Sally wants to return a shirt that doesn’t fit. She calls your company during her lunch break (which also happens to be yours) and is greeted by your generic voice mail. Sally lacks the patience to wait for the option directing her to the returns department, so she hangs up.
Customers that have to repeatedly call to find answers get frustrated, particularly if they have a simple need, such as a mailing address or hours of operation. Solving a customer’s issue on the first call can build higher levels of customer loyalty, reduce aggravation, and lead to time and money savings.
Tips for Improving Resolution on the First Attempt
To improve customer satisfaction, it’s important to:
- Make company policies and processes readily available to your employees and customers.
- Have knowledgeable staff answering calls, supported by the needed training, tools, and information.
- Handle calls efficiently using appropriate escalation and routing techniques.
While it’s easy to summarize these points, it is considerably more complicated to implement the necessary customer support infrastructure in your organization. The good news is that our virtual phone system with integrated contact management really can help your efforts to improve resolution with the first call.
How Can My Virtual Phone System Help?
Your phone system can become a virtual team member for your organization. Use our wide range of tools to support:
- Problem customer service areas. Call histories can be searched and information collected on the types of calls received. The reasons for multiple calls can be determined and monitored. If training or company policy does not meet customer expectations, you can make changes to better serve customer needs.
- Internal processes. Multiple features within our virtual phone system can help support company policies and increase your employees’ customer service knowledge. For example, pop-up menus allow staff to share information, including notes on how to redeem a coupon that ran in yesterday’s paper. If you need to verify inventory, your merchandise specialist can be looped into the conversation with instant conferencing.
- Employee overload. By analyzing call trends, your phone system can be set-up to better utilize your employees’ time. For instance, efficient call routing helps customers reach the correct department immediately, even receiving simple information, such as payment address, via a voice recording. Blind or consultative transfers connect the customer to the right department.
- Real time information. With the contact management system included, a customer’s call history pops up on your screen while the call is coming in. Be aware of previous conversations before you pick up the phone, and use this knowledge to help resolve the issue.
Customer service is not an exact science. But, tools from our virtual phone system combined with your sound policies and knowledgeable staff can lead to a dramatic increase of satisfied customers. Happy, loyal customers add more to your bottom line.