Is there a difference between telecommuting and working remotely?

While telecommuting and working remotely are very similar in nature, there is a slight difference. Working remotely implies that the employee is in a separate geographic location than the business itself. For example, an employee living in Pennsylvania but working for a company located in California would be working remotely. On the other hand, if an employee is mainly working from home in the same geographic location as the business and can perform on-site tasks, as needed, they would be considered a telecommuter.

For business owners, bringing telecommuting to the table is not as easy as you might think. There is a mixture of elements to take into consideration, and the correct setup requires time. But who has time when half the planet is on lockdown and your customers need you yesterday?

If you already have a well-established remote workforce, then your organization is equipped to handle anything that the COVID crisis can throw at you. However, for businesses that are suddenly switching gears to try and adapt, keep reading. It’s a mind-bending task to immediately move your customer support team to work-from-home during a global pandemic. Power through these lessons to be learned, and your staff will be on their way to teleworking success.

Internet Access

The first caveat of an impromptu remote workforce is Internet connectivity. Not everyone has the financial means to afford home Internet. And while people may be connected to the web on their smartphones, it doesn’t mean that those devices are designed to accommodate any number of activities that are required for your business. What are your options?

Wi-Fi Hotspots

Many cell phone providers offer tethering, turning smartphones into Wi-Fi hotspots that can be shared by other devices within range. Some of your employees may have this as a part of their monthly plan. If they do not currently subscribe to a hotspot service and it is an option via their provider, it could be added. However, whether it is already set up or an add-on, bear in mind a couple of things:

1. This is an expense that your employees will incur to do their job. Expect to reimburse them in full.
2. Depending on the service, there may be data caps and slower speeds, and connectivity is also impacted by spotty cell service. That being said, it may not be ideal for your business’ needs.

Free Home Internet

In response to the coronavirus crisis, Comcast is offering two free months of service for new customers who sign up by May 13, 2020. A mountain of other cell phone and Internet Service Providers (ISP), including giants AT&T and Verizon, also agreed not to terminate service for 60 days and waive late fees for existing customers who are unable to pay their bill as a result of this situation. You can see a list of participating providers in this press release from the FCC. If the COVID crisis stretches beyond the free service window and employees still need home Internet, regular rates will apply. Still, take advantage of the offer while it’s on the table.

Hardware & Software

Once you have the Internet piece squared away, it’s time to talk about hardware and software. We’ve already established that not everything can be handled from a smartphone. So, do you actually have the hardware to do the job away from your brick-and-mortar establishment? And if you do, can staff access business applications via a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) or by logging in to individual websites? Ask yourself these questions:

Does your staff operate from laptops that they can take home with them?

• If they are taking equipment home with them, is their home setup compatible with their work equipment?
• If office equipment is not mobile, can they use their own PCs, Macs or tablets?
• Laptop Setup: If a work laptop will be used, provide, at a minimum, a power cord and USB mouse. If separate monitors are available to take home, provide the proper cords and docking station, as well as a separate keyboard. If a personal laptop will be used, whenever possible, provide a USB mouse, separate monitor, cords, docking station and separate keyboard, if these are not already a part of the employee’s at-home workstation.

Do you have a cloud-based CRM and ticketing system, such as Zendesk, NetSuite or HubSpot, so that everyone can access data simultaneously?

• If you do not have a cloud-based CRM and ticketing system, and strictly rely on a shared email inbox, how will you determine who handles what?
• Do you have a triaging procedure to label or flag messages that require an immediate response? Or a system to label requests as pending, and file them away once they have been addressed?

Will your staff be able to take VoIP phones home from the office?

• If the home Internet connection bandwidth is fast enough for VoIP, contact the ISP to ensure that the office VoIP phone is compatible with service. Then, provide the phone and handset or headset, power cord, and an Ethernet cable that is long enough to reach the workstation.
• If the employee will be converting their home phone to a VoIP line, they will need an Analog Telephone Adapter, which can be purchased separately or may be available via the ISP.

If employees will not have a physical VoIP phone, are you using a cloud-based phone system (aka softphone), such as RingCentral or Grasshopper, that enables you to make VoIP calls from your computer?

• If you are not using a cloud-based phone system, are you prepared to foot the bill for employees making and taking calls from their cell phones?
• Can you provide headsets so that background noise can be easily muted?

Both hardware and software availability are clearly deal breakers. After all, it doesn’t much matter if you have the Internet if you have nothing to connect to it.

Data Security

One of the most obvious and pressing concerns about instituting a work-from-home protocol is data security. When it comes to hardware, even if your business can operate via a secure VDI, malware is a potential issue. And that does not speak to the hackers and other security breaches that are lurking in the background on personal gadgets that are not adequately protected, just waiting to siphon the next bit of useful data. So, some things to consider:

• If employees will be borrowing company laptops, be sure that they are all firewall-protected and include updated antivirus software.
• If employees will be using personal devices, your IT team will need to remote into those devices to check their security controls, install firewalls and antivirus software, and install any other applications that will make working from home feasible. Depending on the size of your remote workforce vs. the size of your IT department, this may take up a considerable amount of time and resources. Plan accordingly.
• For cloud-based applications, switch all platforms to two-step verification, if possible. This ensures that even if usernames and passwords fall into the wrong hands, sites are not accessible without a security code provided via a secondary process, such as sending an SMS to a cell phone or a verification message to an alternate email address.
• Employees will need to safeguard their home office Wi-Fi connection by changing the password and adding security questions or two-step verification as a log-in requirement. It also goes without saying that employees must avoid working from public places with free, unsecure Wi-Fi.
• Data visibility concerns while telecommuting must also be brought to light, and common sense practices can help mitigate any such intrusion. For example, remind employees to: not leave computers unattended; log out of all systems when stepping away; and use monitor privacy screens if there are others in close proximity to the workstation.

If your business uses a PCI-compliant call center, or if your staff processes orders and takes payments over the phone, information security must be addressed at every level of the organization, especially if employees will be doing the same work remotely. The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council has put together a list of best practices for maintaining the safety of payment card data. Though geared towards PCI-compliance, the evaluation procedures outlined are a worthwhile read for every business owner. And if you are working with a call center, check with your account manager to confirm that the appropriate protocols are in place for their remote agents.

Insurance & Liability

Every workplace has certain liabilities. Business owners maintain insurance coverage, such as General Liability, Property, and Workers’ Compensation, to protect themselves from a number of issues. Potential liabilities at the primary office, such as adequate ventilation, lighting, and ergonomics, are managed. A home office may not specifically be in the business owner’s control – but ultimately, the employer is responsible for ensuring that the employee’s at-home working conditions meet the same standards as the primary office.

In the throes of the current global pandemic and trying to cobble together telecommuting for your organization, chances are that researching whether an employee could file a workers’ comp claim for falling down the steps to their home office is not on the to-do list. Well, it is now. Specific guidelines for work-from-home staff must be developed, and all remote workers need to sign the agreement. This might include information such as how and where to properly set up a workstation, when and how long to take breaks, requiring working smoke alarms, checking for any potential electrical hazard, and more. If initial and continued inspection of the home office premises is not possible, a self-certification checklist should be completed by the employee and maintained with your HR department.

Work-from-Home Policy Resources

Telecommuters are no longer bound to the confines of their desk, cubicle, or office. Ah, sweet freedom! But what if all that extra freedom becomes a giant distraction that sharply reduces productivity? Designing a system that creates a seamless home office experience for your staff will encourage success, growth and stability in an otherwise uncertain time. We’ve compiled a few resources below that will help you develop your own WFH policy:

• Need to Create The Perfect Work From Home Policy? These 3 Sentences Are All You Need: Simple and straight to the point, this policy highlights the 3 main talking points of any successful work from home policy.
• 11 Essential Tips to Managing Remote Employees: This guide will give you complete insight into working remotely and managing teams from afar, including how to make the best out of challenging situations.
• 6 Ways to Keep Your Team Productive While Working from Home: Productivity is key in maintaining a successful operation.  Make sure your WFH policy encompasses these features to ensure team members are staying productive.
• How to Create an Effective Work-From-Home Policy: Allowing your employees to work from home doesn’t automatically mean success. First, you must create a policy that works.
• A Guide to Managing Your (Newly) Remote Workers: If this is your first time managing remote employees for an extended period of time, make sure you’re following these tips for success.
• Top 15 Tips to Effectively Manage Remote Employees: Another great resource to help manage your work from home employees.
• 5 Ways to Make Work From Home Successful: Adapting to a work from home business model can be challenging. Set your team up for success by following these guidelines.

So, what have we learned? To sum up, anything that is a concern at the primary office is a concern at a home office, which is essentially an extension of your business. When you have a cohort of people working for you, launching a work-from-home program is way more involved than simply flipping open your laptop. If you haven’t set up your remote workforce yet, the above lessons will give you a clear path to follow to ensure a successful run. On the other hand, if you already have employees addressing customer support concerns in their pajamas and these lessons have alerted you to some loose ends, it’s time to cinch things up. During the days of COVID-19, enabling telecommuting is a tremendous benefit, if you run the type of business that allows for it. Just be sure to protect your business and your staff in the process.

The post 4 Essential Considerations for Work-from-Home Staffing appeared first on SAS Call Center.

If you’re a 2 person small business or a 2,000 employee behemoth, your customer is your most important asset. The secret to growing your company is being able to maintain a high customer service level despite how small (or how large) your operation may be. If you do things right, the first customer you acquired could still be using you 10, 20, or even 50 years later! Want to know how businesses do it? It’s easy – call center services.

Call centers help businesses maintain a high level of customer service without the businesses themselves having to hire their own in-house staff for customer service. And, with that power at your disposal, your customer service can be reactive, proactive, and educated. Here’s how call centers can help your customer service success:

1. Inbound customer service without business hours

Most call centers are available and staffed 24 hours a day, which means your customer service doesn’t need to be limited by traditional business hours. Your customers will always have someone to talk to even when your business has closed for the night.

Being available 24/7 means you are catering to every customer type – those that will call during business hours and the ones that will reach out to your business once they’re done with their own. And yes, you’ll even be available for those middle of the night 3 am type emergencies. 24 hour coverage shows you care about every customer.

2. Make your customer service employees more productive

While your call center agents are answering the phones, your in-house staff will have more time to work on more important tasks – making your staff much more productive. Call centers can reduce the burden on your in-house staff by:

• Answering questions on your behalf: Questions like what type of services do you offer, what is your pricing structure, when are you available, etc. are easy questions your call center can answer without having to take a message for a return call.
• Troubleshooting basic issues: When call center agents are given the opportunity to assist with basic troubleshooting requests, customers are able to be helped on the first call.
• Decreasing call backs: Call center agents will help cut down on the amount of calls you and your team will have to return and handle, which means you can really focus on the big stuff.

3. Centralize all of your customer communication

In order to stay organized, businesses need to compartmentalize different tasks and create departments that handle those tasks, like billing, customer service, etc. Where this can be a maze for customers is when each of those departments has independent contact data.

Instead of making your customers memorize a bunch of different numbers, create a single point of contact for your customers no matter the issue. For example, setting up a front end IVR to direct calls based off the caller’s response or input will help centralize all points of contact and streamline calls.

4. Easily sift through call data to find weak spots

Call centers are chock full of reporting data which can be used to your advantage. For example, you can look for trends based on call disposition to see how new processes may be implemented to improve the customer experience. Here is some other important data you should be paying attention to:

• Call Result: This may go by different names depending on your service provider, but the objective is the same; to capture and categorize what customers are calling for. For example, this month, an HVAC company may have had 65% of calls result in a scheduled appointment, 25% result in messages taken, and the last 10% were questions that operators were able to handle via programmed FAQs.  For a business that wants to decrease the amount of messages taken, they need to train operators to handle more tasks. They should look to their current call result stats and decide what needs to be added, like some basic troubleshooting capabilities.
• Call Traffic: Being aware of trends in peak call traffic to your business is a great tool to use to help yourself plan ahead. When you know that your business is receiving the most amount of calls during 10am-2pm Monday through Friday, you can schedule your in-house employees accordingly. That way you’re never over or understaffed at ill-opportune times.
• Call Length: If your call center charges by the minute, you should be able to access information that shows just how long your calls are taking, especially when taking your customers into consideration. While it may be helpful to have your call center agents gather a lot of information, it may be frustrating for your customers if they’re not up to answering a bunch of questions.

5. Periodic outreach to take your clients temperature

If you want customers to stay loyal to your business, you need to reciprocate the loyalty. Whenever you need, call center agents can make outreach calls to your customers to check in to see how things are going. They can gather feedback from customers, engage in customer satisfaction surveys and ultimately keep the line of communication open between your customers and business.

If customers are having issues, have questions the operator’s can’t answer or want to talk to someone about their account, call center agents can transfer the call over to the correct person. This proactive approach to customer service will certainly keep your customers around.

SAS Call Center helps businesses like yours keep customers happy with live customer service. Learn more about our call center services and explore how SAS can help your business.

The post How Call Centers Help You Focus on Every Customer appeared first on SAS Call Center.

Let’s be realistic, just outsourcing to a call center isn’t going to be a magic wand that helps every single business. You’re not going to start forwarding your calls to a call center and *POOF* you’re business is a success. And even if it was, it’s not really that easy to choose the best call center, not to mention integrating it into your business processes. It takes a bit of research and work, but hiring a call center does pay off in the end with better customer service, more leads, and stellar customer retention. That’s why we decided to write about what businesses need a call center services without even knowing they do. If you run a business, you’re an excellent candidate.  Let’s start with why your business should be using a call center.

Why do I need a call center?

You may not think you do. But you do. If you’re even asking this question, you probably have no idea about the benefits of a call center. Employing call center services will help your business operate better. Check it out for yourself:

• 24/7 live answering to give your brand a personal touch.
• Integrative software applications which allows your call center to work in tandem with your business.
• Online portal and mobile apps to help you stay connected no matter where you are.
• On demand reports that can help you plan your next marketing campaign or understand your call volume.
• Affordable pricing options for small businesses on a budget.
• Bilingual agents to speak with customers in the language they prefer to communicate in.
• Emergency dispatching and the flexibility to create customized  on-call schedules.
• Outbound calling for telemarketing, appointment follow ups and market research needs.

If you’re still asking the question “Do I need a call center”, then you haven’t been paying attention. The answer, of course, is yes! Whichever industry you work for, whichever business you represent, whatever you do – a call center can benefit your business in multiple ways.

Who needs a call center?

Working call center services into your business is pretty universal as it can be used for sales, customer service, human resources, marketing, and more.

Call center for a sales team

Sales teams are the life blood of businesses. They are the ones that are able to push potential customers into the company’s sales pipeline. Without a sales team and new customer acquisition, a business will fail. While your sales team is busy closing deals, call centers can take care of the jobs that are more time-consuming like cold-calling potential customers, or contacting old customers to see if they can provide new incentives to get them back on service.

Call center for human resources

Human resource departments wear many hats. One minute they may be reviewing resumes or deciding on a new health insurance plan, and the next they may be reconciling an office feud. No matter what your human resources department is working on, a call center can help with things like answering questions about the business for people who are interested in a new job or acting as a compliance hotline for disgruntled employees.

Call center for customer service

Every day customer service departments across the globe strive to fix customer issues and increase the overall client experience. For small businesses, it can be difficult to provide the best possible care when working with limited resources. Call centers provide an affordable alternative than hiring more staff, and can be available to your customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In addition, many call centers can integrate with software your business is already using, like appointment scheduling platforms or various CRM systems.

Why isn’t my business using a call center?

If you aren’t using a call center yet, now is the time to do it! If you’re not, you probably have a few reasons you think are good, but they really aren’t. One of the reasons you’re probably not already using a call center is because you think it’s too expensive. It’s true, small businesses are among the most cost conscious. With tight budgets, payroll to meet, and other expenses moving to the forefront, it’s hard to imagine another expense gnawing at your bank balance each month. However, call center services are affordable as the cost of the service is a function of your volume – i.e. the more calls you send, the more the service will cost. You don’t need to spend a bunch, just spend a little to start exploring the benefits.

If cost ain’t no thang, you may be thinking “Hey, no one calls me anyway”. We say – no way! Sure, there are multiple channels that customers can reach you on, like web chat, email, or text – but using the telephone is still very much a thing. And don’t forget, if we’re talking relevance, call centers can handle all manner of contact, including web chat, including email response, and including responding to texts. If you want to stay relevant, you need to be thinking call centers.

To show you that call centers can benefit any small business, we’ve listed 10 businesses that you may not think would need to outsource to call centers, and why we think they should:

Call Centers for Start-ups

Start ups are the perfect candidate for outsourcing. Most start ups have lower budgets than their established business counterparts and need to monitor their costs wisely. However, being a start-up doesn’t absolve the business from the normal grind like making sure managerial tasks are being completed on time, your customer base is getting established, marketing plans are being fine tuned, and the products or services they are looking to sell are being perfected.

Call centers can help alleviate some of the pressure  and give small businesses the presence they need in order to gain traction in order to compete with their competitors. For example, they can:

• Answer inbound calls 24/7 which allows in-house staff to prioritize call-backs accordingly
• Handle outbound communications like market research, lead generation and telemarketing
• Monitor email, live chat and social media channels to handle customer inquiries, give your brand a social presence and process customer feedback which can be used to understand more about your customer’s needs

Call Centers for Taxi or Transportation Services

Taxi and transportation services are busy 24/7, which means they need the assistance of a live 24/7 call center to help with the daily influx of new jobs and responsibilities. For example, call centers can help:

• Schedule new rides
• Update existing ride information
• Process payments
• Answer questions regarding booking information, ride estimates and quotes
• Field calls for customers wanting to know where their ride is
• Gather information like pick up and drop off locations, preferred vehicle, flight numbers and times, etc.

Call Centers for Mobile Pet Grooming

Mobile pet grooming services can get a lot of use out of call center services. Not only can a call center help schedule appointments, but they can also usually integrate with different applications and software to help maximize productivity. For example, if a call center can utilize Google Maps, they can check to see if a customer is in the designated service area and help provide directions.

Call Centers for Church or Ministries

While it may not seem like a church or ministry would need to use a call center, not many people really consider what goes on behind the scenes at these types of centers. For example:

• Priests may need to be called in the middle of the night to read someone their last rites
• Members may want to call and donate over the phone if they are unable to donate during a service
• Members may have questions about service or event dates and times, especially during the holiday seasons

Call Centers for Personal Trainers or Gyms

Whether someone is working as a personal trainer or running a small gym, call centers can help customer satisfaction and get more guests through your doors. Some ways they can help include:

• Simple receptionist support for small gyms who may not have phone support
• Offering bilingual support to Spanish speaking customers
• Scheduling classes
• Answering questions about class schedules, memberships, amenities and guest services
• Processing gym memberships over the phone or online via live chat
• Answering frequently asked questions
• Upgrading service levels or up-selling classes

Call Centers for Credit Unions

Credit unions are small, non-profit organizations that help people with various financial services similar to a bank, but with much lower interest rates. Call centers can help credit unions by assisting callers with loan or mortgage applications, provide balance and transaction information, help answer questions regarding claims and interest rates, and ultimately provide a live voice to talk to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Call Centers for Food Manufacturers

Food manufacturers aren’t always monster factories. Many food manufacturers are actually small businesses that produce and deliver food to local shops, or have niche products that are available nationwide. Call centers can help with:

• Placing customer orders
• Scheduling deliveries
• Handling high volume product recalls
• Answering for employee or compliance hotlines

Call Centers for Local Government Offices

From complaints and suggestions to questions and requests, local government offices handle a lot of different calls each day. Government offices that outsource to call centers can set up multiple different lines all under one roof that would allow operators to handle calls differently. For example, lines could include:

• Tip line to report suspicious activity.
• Complaint or suggestion line to offer constructive criticism or suggestions of how to utilize vacant government property.
• Event registration line to help answer questions and register or reserve guest spots by processing payments.
• Basic receptionist line to route and transfer calls instead of listing dozens of individual numbers for residents to call.
• 24/7 service line to answer calls and dispatch messages in the event of bad weather or emergencies.

Call Centers for Magazine and Newspaper Companies

While most companies typically opt for inbound services while using a call center, magazine and newspaper companies can actually benefit from using both inbound and outbound services. For example, inbound services can be used to help answer questions and provide customer support, while outbound services can be used to reach out to existing customers whose subscriptions are nearing their end to see if they would like to renew.

Call Centers for School Districts

Like local government offices, school districts can utilize call centers in many different ways. For example, they can be set up to:

• Receive and schedule maintenance requests like leaky faucets and busted lockers.
• Screen calls and dispatch emergencies like flooded bathrooms or no electricity.
• Field complaints regarding vandalism, school closures and excessive noise.
• Answer questions about teachers, classes and extra curricular activities.
• Help register new students for the upcoming school year.

The post 10 Businesses That Might Not Think They Need a Call Center (and Why They Do) appeared first on SAS Call Center.

To build better relationships, businesses understand that customers want to be served on their schedule. However, the cost of customer service is always on the small businesses mind. More specifically, how to reduce that cost while still keeping customers happy.

For the best customer service imaginable, a business can have an in-house team of experts available 24/7 to respond to sales and customer service requests, but unless you’re selling the service equivalent of diamonds and gold on a monthly recurring revenue basis, the cost-justification for in-house live agents working around the clock just won’t be there. That’s where AI bridges the gap. AI can certainly play an important, affordable customer service role. It’s there, it’s cheap, and it’s going to answer basic questions customers have. But, statistics about customer service still show that live interactions and real human contact create loyal customers. Where AI can lead to frustration of it’s alone on customer service island, AI + live agents make customers happier. Here are 8 statistics about the state of customer service today to show that live interactions are still an important part of a customers experience.

1. Customers are willing to spend 17% more with companies that deliver excellent service. (American Express)

Offering a great product is only half the battle when it comes to running a successful business. The other half is delivering excellent service to your customers. For small businesses with a limited budget, it can be difficult to make sure your customers are getting the absolute best service, simply because they don’t have the manpower or resources to accommodate everyone.

If you find that your own business is struggling in this department, outsourcing to a call center is an affordable way to help get the job (or jobs) done. Call centers offer your customers 24/7 live support, and can help take on many of the same tasks your in-house staff may be bogged down with, like capturing and converting leads, scheduling appointments, processing payments, answering questions and walking customers through basic troubleshooting. When you are able to hand off some of these tasks to your call center that would otherwise eat up a lot of time and energy  in-house, your employees can be more attentive to your customers and can focus on delivering the level of service that sets you apart from other brands.

2. 67% of customers reported hanging up on an automated system out of frustration at not being able to reach a live person. (Glance)

How many times have you found yourself yelling at a company’s automated system when reaching out for assistance? Probably too many times, and 67% of customers have been in the same boat. Automated systems can be great, but they do have some flaws which can be less than desirable to deal with, especially for customers who are in need of immediate assistance.

If your company is using an auto attendant to help alleviate the amount of inbound calls your employees have to handle, but your customers are none too happy about using it, then call centers offer a superior communication solution. They can help cut down on the amount of work your in-house staff have to worry about, while assuring that your callers have a live voice to talk to no matter when they call. With a call center, your customers know they don’t have to go through IVR hell, and you know that your customers are no longer hanging up out of frustration, which is great for you, your customers and your business.

3. 54% of customers have higher expectations for customer service today compared to 1 year ago. (Microsoft)

In order for your business to stay relevant and to keep customers happy, you need to think big and get creative. For example, if your business caters to a younger audience, you’ll want to use channels like live chat and email in addition to phone support. If your target audience includes older generations, you’ll want to make sure your customer support team is easily accessible and that a live voice is always present. Technology can be confusing for older generations, so making your customers navigate an auto attendant will only make the process more frustrating. The problem for small businesses is that it can be expensive to grow every communication channel at once. Call centers can help.

Cater to your customers higher expectations by leveraging call center services to open up every customer service channel. Routing your after hours or overflow calls to a call center is an affordable way to open up new communication channels without breaking the bank. Most centers will offer email response and live chat in addition to live operator support. Good news for you is that instead of investing a ton in these technologies, you’re (most likely) only paying per minute of use.

4. 82% of consumers say that getting the problem solved quickly is the #1 factor in a great customer service experience. (LivePerson)

When customers reach out with an issue, they want to get the issue resolved as quickly as possible, which is why many businesses put an emphasis on First Call Resolution, or FCR for short. When customers have to wait long periods of time to speak with someone, to have their issue fixed, or both, they become more frustrated and less likely to stick around the next time they experience an issue.

Instead of leaving your customers waiting, outsourcing your customer support to a call center can help alleviate queues and speed up the troubleshooting process. For simple requests like password resets or needing to update appointment details, your call center agents should be able to handle those without needing to take a message or transfer the caller to your support staff. For more complex issues, your call center reps can start support tickets via CRM or help desk systems that you’re already using, which means your employees don’t have to worry about wasting time doing double the work.

5. 33% of customers who abandoned a business relationship last year did so because personalization was lacking. (Accenture)

As a business owner, catering to your customers should be a top priority. Personalizing the customer experience is a great way to set your brand apart from your competition. When customers feel connected to your company, you are able to maintain and maximize customer loyalty. Here are some great ways to get personal:

• Hire a call center and offer your customers 24/7 live support
• Send hand-written letters thanking customers for their business
• Visit with customers face to face
• Learn their language! If your customers speak Spanish, outsourcing to a bilingual call center can help bridge the communication gap.
• Add pictures of your team to  your website so customers can familiarize themselves with your staff
• Interact with customers on social media
• Celebrate your anniversary with customers by sending them merchandise or gifts annually

6. The #1 reason customers say they dislike calling companies is not being able to talk to a real person immediately. (Newvoicemedia.com)

In an effort to streamline support, more and more companies are implementing the use of auto attendants to cut down on live talk time and allow customers to help themselves. However, automated support can feel robotic and impersonal, which is frustrating for many customers who just want to talk to a live person.

If your company does choose to use an auto attendant, make sure your customers are able to talk to a live voice without having to jump through hoops. Instead of having them listen to a bunch of options, with “press 9 to speak to an operator” at the end, make it one of the first few choices to avoid confusion and frustration. If your customers happen to choose a self-help option, you should also make it easy for them to re-route to an operator at any time throughout their interaction if they happen to change their mind.

7. The more complex the customer service issue (for example payment disputes or complaints) the more likely customers are to seek out a real person on the phone. (Comm100)

While auto attendants or virtual receptionists can be helpful for simple requests like finding out a company’s business hours, activating a credit card or checking the balance on an account, more complex customer service requests and issues should always be handled by a live person. Real humans trained in your business’s complex interactions can listen to and understand what the customer is saying, show empathy and acknowledge their concern, all while helping to solve their issue.

A properly trained and dedicated call center agent will be able to solve most customer issues, and those they can’t, they can escalate the call and provide assurance that their concerns will be addressed as soon as possible. If they have urgent requests or issues, allowing your call center to transfer the customer directly to your support team will provide your customer with an added sense of comfort instead of having them leave a message and wait for a call back.

8. Globally, 96% of consumers say customer service is an important factor in their choice of loyalty to a brand. (Microsoft)

You have a lot of competition, and customers have a lot of options. Obviously, your company has to offer a good enough product or service that will get people interested, but the secret sauce is in the customer service. If your support team is hard to get a hold of, unhelpful, or just plain rude, you’re going to have a hard time keeping customers on-board.

A  business that is able to provide customers with exceptional service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year is a business that knows success. However, we know that most businesses, especially small start ups, don’t have the resources to be available around the clock, but they do if they’re using call centers. When working with a call center, it’s important to make sure the transition is as seamless as possible. Below are some of our tips to help ease the process:

• Make sure to arm your call center with FAQs: The more questions your operators are able to answer, the more customers they can help, and the less calls you have to return.
• Set up your call handling to match your in-house procedures as closely as possible: If your in-house agents are screening calls and handling new clients differently than existing clients, have your call center do that as well. When your business works in tandem with your call center, your customers are able to experience seamless and streamlined customer support.
• Allow your call center to transfer callers: When scenarios come up that your call center agents are not able to help with, allowing them to transfer the caller to your in-house employees ensures that your customers are always receiving the greatest care and attention possible.

The post 8 Stats About Live Customer Service in 2019 appeared first on SAS Call Center.

To make sure every small business and entrepreneur we answer for is able to get the most out of their outsourcing experience, we came up with 25 points you should consider as you’re working with a call center.

Here’s what we came up with.

To come up with this list, we interviewed key people in our call center organization to get their opinion. From the sales team, we learned the frustrations sales prospects have with their current providers. From our operators, we learned about the struggles they have when managing accounts that are either too mechanical, too complex, or even too simple. From our customer support team, we learned about some of the challenges customers face and the solutions our support team delivers to our client base to overcome those challenges. While every group had their own perspective, the overall theme was about the partnership between the client and the call center for continued success. Communication is key and understanding the limitations of the call center are essential to building a foundation of success.

Tip #1: Review  and rate your calls on a weekly basis.

Small businesses are focused on 1,000 things on any given day, and they may fail to understand that their call center is like an employee that needs to be monitored. Barb Albert, the customer service support manager at SAS, has great advice for customers looking to get the most out of their call center. According to Barb, a successful outsourcing experience follows the 4 commandments:

• Listen to at least 1 call each week
• Rate at least 1 call a week
• Provide feedback if necessary
• If there are problems, repeat each week
• If everything sounds and looks good, repeat each month

Tip #2: Give input when customizing your script, but rely on the experience of your customer support rep to finalize the account.

George Nave, Vice President of Sales at SAS, explains, “The key to a healthy script is to follow the advice of the experts. We’re in this game day in and day out, and we know what will work and what will be a complete disaster. When I’m working on a client’s script, I’ll listen to their needs, merge that with what will work in our world, and meet in the middle with a bulletproof script.”

In other words, you know what works for you, the call center knows what works in their environment, and you need to combine both worlds to develop a great experience.

Tip #3: Understand that there will occasionally be hold times.

In a perfect world, hold times wouldn’t exist. While no business can guarantee a perfect answer rate, a good call center will have systems in place to help cut down on hold times to make sure your callers are getting helped as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

Mollie Williams, one of our support superstars at SAS, explains how “many people, if not most people, expect to be put on hold from time to time. However, see if your call center can implement some features to make the wait time more bearable. For example, here at SAS we can add custom greetings so callers know they’ve reached the right place, and custom hold recordings that can play to let callers know there is an unexpected hold, but that someone will be with them shortly. We find that adding these features helps alleviate any frustrations and encourages callers to stay on the line.”

Tip #4: Let the call center reps be honest with callers, and let them know they work in the call center.

Josh Middlecamp, an SAS sales rep, explains that “I try to be as honest with our clients as possible, and sometimes that means laying things straight out on the table. When people outsource, they expect that the agents handling their calls will  be able to handle them the exact same way their in-house staff do, and that’s just not possible all the time. That’s why I always suggest our clients be upfront with their callers and have the agents say that they’ve reached the call center instead of trying to play it off like they are in the office. I find that when callers know exactly who they are talking to, their expectations aren’t as high, and therefore they aren’t as upset when they eventually come to realize they’re not speaking with someone in the office.”

Honesty is key, and your callers will be much more appreciative if you are up-front about outsourcing to a call center than trying to brush it under the table.

Tip #5: Keep your information current, like on-call data, emails, and phone numbers.

Esther Cardin, SAS sales rep, explains that “one of the most important pieces of advice I try to give customers is to make sure your call center always stays current with your in-house business practices. That means if phone numbers, emails, staff, pricing or protocols are changing, your call center needs to know. Otherwise, your customers may be given wrong information or we could be sending messages to the incorrect places, and no one will be happy!”

Tip #6: There’s a perfect amount of FAQ data you should enter, and you need to find that.

When outsourcing to a call center, you need to find the perfect amount of information to provide. You don’t want to do too much, and you don’t want to do too little. Danielle Viglione, a customer service representative at SAS explains that “a lot of our clients tend to ‘over arm’ their operators with frequently asked questions, which can sometimes get a bit messy. While you do want the agents answering your calls to be knowledgeable about your company and be able to answer questions, it’s not realistic for them to be able to answer everything. Here are a few of my tips when it comes to FAQs:

• Don’t add more than 20 FAQs (15 may even be pushing it)
• Keep them short, and don’t add paragraphs of information!
• Organize them to keep similar questions together. For example, pricing questions should be grouped with pricing questions and service questions should be grouped with service questions.”

Tip #7: Customers tend to exaggerate hold time experiences. Trust the report.

Sheila Forth, the Assistant Support Manager at SAS has been in the call center game for many years, and offers her own advice when it comes to hold times:

“It’s no surprise that people don’t like waiting on hold. However, callers sometimes exaggerate the time they actually spent on hold, which causes a stir with our clients.  Through our system we are able to run hold or answer rate reports on particular lines that show exactly how many calls came in, and exactly how long they were waiting (if they were waiting) on hold. When we run these reports, we typically see that the hold was not nearly as long as originally reported (‘I was on hold for 5 minutes’ usually equates to 30 seconds). However, whenever there are holds we have measures in place to help combat them, like adding custom hold greetings or changing operator distribution.”

Tip #8: Know the support hours, and who to call if you need assistance.

Whenever your business is working with a third party company, like a call center, it’s important to know who to call when you need assistance and when. Courtney Pizzi from the SAS support team says that “a good customer service team is crucial when finding the perfect call center to outsource to. They should be knowledgeable, easily accessible, and above all, friendly. Working with a customer service team that seems aloof to your problems is not going to allow your business to grow and thrive.”

If your call center’s customer support team isn’t able to be available 24/7, they should offer some sort of middle ground. For example, if they don’t offer phone support over the weekend, they should still be accessible via email or chat. Or if they are all busy on the phone, they should have a system in place to have the calls route to the call center to have an operator create a support ticket.

Tip #9: Remember that not all calls will result in a message.

Just like you don’t take messages for every call that comes in in your own office, your call center won’t take messages for all calls, either. Kathy Galdi, a long time sales rep at SAS explains that “there are many calls that come in that simply don’t require a message being taken, like wrong number calls, or calls where the customer has simple questions that the operator is able to answer using your FAQs. So, don’t be alarmed when the number of calls that comes in doesn’t match the number of messages you are receiving!”

If you do have concerns that you aren’t getting all your messages, your call center should be able to provide reports that show you those details, or provide you access to an online portal that you can log into to view all the messages and run reports yourself.

Tip #10: Keep an eye on your usage and make sure you change plans if you are under or over your allowance.

Like cell phone companies, most call centers offer multiple pricing plans that can be scaled to match your business. Kelly Dunbar, a customer service rep at SAS explains that “making sure you are always on the right plan is important, especially for small businesses. Our plans here at SAS can be increased or decreased any time in the month to make sure our clients are always on the right plan. We even help monitor usage for them and send out alerts if they should be on a higher plan.”

Customers who know their service is looking out for them will appreciate the vigilance, and will be grateful for all the money they’ll wind up saving in the long run.

Tip #11: If you’re expecting a spike in volume, make sure you give the call center at least 14 days lead time so they can properly staff.

While no call center (or business for that matter) can guarantee there will never be holds, you can help your call center service cut back on queue times by letting them know in advance if you’re expecting a spike in volume. SAS support rep Kaila Hamaday provides some great examples:

“If you’re airing a telethon or a new campaign in a month, let your call center know as soon as possible so they can make sure they are staffed accordingly. If you blindside your call center, they won’t have ample time to prepare, and your callers, as well as many other callers, will suffer the consequences.”

Tip #12: Scripts are never static and can always be tweaked, so don’t think you’re stuck.

Intake specialist for SAS Matt Baker has a lot of experience talking with potential customers and setting up accounts. He explains that “call center scripts are never set in stone. Just like practices and protocols in your own office can fluctuate, your call center can change with you. Any time you need to make an update or tweak a procedure, your call center can work with you to make sure all systems are running smoothly.”

It’s also great to get feedback from your call center, because what works in your office may not work with your service. So, if your support team doesn’t think a certain procedure or update would work, they can provide alternate recommendations so that both sides can come to a happy medium.

Tip #13: Know the technical capabilities of the call center, like what software they integrate with, and use that to your advantage.

Before you sign up with a call center service, it’s important to know what they’re capable of. For example, some call centers may offer basic services, whereas others may offer more advanced features. SAS sales rep Chris Middlecamp explains why it’s important to take advantage of the services your call center offers:

“To put it simply, call centers exist to help take some of the burden off of business owners and their employees by alleviating the day to day responsibilities that tend to stack up. So, when call centers offer advanced features like the ability to integrate with software you’re already using, or the ability to schedule your appointments for you, the best thing you can do for your business is to take advantage of those tools. The more tasks you are able to outsource to your call center, the easier your life will be.”

Tip #14: Don’t be afraid to implement an IVR to improve customer service and cut down on live operator talk time.

When outsourcing to a call center, the customers’ experience is most important, which is why it can be helpful to implement an IVR or an auto attendant. Mike Danaher from SAS’s programming team explains that “while your business shouldn’t rely on automated support, it can be a great addition to your arsenal of support tactics. IVRs can help answer simple questions, route callers to the appropriate person or department, and ultimately cut down on live operator talk time. IVRs are also a great way to provide your callers with simple information like updated business hours or a new address, which may help cut down on the amount of calls coming in.”

Tip #15: If callers ask for specific people, it’s a great idea to have those as paths in your script.

When it comes to your call handling, thinking about and planning for different scenarios is important. One of SAS’s programmers, Hector Villapudua explains that “just like you would have different protocols set up in your own office for different types of calls, your call center should be prepared as well. For example, when callers ask to speak with specific people from your company, have your call center program in a path specifically for those calls so that your operators can handle them differently. Even if your protocol stays the same, having a list of specific people will help your agents become more familiar with your company, and will allow your callers to have a seamless customer experience.”

Tip #16: Schedule a meeting with your call center periodically to have them review your script and propose improvements.

In order to ensure the best outsourcing experience, you always want to make sure you’re on the same page as your call center.  SAS Sales rep Matt Cohen suggest that “scheduling monthly meetings with your call center’s customer service team is a great way to go over any issues, tweak your script, and bounce ideas off of each other to set up the most efficient process as possible.”

Tip #17: If you’re using a PBX to route your calls to the service, make sure calls aren’t getting stuck and not reaching the service, or bounced back if the service is experiencing high call volume.

When outsourcing to a call center, it’s important to make sure your calls are actually reaching the service. Otherwise, what’s the point? Sales Manager and programmer Kevin Kozeniewski encourages customers to “place test calls every time you route your line(s) to your service to ensure that calls are getting through. Otherwise, customers may get stuck in limbo and fail to reach the service, or calls may wind up bouncing back to your own line. And, if your line is forwarded, customers may find themselves going in circles which is very frustrating!”

Tip #18: If you add temporary instructions to your script, make sure you contact the call center to remove them.

If your office is closing for a holiday, a company wide meeting, bad weather, or just because, it’s important to let your call center know of any temporary instructions you need implemented. However, it’s just as important to contact customer service afterwards to remove them, or else your operators will continue relaying incorrect information to  your callers.

SAS support rep Jessica Rosado suggest that “when contacting your service, see if they can make programming updates that can be automatically removed after a certain date or time so you don’t have to worry about reaching out afterwards. We can do that here at SAS and we find that it makes both jobs – ours and our clients – much much easier.”

Tip #19: Call centers will often have several different billing options, like per call, per minute, or dedicated agent. Make sure you know all of your options.

SAS’s billing manager Annie Baker explains that “many call centers offer different types of billing options, so it’s important to know which route to go for your business. Some businesses may save more money on a per-minute billing system, whereas others may save more on a per-call billing system. Trying out different service levels will be the best way to determine your average call volume, which will help you decide which system would be most cost effective.”

For larger businesses that need a more hands on approach, many call centers also offer dedicated agent services which while more expensive, may wind up evening out for you in the long run.

Tip #20: Add a cell phone number in addition to any email address to make sure you’re getting all messages.

In order to ensure you’re receiving all of your messages no matter where you are, have your call center program your cell phone number in addition to your email address so that you can receive messages via text and email. SAS support rep Alex Scalfaro suggests that “having multiple messaging options set up ensures that you’ll always get  your messages no matter where you are, which is great for business owners and staff members who are always on the move, like HVAC techs, doctors and lawyers.”

Tip #21: Call center invoices can be confusing. Ask for a sample before you start.

Before you sign up with any service, it’s a good idea to get a feel for how they invoice, so that you won’t be hit with any surprises later down the line. SAS’s accounting manager, Taylor Blair, explains that “like cell phone bills, call center invoices can sometimes be confusing because they typically bill the upcoming month’s base rate in advance, and then any overages you accrue from the previous month in arrears. So, your invoices each month may look different depending on which plan you choose and how much usage you actually get. If you can, ask your call center to send you a sample invoice before you sign up so that you’ll know what to expect before you start paying.”

Tip #22: It’s great if your call center offers Spanish operators, but it’s not always a necessary expense.

Todd Cardin, co-owner and CEO of SAS explains that “bilingual support is an ever increasing necessity for all types of businesses, so a call center that offers Spanish-speaking agents is great. Being accessible to customers of multiple languages helps open up your business to a larger audience, and allows your brand to be more inclusive. If you’re just starting out or if your business doesn’t really get a lot of Spanish speaking callers, it’s not always a necessity, especially if you don’t have extra funds in your budget to spend. However, if your situation changes, it’s good to know that your call center at least offers bilingual support as an added feature.”

Tip #23: Make sure everyone in your office knows how to forward and un-forward their calls.

David Stoltz, CTO and tech guru of SAS illustrates the importance of making sure everyone in your office is familiar with call forwarding:

“In order to ensure a successful outsourcing experience, everyone in your office should be on the same page when it comes to call forwarding. That means everyone should know the forwarding number your call center provided you, and everyone should know how to forward their calls to it. If the job of forwarding calls every evening falls on one person, your team is going to be frenzied if that person calls out sick. When everyone knows the number and procedure, you’ll be able to transfer calls from your business to your call center smoothly and without any interruption.”

Tip #24: If you plan on advertising a number, find out if you can take it with you.

When you start using a call center service, they always provide you with a number that is specific to your account. While most businesses choose to forward their current phone lines to that number, other businesses opt to advertise the number separately on their website, business cards, etc.

However, if you plan on advertising your call center number instead of forwarding to it, Stephen Wildemann from the SAS sales team suggests that you “should find out from your service provider if you can take that number with you if you ever decide to leave service. Many call centers do not allow you to keep the number, which is why advertising it can be tricky. If you do want to advertise your number and you aren’t allowed to take it with you, I would suggest only advertising it in places that can be easily edited, like your website or your voicemail. Otherwise, you may wind up spending a lot of money to print it on business cards or billboards only to lose the number in the end.”

Tip #25: If your call center has a portal, use it.

Access to an online portal is a great feature that does not come standard with every call center. If your service offers it, you should use it. Gabby Rolette from SAS’s technical team explains that “online portals are an advanced feature that should be designed to help your business succeed by offering various tools that you can use at  your disposal. For example, SAS’s portal not only lets you listen to your calls and view your messages, but you can also rate operator performance, generate on-demand reports, integrate with various apps and make changes to your on-call schedule and script. Instead of having to reach out to your call center every time you need to make changes or to retrieve your messages, everything is already at your disposal online.”

SAS helps you capture leads, keep more customers happy, and keep your costs down so your small business can grow fast. Learn more about our small business call center services.

Get the eBook

Download our free e-book to page through our top 25 insider secrets on how you (and your customers) can get the most out of your call center. Click the banner below to read 25 Amazing Tips for Getting The Most Out Of Your Call Center.

The post New E-Book: 25 Killer Tips for Getting The Most Out Of Your Call Center appeared first on SAS Call Center.

Below, we’ve listed 6 different ways your receptionist can compliment your sales team and help grow your small business a million different ways from next Tuesday. Be sure to try some of these tips in your own office!

#1. Arm your receptionist with pre-sales answers

While your receptionist may not be familiar with all of the ins and outs of your company, they should be equipped to answer some basic questions that may come up. If they can’t, your customers will question how knowledgeable your staff really is, which may affect sales. Every receptionist should have a list of FAQs that they can easily access whenever questions come up. Some questions all receptionists should have the answer to include:

• Business location
• Company hours
• Key contacts within the company
• Services provided
• Prices
• Service levels
• Capabilities

You may also want to include some more specific FAQs depending on the type of business you run. For example, a medical practice should also include information regarding insurance, while a construction company should include information on the types of services provided. The more questions your receptionists are able to answer, the more experienced your company will seem, which will encourage more customers to do business with you.

#2. Never say you don’t know

Whether a customer is contacting a business to purchase a product, schedule an appointment, or to simply ask a question, they’re looking for help. However, if they’re asking questions and your receptionists are left saying “I don’t know” – you’ve got a problem.

If your receptionists truly don’t know the answer to a question, you should implement a transfer protocol to help in those scenarios. For example, if our virtual receptionists at SAS don’t know the answer to a question, they say things like “Let me check on that for you” or “Unfortunately I don’t have the answer to that, but I can get you to someone who does. Let me transfer you over to Joan in our billing department.” So, even if your receptionists can’t answer a question, they can still provide assistance and ensure the customer gets helped as quickly and efficiently as possible.

#3. If you can’t transfer, schedule

If your receptionists are not able to transfer a caller to the appropriate person or department, give them access to schedule the caller themselves. Having your receptionists enter your customers or patients into your scheduling system avoids someone from your staff having to make a return call to schedule.

If you’re outsourcing your receptionist services to a call center, then you can have them schedule appointments for your callers, too. Many call centers are able to go out to your website to schedule, or they can integrate with wed based platforms like Google Calendar.

#4. Receptionists can take payments too

When people hear the word “receptionist”, the first thought is someone answering the phones, greeting customers, and transferring calls. While receptionists can do the aforementioned tasks beautifully, they can certainly do much more.

If someone wants to pay a bill or order a product and your billing department is tied up, no sense letting that customer wait for a call back. Train your receptionist how to process payments to ease any bottlenecks created by your billing department. While more complicated procedures like processing refunds should be left to your billing team, your receptionists should be able to update payment methods and process payments over the phone with ease. Your customers will be grateful for quick assistance, and will appreciate not having to wait on hold or to be transferred just for a simple update.

#5. A friendly voice from the start closes the sale in the future

Your business has only one chance to make a great first impression, which is why it is so important to get things right from the start. Your receptionists are usually the first point of contact for customers when they call your business, and it’s vital that they are greeted with a warm, friendly, and upbeat voice every time.

Even if the product you’re selling is the best in the world, customers who are greeted with a cold, bored, or indifferent voice when they call  will have a poor outlook on your brand, and may feel inclined to look elsewhere. Receptionists who are able to strike up a conversation with customers, get them to smile, and make them feel important are the receptionists that can warm the customer up for you to close sales later down the line.

#6. Customer service is a sales tool too

While sales teams are the ones that are responsible for on-boarding new customers, it’s the customer service teams that are responsible for keeping them from jumping ship when times get tough. Having your receptionists offer basic customer service troubleshooting for your callers can help keep customer complaints to a minimum, and may even increase the amount of customer referrals in your pipeline. Whether they’re in-house or virtual, some ways that receptionists can provide customer service include:

• Starting support tickets for the customer service team
• Troubleshooting basic issues like password resets
• Being the first point of contact for upset customers, and lending a listening ear
• Answering questions that don’t require a call back or a transfer
• Showing empathy for callers going through difficult situations

The post Small Business Growth Hacks: 6 Tips To Help Receptionists Close Sales appeared first on SAS Call Center.

One of the most valuable tools entrepreneurs and small businesses have to make them look like titans is call centers. Here are 7 ways call center services can make your small business look like it has it’s act together, big time.

#1. 24 Hour Customer Service Ticketing

Nothing says small business more than reaching a voicemail after hours. Customers understand that you may not be able to keep your staff in the office around the clock, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t expect to be helped. Outsourcing customer service to a 24/7 call center will allow your callers to speak to a live voice and get the assurance they need that someone is going to help them.

While the call center operators may not be able to solve every issue thrown their way, they can get the ball rolling by entering in support tickets for your staff to get back to. When your customers know they can call any time and reach a real human being instead of your voicemail, they are more likely to contact your business when things go awry instead of throwing in the towel and looking for other options. Additionally, they’re also less likely to be upset when you contact them back than they would be if they had to leave a voicemail message.

#2. 24 Hour Lead Capture

All small businesses want to be big businesses, and the only way to do that is through on-boarding new customers (as well as keeping those customers happy). However, if you’re only answering calls for 8 hours a day, you’re only capturing a small percentage of leads, which means your business could be suffering.

Opening up your lead capture to a 24/7 call center means you don’t have to stress about trying to answer every call all the time yourself, your staff doesn’t have to stress about working over time again, and your bank account doesn’t have to stress about trying to stretch funds. Call center agents can answer caller’s questions, schedule appointments to get potential customers through your doors, and may even be able to close the deal themselves if given the right tools. If 7 out of 10 callers are hanging up when reaching voicemail, it’s obvious that voicemail is not the solution to a better business, a live voice is.

#3. Professional Receptionist Staff

We have no doubt that your in-house receptionist is great, if you have one. However, your receptionist is just one person, with only two hands (probably)  and a typical schedule of 9am-5pm. What happens when your receptionist gets sick or takes on too many jobs at once? What about when they  need to go to the bathroom, eat lunch, or go home? No matter how great your receptionist is at their job, they can’t do it all, all the time. But a call center can.

A call center can provide professional receptionist services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. No vacations, no bathroom breaks, and no calling out sick. With hundreds of available agents at any given time, your business will always have someone to triage calls, take messages, schedule appointments, answer questions, and ultimately provide a warm, friendly greeting no matter what.

#4. CRM Integrations

A great way your small business can seem bigger is by offering organized, streamlined support. A small business that is just starting out probably won’t have all their ducks in a row when it comes to customer service, as they are still figuring out what works and what doesn’t. However, when you enlist the help of a call center that can access and utilize your CRM, you can avoid a lot of the headache that comes with trial and error.

When your call center agents pull up your account, they would be able to access your CRM software and see your customers’ history, eliminating the need for callers to repeat the same information each time they call in. Your customers will be so impressed with their experience that they’ll think your business has been around for years!

#5. Front End IVR

IVR, or Interactive Voice Response, is something that many businesses utilize to help direct callers to the appropriate person or department, and it’s a feature that many call centers use. Even if your departments consist of 1 or 2 people each, having your callers go through an automated system instead of routing calls yourself can help make your small business look bigger, and can help streamline the process as well. Not only do callers feel like they’re in control of their service by being able to route themselves to the appropriate person, but it takes the need out of having someone transfer the call for them. As someone who is calling in for help, nothing is more annoying than being passed around from person to person.

Automated support is also great for callers who don’t necessarily need to talk to a live person. Maybe they want to check an account balance, activate a new credit card, or update a PIN number. Many of these tasks can be done through automated systems that have been programmed accordingly, and eliminates the need for your customers to connect to a live person if they don’t need, or want to.

#6. Spanish Language Support

Showing off that you offer multilingual support makes you look huge. With a call center, you can have access to dozens of bilingual support agents for a fraction of the price you would have paid if you hired them yourself. Your bilingual agents can be used for inbound and/or outbound support, which can help get and keep more Spanish speaking customers through your pipeline.

#7. Hold Times

While hold times are less than desirable, they can make your small business look bigger simply by giving off the impression that you have a lot of customers. And, when a business has a lot of customers, it means they’re doing something right.

Of course you don’t want to keep your customers waiting each time they call, but a short hold time here and there doesn’t typically drive away the masses. As long as your call center has a proper set up, including a custom greeting that states your company name, some upbeat hold music and perhaps an estimated wait time, your customers most likely won’t jump ship and hang up if they know someone will be with them soon.

The post 7 Ways Call Centers Can Make Your Small Business Look Huge appeared first on SAS Call Center.

To help you on your journey, we’ll start by going over the two basic types of call center services you can adopt, then we’ll dig a bit deeper into what each type can do, and review the pros and cons of each including a quick cost analysis. If we can capture your attention until the end of this article, you should have a pretty good understanding of what type of call center outsourcing will work best for your business.

Types of Call Center Outsourcing Services

When small businesses are starting out, cost is probably the most important factor when doing anything. From what to get for lunch to what stationary to buy, how much you’re spending and on what is paramount. To that end, a lot of small businesses will think that they can handle their own inbound phone traffic. They’ll answer calls in the middle of meetings, give cell phones to employees to handle calls after hours, and forward their business phone to their home phone. If you’re not getting many calls, these methods may work. But as your business continues to grow, what used to be a cheap lead capture and customer service method will eventually take over your life.

What works for customer service and sales communication when a company is just starting out are colossal headaches if those methods are still used as a business grows. Customers end up waiting to communicate to a live person which leads to frustration.  Sales prospects are left interacting with voicemail which leads to missed opportunities. Employees feel chained to the office because they’re on-call 24/7. Current business suffers and new business doesn’t have the chance to connect.

Any of the above reasons are why successful businesses look to call center service companies like SAS to consolidate their customer service and sales communication. Without getting into the on-shore, off-shore, and near-shore varieties, generally call centers come in one of 2 flavors: shared call center and dedicated call center.

Let’s jump into what a shared call center and dedicated call center are, and some of the pros and cons of each.

Shared Call Center

A shared call center is exactly what it sounds like. Instead of one agent answering calls for you, you are sharing agents with all of the other call centers clients. For example, when your dedicated line rings at the call center, your script is presented on the screen and the agent handles calls according to your protocol. The next time the phone rings, it could be from another customer where the screen will present their script and their protocols.

PROS:

• There are enough agents answering the phones that your customers won’t have to wait long to be connected to an operator.
• Shared call center agents are available 24/7 which means your customers will always have a live voice to talk to no matter when they call.
• Shared call center agents can usually handle most of the same tasks your office staff are responsible for, like scheduling appointments, placing orders and troubleshooting issues.
• Depending on your average call volume, using a shared call center is generally pretty cheap.

CONS:

• Since agents are answering for many different businesses, they may not have the time to learn your account specifically which could result in errors.
• Having a different agent answer all of your calls may be confusing to your callers and may seem impersonal.
• If there is an unexpected spike in volume at the call center, your callers may have to wait in a queue.

Dedicated Call Center

A dedicated call center, also known as a brand center or dedicated agent service, refers to agents that you lease from the call center who solely answer calls for your business and your business alone. These agents are able to be trained according to your nuanced protocols to make sure that customer service experience is seamless from calls answered in your own shop to calls answered in the call center.

PROS:

• Dedicated call center agents are only handling your calls, so there will be no mistaking one account’s protocols for another.
• Dedicated call center agents have the ability to learn specific protocols, and would be able to log into your secure systems like a CRM platform.
• Dedicated agents can handle tasks like social media monitoring, email response and live chat management whereas a shared agent would not.

CONS:

• Utilizing a dedicated agent platform is much more costly than a shared agent platform, which may not be in your budget.
• Depending on how many dedicated agents you hire, you may have more calls than people answering, which could result in hold times.
• Unless you have employed a handful of agents to work various shifts, you may not have 24/7 coverage.

Why Do Businesses Choose Shared Call Center Services?

With a much lower price per entry, it’s easy to see why most businesses initially exploring call center outsourcing choose shared agent services over dedicated agent services. But surely cost can’t be the only factor? What other reasons are there?

Sure, lower startup costs have huge appeal for any business starting out when compared to the $3500 and up monthly cost for each US agent a company may lease on a dedicated agent platform. Looking outside of cost, businesses who are using a shared call center as a Tier 1 helpdesk or front end receptionist have great success in outsourcing. Acting as either of these, businesses are able to use their own in-house team as the experts, and use the call center team as the foot soldiers with the ability to offset simple requests from reaching the next level.

In this manner, your in-house personnel are left to handle the bigger ticket items, where the call center staff handles little things. For example, for an eCommerce store, the shared call center staff can answer questions about shipping times, enter in orders, and answer inventory questions if given the appropriate software access. In this model, your in-house staff can handle escalations for irate customers who received the wrong order, or processing refunds back to the customer’s credit card.

By handling the easier requests, the shared call center model gives your in house staff the chance to focus on more complex problem solving – the type of customer service that really matters.

The notion of letting your in-house staff focus on the bigger picture also fosters growth. When your staff isn’t focusing on the daily grind of customer service contact, your resources will be free to reallocate to other essential business duties like marketing and social media management.

Evaluating Shared Call Center Services

If you’ve decided that a shared call center solution is the right type of call center outsourcing model for your business, then you’re at least one step into your journey. The next is to decide which of the thousands of call center service providers is right for you. Without looking at the providers themselves, you should start by looking at the features – i.e. what’s going to be available to you if you do sign up.

While not exhaustive, here are a few of the main points to consider:

• Scalability: A call center that is able to scale up or down with you is crucial, especially for small businesses looking to grow. For example, you may start off with a basic set up just to get the ball rolling, but as your volume increases, you may want to increase your pricing plan or customize your call handling to better fit your needs. A call center that can grow with you will be a call center worth choosing.
• 24/7 Support: One of the main reasons businesses choose to outsource to a call center is because they can’t be available to their customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. If this is the issue your business is currently facing, a call center that can offer 24/7 support is paramount. However, you’ll want to make sure there aren’t any hidden fees, like charging extra to answer your calls on holidays or weekends.
• Integrations: A call center that is able to integrate with a CRM platform or system that you’re already using is a great way to decrease the amount of work your in-house staff has to do. Instead of having your staff copy the information from the messages that your call center takes and pasting it into your CRM, your call center agents would simply capture the appropriate information, and the integration would be able to populate the respective form or record immediately afterwords.
• Web Based Access: Web based access for eCommerce companies or companies that rely on appointment setting is important. While a shared call center agent may not be able to log into a protected system using a username and password, they may still be able to access your website to place orders, schedule appointments, or fill out forms.
• On Demand Reports: For businesses that are tracking various metrics like the number of monthly inbound calls, being able to access on demand reports is important when trying to factor in important business decisions. For example, the number of inbound calls  a month could determine if you need to scale your marketing endeavors up or if they’re fine where they are, or you may need to consider advertising on different platforms to increase the chances of being seen.
• Emergency Dispatching: Many different types of businesses need help solely after hours to handle any urgent issues that might come through. So, it’s important to find out if your call center offers emergency dispatching, and if they can follow your particular on-call schedule.
• Bilingual Agents: Many shared call center services offer bilingual services, which may be something you’re in the market for. However, they may not offer all of the same features like appointment scheduling or web based access. There may also be an associated fee to utilize bilingual agents, so you may want to do your research beforehand.

You’ve Nailed The Features, Now The Questions To Ask

Once you’ve decided on which platform is going to work best for you and you’ve checked a few boxes that you’ll need from the technology or operations perspective, it’s time to see what vendor is going to work best. With so many providers to choose from, which one is best? We’ve put together some questions you should ask potential vendors before you commit to any contract.

• Do you have experience in my industry? There are many call centers out there that focus primarily on one industry, like medical or HVAC call centers. These centers have specialized knowledge on the industry they serve, and may be better suited for streamlined support. However, many other call centers are capable of handling calls for a wider range of businesses. They may answer for healthcare companies, HVAC accounts, tax prep companies, automotive companies, and more. So, before you sign up with a call center you will want to find out if they can handle calls for your business, and if they’re knowledgeable about the industry they’re answering for.
• How much does the service cost? Since cost is a big factor when deciding to outsource, it’s important to weigh your options. Does the call center charge per call or per minute? Do they charge extra to answer your calls after hours, on weekends, or holidays? Is messaging included? If they offer an online portal or various app integrations, are they complimentary or are they an added expense?
• If I have a problem, what is your customer support experience like? A great customer support experience is crucial for any business. You may want to ask your call center about the different ways you can reach out. Are they only available via phone or can you email or chat in as well? Are they available 24/7 like the call center agents or are there different business hours for the customer support team? Will there be one person managing your account, or are you able to speak to anyone?
• If my volume goes up or down, can I change my plan anytime? It’s no surprise that call volumes may fluctuate throughout the year, especially for seasonal businesses. For example, a landscaping business may be busy in the spring and summer months, and slow during the fall and winter. A call center that allows you to upgrade or downgrade your plan depending on your call volume will wind up being the most cost effective option for you in the long run.
• Is setup stock or can it be customized to my needs? A call center that can customize call handling to your specific needs is going to work out better in your favor than a call center who sets every account up with a standard script. While gathering a name, number, email and regarding may be helpful for everyone, some accounts may need a bit more detail. For example, a medical practice may want to know if their callers are new or existing patients, or if they’re using insurance. An HVAC company may want to know if their callers are calling about a residential property or a commercial property. A call center that is able to customize your call handling will allow for more streamlined messages which will allow your staff to prioritize better when following up.
• Do I have to sign a contract? Before you sign on with a call center, you should find out their terms and conditions. If a call center service provider requires you to sign onto a year long contract, you may find out a little too late that they’re not the right fit, or you just don’t need service for that long a time. For example, a non-profit organization may want to outsource to a call center to help with an annual telethon, and then deactivate their service until next year.  In this case, they would want to sign up with a service that offers month to month billing where they are not tied into any long contracts.

Shared or Dedicated, Invest In Your Growth

Now that we’ve educated you on what types of call center services there are, and the pros and cons of each of the two models, you’re ready to select a vendor. Using the information above, you’re well equipped to find the best call center service provider for your needs who is going to deliver the biggest ROI with the least friction.

The post Evaluating Call Center Services appeared first on SAS Call Center.