, 2017.

Your products, services and marketing messages all work together to shape a brand image for your company. Depending on your target market, your brand has a unique voice: It may say, “upscale and luxury,” or “family friendly values,” or “young, hip and tech-savvy.”

With everything you’ve invested to build your customer fan base, it’s important to remember that the contact centre is the front line for your brand image. If you decide to outsource your contact centre to reduce operating costs and focus on your core business, make sure you work with a partner that understands the importance of being a seamless extension of your brand.

Speaking the customer’s language

A consistent brand image across advertising, websites, stores and contact centres begins with language. For example, if your company is U.S.-based, customers will expect to reach out to an agent who speaks neutral-accented English. Many companies learned this lesson the hard way about a decade ago when they prioritised cost savings over customer service by outsourcing contact centre services in countries where non-U.S. English accents and dialects are common. Their brand image suffered when customers became frustrated trying to communicate with these agents.

Fortunately, the trend has shifted, and companies have brought their contact centres back to the U.S., in regions such as the U.S. Midwest and Southwest, where residents speak with neutral English accents. Another popular destination for contact centre services is nearshore, in Mexico, where the agent workforce consists of many who were educated in the United States and can speak fluent American-accented English as well as Spanish. Additionally, the Philippines remains an attractive offshore destination for contact centre services, thanks to a workforce that speaks English with a neutral American accent.

It’s all about location

Location also is important for maintaining a seamless brand image in an outsourced contact center. U.S.-based and nearshore agents who grew up in and often travel in the U.S. will have an unmistakable familiarity with American culture, history and trending news.

Being located close to your operations will also help ensure agents are familiar with your company’s latest news, leadership strategies and initiatives. Remember, you have customers who are major fans of your products and services. When they call, email or webchat with an agent, they will be pleased to find that the agent is “in the know” about what’s going on with your company. The customer experience will feel seamless and not “bolted on.” Read more…

This article was originally posted on September 27th 2017 by Infinit Contact.

In the past, customer care was accomplished by a simple phone call made by consumers to organisations asking for help about specific products and services. Today, the customer service industry has brought us something larger and far more complicated as customer service is not just only about service but about experience. Currently, customers comes into contact with businesses via mobile phones that they use to buy products, schedule services, communicate inquiries, and register complaints among others. Through mobile phones, the entire online world can receive information about those products and services via texts, emails, tweets, and picture posts. The fact is the age of the mobile phone is here and it is going to rule the customer care industry with an iron fist. Here are 3 current examples how mobile phones are currently running the customer care industry.

1. Social Media Support

As most people today use social media to broadcast complaints, issues, and other comments about certain products and services, most organizations have a social media customer service support system. This emerging branch of customer service has an obligation to monitor all popular social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and check for any issues posted by people concerning their products or services. When they find an issue, they immediately engage in providing proper social media customer service by engaging in conversation with the individuals. They interact immediately and provide valuable information that may provide better service. In addition, many companies today even go the extra mile by giving unsatisfied consumers discounts and freebies on their next purchase or visit.

2. Customer Tracking

Providing excellent customer care for any organisation relies heavily on their ability to dictate customer experience. Dictating excellent customer experience today is all about providing customer care that utilises the right technology mixed with human interaction. In the U.S alone, more than half of adults own smart phones and a large percentage of this number use their devices to conduct many essential activities in their daily lives. To take advantage of how many people are using their phones, many companies are using a new technology known as Customer Tracking that has the ability to track consumers via their smartphones. This technology uses data collection to track and personalise customer experience. An example of an organisation using this technology is Amazon.com that keeps track of what their customers buy and even gives automatic updates on new promos and deals. Additionally this technology will aid customers whenever they visit a particular store.

Read More

When it comes to outsourcing help desk support services, many businesses simply think of the financial considerations when making a decision, often forgetting about the non-monetary considerations. Other factors such as the effect it’s going to have on your customer satisfaction and retention, or on your internal operations are crucial and need to be weighed up by a business. In many cases, outsourcing help desk support services can improve responsiveness and thus customer satisfaction. Outsourcing your help desk services to an external party can bring a variety of benefits to your business:

• 24/7/365 Support: Customers can have an issue at any time of the day or night, and your business needs to be there to help them. For a business to operate around the clock can often be expensive and for some companies not even possible. Therefore, outsourcing makes it possible for you to provide your customers with the necessary 24/7/365 support.

• Expertise: Outsourced call centres have a pool of highly efficient and highly trained industry specific employees who can provide a higher level of customer service. By outsourcing, you are ensuring that your customers are receiving the best in class customer support from a highly skilled professionals.

• Financial Leverage: Outsourcing puts less pressure on a business financially as they no longer have the high and varied costs that come with recruitment and training. Outsourcing generally delivers an opex model of fixed, predictable costs, that is much more desirable to a business.

• Flexible Capacity: Help desk call volume can vary greatly due to seasonal differences among other industry specific reasons. By outsourcing your services, your provider can scale up or down depending on demand, whilst you only have to pay a fixed monthly fee.

• Focus on Core Competencies: Outsourcing allows your staff to focus solely on their day to day tasks, ensuring their focus is on the core of the business.

CallPageboy contact centre provides customer-centric help desk services to a range of different industries. Our call centre technology ensures that your business maintains desired customer care service levels while also reducing company costs. Our expert call agents work across all communication channels including telesales, email and social media in order to solve your customers’ issues, 24/7 365 days a year, ensuring your customers’ queries are never left unanswered. For more information on how we can help your business, get in contact with us with today.

This article was originally posted by Keith Gallacher, on ttec.com on September 30th.

Customer centricity has become a business imperative. While many companies talk about being customer-focused, they are committing acts that will not only fail their customers, but also risk putting them out of business. Earlier this month, I attended the Gartner Customer 360 Summit in San Diego and learned a lot about the future of customer experience and how companies are engaging customers as their expectations continue to climb. While many companies have come a long way in improving customer experience, others are mired by their own antiquated policies and procedures. If you’re doing any of the following, you may be committing a deadly customer service sin:

1. Asking customers for their names when they contact you.
First impressions are everything. Customers want customer service associates to already know who they are when they call. In fact, they expect it. Using a customer’s name conveys respect and demonstrates to the customer that the company understands their needs and appreciates their existing relationship. Are your associates greeting customers by their names? Do you have the analytics in place to determine the genesis of the call? Have you linked their online and offline customer profiles?

2. Sending communication to your customers only when you want to sell to them.
Leading companies know that the key to successful sales and marketing involves a proactive communications approach that touches customers throughout their lifecycle. Is your data analysis complete so that you can reach out to customers about their specific needs? Do you have the ability to contact them at the right place and right time? Are your communications personalised and customised so that they resonate with customers and earn their respect and loyalty?

3. Selling your customers’ information to third parties.
In this age of privacy, selling customer information is a real breach of confidentiality and often results in a lack of trust. While customers’ data is a treasure trove of information, companies must protect their clients’ valuable data. The burden is on you to protect it. Does your privacy policy clearly state how you intend to use customer data? Do you provide the option for customers to opt out of any such practices? Have you installed safeguards to prevent unauthorised access to their confidential information?…Read more.

Whether your business operates in the sector of healthcare, telecoms, security or utilities, customer service is crucial for customer loyalty and driving profit margins. With the rise of social media and the fact that customers can post a negative message online and damage your company reputation in minutes, customer satisfaction metrics have become hugely important. Companies need to invest in customer service and have an established and experienced team in place to provide positive results and assured profitability. Having subpar customer service will increase a business costs as low quality training leads to high staff turnover which increases recruitment costs, while at the same time, increases the need and thus cost of additional future training. Companies should consider outsourcing their customer service. This strategic move enables profitability in different ways:

• Cost Effective – Having an in-house customer service team comes with its own associated costs. Maintaining a high level of employee talent is crucial to customer service provision and so recruitment and training can lead to high overhead costs. In addition, having the latest technology and communication methods such as Automatic Call Distributor, Interactive Voice Response, Call Recording Systems and Voice Biometrics to name a few can increase in-house expenses. Outsourcing removes these associated costs and thus can increase profitability levels.
• Improved Customer Service – By outsourcing to a call centre that holds expertise in customer service, you are leaving the task at hand to the capable representatives, thus increasing your customer satisfaction levels. Having a high level of customer satisfaction not only helps retain customers, but also promotes Word of Mouth marketing, both of which help drive profitability.
• Company Growth – Outsourcing to a call centre allows a business to focus internally on other important issues to allow the business to grow. Managers don’t have to spend time micromanaging a customer service team and creating customer service strategies. HR can focus on recruiting and training employees for other departments in need of expertise. All individuals within the company can focus on the major tasks and responsibilities they have, enhancing productivity that will help the company’s future growth, instead of worrying about a customer service team.
• Greater Efficiency – When it comes to unpredicted traffic, call centres have the flexibility to respond to seasonal business demands in a more timely and efficient manner. They have the technology and the employee talent in place and thus the capacity to scale operations up or down when needed. More importantly, they are able to do so without sacrificing quality service and without disrupting normal business operations, all of which help drive profitability for your business.

Call Pageboy has over 40 years’ experience in the provision of superior customer service, providing your customers with a positive customer experience. We offer a range of customer support services to help businesses in their goal of providing a seamless, hassle free customer experience journey. If you would like to know more about the customer services that we offer, and how we can help your business, contact us here today.

Customer satisfaction has become a hugely important metric in today’s highly competitive business environment. Those business’ that adapt to the customer’s needs and wants will survive and thrive, while for those who don’t, failure is inevitable. For the business’ who have got it right and are thriving today, it’s clear they understand the importance of rock solid customer service. This is more than just “the customer is always right”, this is treating your customers as more than just a source of revenue. It happens by truly going out of your way for them and bringing some sort of added value into the scenario. If you are delivering sincere value to your customers, you have the customer’s best interests at heart and corporate greed hasn’t consumed you.

Any business that is serious about their competitive landscape and future growth needs to understand why customer satisfaction is so important. Not only is it about the obvious fiscal returns but it goes far beyond that, delving into the very existence of who a business is and why they do the things that they do. The following five reasons outline its importance as a business metric:

• It indicates customer loyalty – Customer satisfaction is the best indicator of the likelihood of a consumer to purchase from the same brand in the future. The perceived value from the product/service influences customer’s judgement in regards to their loyalty with the product/service and thus company. A high level of customer loyalty is a good indicator of the company’s future survival and growth.
• It helps retain customers – Research has shown that it is up to 7 times cheaper to keep customers, rather than to acquire new ones. Not only is it more expensive but it is also more difficult to acquire new customers. As retention is so closely related to satisfaction, it is crucial that businesses take proactive measures in maintaining good relationships with the customers to ensure customer satisfaction. This will help in attaining repeat customers and earning brand advocates, thereby earning more customers down the line.
• It acts as a point of differentiation – Studies have shown “89% of consumers have stopped doing business with a company after experiencing poor customer service”, exhibiting how poor customer satisfaction increases customer churn. In a saturated market where competition is high, having excellent customer service and high customer satisfaction acts as a unique selling point. It can help a business stand out from the crowd, acting as a source of competitive advantage.
• It helps in spreading good Word of Mouth – Positive feedback about your company can lead to increased sales and thus revenues, whereas negative feedback can damage your reputation and lead to a decrease in profits. Therefore, maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction is critical to promote good word of mouth.
• It helps predict future revenues – Satisfied customers are more likely to make repeat purchases, whereas dissatisfied customers will likely turn to competitors to purchase. In addition, satisfied customers are more likely to recommend a brand and its products/services. Therefore, knowing you have a high rate of satisfaction among customers can help you predict sales and thus revenues.

Call Pageboy has over 40 years’ experience in the provision of customer service. We ensure that all call agents are expertly trained in providing your customers with a positive customer experience and go above and beyond to maintain customer satisfaction. After all it doesn’t matter if your company sells top of the line products, if a customer doesn’t enjoy the interaction that they have with your company, you can be at risk of losing them as a customer. We offer a range of customer support services to help businesses in their goal of providing a seamless, hassle free customer experience journey. If you would like to know more about the customer services that we offer, contact us here today.

This article was originally posted by Kamna Datt on Ameyo.com on January 12th, 2018.

Traditionally, the competition between hospitals and health organisations primarily depended upon quality of service, speciality of the treatment and the price attached to care. But today, there is a wave of change. While high quality health service is still a primary concern, patients walking through the hospital door equally care about the overall experience they encounter throughout their stay at the facility.

From how they are greeted at the helpdesk, to wait time at the OPD, to in-patient care and experience, every nuance matter. In fact, studies have concluded that “patient experience” should be seen as one of the integral pillars of quality in healthcare. Positive patient experience is also linked to improved clinical outcomes. Given the impact of experience in the overall journey of a patient’s association with the hospital, health care providers can no longer dismiss experience as a mere subjective or mood-oriented matter.

Thankfully, technological advancements is enabling health enterprises leverage patient experience in the most comfortable way. The incorporation of Omnichannel CX healthcare solutions and deployment of IoT is putting health care providers in a better position to deliver the best health care facilities to patients and their caregivers.

What is the meaning of Omnichannel Customer Experience Solution?

Mapping patient experience with technology calls for the integration of omnichannel solution. Today, service providers across domains have no control over the choice of communication channel. Customers can communicate with their service providers via email, text, social media, web and mobile phone. However, most often than not, these channel exist in silos causing operational challenges.

For instance, a patient inquires about the impending radiology report by leaving a query on social media page of the provider instead of using the conventional channel of calling the help desk. In the absence of omnichannel customer experience solution, such queries or request may be ignored. Delayed response or query handling, especially when it comes to health care can certainly dampen “patient experience”.

Omnichannel contact solution offers features that every modern health care facility need. To understand the use case of these features, let’s identity the challenges of the current health care delivery system and how omnichannel solution addresses them…Read more.

This article was originally posted on callcentrehelper on April 16th, 2018.

Customer journey mapping goes beyond the traditional sales cycle: awareness, purchase, review. It digs deeper into what the customer is experiencing at every step of the journey, which departments are involved during each of the customer interactions and how all of this impacts the overall customer experience and revenue generated. While it may seem a tedious task to undertake, as it’s a process that seems largely logical, what it does provide is a clear overview of exactly what is happening in the organisation. When wanting to implement change or drive growth, having this information is critical, as it details on a micro-level how well the organisation is actually functioning. It is critical for decision making because it highlights the business operations from several different perspectives and provides an as-is situational analysis of the business.

The Customer

With customer experience becoming increasingly important in terms of driving revenues, it’s useful to understand touchpoints in the customer journey. A touchpoint is considered any event where the customer interacts with a company. And it’s the sum of these touchpoints that creates the customer journey map.

A touchpoint could be when a customer first sees a product on social media and clicks through to a website link. It could be an advert they see on TV or a purchase made in-store or online. It may also include some technical aspects, such as installation or repairs, or post-purchase administration, such as a phone call to the accounts department. Each one of these touchpoints influences the customer experience and their overall view of the brand. Which is why it is so important that each of these interactions is positive.

The Employee

Highlighting customer touch points in terms of employees creates a greater awareness of the role they have to play in the customer experience. Where failures occur, it identifies skills or knowledge gaps that need to be remedied. Where there have been positive experiences, these can be used as building blocks for improving the customer experience further, creating opportunities for innovation. The information from customer journey mapping can be used to empower employees so that they take ownership of their part in the customer journey…Read more.

When it comes to companies that operate within the security and alarm system industry, it is vital that they provide customers with support at all times. Due to the nature of the industry, issues can arise at any stage, day or night, and so having customer support at the end of a line is necessary. Call Pageboy offer technical phone support 24/7/365. We are committed to providing your customers with excellent service and technical support at all times through our local customer service teams and technical department. Our customer service teams assist your customers by responding to queries to ensure that any issues are promptly resolved, and our technical helpdesk assists customers with technical problems by troubleshooting issues. In addition, we have a dedicated service team to ensure swift response to alarms. We will contact nominated key holders or the emergency services as appropriate to ensure any issues are fully resolved.

For over 40 years we have been providing security and alarm system companies with our call centre services. A call centre can offer numerous benefits to these providers in order to build upon existing customer experience and service provision:

• Improved 24hr Customer Service – Due to the nature of the security and alarm system industry, customers can encounter issues at any time of the day. Whether they are experiencing a technical problem with a malfunctioning alarm or need to change the key holders contact details, 24-hour help desk support ensures that your customers queries are answered whenever they may call.
• Flexibility – In-house staff can often be left at the mercy of periods of low or high call volumes which may often cause them to feel either idle or overwhelmed. Utilising a call centre, particularly an overflow service ensures that call abandonment is not an issue during and between peak hours. Due to the number of staff resources available to Call Pageboy, we have the capacity to quickly manage spikes in call volumes without the long waiting times. This provides greater flexibility to companies with the opportunity to effectively manage their internal staff without sacrificing customer satisfaction levels.
• Reduced Costs – Call Pageboy provides companies with the ability to significantly reduce their operating costs when it comes to call and administrative management. By outsourcing your security and alarm system customer service helpdesk, you are reducing the costs associated with internal staff training and infrastructure needs. Therefore, it allows your company to turn a fixed cost into a variable one; skilled labour is available to you but only when you need it most.
• Access to the latest technology – Our call centre operates using the latest technology and software ensuring that your customers receive the highest level of customer service and support. Our technology allows us to provide the industry with multi-channel support including telephone answering, email, social media, SMS text and more. This means that your customers will be supported on all channels at all times.
• Disaster Recovery – All companies experience unforeseen periods of downtime whether it be due to an electricity outage or an issue with internal infrastructure. By outsourcing your helpdesk services to us, assures that in the event of a disaster your call management and technical support lines aren’t affected and ultimately ensure business continuity.

Call Pageboy has over 40 years’ experience supplying service to companies in the Security and Alarm industry, with a proven track record of delivering a quality and reliable service. We ensure that all call agents are expertly trained in providing your customers with a positive customer experience while handling their sensitive information in accordance with data protection laws. Our after hours and helpdesk services provide administrative relief to your in-house staff and ensures that your company continues to provide unconditional support at all times. For more information on the range of services that we offer to the security and alarm systems industry, contact us here.

This article was originally posted on infiniticontact.com on January 8th, 2018.

Most companies think that a call centre is merely an add-on. It’s often seen as one of those little extras that’s earmarked for some time in an idealised future. They’d rather achieve a business milestone first, or wait to fulfil a few prerequisites like having a wider audience, a bigger market share, or a larger budget, before plunging in.

Meanwhile, companies have overwhelmed personnel scrambling to find answers that’s not readily available. Callers have to contend with being put on hold for an inordinate amount of time. Clients endure having to be transferred several times to get a simple status update. Potential buyers or repeat clients end up moving on to a competitor, and the company loses revenue in the process.

If you think a call centre is an unnecessary drain on your company finances, think again. Here are a few reasons why you’re most likely in need of a call centre for customer support now.

1. High quality customer service promotes loyalty

The main goal of customer support in a business setting is to promote customer loyalty. Taking care of your current customers is the key to a long and successful business enterprise. It’s up to seven times less expensive to keep your current buyers happy than it is to attract new buyers.

It’s no secret that the most loyal customers turn into brand evangelists. They take it upon themselves to spread the word about your company and encourage their social circle to buy from you. They become your company’s product or brand ambassadors because they are willing to buy from you repeatedly, and will not hesitate to let others know about it.

That kind of loyalty can be cultivated by making sure that every customer touch point results in a positive customer experience, and you must consistently meet their expectations to gain their full support…Read more.

Database cleansing is the process of identifying and correcting any inaccurate, incomplete, irrelevant or duplicate data. It is not only a way to maximise the accuracy of the data in a system but also bring consistency across the database. An organisation in a data-intensive sector such as banking, insurance, telecommunications, healthcare, and retailers should engage in thorough database cleansing on a regular basis. By doing so will ensure that errors in the data can be fixed, enabling a business to reach their customers and establish the best possible relationship with them at a reduced cost. It is a small tool that plays into achieving successful, meaningful customer relationships.

Database cleansing has multiple benefits for a business including increased productivity, reduced spam, improved customer perception, better customer relationships, and improved data quality. A database of fewer quality leads is much preferred over abundant dead end leads and the introduction of The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will help a business achieve these.

So What Will GDPR mean for Database Cleansing?

The GDPR is designed to strengthen and unify data privacy requirements across the European Union. It reinforces citizen’s rights in the digital age and to the new security requirements that accompany this era of the Internet. The introduction of the GDPR implies that all companies should revise their procedures, from how they obtain data, to how it is processed, stored and protected. Explicit consent is a cornerstone of the GDPR, the data owner must give explicit consent in the form of a statement or clear affirmative action for a company to include them in their customer database and must have explicitly opted in to receive marketing communications, whether by email, phone or post. Therefore, it is more important now than ever to engage in thorough database cleansing. GDPR has serious repercussions for those who don’t apply with breaches resulting in fines of up to €20 million, or 4% of the company’s turnover, whichever figure is greater. Yet many businesses aren’t taking GDPR seriously and actively taking measures to prepare for the changes. Below are two scenarios that could occur unknowingly, in which a business has broken GDPR regulations.

Scenario 1: Robert O’Neill rings your business and asks for access to the personal data you have stored in regards to him. You look into his file on the CRM and find his current tittle, email address and home address. (Missing the fact that you also have his phone number listed under Rob O’Neill.) Months later, you ring Robert to inform him that his subscription to your service is due to be renewed. Robert was unaware that you had phone his phone number on file and is angered. You have unknowingly broken regulations by not giving him full access to his personal information because you had a duplicate contact in your database.

Scenario 2: In the same above scenario, both duplicate contacts contain his email address. You send a promotional email to Robert O’Neill. However only one of your contacts show that he has opted out of email communications from your company. Once again, Robert is angered and you have unknowingly broken GDPR regulations.

These are only two scenarios out of multiple that could unknowingly occur and leave your company breaking GDPR regulations. They highlight the importance of taking the GDPR changes with a serious outlook and the importance of employing effective database cleansing methodologies to protect your business. GDPR changes should be welcomed as an opportunity to audit, review and organise your company data, creating a clean house for the information you store.

Database cleansing is hard to do, hard to maintain, and hard to know where to even begin. Call Pageboy offer efficient data scrubbing services to ensure that your customer, partner or competitor records are always updated and maintained. Contact us today and leave it to our experts to take care of this essential service and bring all of your customers’ data and business processes up to the correct standard, ensuring that your business is compliant prior to the GDPR deadline.

This article was originally posted by Chandler Galt on niceincontact.com on January 8th, 2016.

As the fastest-growing consumer demographic, Millennials are poised to make a major impact on the global economy. By 2020, the spending of Millennials— those aged from roughly 18-to-mid-30s— will rise to 1.4 trillion annually. Years before this generation’s full influence will be felt, however, millennial preferences have already changed how contact centres think about customer experience. Read on to learn the 9 things that millennials are expecting from the organisations they buy from and interact with, and how you can adjust your contact centre to exceed their customer experience expectations.

Mobile & Online First

Globally, 55% of all customer service interactions now start online, and that numbers jumps to 65% for millennials. In addition, 36% of millennials start customer service situations on a mobile device rather than a desktop computer compared to 21% for consumers over the age of 55. This means that your contact information needs to be displayed clearly online (probably as part of your website header) as well as responsive so that it displays clearly on mobile devices as well.

Always-On

Millennials interact continuously with their mobile devices because it provides them access to just about everything they need including email, SMS, Social Media, banking, shopping, etc. Because of this, Millennials expect the companies and organizations they interact with to be always-on as well, and will find any means necessary to make that happen (like turning to Twitter if it is after-hours for their contact center). Even if your contact center has specific hours, make sure you have a back-up plan for how to handle customer service issues through the night.

High Expectations

68% of Millennials have higher expectations for customer service today than just a year ago. As far as what they’re looking for when they do engage with customer service representatives, 78% of Millennials want the agent to already know their contact and product information, as well as service history. While older consumers may be used to waiting on the phone while their information is retrieved, millennials expect quicker interactions with limited lag time….Read more.

Market Research is the process of collecting, analysing and interpreting valuable information about a market, its consumers, competitors, and business environment in general, with the aim of making effective marketing decisions. It is the research that extracts the data about “what” consumers or markets do, in order for a business to formulate insights into “why” consumers behave the way they do toward a brand.

As a business, using quantitative market research methods such as telephone surveys and questionnaires can prove to be vital to its success. In today’s competitive fast paced world where market trends are constantly changing, staying on top of these is essential to gain and retain a competitive advantage. In addition, market research helps a business gain information around the following:

• Market Information: Research can provide insightful information regarding market size (in terms of number of customers) and market segmentation (in terms of demographic, geographic, psychographic and behavioural factors). These can help redefine your target audience.
• Insights Into Existing Customers: Research can provide insights into customer decision making triggers such as;
  • Why do customers choose your products/services as appose to competitors?
  • What value do customers get from your products/services?
  • What factors influence your customers buying decisions?
  • Is there a key decision factor i.e. quality of product/service, price, social status?
• Identifying Potential Customers: Market research insights (extracted from the above two points) can help a business identify potential customers they had not previously been targeting.
• Customer Needs: Market research can help you better understand your customers actual needs and wants, not what you think they need and want. This can help you develop your products/services accordingly and make any necessary modifications.
• Competitor Analysis: Research can provide you with information about your competitors from asking questions such as if the consumer used a competitors product/service before you and if so why did they switch.
• Identify Business Opportunities: Market research can help identify market changes or any gaps in the market to open opportunities for business development and growth.
• Resolve Business Problems: Research can help uncover the root of a business problem, i.e. decreased sales could be due to a new competitor or new substitute product/service.

Market research can ultimately help a company by uncovering valuable insights which can aid the development of business strategies. It can assist with decision making in relation to product/service pricing, distribution and logistics, marketing, and new product development. It leads to enhanced customer satisfaction and loyalty through improved customer communications. Furthermore, it minimises risk through precise analysis of understanding and meeting customer demands. Here at Call Pageboy, our research team and telephone survey unit has extensive experience in conducting telephone market research. We design the questionnaires suited to the sector in which a business operates, and our highly trained staff collate the feedback. If you are looking for deep and meaningful customer insights though market research, contact us today for more information.

This article was originally posted on www.ameyo.com by Nitish Gautam on January 22nd, 2018.

Yes! Your customer service representatives / agents are the most important aspect of your contact center. Make life easier for them, and they’ll make business easier for you! The truth is – you can have the most innovative customer experience platform in the world and it won’t improve your business if your team is not on the same page, or not cooperating.

In this article, we’ll talk about managing a customer service team and improving performance through various measures. We’ll explore topics that are absolutely essential for managing a customer service team efficiently and effectively. Anyone interested in customer service will surely love and benefit from our techniques and concepts mentioned.

The Art of Customer Service Team Management and Structuring

Let’s take the first step to be an all-star customer service leader.

Knowing What Customers Really Want

Apart from your excellent product or service, your customers want timely, personalized and simpler customer service with immediate solutions to their problem. It includes everything that makes it easier for them to solve their current problem. Customers also ideally want the ability to solve their own problems with self service options.

According to CRM Magazine, 45% of companies offering web or mobile self-service reported an increase in site traffic and reduced phone inquiries.

Creating Buyer Personas of Your Ideal Customer

What are the major type of customers you serve and what are you doing to make their lives easier? Gather insights about your audience and step into their shoes when you enter the customer journey. Use customer feedback to really gain an in-depth understanding of what customers want and what they don’t…Read more.

The General Data Protection Regulation is designed to strengthen and unify data privacy requirements across the European Union. The regulation, which is to come into effect May 25^th 2018, reinforces citizen’s rights in the digital age and to the new security requirements that accompany this era of the Internet. The application of the GDPR implies that all companies should revise their procedures, from how they obtain data, to how it is processed, stored and protected in terms of their security environment.

Some key changes of the new GDPR:

• Wider Territorial Scope – The new regulations will now not only apply to EU organisations, but also to overseas organisations that are not established within the EU but process personal data of individuals who are. This regulation will apply where the processing of the data is related to the offering of goods or services, or where the monitoring of an individual’s behaviour such as Internet use profiling takes place within the EU.
• Data Protection Officer – All companies must appoint a data protection officer and this appointment must be communicated to the competent authority. It is then the authorities job to ensure that the company complies with the new regulations.
• Mandatory Breach Notifications – A company must notify the Data Protection Commissioner within 72 hours where a breach in data is likely to result in a risk to the rights of the data owner. In addition, if these rights are at risk, the data owner must also be notified of the breach in this case.
• Tougher Sanctions – The new regulations introduce much tougher sanctions for breach, with penalties of up to 4% of annual global turnover or €20 million, dependent on whichever is higher for companies who do not comply with the new regulations.
• New Principle of Accountability – The concept of accountability requires that companies be able to validate the ways in which they comply with the new GDPR data protection policies and procedures when conducting business.
• New Citizen Rights – The new regulation allows individuals the right to query their personal data and make modifications, or have any irrelevant or out-dated information removed from the data controller’s external devices.
• Consent Must be Explicit – The consumer or data owner must give explicit consent in the form of a statement or clear affirmative action for a company to use their personal data. Legal consent must be given and the onus is on the data controller to prove that the data owner gave his/her explicit consent.
• Privacy Impact Assessment – The GDPR has made it compulsory for an organisation to undertake a Privacy Impact Assessment. Undertaking a Privacy Impact Assessment means applying a methodology for evaluating the consequences in processing personal data and requires that a company create an action plan to mitigate possible risks involved.

The GDPR highlights the importance of transparency, security and accountability by data controllers, while simultaneously standardising and strengthening data protection privacy rights for European Citizens. Here at Call PageBoy we are fully prepared for the new regulations to come into effect. We understand what the GDPR means for our customers and so we offer highly trained customer service staff at our call centres who will collect, process and store customer information in accordance with the new regulations, ensuring a high level of confidentiality and security. In addition, we are also ready to take care of your database needs; we offer database cleansing in line with the new policies, removing any irrelevant or duplicated customer information to help you achieve meaningful customer relationships. If you would like to know more about the services that we offer, contact us here today.

This article was originally posted on insights.datamark.net on November 27th, 2016.

Many businesses have considered outsourcing, but they have ultimately decided against it because of the unpredictability involved. Will our outsourcing partner really be able to deliver? What will happen once we give up control of some of our operations? Is it really worth the cost?

In order to clear up some of the questions business owners have about outsourced call center solutions, we’ve put together some of the most important insights we’ve learned in years of helping business outsource their non-core operations.

Outsourcing Lets Your Business Focus on Its Core Processes

How much of your employees’ time is spent every day working on tasks that aren’t generating revenue for your business? It’s probably much more than you think. Add up all the time employees spend answering calls, dealing with customers, and other non-core operational tasks, and you’re likely to discover a shocking amount of business hours being dedicated to tasks that are costing you more money than they’re generating.

By outsourcing tasks like mail collection and sorting, customer service and sales calls, and other mundane, non-core operations, your business can help your team renew their focus on the tasks they were hired to do instead … Read more.

This article was originally posted on infinitcontact.com on December 26th, 2017.

For any consumer-oriented business, the customer is always the most important individual to satisfy. It is extremely important that your organization is able to provide them with the means to connect with your business on all channels available. With the explosion of new technology and communications platforms, it is now easier than ever for customers to choose who they do business with and when to leave for another competitor in the event that they are not getting what they are looking for. As losing customers is simply not an option for your organization, it is imperative that you are able to constantly provide the best customer engagement management that will secure new customers, retain old consumers, and retain brand loyalty to name few. To organizations looking to gain more profit and sustainability, here is why customer engagement management matters and how your organization can improve this best practice.

Why customer engagement management matters

As technology is exploding out of the woodwork, more and more businesses today are creating divisions with the sole responsibility of managing customer engagement. Organizations from industries such as healthcare, finance, contact centers, and IT are all expanding their business models by not just selling products; but services as well. Customer engagement management is all about providing solutions to your customers aside from your products. It matters tremendously because most consumers today seek a deeper connection with products from organizations that they patronize. We are currently living in a technology-driven world where people are constantly using mobile devices to accomplish daily tasks such as shopping and interacting on social media. For this simple reason, organizations should invest into… Read more.

This article was originally posted on inifinitcontact.com on January 18th, 2018.

Over a decade ago, the explosion of the social media phenomenon opened the floodgates for all organisations to market their products and services for free. With the use of Facebook and Twitter, businesses were able to increase profit, improve brand visibility, and extend awareness in a global scale. Today, consumer behaviour trend has dramatically shifted from using social media networks to popular messaging applications such as Messenger, Viber, and WhatsApp to communicate with brands and technology.This rapidly emerging trend is known as Conversational Commerce and it is a term that refers to how organisations are utilizing automated chat bots to interact with consumers across all available channels of communications. With Conversational Commerce, the world of business has yet another ground-breaking platform to generate substantial revenue. Here is why and how.

Why Conversational Commerce Generates Revenue

To understand why Conversational Commerce is able to generate revenue for an organisation, it is essential to take a closer look at two trends that are greatly fueling this emerging business concept. These trends are:

1. Messaging

Today people are spending more time on messaging applications than social media. In fact, one of the top business and financial news website: Business Insider, released an online article reporting how messaging apps have surpassed social media platforms and are continuing to do so with great momentum. As most individuals are now spending… Read More.

An exceptional customer experience (CX) is no longer a luxury but a critical priority for businesses. As technology progresses so do the needs, wants and desires of a customer. Today’s customers are no longer satisfied with a poor CX journey nor the customer service provision that was common place 10 years ago.

The customer experience refers to the journey that a customer has with a company. This includes every single interaction with your company from the first time they heard about you, to purchasing a product or service and any calls with your customer service team. The ideal CX journey is the one that includes as little hassle as possible. If the experience is of benefit to the customer, engagement continues. If it doesn’t meet the customer’s expectations, they will go elsewhere.

A customer experience strategy begins and ends with exceptional customer service. Customers want to feel that their needs are being heard and met by the companies that they choose to interact with. This can be done by:

• Using two little words during customer interactions: Beginning and ending each conversation you have with a customer by saying thank you can be one of the most effective ways to ensure that your customer service provision will add to their overall CX journey. This shows that you appreciate your customer and will elevate your brand’s reputation to one of loyalty and kindness.
• Making sure your technology puts customers first: Today’s customers enjoy having a degree of independence when it comes to managing their own accounts and accessing both information and customer support. Offering easy to use features such as live chat to customers can be an absolute godsend as it allows them to ask questions while on the go, especially if they have limited time to spend on a phone call.
• Engaging with your customers in their own space: Show a real interest in your customers overall journey with your brand by engaging with them on the channels that suit them best. Be it social, email or over the phone, taking an active interest in your customer’s experience pre-and-post visits lets them know that you truly value them.

If a customer has a poor or bad experience with a customer care agent, this can have a huge impact on how they view your brand going forward and their overall CX journey. It doesn’t matter if your company sells top of the line products or great problem solving solutions, if a customer doesn’t enjoy the interaction that they have with your company on a whole, you can be at risk of losing them as a customer. This is why the provision of excellent customer service ensures an enjoyable CX journey for your customers.

Call Pageboy Contact Centre understands the importance of providing high quality customer satisfaction. We offer a range of customer support services to help businesses in their goal of providing a seamless, hassle free customer experience journey. If you would like to know more about the services that we offer, contact us here today.

The sound of a ringing phone for a business, more often than not, is a sign of growth and achievement as it indicates increasing interest in your company. However, as call volumes begin to rise dramatically at certain times of the year, it can often become something that causes dread among your in-house staff if not fully prepared for.

The beginning of a new year for most businesses is often accompanied with an increased demand in customer care and support. Whether it is an individual ringing after the Christmas period with questions regarding products they received as gifts or a company calling in regards to your services after setting their business goals for the year.

If you find yourself on the phone all day and unable to focus on important in-house tasks, working alongside a call centre provider can provide extensive benefits during this period as they can provide:

• Prompt call handling – When a spike in call volume happens, it can be very easy for customers to be left waiting on the other end of the phone leading to increased frustration levels if left unhandled. A dedicated team of call agents can provide prompt call handling services ensuring that all calls are answered effectively without harming customer satisfaction.
• After hours customer support – Call centre customer support isn’t restricted to just working hours. Many call centres offer after hours support which allows customers to contact your business at any time of the day. This form of service extends beyond just phone calls to emails, live chat and social media channels.
• Improved call  centre technology – Access to the latest call centre technology provides multiple benefits when handling rising call volumes. Call agents have access to software which allows them to provide seamless customer support through the likes of call back technology and diary management.
• Efficient escalation procedures – With the correct escalation procedures in place, if in the event that a call agent can’t fully carry out the necessary support for a customer, they can quickly escalate a customer’s call to the appropriate person in your company without hesitation.

Call Pageboy Contact Centre offers our clients a wide range of customer support services to ensure that your company can provide consistent levels of customer satisfaction regardless of the time of the year and your rising call volumes. For more information, contact us here.

This article was originally posted on ww.icmi.com by Chris Bauserman on December 11th, 2017

When it comes to delivering exceptional customer experiences, true omni-channel service and quick resolution go hand-in-hand. In my last article in this series, I discussed the importance of creating a true omni-channel strategy to cater to changing customer expectations. While the CX Transformation Benchmark Study reveals emphasis customers place on wanting omni-channel service, it also found that the leading indicator of successful customer service is speed. Customers place resolving issues in the quickest way possible as their top driver of channel performance – whether agent assisted or self-service.

While demand for fast resolution across channels isn’t exactly surprising, what is surprising is the level of proactivity consumers expect from businesses. Of those surveyed, 87 percent stated that they expect companies to point them to the channel that will resolve the situation the fastest. If their current channel won’t get the job done, the onus is on businesses to redirect customers to the channel most likely to do so, whether that will be live representative phone calls, emails or online chat. And, customers want a seamless transition between channels – 72% expect to be able to continue talking with the same representative on the phone as they were talking with via online chat.

Even an otherwise pleasant experience can leave consumers feeling negative toward businesses if it takes too long… Read more.

As your business begins to grow, so will your customer database. While this is always a good indicator that your company is succeeding, not keeping on top of your database and ensuring that it is kept organised can often end up causing more trouble than it is worth. Cleansing your customer database is a great way to ensure that the data you have is of great quality.

Customer database cleansing involves removing any data that is irrelevant, incorrect or even duplicated. Oftentimes, customers may input their email incorrectly or provide the wrong contact information when filling out forms. These details get stored in your database automatically and in some cases, you may actually be sending out emails that don’t even reach your customers.

What are the benefits of customer database cleansing?

A database that is full of quality and organised data ensures that your company can:

• Make better decisions – Having a database that accurately reflects your customers means that your business has a better insight into customer behaviour and satisfaction levels. Using this information, a company can make more informed business decisions based on their own customers.
• Improves customer relationships – Cleansed customer data allows for more engaging marketing campaigns and improved customer service which leads to loyal customer relationships. By knowing what interactions customers have had with your business allows you to ensure that they receive more targeted marketing emails and personalised customer service support.
• Increase productivity – Not only does customer database cleansing allow for improved customer satisfaction but it also allows for improved in-house productivity levels. Your staff will have easy access to customer information that they know is reliable and accurate ensuring that they are making the best use of their working hours.
• Improve overall revenue growth – Using accurate customer data can lead to dramatic increases in customer acquisition and retention which inevitably will improve overall company revenue.

At Call Pageboy Contact Centre, we offer efficient database cleansing services to ensure that your customer database stays fool proof. Our agents ensure that your customers records are maintained and kept up to date at all times. If you would like to know more about the services that we offer, contact us here.

This article was originally posted on callcare247.com by Gemma Harding on June 15th, 2017.

Since 2010 the percentage of landlords owning more than one property has increased from 17% to 30%. While a growing portfolio is always a good sign, as a portfolio gets larger you need to put more processes in place to help manage it.

Everything from viewings and arranging maintenance and upkeep, to providing proper support for your tenants must be kept on top of to ensure you’re maximising your investments, and to prevent you from becoming in breach of contract to the bank, your insurance or your tenants.

As your portfolio expands, or if you’re already a group with a large number of portfolios, outsourcing certain aspects of your administrative processes can help to ensure you are operating at maximum efficiency.

Call Answering To Manage Your Diary

As you become busier it will become increasingly important to manage your diary effectively. People will typically look for new properties outside of work, which means you need to be able to take their calls and arrange appointments outside of the standard office hours. This can be managed in a variety of way from appointment booking and diary management software to having a phone line that operates outside of office hours… Read more.

This article was originally posted on www.ameyo.com by Mansi Bhatia on October 16th, 2017.

A customer’s journey within an organisation involves a lot more touch points today than it did five to seven years ago. Unlike earlier, customers can contact a company through various channels today – mobile, call, chat, emails etc. They choose the medium that they are most comfortable with. The challenge today is not only to be present in these channels but provide consistently the best, integrated customer experience through all the channels.

The importance of customer service is further emphasised in a report by Aberdeen: “Companies that provide a consistent service quality across multiple channels retain 89% of their customers, whereas companies that do not provide a consistent quality are only able to retain 33%.”

Difference between multi-channel and omnichannel

We have seen people using these terms interchangeably. By definition, “omni” means all and “multi” means many. Multi-channel contact centres are usually able to provide information across more than two channels. Whereas, omni channel contact centres provide information across a lot more channels. In addition to that, all the channels are integrated and same, consistent message is relayed through them. According to Hubspot, all omnichannel experiences will use multiple channels, but not all multi-channel experiences are omnichannel… Read more.

This article was originally posted on www.icmi.com by Chris Bauserman on July 10th, 2017.

We’ve all had at least one bad customer experience in our lifetime. If you’ve only had one – you’re among one of the very lucky few. Most of us have experienced the frustration of poor, disjointed or slow customer service more times than we can count. For some services, it starts to feel like the norm – but it doesn’t have to be.

Certain industries are notorious for their poor customer service, and on the flip side, there are a few companies that are memorable for providing an outstanding customer experience. Why? Because it’s a differentiator that attracts new customers, and retains existing ones. While delivering a great customer experience is a powerful competitive advantage, maintaining that edge requires a culture of continual improvement and innovation as competitors rush to catch up. The real winner in this scenario is the customer, who can choose where to take their business based on good customer experiences rather than bad ones. Whether customer service in your industry is known to be sub-par or excellent, all businesses can take steps to improve the customer experience and become more competitive in their market… Read more.

This article was originally posted on www.infinitcontact.com on August 15th, 2017.

Thriving in the world of business today is a Herculean task for many small to large business organisations due to the stiff competition in their respective industries. From retail, manufacturing, healthcare, and technology, these industries are saturated with business organisations in stiff competition with each other. For many organisation in any industry to thrive, it must follow a blueprint of success where consumers must become an obsession.

With many organisations investing resources in transforming digitally, now is the time where practically any business organisation has the tools to provide their customers with the best experience possible. For organisations wondering how to deliver customer satisfaction successfully in the digital age, here are 5 key factors to consider.

How well do you know your consumers?

As most organisations that sell products and services are making the shift to digital transformation, it is now conventional practice to enhance customer experience. Enhancing this experience will depend on how an organisation understands its customers. Understanding the needs and wants of your consumers may… Read more.

It is hard to ignore the impact that small businesses and SMEs have had on our economies in recent years. More and more SMEs and start up companies are launched every second across the globe. As your business begins gathering more attention from customers and your revenue starts to grow, there may be a need to consider outsourcing call centre services.

What a call centre can offer SMEs

Call centres work alongside small businesses and SMEs to ensure that customers receive a positive customer experience with every interaction. Outsourcing your customer support services to a third party call centre can prove to be extremely beneficial for SMEs.

A call centre will help your company:

• Stay productive: A lot of employees often find that having to juggle both answering phones and completing essential tasks regarding the business means that their attention gets easily distracted. By outsourcing call centre services, your company ensures that in-house productivity levels and customer satisfaction stay consistent while not compromising on the core daily activities of the business.
• Improve customer retention: Every business has a particular period of the week or year when they get inundated with calls, be it due to seasonal holidays such as Christmas or first thing on a Monday morning. Having call agents at the ready who can answer all your overflow and after hours calls ensures that customers will never have their calls ignored and will ultimately lead to higher levels of customer retention.
• Save money: Dedicated call answering services provide cost effective solutions to SMEs and small businesses. A call centre can avail of their own infrastructure resources and technology solutions meaning that your company doesn’t have to worry about spending money on extra resources and equipment.

Outsourcing call centre services means that your business can avail of multiple services such as diary management, virtual receptionist, CRM integration among others. If you are an SME looking for a call centre provider, we at Call Pageboy Contact Centre advise you to do your research and take every factor into consideration before choosing the call centre right for you.

If you would like to know more about the benefits that you can receive or the services that we offer, contact us here.

This article was originally posted on www.ameyo.com by Mansi Bhatia on October 30th, 2017.

How do you make your customers do what they want them to do? How do you pave the path for them to follow? Knowing your journey helps in getting an insight into their thought process, personality and most importantly their needs. Accurately tapping into those needs and aligning your service with that ensures customer satisfaction and creates positive customer experience (CX) memories.

Not only that, it also helps companies to identify the critical Moment of Truths. These are the interactions that make or break your relationship with a customer. Let us start our discussion by first understanding, what do we mean by customer journey, how to map CX journey and then we will move on to defining Moments of Truth.

What is Customer Journey

In a nutshell, a customer journey is the sum of all the experiences that a customer has throughout their interactions with the company. Instead of focusing on just a part of the experience of a specific touch point, we look at the complete experience of being a customer.

There are four stages in the customer/buyer’s journey:

• Attract: In the first stage, the customer is not aware of their needs. We need to create that awareness.
• Convert: Make the experience of the prospects personalised. Give them specific solution.
• Close: Nurture the leads. Have thorough follow-up
• Delight: Creating wow moments so that present customers become your advocates of your brand.

While travelling through this journey, we start off with strangers who progress onto becoming promoters of your brands…Read More.

This article was originally posted on www.callcare247.com by Gemma Harding on September 6th, 2017.

While standard business hours are typically 9 till 5, an increasing number of businesses are now offering 24-hour care to their customers. For product based businesses in particular, round the clock call answering provides a direct route to support, enabling customers to get the answers they need long after the offices of competitors have closed.

Whether it’s the quest for greater customer satisfaction or reputation building that’s making you consider a 24-hour service, there’s no doubt that the number of businesses providing after hours support is on the rise. But do customers really want to speak to businesses 24/7, and ultimately is 24-hour care really necessary?

We explore the facts behind 24-hour call answering so you can decide whether it’s the right step for you, your company and your customers.

A new age of customer care

In the ‘information age’ it’s no wonder consumers everywhere expect support from the brands they buy from 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The customer service industry has undergone something of an evolution in recent years, and with technology at its forefront, the customer experience has been improved in more ways than one…Read more.

Sometimes the best way to ensure satisfaction among your customers is by hearing from them directly. In the past, market research was given a bad name especially with the approaches of cold calling and unwanted sales calls. Many customers were frustrated by these methods and were unwilling to communicate with companies regarding their experiences. However, attitudes are now changing allowing companies to gain a deeper insight into what satisfies a customer.

There are many benefits to carrying out market research for your company especially if you are looking to increase customer retention and provide a positive customer experience. By conducting customer surveys, telemarketing and questionnaires you can:

• Understand your customers better – Gaining a deeper understanding of who your customers are and their expectations will enviably help your company assess the current satisfaction levels of your customers. It is important to not only understand your current customers but also past customers so that you can pinpoint their needs, wants and the factors that influence their buying decisions.
• Identify pain points and areas of frustration – Carrying out market research through questionnaires and surveys not only helps you understand your customers but also highlights any pain points or areas of frustration that they may be experiencing. For example, you may discover that your customers find call waiting times too long when getting in contact with your company or would like to see a bigger variety of product and service offerings.
• Track customer satisfaction across social channels – Using data gathered from a CRM system and through social media monitoring, you can identify how successful your company’s online interactions and relations with customers are. Doing so can help you identify any potential areas of weakness within your customer service support.
• Refine your lead generation strategy – Market research allows you to ensure that your company is performing well against your competitors and that you are consistently responding and acting upon your customers wants and needs. Staying up to date with the industry that you are operating in and your customer base not only allows you to assess your company offerings but also improves customer loyalty and in turn customer satisfaction and retention.

Call Pageboy Contact Centre’s experienced market research team conduct telephone surveys on behalf of your company. Our team design questionnaires, call your customers and collate their feedback to determine their overall satisfaction levels. If you are looking to find out more information regarding our services, contact us here.

This article was originally posted on www.infinitcontact.com on August 11th, 2017.

Customer service is still about giving consumers what they want. But today’s business landscape is focused on millennial customers, particularly when it comes to delivering the best B2B and B2C experiences. According to Open Access BPO, millennials or Gen Y are 80 billion in the US. This makes them the largest consumer market. Their purchasing power is much stronger than the Baby Boomers, as consumer psychologist Kit Yarrow predicts that American 20-somethings will have spent $200 billion annually this year alone.

The Biggest Market Share

If your product or service is sold to a significant number of millennials, your brand is assured strong market stability. Millennial customers are loyal and predicted to spend a collective $10 trillion within their lifetime. Contrary to popular belief, the “me, me, me generation” (as described by TIME magazine) has grown up and continues to have immediate access to all kinds of information online. These digital and social natives make better informed decisions based on what they see and read, while also crowdsourcing or getting recommendations from their social media networks.

Technology is embedded in every part of a millennial customer’s life – from how they search for products, the kind of products they’re looking for, information needed to make the final purchase, to making purchase online as well. They can also easily learn and adapt new technologies, with 50% of millennials planning to buy Internet of Things devices for their home. Important lifestyle aspects such as health and work are also managed by smart phone apps.

What can companies do to improve their products and services… Read more.

Managing customer calls can be overwhelming for your in-house staff especially when call volumes rise. Be it due to a lack of in-house resources or due to a busy seasonal period, outsourcing your overflow service to a third party call centre can offer huge benefits for your company.

An overflow service is easy to set up and offers your business around the clock customer support and help desk services. Whether for operational or strategic reasons, outsourcing your overflow calls ensures that your customers are never kept waiting. This is especially important in a competitive business environment. Being there for your customers even when your in-house staff cannot, will ultimately boost overall customer loyalty and company profit.

Benefits of an Overflow Service

• Improves call quality – Providing your customers with an uninterrupted level of customer service during peak hours reduces call waiting times and customer frustration levels. Trained call centre agents handle overflow calls during your busy and after hours periods leading to an increased level of service and call quality for your customers.
• Ensures business continuity and successful disaster recovery – In the event of company downtime either due to bad weather, power outages or unreliable computer infrastructure having an overflow service contract with a call centre ensures that your business continues to provide a high level of customer service at all times. Call centre agents will have access to your customer database and CRM system enabling them to track customer calls and queries until your company is back up and running.
• Reduces call abandonment rate – Many customers can often feel frustrated if they are left waiting on hold when getting in touch with customer support. It is inevitable that during peak hours it may not be possible to adequately answer all calls to a standard that your business would like to provide, especially if call volumes are large. A frustrated customer can often lead to a lost customer. An overflow service ensures that your customers are never left waiting for their queries to be answered leading to a reduced call abandonment rate.
• Improves customer satisfaction levels – Outsourcing your overflow service provides your in-house staff with more time resources to provide a higher quality of customer service during busy periods. Without the stress of handling large volumes of calls, your in-house staff will be able to focus on and address your customers’ needs. When your customers consistently receive a positive customer experience on every interaction with your business, it ultimately leads to higher levels of customer satisfaction.

At Call Pageboy Call Centre, our overflow service ensures that your customers are always kept happy. Regardless of the hour, our trained call centre agents ensure that each customer call and email are not left unanswered. If you are interested in learning more about our overflow service or the range of customer support services that we offer, contact us here.

This article was originally posted on www.teletech.com by Sandy Mandair on June 7th, 2017.

Perhaps you’ve heard of the term ‘omnichannel experience’. Many leaders have added this buzzy term to their business vernacular, but few have actually applied it to the customer experience. Market forces and customer expectations, however, are forcing business leaders to put their words into action and provide a true omnichannel experience. As these changes get underway, we’ll look at the ways in which omnichannel trends are transforming customer service and what to expect next.

Which channels should be included in the omnichannel experience? The answer should be any channel through which your customer wants to interact with you. Instead of scrambling to provide every means of contact possible, savvy organisations focus on the channels that their customers use most often to contact their business. Consider whether customers are asking for an additional means of communication, as well as the demographics of your customer base and the mediums they could use to connect to you. If you have a mobile app, you’ll want chat and SMS. If the customer traffic to your website is high, then proactive chat and journey management can reduce phone calls to your care organisations. Think about which interaction types are simple enough to include and find ways to put them in digital channels.

Context, context, context

Some channels are better suited for certain customer issues than others. Context matters. Explaining the details of a billing error over… Read more. 

A great customer experience isn’t possible without the provision of high quality customer service. A customer relationship management (CRM) system can be hugely beneficial in keeping businesses up to date with their customers actions and needs, while also acting as a customer loyalty enhancement and service tool. By keeping all the puzzle pieces of your customer’s information in the one place, you can greatly increase their overall satisfaction with your company.

A CRM system acts as a customer database providing you with a vast array of information in relation to your customers such as previous interactions with your company, any feedback given, and personal needs or problems that they may have. Not only is it helpful for accessing information on existing customers but it also helps in acquiring new customers. All customer details contained in a CRM system is kept centralised meaning that you can access it at any time.

Imagine that a customer is returning to your company with a query, CRM allows you to see what problems this customer has had in the past and whether they were satisfied with the solution you provided. A successful CRM and customer service strategy can help to not only build upon customer satisfaction but also improve brand loyalty and your business’ reputation. CRM systems offer multiple benefits to companies such as:

• Increased profitability – Implementing a CRM system helps companies increase their overall profitability by building strong personal relationships with customers. CRM provides a company with the opportunity to nurture customer relationships. Using customer specific information, a company will be able to provide a customer with solutions, offers and content that responds to their exact needs. CRM, therefore, leads to improved customer loyalty and retention.
• Improved productivity – CRM systems are automated meaning that customer information such as sales information, company interaction and personal details are kept in the one place. This makes gathering information in regards to specific customers much easier increasing productivity level among call centre agents.
• High customer satisfaction levels – Customers that receive an attentive and personalised customer service experience tend to have higher levels of satisfaction. Due to the features that a CRM system provides, call agents can provide a high level of customer service with each interaction a customer has with a company leading to sustained levels of customer satisfaction.

Call Pageboy Contact Centre’s technology allows for easy integration with a CRM system. By adhering to strict data protection policies, our call centre agents can log customer calls and queries in real time. For more information on using CRM or the services that we offer, contact us here.

This article was originally posted on insights.datamark.net by John Alarcon on July 26th, 2017.

Consumers are finding value in chatbots – those pop-up windows on websites and Facebook messenger that offer a friendly (albeit artificial) face and a willingness to help.

Ask a chatbot (also known as a “virtual customer service agent”), “What time does your store close today?” and you should get a quick and accurate answer. But if you ask something more complex, such as “I need help setting up my home wi-fi”, more than likely you’ll stump the ‘bot. At the very least, if the chatbot is configured well, it will know to pass you off to a human or promise a return call or email asap.

Today’s chatbot experience shows the technology still has a long way to go before it replaces contact centre agents. But as with anything involving computing, expect chatbot help to get better and better as vendors of the technology refine their behind-the-scenes artificial intelligence….Read more.

Behind every successful business is an efficient and organised diary management service and system. Ensuring that your day to day processes are running effectively and smoothly is crucial to every company. However, as call volumes rise and customer demands increase, appointment management can become a complicated and time consuming task for in-house administration.

Outsourcing your diary management service to a third party company can have huge benefits for your company especially when it comes to improving both time management skills and freeing up valuable in-house staff working hours. By working closely with an outsourced administration manager you can receive the following benefits:

• Improved in-house scheduling: A dedicated third party diary management service team will not only ensure that all appointments and meetings are efficiently scheduled but will also make sure that your in-house calendar is organised. This can be especially helpful for those companies in the healthcare industry.
• Better in-house performance levels: Administration tasks can be time consuming for all businesses. By outsourcing diary management, you can ensure that your in-house staff have the time resources available to them to continue providing customers with a high quality standard of customer service.
• 24/7 customer support service: Depending on what call centre offerings you are looking for, most diary management service solutions tend to be flexible in order to cater to your specific needs. Diary management services offer after hours support meaning that no matter what time of the day it may be your company’s calls, appointments and meeting schedules will be answered and kept up to date.

Diary management covers various customer support services such as virtual reception, help desk support and an after hours call service. Here at Call Pageboy Call Centre, we offer diary management as part of our overall call centre services. We appoint a dedicated account manager and team to manage and update all diary systems to ensure that you never miss an important meeting or call. For more information on the services that we offer, contact us here.

This article was originally posted on www.ameyo.com by Nitish Gautam on August 22nd, 2017.

Whether you realise it or not, your company is a part of the customer experience industry. You can be an emerging Amazon set to dominate the ecommerce industry, or you could be a drone startup offering assistance to the military – it really doesn’t matter. Customer experience is a major facilitator of business, revenue and growth – and it can’t be ignored any longer. What are you doing to improve customer experience? Are you building a customer experience strategy?

Think about it from your customer’s point of view – he might be complaining to a customer support agent via phone, and your marketing team might be emailing a promotion about a discount on an industry event. What will he think about your company when he experiences something like that? He probably would think your company just wanted to sell him your product/service.

This is why it is important to have a customer experience strategy in motion to improve customer experience. Before we set out to create a customer experience strategy, let’s understand what makes a great customer experience.

What makes a great customer experience

Before you set out to create a level of customer experience like never before, it is important to understand what makes a great customer experience… Read more.

This article was originally posted on www.infinitcontact.com on August 16th, 2017.

In this modern age when almost everything comes handy, customers have become less appreciative and are difficult to please. With the advancement in technology and the accessibility of information, product quality among competing brands and companies are almost equal. Hence, the determining factor in choosing the brand or company lies in the customer service.

Customer service in today’s world is an essential part of a company. With the increasing competition among all industries, the challenge is to deliver high-quality products accompanied by great customer service. This task, however, is not a piece of cake. Read on to know more about the challenges of delivering customer satisfaction and how to resolve them.

• Understanding customer expectations – The first, and probably the biggest, challenge is understanding diverse and constantly changing customer expectations. Most companies target specific customers – by gender, race, age, generation, etc. While these customer classifications may share similar basic requirements of a certain product, they do have varied desires that they take into account when purchasing a product. This is the reason why talking to customers is the best strategy. It is important for a business to get to know its clients, customers and consumers. Find out their expectations, their needs, their preferences, their non-negotiables, their opinions on the product and their suggestions for improvement
• Reaching out to customers – Doing research and gathering data on customer expectations bring us to the task of reaching out to customers. There are plenty of ways to advertise and get through to customers. We have print media, radios, televisions, phones, emails, social media and of course, face-to-face campaign. The primary challenge, though, is to get the message across….Read more.

Providing live chat and social media support has become essential for companies who want to ensure that their customers have a positive customer experience and are fully supported when online. With online usage on the rise every single day, it has become the norm for customers to get in contact with a company over live chat or social media support rather than via traditional methods such as phone or email.

When searching for either a service or product online, customers still want the experience of dealing with a company representative who can answer their queries in real time. Live chat and social media support allow customers the opportunity to do this comfortably whether they are at home or while travelling, regardless of the hour.

There are multiple benefits that live chat and social media support can offer a company when providing high quality support to customers:

• Convenient for customers – If a customer needs help after encountering an issue online, live chat and social media can provide instant access to support. Wait times are considered to be relatively short and it also provides customers with the opportunity to easily continue multi-tasking from the comfort of their own home or while in the office.
• Reduces in-house expenses – Due to the nature of live chat and social media support, these forms of online customer support allow call centre agents to handle multiple customer queries simultaneously and ensure low waiting times. This cuts down on a company’s need to hire additional in-house staff leading to reduced expenses.
• Insight into customer pain points – Live chat and social media support give companies access to customers’ needs and pain points that may not be possible via over the phone interactions. Online support provides call agents with numerous transcripts to help companies identify customer pain point trends. This data provides companies with vital information regarding customer satisfaction and product or service performance.
• Builds loyalty and trust among customers – Today’s digital world has given customers more of a voice when it comes to interacting with companies. As providing quality customer service is crucial to long term business success, giving your customers instant support over online channels will build deeper, more loyal customer relationships. This in turn will increase customer acquisition and retention rates.

Call Pageboy Contact Centre provide seamless multi-channel customer support, ensuring that your customers will have access to support on the channel that suits them most, 24 hours a day. Our call agents are trained to provide knowledgable, client specific support from the first point of contact. For more information about the services that we offer, contact us here.

This article was originally posted on www.teletech.com by Caleb Johnson on May 31st, 2017.

There’s a constant effort to provide customers with the “best” experience. But what is the best experience? Even with a journey map in hand, there’s an inevitable push and pull of wanting to create an engaging beneficial customer experience that results in a high NPS score as well as an uptick in revenue.

Scripting customer interactions is an effective way to remove complexity from the customer interaction and enable associates to focus more on the customer, instead of the process. A common theme in the market is the fear that, with scripts, the conversation may appear inauthentic or that associates may not have all the right information. Yet if deployed correctly, scripts can be a valuable tool to improve customer experiences.

A good example of how scripts are helpful is when it comes to omni-channel interactions. The current customer support trend is to provide the customer with as many channels as possible to interact with the brand. Whether it is mobile, social, chat, video, or an old-fashioned phone call, the result still needs to be the same: the customer needs to find a resolution for the situation at hand. Scripting customer interactions ensures that the customer journey is consistent across channels… Read more.

Average handling time refers to a metric used by call centres to estimate the total average call duration of an interaction between a call agent and a customer regardless of communication channel. In the past, reducing this metric often meant that a quick turnover of calls took precedence over ensuring customer queries were adequately solved.

However, due to the changing nature of the digital world and customer service provision, having a low average handling time metric now relates to providing customers with a positive experience on their first point of contact while not sacrificing on quality or customer satisfaction.

There are multiple benefits to ensuring that your business has a reduced average handling time when it comes to interacting with customers as part of your daily business operations:

• Improved customer service – By providing first call resolution to customers ensures that they have a positive customer service experience. Reducing hold time and providing customers with quick access to a knowledgeable customer service agent across a range of communication channels will lead to fewer frustrated and dissatisfied.
• Higher quality of knowledge and productivity – In order to reduce average handling time, providing high quality call agent training is essential. Call agents who have extensive knowledge of a company’s service and product offerings will be in a better position to handle a query in an efficient manner while also ensuring customer satisfaction. With frequent training, a call agent will be skilled in using a range of call centre technology solutions and will be aware of the adequate escalation procedures to ensure a customer’s query is dealt with in a timely manner.
• Builds customer loyalty and retention – Customers who receive a positive experience when interacting with a company are more likely to become a loyal customer in the future. By having a client dedicated account manager and team, your business can be assured that your customers are being met by an experienced call agent who will be able to answer any question in relation to your business without hesitation.

Call Pageboy understand how important it is to solve a customer’s query as quickly and efficiently as possible without compromising on quality service provision or customer satisfaction. Our call centre agents receive frequent agent training to ensure that they can perform customer support services to a high level on a daily basis. Our dedicated account managers also work closely alongside our clients to drive targets and design specific customer care programs for your business. For more information about the services we offer, contact us here.

This article was originally posted on insights.datamark.net by John Alarcon on July 20th, 2017.

Nearly one in two customers won’t hesitate to abandon a brand if a company can’t provide them with assistance in critical customer service channels, according to a new report from the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council.

Forty seven percent of North American and European consumers surveyed said they would stop doing business with a brand if they reached a certain level of frustration when reaching out to a company for help.

The CMO Council study revealed consumers’ low tolerance for poor customer service and several other insights relevant to today’s omni-channel approach to engaging and supporting customers.

The researchers found that customers aren’t expecting perfection in every communication channel (phone, email, social media, web chat, forums, etc.) but do count on excellence in a narrow range of channels, including web sites, email, and the availability of a phone number that will reach a knowledgeable agent immediately.

What frustrates customers? The study found…. Read more.

Nowadays, in the age of the digitally connected customer and omni-channel support being widely available, it is vital for companies to adopt a customer centric support approach to customer service.

Many companies, while working to improve their product and service offerings can often get too caught up in their inner workings and forget to pay attention to the opinions of their customers. Adopting a customer centric service approach ensures that your customer will always be at the core of your business.

Customer centric support: What are its benefits?

A customer centric support service doesn’t just offer your customers a great service but provides them with a positive experience from their very first interaction with your brand. It is a well-known fact that customers are faced with numerous choices when it comes to deciding which brand they will invest their money and time in. Due to this, it is those customer centric companies that build valuable relationships with their customers from the beginning that always come out on top.

• Builds Brand Trust and Credibility – One of the most important benefits of providing a customer centric support service is that it helps to build brand trust among your customers. When customers feel that their needs are of importance and that their opinions are being heard by a company they are more likely to refer your business to others.
• Reduces Customer Attrition – If your support services are consistently putting the customer at their core and are providing a positive customer experience with every interaction, there is a higher chance that your customers will stay loyal to your company. A valued and respected customer is less likely to be enticed by a competitor.
• Provides real time customer insight – In order to provide an excellent customer experience, knowing your customer is essential. Using tools such as an integrated CRM system as part of a customer centric support service give you access to a wealth of knowledge surrounding your customers interactions with your company. This data provides your business with real-time information, helping you to anticipate your customer’s needs and provide seamless customer support. Offering a personalised support service like this offers value to your customers.
• Gives your business a competitive edge – Those businesses that offer their customers a personalised and customer centric service leave a lasting impression which leads to a strong brand image and reputation. This can boost referrals and prospective customers resulting in improved lead generation and overall company growth.

Call Pageboy Contact Centre believe that a customer should be at the core of all business activities. Our designated account managers and call agents make it their objective to understand both your business and your customers in order to provide a high quality, customer oriented support service. If you are interested in learning more about the service that we offer, contact us here.

This article was originally posted on www.infinitcontact.com on February 3rd, 2016.

While we have said this time and time again, but customers are still considered the lifeline of any business. This is why we invest so much in customer acquisition and retention, even focusing on customer service outsourcing to deliver expert service. Customer retention is always the more ideal goal, as repeat customers prove to be loyal customers and even develop into brand advocates.

How do we retain customers? Aside from obvious factors such as product quality and pricing, the biggest appeal for repeat customer is based on an emotional factor – they simply love shopping with you, and they like how you make them feel. And this emotional factor can always be traced to great customer service.

It has been proven that unhappy customers primarily discontinue supporting a product or service because they experienced poor customer service. Brand advocates, meanwhile, become loyalists and even spokespersons for a product or service because of great experiences… Read more.

Telemarketing can be a very effective tool for businesses of all sizes for lead generation and improving satisfaction among existing customers. The reputation of the service has gathered negative feedback in the past due to misuse. However, when used appropriately it can help a business build a personalised rapport with their customers.

Using an outsourced telemarketing service as part of your sales and marketing strategy can have multiple benefits for your business in terms of reaching more customers and reducing company overheads. This allows a business to focus on their core daily activities, stay productive and competitive while in the safe knowledge that an outsourced team is looking after their customers.

• Cost-effective: In house telemarketing can prove to be costly for companies to maintain due to the required utilities, staff, equipment and facilities needed. Outsourcing this service to a dedicated telemarketing provider can help businesses avoid unnecessary company overheads.
• Personalised customer service: Providing customers with a personalised telesales service gives businesses the opportunity to connect with their customers and learn more about their needs. By identifying their opinions and thoughts on services and products, it can give businesses an immediate insight into customers satisfaction levels.
• Brand awareness: When generating leads, telemarketing can be effective for building brand awareness. Whether you speak with a potential customer one-to-one or just leave a voice mail, by reaching out to prospective customers ensures that your brand is being heard by a new target audience. This makes it easier for a potential customer to recognise your brand name through campaigns from other channels such as social media.
• Measurable results: Telemarketing campaign results can be analysed and measured in order to give a business a detailed insight into how successful a campaign has been. This is highly advantageous especially as it allows you to gather which telemarketing methods are most effective with customers e.g. using a call script vs using a more conversational technique.

Call Pageboy work alongside both small and large companies in order to help them grow their sales through telemarketing and call management services. Our mission is to fully understand your company and its customers in order to provide them with high quality customer service and support. We help you reach existing and potential customers through telemarketing tools such as telesales, email and SMS channels.

This article was originally posted on www.ameyo.com on March 9th, 2017.

Customer service is the backbone of every organisation. It helps businesses to improve their brand and consumer relations. It does not matter how much interaction an organisation has with its customer base, customer experience determines the level of success it has. Since revenue is often tied to quality and customer service, it is in the best interest of businesses to incorporate quality monitoring solutions to improve customer experience.

In today’s world, consumers know they have a voice and they know how to use it. In addition to using it to vocalise their concerns, they know how to use their voice to influence others, thus, affecting the customer base and profits of organisations. Businesses looking to harness that power know that it all starts with keeping customers satisfied by exceeding their expectations so they have a great experience. In order to do that, businesses must be prepared for every possible outcome.

Call Centers and Their Roles in the Customer Service Experience

Call centers, their agents and customer service workers are vital resources for businesses. Their main purpose is to intercept customer correspondence and interactions to handle all concerns. To some businesses, this means making sure that each call… Read more.

Due to the customer centric nature of the healthcare and pharmaceuticals industry, it is vital to provide an excellent customer service experience on an everyday basis. The last thing that you want is for a customer to feel that they aren’t being supported especially when it concerns their health. There are many reasons as to why this may occur such as call volume demands or lack of staff. However, using an outsourced call centre can ensure that your company continues to provide unconditional support at all times.

Many healthcare and pharmaceutical companies have begun availing of call centre services in recent years. A call centre can offer numerous service benefits to healthcare providers in order to build upon existing customer experience and service provision:

• Efficient provision of care – Using a call centre means that call agents can focus on providing your patients with the customer support that they need while you focus on providing them with the medical care that they need. Availing of help desk and after hours support means that a patient can have their queries and concerns answered without distracting in-house administration or healthcare staff from their important roles and leaves them assured that they have continuous access to care and support.
• Access to the latest technology – Call centres operate using the latest call centre and data management technology ensuring that your patients receive the highest level of customer service and support. Our technology allows us to provide healthcare and pharmaceutical companies with multi-channel support including telephone answering, email, social media, SMS text and more. This means that your patients will be supported on all channels at all times.
• Expert diary and database management – Those companies who operate in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry can rest assure that their daily practice management and patient database are continually kept up to date when using a diary and database management service. Call agents can schedule/confirm appointments for healthcare providers and follow up with reminder service regarding patient appointments or prescription renewals.
• Reduced in-house administration costs – Outsourcing support services to a call centre can prove beneficial for reducing in-house administration costs in terms of hiring and training new employees and gives companies the opportunity to invest these costs towards patient care services.
• Improved patient support – Due to the extensive client specific training provided to call agents, they are able to provide patients with quick, knowledgeable responses and follow escalation procedures where necessary. Providing high quality patient support is a high priority for those in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry. By availing of call centre services, this ensures that your patients are supported 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Call Pageboy Contact Centre has over 40 years’ experience of providing customer support services to the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry. We ensure that all call agents are expertly trained in providing your patients with a positive customer experience while handling their sensitive information in accordance with data protection laws. Our after hours and help desk services provide administrative relief to your in-house staff and ensure that no patient queries have been missed. For more information on the range of services that we offer to the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, contact us here.

This article was originally posted on insights.datamark.net on March 8th, 2017.

The contact center industry continues a remarkable transformation as consumers set the customer service bar ever higher. Connected to the world 24/7/365 through mobile devices, consumers demand from businesses quick resolution of issues – both simple and complex – across all communication channels.

This year, companies operating in-house contact centers and providers of outsourced contact center services will continue to tap the cloud to support forward-thinking technologies and strategies aimed at meeting the needs of today’s mobile consumer. Thanks to the cloud’s seemingly unlimited computing power, artificial intelligence – in the form of customer service bots – will become more pervasive.

Contact center leaders will be challenged to allocate limited resources in an environment where consumers expect customer service “without limits.” With this in mind, let’s look at five trends that will shape contact center operations… Read more.

This article was originally posted on talkdesk.com by Shauna Geraghty.

There is no denying that today’s customer has come to expect instant access to relevant information and personalised sales interactions 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If a prospect comes knocking at your virtual door at 2 am and there is no answer, they may go straight to your competition, rather than wait until your sales staff returns at 9 am.

So how do you cope with an ever-connected marketplace when your physical doors are only open for one third of each day? Do you open your doors 24/7? Do you outsource some departments or automate some of your workflow? Do you rework your website to provide comprehensive information and self-service options? Or do you just give up?

With the exception of giving up, which is clearly not an option, any one of these may be opportunities for you to interact with your after hours customers. You just need to know how.

Understanding The After Hours Customer

In some ways, the after hours customer is no different than the “during business hours” customer, which is actually your problem. The Internet changed the expectations of the online customer… Read more.

This article was originally posted on www.talkdesk.com on February 3rd, 2017 by Adam Bonefeste.

When you think about contact center jobs, you probably imagine people wearing headsets and answering calls in front of computer screens staring at call center software all over the world. These employees are the part of a company that is responsible for solving any problems that come up. When you think of people with contact center jobs, you probably don’t look in the mirror. Unless of course, you purchased a mirror that is giving you problems and you need to contact the company that produced it.

There’s a common misconception that these agents with headsets have the important contact center jobs. After all, they’re the ones digging into details, distributing information and ultimately “solving problems” related to customer support. But if you take a step back, you’ll realise that there’s someone else who is more important to the process: the customer.

The goal of customer centers jobs is not to produce the most helpful agents, it’s to produce the most satisfied customers…. Read more.

Long gone are the days when customer support was solely conducted over the phone or via fax. The nature of the customer support service industry has changed dramatically and omni-channel support is the reason why.

Customer support services have been required to adopt to the changing face of communication in order to ensure that customer satisfaction levels and brand loyalty are maintained.

Omni-channel support provides a seamless customer support experience across an endless list of channels such as email or live chat while also giving a high quality of service. Beginning a conversation on one channel and transitioning that same conversation to another has become the norm. Failing to provide a consistent level of customer service across your communication channels can put your business at risk of losing valuable customers.

There are many advantages to adopting an omni-channel approach to customer support for your customers:

• Customer support on the go: With the majority of individuals using mobile devices as their preferred method of communication, providing a mobile friendly customer support service via your touch points ensures that your customers will enjoy a seamless brand experience from the palm of their hand.
• Reduces customer frustration: Social media and live chat have become the go to places for getting in touch with a company. By making sure that your customers receive quality customer support and quick response times on these channels that can reduce customer churn and drive customer loyalty. Due to their easy to access natures, customer frustration is alleviated.
• Consistent customer knowledge: Omni-channel support technology gives businesses the ability to gain access to a full history of a customer’s interactions with the company and also provides insight into a customer’s communication preference. Having access to this knowledge ensures that your customers are provided with support on the correct channels leading to maintained levels of customer satisfaction.
• Personalised customer communication: It is no surprise that communication methods such as SMS or instant messaging have become more widely preferred. However, there are certain instances where over the phone support may be more beneficial. Giving your customers the ability to choose the means by which they contact you ensures a consistent level of customer support at all times.

Call Pageboy ensures that your business provides a seamless omni-channel support service to your customers by delivering and managing consistent customer service experiences across a number of communication channels such as web chat, SMS text and email. If you are interested in finding out more about the range of call centre services we provide, get in touch with us today.

This article was originally posted on www.avoxi.com by Pablo Torres on January 26th, 2017.

According to Gartner, live chat will grow 400% from 2015 to 2018 as a preferred digital channel for customer engagement. A number of surveys cite customer satisfaction as a key driver to incorporate chat. Additionally, several benefits clearly show that live chat is no longer a minor add-on feature to business websites, but it is now essential to providing quality customer support.

According to Derek Eccleston, Global Commercial Officer at eDigitalResearch [acquired by Maru/edr], eDigitalResearch’s latest Customer Service Benchmark indicates a correlation between ease of contact and customer satisfaction. And that websites with easy to find live chat signals to users the availability of customer service teams as well as the willingness to talk directly to customers about their issues. Statistics from the benchmark report indicate… Read more.

This article was originally posted on www.callcare247.com by Gemma Harding on 26th January, 2017.

The world of customer service has changed drastically over the past few years, but the evolution isn’t over yet!

The way that customers interact with businesses is far different than it used to be, largely due to rising competition. If people aren’t happy with the way that you speak to them or handle their queries, then they have absolutely no qualms about taking their money elsewhere.

So it’s important that you stay ahead of your competitors wherever possible! To help you out, the experts here at telephone answering services provider CALLCARE bring you their top four predictions for what the future of customer service holds. Now you’re in the know, you can adapt your strategy and continue to impress long into 2017 and beyond

1) The working day is changing and will continue to do so

There are only so many hours in the day and while the majority of us spend at least eight hours a day in the office, there are other tasks that need to be taken care of. And that usually involves calling a company or its customer service department… Read more.

The first point of contact team acts as the first impression of your business and the start of a positive customer experience that will boost a customer’s confidence in your service and product offerings. The service ensures that all issues and concerns will be resolved in a quick and respectful manner while also ensuring customer loyalty and retention.

In an increasingly demanding technological world, customers have access to multiple touch points for contacting your business’ customer support at any time of the day. It has become the norm for customers to desire that their queries are solved on the first point of contact with a business and failure to do this can often be harmful to customer satisfaction.

There are many reasons why a business should avail of a first point of contact service especially when it comes to ensuring the satisfaction of your customers:

• Knowledgeable support – When a customer reaches out to your business, they want a hassle free and fast solution to their problem. The first point of contact team ensure that your customers are being met by a customer support representative that is knowledgeable of your business and respectful of your customers’ needs.  All call agents are expertly trained to ensure your customers are provided with quick, seamless expert advice.
• Reduced costs – Outsourcing customer support services can have multiple benefits for business owners especially in terms of reducing overall business costs. Using a first point of contact service team means that there is no need for hiring in-house.
• Information access – First point of call agents have access to your business’ CRM and diary management systems allowing them to easily access and update customer information. This is beneficial as it allows call agents to provide customers with a personalised customer service based on their past interactions with your business.
• Response time – All call agents are coached in providing the highest level of customer service and first call resolution to ensure that queries are promptly and efficiently answered. A first point of contact team may use a call script provided by your business if you required.
• Improved customer loyalty – Resolving a customer’s issue in the first call is a benefit when improving loyalty among your customers. If your customers feel that they have been acknowledged and valued by your customer support team, they are more likely to return to your business adding to overall customer retention.

Call Pageboy Contact Centre‘s first point of contact service offers seamless support to your customers. Our call agents answer your customers queries over a number of different touch points including phone, email, SMS, and online support. We integrate with your CRM system or diary management software and adhere to all escalation procedures to ensure that your customers concerns are efficiently answered.

This article was originally posted on www.icmi.com by Ben Jost on February 24th, 2017.

A new window pops up on an agent’s screen saying “Extra pillows would be great”. It’s an incoming text message from a customer who is planning to check into one of the hotel branches tomorrow, roughly 300 miles from where the agent, who works for the hotel chain’s contact center, is located. Within a few seconds, the message has been delivered to the particular property, signed off on as “received,” routed to room service who will ensure that there are, in fact, extra pillows upon the guest’s arrival, and a confirmation text has been sent to the guest explaining that it is no problem at all, and offering safe travels.

This type of on-promise/off-premise work-flow, utilising SMS as a communication channel, may seem a bit future-thinking. However, the technology to allow this approach, including the automated workflow, is here today. This example is specific to the hotel industry, but there are lessons that can be applied across more segments, and benefits that can be accumulated within any company in almost any industry. For instance… Read more.

Many companies within the IT and telecommunications industries outsource their customer support services such as help desk support and virtual reception in order to maintain a high level of customer satisfaction in a highly competitive economic environment.

Working alongside a 24 hour help desk support provider can prove to be beneficial for professionals within the IT and telecommunications industries. As both of these industries require in-house staff who are trained to work in a highly technical and fast paced industry, juggling this along with a large demand in customer queries can often lead to stressed and overworked employees.

Outsourced help desk support can offer IT & telecommunication companies numerous benefits when it comes to achieving customer service goals:

• Reduced costs – It can offer companies better financial leverage. Due to its low fixed costs and no requirement to hire in-house, it greatly reduces costs for businesses while also leveraging overall ROI.
• Great Flexibility – Due to the nature of the IT and telecommunications industries, customers can encounter issues at any time of the day. Whether they are experiencing problems with a software program or their internet connection is down, 24 hour help desk support ensures that your customers queries are answered whenever they may call.
• Better management – Help desk support providers not only aid in customer support but also operate the necessary telephony systems, manage CRM and sales systems and advise data management teams. This gives IT and telecommunications companies the time resources and ability to focus on the daily core operations of their business.
• Rapid response – As a service, it provides businesses with the benefit of a guaranteed quick response time. As call volumes rise, call agents can ensure that your customers issues are addressed immediately without delay.
• Industry knowledge – All call agents are continuously trained in IT and telecommunications industry knowledge to ensure that they can offer a high level of customer service combined with the appropriate industry knowledge so that no customer problem or issue goes unanswered.

Call Pageboy Contact Centre provides customer-centric help desk services to the IT and telecommunications industries. Our call centre technology ensures that your business maintains desired customer care service levels while also reducing staff interruptions. Our expert call agents work across all communications channels including telesales, email to social media in order to solve your customers’ issues, 24 hours a day.

This article was originally posted by Dennis Stoutenburgh on www.stratuscontactsolutions.com

If you have an in-house call center, more than likely your inbound customer service inquiries have highs and lows. The peak times can be seasonally generated, due to new product or promotion launches, product recalls or other known issues. If your business has an in-house contact center that normally handles inbound calls, there may not be any issues managing volume during average operations. However, when capacity is at it’s peak, it may be smart to have secured an arrangement with an outsourced customer service provider who can help with overflow calls and social media inquiries.

There are some definite advantages to having an outsourced customer service provider. For one thing, they oversee the recruiting, hiring, training, staffing and managing of their call center agents, as well as the day-to-day operations so you don’t have to. Companies decide to outsource for a variety of reasons…. Read more.

For all business owners, ensuring that your company’s daily operations run smoothly while also delivering a high level of service to your customers is an ongoing priority. This is especially true for start-up and SME companies who are not only establishing their customer base but also their reputation as a loyal and trustworthy business.

As your business grows and call volumes rise, it is not always possible to hire additional in-house staff to handle growing customer demand. Using a virtual receptionist service can prove to be a cost-effective solution for many start-up and SME business owners. Outsourced virtual receptionists perform all the same duties as an in-house receptionist yet only work the hours that you need them to.

There are multiple benefits to hiring a virtual receptionist for your business especially when it comes to establishing customer loyalty:

• Great customer service – The service makes sure your incoming calls are answered by a knowledgeable and respectful person. All call agents are trained in your business so that you can be rest assured that your customers are receiving a seamless customer service experience.
• Service reliability – Virtual receptionists provide un-interrupted service to help manage your staff schedules when your in-house staff are unavailable due to annual or sick leave.
• 24/7 call support – Many virtual receptionist services offer extended after hours support allowing your customers to contact your business when it is most convenient to them regardless of the hour of the day.
• Maintain a professional image – When calls are being answered efficiently and professionally, it gives customers a great impression of your business. A virtual receptionist will answer your customers questions and refer them to the appropriate member of your organisation helping to give your business credibility.
• Better time management – A virtual receptionist can help to increase productivity within your business. They will handle numerous administrative responsibilities giving you, as a business owner, more time to take care of the day-to-day business needs.

Call Pageboy Call Centre’s virtual receptionist service ensures that your customers receive the highest level of service at all times while adding to customer satisfaction, loyalty and overall customer retention for your business. Our call agents use a variety of methods such as call patching, SMS texting and email integration to ensure that your customers have all of their queries answered.

Would you let a babysitter mind your kids without a reference from a friend or relative who could vouch for them? Choosing a call centre service provider for your customers should be treated in the same regard.

Think about it… you have a requirement for a call centre and as a business owner, you rely on them to carry out a high level of service for your customers. The service provider that you choose will be the first point of contact for your hard won customers and you are trusting them to represent your business and brand.

When choosing a trustworthy call centre service provider for your business, make sure to carry out and ask the following:

• Site visit – First things first, arrange a visit to the call centre to see that it’s not just a flashy website and meet with the staff who will be speaking to your customers
• Established – How long have they been in business?
• Service Hours – Do they provide 24/7/365 after hours services?
• Experience – What companies similar to your business do they provide service to?
• Trust – Who can you contact for a service recommendation?
• Quality – How do they train their staff and monitor your service?
• Technology – Does the service provider have the latest technologies that can be of benefit to your business?
• Location – Visit your chosen call centre every quarter for a service review

There will always be a cheaper service out there. Typically these providers are chosen over the phone, and six months later you are back to the drawing board due to a bad service. A bad service experienced by your customers. To avoid this, it is vital that you trust your service provider from the very outset.

Call Pageboy Call Centre strives to provide long term, trustworthy relationships to each of our clients and understands the importance of representing both your brand and business with the highest level of service provision and respect. We invite all of our customers to visit us on location and meet with the call agents who will be managing your service, speaking with your customers and becoming the voice of your brand.

This article was originally posted by Infinit Contact on www.infinitcontact.com.

Technology and customers evolve, and so must a company’s Customer Service process. Whereas once the focus was on automation, the technological advancements we’ve made and the nature of how customers are able to interact with businesses has changed the game to focus instead on customer engagement. Shifting to Collaborative CRM can help businesses stay on top of their customer service inquiries, raise their customer engagement and even retain customer loyalty.

What is Collaborative Customer Service?

Collaborative support is an extension of already implemented CRM, hinged on a new approach to customer service that uses software to bridge various teams and even departments with the goal of delivering a seamless customer experience. Using collaborative support software, customer support representatives are empowered to work together to solve tickets in a faster, more efficient way.

Technology is at the heart of collaboration. Collaborative features like internal chats, ability to create groups, ticket queues, and shared calendars are key to creating a strong support team. Therefore having the right customer support software that allows integration both between teams and various business groups will lead to a stronger and more unified customer support team that is always aware of new developments, inquiries, and issues and… Read more.

Property Management and Facilities Management Companies must be available to their customers 24/7/365. Things can go bump in the night and regardless of either low or high monthly call volumes, or call priority levels – An After- Hours Customer Service Helpdesk is key to retaining the customers you have fought hard to get!

Providing your own in house After Hours Helpdesk requires massive on going investment and staff management. Routing customer calls to a sister office in the UK, can lead to local familiarity being lost with call centre agents, and history has proven that if you are providing a service locally, you need a locally based Outsourcing Provider who’s staff are familiar with local customs, geography and language.

The benefits gained by effectively outsourcing these services to a Dublin Based Call Centre is twofold

• After Hours Services – Your Customer Calls, Emails, SMS Text Alerts are seamlessly routed to CallPageboy at 5pm. Your CRM Integration, Call Priority Filtering, Workman Despatch, First Call Resolution, On Call Rota Management , Lone Worker Service are easily integrate.

• Improved Customer Service – Call centre agents are expertly trained to adapt to a variety of clients’ processes. Due to this, our call centre agents can expertly handle different customer service scenarios that may arise. First call resolution is of upmost priority for our call centres agents in order to ensure a high level of customer service and advice provision.

• Reduced Costs – CallPageboy provides companies with the ability to significantly reduce their operating costs when it comes to call and administrative management. By outsourcing your Property Management and Facilities Management Customer Service Helpdesk, you are reducing the costs associated with internal staff training and infrastructure needs as call centres utilise their own software, servers and telephony. Therefore, it allows your company to turn a fixed cost into a variable one; skilled labour is available to you but only when you need it most.

• Flexibility – In-house staff can often be left at the mercy of periods of low or high call volumes which may often cause them to feel either idle or overwhelmed. Utilising a call centre ensures that call abandonment is not an issue during and between peak hours. Outsourcing overflow call management services can significantly improve service quality during these peak hours. Due to the number of staff resources available to CallPageboy, we have the capacity to quickly manage spikes in call volumes without the long waiting times. This provides companies with the opportunity to effectively manage their internal staff without sacrificing customer satisfaction levels.

• Disaster Recovery – All companies experience unforeseen periods of downtime whether due to an electricity outage or an issue with internal infrastructure. By outsourcing your Property Management and Facilities Management helpdesk, in the event of a disaster your company can be rest assured that your call management and administrative processes aren’t affected and ultimately ensure business continuity.

The CallPageboy Call Centre Property Management and Facilities Management team are expertly trained in processing over 10,000 telephone calls, emails and SMS alerts each month. With service offerings including first call resolution, call filtering and CRM system integration we ensure that no customer query goes unanswered and offer the highest level of customer satisfaction.

We are delighted to announce that we have successfully completed and passed our ISO 9001:2008 yearly audit. The 3^rd party audit was carried out by specialist company Certification Europe and involved all members of our management team.

ISO 9001 is an internationally recognised quality management system (QMS) standard. It is the world’s leading quality management standard and has been implemented by over one million organisations in over 170 countries globally.

The key principles of our Quality Management System include –

• Customer focus and customer satisfaction
• Leadership
• Involvement of people
• Process approach
• System approach to management
• Continual improvement
• Factual approach to decision making
• Mutually beneficial supplier relationship.

CallPageboy Call Centre provides Customer Service and Appointment Booking Services to an award winning Irish company involved in the development and supply of Hospital and Clinic Appointment Software.

2015 has seen remarkable growth for our customer and since Jan 1^st this year we have already reached a milestone of their 50,000^th caller. This key account has huge potential and is forecast to exceed in excess of 100,000 calls this year and in return increase our Agent Healthcare Team by 5 additional agents.

Our ongoing Investment in Technology and its flexibility allows us to quickly scale our services to meet the volume of customer calls and emails.

CallPageboy Call Centre provides service to 12+ Healthcare / Pharmaceutical organisations. As part of this service it is vitally important that our staff have a full understanding of the serious nature of these calls we handle on their behalf.

In April of this year, after successfully demonstrating our experience with Pharmacovigilance type services, we were successful in being chosen as the preferred service provider to a very well- known pharmaceutical company. During our presentation we outlined our processes with

• Data Protection
• Agent Training
• Quality Management System
• Our Resilient IT Infrastructure
• Our flexibility to scale up or down
• Our experience in dealing with medical emergencies

Utilising our In House Training Room and facilities, our client came to us to carry out a “ Train the Trainer” course with our front line team and training staff. From this we were able to roll out this programme across all staff involved in this type of service provision.

“ After visiting CallPageboy Call Centre to see their operation in a live environment it was easy to see that they were a service provider we could trust and be a strategic partner going forward. Their agents and management team truly appreciatedand understand the nature of the calls they would be handling on our behalf, and we were rest assured by being able to speak with some of their current pharmaceutical clients “

Richard Lacey

COO

Further Telephony Investment

At CallPageboy Call Centre we use best in class Call Centre Technology. For our telephony we use CIC by “Interactive Intelligence”, a world renowned product used by many of the larger 1000+ seat call centres in Ireland and on a global scale.

We have recently completed a major upgrade to the latest service release 4.0. This is another major miles stone reached as part of our development and investment strategy for the coming years. This latest release ensures that the technology we use providing service to our customers, is second to none and is reflected in the quality of the service supplied to our customers.

To complement the above project we have also carried out a complete replacement programme of all agent PC’s and Screens.

Work has been completed and we have taken up residency in our new call centre in Tallaght, Dublin 24. As part of our business development strategy, and response to an increase in new business, the next logical step for us was to increase our operational capacity and open an additional larger centre to meet our plans.

Our previous call centre building which we own, has now become our physical standby disaster recovery site to relocate to with minimal downtime.

Key search criteria when choosing the location of our new office, we placed a major emphasis on the location being convenient and accessible for our staff and clients, and also positioned and connected to all the major Telecom service providers. Our new location more than exceeds these requirements.