Ten Golden Rules For Call Centre Operator

Many customers end up frustrated after dealing with call centres, but here are a few tips to help call centre operators keep the customers happy. 
 For many companies, call centres are the only way they can practically and affordably deal with the number of customers they have seeking information. By their nature, often the call centre operators cannot not know everything about a company and how it operates and sometimes they only know the answers to a list of frequently asked questions. This can be frustrating for customers who want a more detailed reply. However, by following these basic rules, call centre operators can go a long way to making the exchange successful for the caller.

Greeting the Caller

When answering the phone, start by greeting the caller, with name and company, and asking the nature of the call. Do not start by asking the caller for information. So, for example, say: “Good morning, my name is Joe Bloggs from (insert company name), how may I help you today?” Do not start by saying, for example: “Hello, can I have your account number please?”

Time on Hold

If the screen shows that the caller has been waiting to speak to someone for more than a minute, apologise for the delay. If the customer is paying for the call (that is, it is not a free phone number), then offer to call the customer back rather than let them continue paying for the call.

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Customer Service Back In The Day

I was at a gas station the other day and noticed something that caused me to look twice.
At first, it appeared to be a normal occurrence, a man pumping gas and then cleaning his windshield.
Thinking nothing of this, I continued with my gas purchase. When I again looked at the other vehicle, I saw a man walking to the rear of the same car, yet there was someone else continuing to clean his windshield.

To my surprise, the person cleaning his windshield and tending to this gas was the gas station attendant, not the customer.

This caused me to wonder if the economy might be having an impact on the level of customer service being offered today. As businesses compete for dollars, which are being tightly held by consumers, we may be seeing more of this.

Back in the day, we used to be known for giving great service to our customers and the mantra of "The Customer is Always Right" was a standard policy throughout most every retail establishment and other types of businesses.

Customers were number #1 and intensely loyal. The customer service counter area was always visible when you entered a store, and everyone knew that was where you went to solve problems and get answers to questions, any question.

Briefly, let us stroll down memory lane and look at what our customer service practices used to be. Granted, some of these still exist. Nevertheless, things have definitely changed.

 - If there was an issue with an account, you didn't have to listen to 5 or 6 different message prompts before speaking to a live person, or getting the requested information.

- If you were not happy with your meal, it would be replaced with a freshly made duplicate meal, not put in a microwave and returned.

- In a restaurant, if you needed to take home your leftover meal, the restaurant staff would prepare your carry out package in the kitchen area, rather than have you do it at your table.

- If you had some installation done in your home, cable, telephone etc., the debris would be cleaned up by the technicians, and not left for you to do.

- If you're admitted to the emergency room, you better have health insurance, enough said on this one.

Today, our customer service industry has become more automated with pre-recorded messages, self-service, unassisted online and offline shopping, less emphasis on the customer and a general feeling of having to "jump through hoops" to get a problem resolved or redeem a rebate. I believe we have come to expect less from the businesses we support.

On the other hand, this economic crisis is forcing businesses to go that extra mile in responding to their customers' needs. These are loyal customers who find themselves caught up in the downturn and need understanding. They need a return to the old fashioned customer service that endeared them to your business for life.

For example, have you seen the advertisements from certain auto manufacturers who say they will pay several months of your auto note, if a job loss occurs? This is an example of addressing the customer's needs in this down economy. If this program wasn't in place, these people would lose their vehicles. Why aren't all car manufacturers doing the same?

Here are some other ways to make your customer service more compassionate during these times:

Make it possible for your customers to talk to a live person when calling your business. This will alleviate some of your customer's stress as it shows you care about addressing your customer's issues and concerns quickly. Also, not having to move through several phone prompts can save time for the customer.

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Make the most of those precious opportunities when connecting with your customers..

We've all heard the saying that "You never get a second chance to make a first impression." However, in the world of customer service it's often not about the first impression... it's about the second, a.k.a. the follow-up!

 The truth is that most customer service and sales professionals do not fall down on the first impression.

In customer service, we answer the phone and put on our "game day" voice, politely, cheerfully and respectfully, but if we can't fix their problem immediately on that first call, we choke!
We transfer customers, make them repeat their problems, promise calls back, but then never make them - forcing customers to call back and start the process over and over again—until their issue is finally resolved through their diligent efforts (not ours)... or they leave.

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Customer Service Back In The Day

I was at a gas station the other day and noticed something that caused me to look twice.
At first, it appeared to be a normal occurrence, a man pumping gas and then cleaning his windshield.

Thinking nothing of this, I continued with my gas purchase. When I again looked at the other vehicle, I saw a man walking to the rear of the same car, yet there was someone else continuing to clean his windshield.

To my surprise, the person cleaning his windshield and tending to this gas was the gas station attendant, not the customer.

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The Changing Face of Customer Service

It was 10 years ago that I sat in a hotel room with my laptop plugged into the phone cord, fighting with my first version of a pda (a palmpilot), trying to make sense of an assignment in an ever-evolving industry — customer service. Just as foreign as the acrid air and constant motor noise of India were the changing ideas of what it meant to be a customer service expert. While the times have changed and business has become more efficient and optimized, a decade later we all have a different perspective of what it means to be a service leader but remain aware of how important an interaction with a customer can be.

Taking a more in-depth look at this era of change, it is inherently obvious how much the technology we are using in our lives has changed. W hat can go unnoticed is how these advancements have affected how a customer care center has adapted to serve customers. Not only are companies looking for different ways to interact with customers, but they are also looking for valuable interactions and meaningful connections.

While this was just one of many trips to India, China or the Philippines, we found our mission was of a singular purpose: how many seats can you move “offshore?” Directed by companies looking to make spending cuts (sometimes up to 40 percent), we were looking for anything that could move, and we all had the same objective. At the time it was considered a brilliant initiative to free up capital for other business practices. While there are good reasons to leverage lower-cost labor markets and we can debate the labor arbitrage pros/cons, one undeniable fact is that there was a fundamental lack of vision in regard to customer facing interactions; in the pursuit of outsourcing customer service efforts for cost-effectiveness, we minimized the value provided.

A few years later, with a well-worn luggage set and a filled passport, it finally starts to click. Why are we answering customers’ calls just to make them more irritated? Taking into account the absurdity of the notion, would it be better not to answer at all? Without the resources for an academic study, I’m only left to assume that my instincts have some legitimacy and that something else is taking place during this shift of resources. W hat ’s more, customers “are” starting to figure things out on their own. We continue to listen to calls and hear something eerily similar; in one manifestation or another, the phrase “I already found this information online” is multiplying. As such, I now believe that as a direct response to the shift of valuable customer service, we as consumers have begun to solve our own problems online.

As a business community, at some point in the past decade we finally reached the proverbial tipping point. We as companies and service leaders went too far. By minimizing the value of the interaction so low, consumers have resorted to handling the problem on their own. Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) loved it; Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) feared it.

In 2007, I left the corporate world on a mission to redevelop the way people think about not only customer service but also online engagement. At this time the business community wasn’t using social media as everyday jargon, but the presence of customers online wasn’t ignored. In response, millions are spent by companies placing “ads” in the right places of the web, and websites are redesigned and optimized around the clock.

During this timeline, though, the question still lingered on how this channel can be utilized for superior customer service? Things have changed so much since the offshoring days; are there other service leaders who will see this untapped opportunity? Can we make a business of it?

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Customer Service Metrics to Measure Client Satisfaction

When it comes to measuring the success of your customer service operation choosing the right set of metrics is essential. By creating a Balanced Scorecard made up of your most important deliverables you will be able to track your clients' satisfaction and report stakeholders’ key success factors.

 The Balanced Scorecard was created by Harvard Business School Professor Robert Kaplan and Renaissance Solutions President David Norton and includes financial and non-financial indicators.

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Most Popular Outsourced Jobs

Outsourcing occurs when a company contracts out a portion of its business to another company; these jobs would have traditionally been done by in-house employees. It's important to make a distinction between outsourcing and offshoring. Jobs can be outsourced to local companies that specialize in that particular area. Offshoring, though still a form of outsourcing, is when a company outsources portions of its work to be done overseas. This is a growing trend as companies find that outsourcing and offshoring lead to greater efficiency and cost savings as they don't have to pay salaries and benefits to employees, and instead pay contract fees for completion of duties. This also allows companies to allocate greater resources to parts of the company that they excel at.

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How to Maintain Traditional Customer Service in the Social Media Age

You’ve been monitoring your Facebook wall and Twitter pages, responding to customer inquiries. But what are the next steps you should take to stay abreast of the latest trends in social service?

 The emergence of social media communities requires you to track a new set of customer service metrics. Fortunately, you’ll have a better understanding of who your customers are and their service expectations. In some cases, it might even mean the end of traditional service level agreements (SLAs).




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