6 Ways to Improve Customer Service Performance

The phone is the hub of your business; it’s where the virtual world makes contact with the real world. It’s where issues and problems get converted into opportunities and a great service experience. It’s where someone’s day goes from bad to better. Or does it?

Here are some tips to help improve your customer service performance. As you’ll see, there is much more to it than picking up the call in 3 rings and it’s not all down to the agent to get it right either!

6 ways to improve customer service performance:

• Be positive. A positive, happy and helpful disposition is essential to deliver a good call experience. Are you recruiting the right type of people for your front desk or call centre? You’re converting nearly all your business investment over the phone so you need the right type of people picking up the phone to drive the right brand impression and maximum return on investment (ROI). Happy and motivated.

• Be prepared. Do your team know what is likely to hit them today? Are they aware of your latest special offers and marketing initiatives or know the product and service issues. Do they know who is available today for transfers? Nobody likes to feel unprepared, left in the dark or caught out. Ensure your processes get your front desk up to speed. You can even get ahead of customer's needs by implementing proactive customer service. This can help businesses anticipate customer needs before they become issues, as opposed to having reactive customer service that only deals with issues as they arise.

• Manage loyalties. You want your frontline phone based staff to be delivering a fantastic experience; converting all the prospects to clients and making an advocate out of each complainant. Ok, then make sure they have the time to do this. Lumping loads of time critical admin onto them doesn’t help. If it means they are late going home every day or can’t complete a call as they would like, conflicting loyalties set in, loyalties to themselves and their families and their loyalty to you and your business.

• Training. Some things come naturally such as being friendly on the phone. Other things need to be taught; like handling a difficult caller that doesn’t like what they are hearing or the news they have been given. Give them the training, tools, support and back-up needed to manage the hard calls.

• Processes. Give guidance and advice on required call handling processes. Who should handle which type of call? Where do they get transferred to? Do they monitor the transfer for a successful handover? What should they do if the phone is ringing and they are busy with a guest or are on another call. Don’t make them guess, advise and then they can use their judgement on each occasion.

• Vision and culture. Your staff need to know who they are and what they represent within your organisation. What experience are they expected to deliver and how should each caller be left feeling? Only by clearly defining your company’s vision and culture for your service and product delivery can they know the level of service they need to attain.

Awardaroo can help

We can help you improve your customer service with our bespoke telephone sales and service training. We're not like everyone else. We like to get to know your business and figure out where your strengths and weaknesses, so we can create a training programme unique to your business needs. Find out more or get in touch.