People Connect USA » Call Center

Artificial Intelligence Impact on Call Center Process

September 2, 2018

Hello Call-center owners! We know that Artificial Intelligence-based machine learning algorithms can understand how human agents identify and solve customer problems by learning & analyzing from the past data over time. So how wonderful it would be if we include an AI module integration or a support agent-like assistant powered by machine learning in the PBX call center phone systems such as 3CX & more?

The Artificial Intelligence module would know who the customer is, more on his/her recent or past activity, and the best way to answer his/her queries based on past inquiries.

That means: Customers get their questions answered quickly, in a self-service fashion with fewer inputs so that support person get more time, allowing them to provide one to one customer support and hence super fast service assistance! As a result, customers are happier, and happy customers = higher revenue= more money for the business!

The modern technology and this fast-changing world are getting more versed technically and this is an ongoing demand to make the business processes more compatible and streamlined with respect to time.

Thanks for reading this post and it would be great and appreciated if shared the same with your friends and colleagues.

Source: Kedjja AI Module Integration and PBX Phone System

How to strengthen your customer service skills?

August 10, 2018

First, it’s important to make sure that your customer service team has the right skills for your managing customers’ needs. No amount of CRM software can compensate for shortcomings in this area. But what skills should you be looking for in a customer service rep?

Empathy, patience, and consistency. Some customers will be irate. Others will be full of questions. And others will just be chatty. You must know how to handle all of them and provide the same level of service every time.
Adaptability. Every customer is different, and some may even seem to change week-to-week. You should be able to handle surprises, sense the customer’s mood and adapt accordingly. This also includes a willingness to learn– providing good customer service is a continuous learning process.
Clear communication. Ensure you convey to customers exactly what you mean. You don’t want your customer to think he’s getting 50% off when he’s actually getting 50% more product. Use authentically positive language, stay cheerful no matter what and never end a conversation without confirming the customer is satisfied.
Work ethic. Customers appreciate a rep who will see their problem through to its resolution. At the same time, you must have good time management skills and not spend too much time handling one customer while others are waiting. Stay focused on your goals to achieve the right balance.
Knowledge. Ultimately your customers rely on you for their knowledge of your product. Stay informed enough to respond to most inquiries and know where to turn if the questions become too detailed or technical for you to answer. But don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know” either. Customers will appreciate the honesty and your efforts to find the right answer.
Thick skin. The customer’s always right… right? The ability to swallow one’s pride and accept blame or negative feedback is crucial. Whether your team works directly with customers or looking for feedback on social media, they’ve got to keep the customer’s happiness in mind.

Not sure if your reps have the right customer service skills? Survey or interview your customers to understand whether your service team is showing each of these traits. Running a customer feedback survey through your CRM program, at the point of sale, or when you send customers an invoice is a great way to see where your team’s skills do and don’t measure up.

Field Techs are Driving the Customer Experience

August 1, 2018

“Customer experience” is in vogue again. Everywhere you look, there are articles and posts covering how companies can ramp up customer experience to generate more revenue.

And, to be fair, customer experience should always be in focus. As the economy swings back into hyperdrive, consumers are being bombarded with new and exciting offers – the kind that can get otherwise loyal customers to jump ship.

Retaining customers makes sound financial sense – acquiring a new one is five times more expensive than wowing an existing customer away from the noisy competitors and their splashy ads.

Improving the customer experience is a great way to retain your best customers.

Hands down, the best way to retain your customers is by finding ways to make their experience with your products and services hassle-free and completely satisfying. In the world of technology, customers always remember when things go wrong.

Customer disappointments can become a customer experience highlight reel.

Everyone understands that technology likes to act up from time-to-time. How many times has your laptop suddenly run out of charge right before an important presentation, or a 6-hour flight?

For telecoms, the stakes are even higher. Right before a huge pay-per-view fight, the node goes down – and everyone on the block is left without cable. Or a misguided neighbor decides to try their luck at edging their lawn – right next to where the buried cable lines are.

The way to win, in these moments, is to deliver fast, competent help. From the moment your customer service center gets the call, there’s a timer running. Your customer will judge you based on how quickly you respond. And an appointment sometime between next week and next month isn’t going to cut it.

New platforms can provide on-demand, highly-skilled help

Companies can leverage technology to deliver better experiences. For instance, FieldEngineer is one platform that tech companies are using to help shorten the gap between problem and solution. By allowing companies to access on-demand talent, with the skills and experience necessary to complete technical assignments, telecoms and other tech players are dramatically improving customer experience, without the overhead of a traditional (old school) global support team.

The ability to choose assignments dramatically improves the employee experience as well. And, it turns out, happy team members help to deliver an even better customer experience. It’s service with a smile for the digital age.

Freelancing Field Techs solve more than a budget challenge.

There’s a real shortage in the industry. Fifty-five percent of telecoms report that they are struggling to fill open positions. This means that customer service is directly impacted, as in-house tech teams are stretched to the breaking point.

As large firms continue to engage contract firms to help solve customer-facing issues, there are still times when the sheer need of customers facing service outages is overwhelming. Add into this a labor shortage and a disconnected customer service process, and you have a perfect storm for customer disappoints.

It’s exciting to see the gig economy expand into the tech sector. Yes, technology has always supported the gig economy – if you think Uber is a cab company, guess again. But, it’s only in recent years that the freelance marketplace is expanding into more skilled arenas – the kinds of jobs that keep the technology running and evolving.

Having platforms find ways to provide quality service contracts, on-demand talent that’s available locally on a nationwide basis, and who are fully connected to the rest of the business deserves some serious applause. For telecoms, it means a better customer experience and a real opportunity to hold the competitors at bay.

Source: Salesforce

Grab These 4 Proven Customer-Retention Strategies

July 20, 2018

Did you know that only 32 percent of customers are likely to place a second order in their first year as a customer? That means you’re losing most of your customers after their first purchase. Unless you create a strategy to retain them, you’re wasting valuable marketing resources.

Here are just a few reasons you should have a retention strategy for your e-commerce business:

It’s easy to sell: Selling to your existing customers is easier. In fact, an existing customer is three to 12 times more likely to buy than a new prospect.
You can double your revenue: Adobe has reported online retailers that retain just 10 percent of existing customers end up making twice the revenue.

Compelling stuff, right? Still, most e-commerce companies still rely solely on customer acquisition. They undervalue the possibility of retaining and nurturing their existing customer base. Developing and implementing a retention strategy is vital to creating a sustainable business. Here’s how to make it happen.

Demonstrate value.

Most of your first-time customers are filling an immediate need. They’re not necessarily interested in a long-term relationship with your brand. That means you must figure out how to encourage your customers to return more often, spend more time on your site and ultimately purchase from your store.

Publishing useful content on a regular basis is one way to demonstrate value. NewEgg uses videos to engage consumers and ultimately convert them to customers. These posts range from product reviews to in-depth tutorials. On a related note, ensure your product descriptions not only entice visitors to buy but make them remember your brand after the sale.

Under-promise and over-deliver.

Nothing destroys your credibility faster than bailing on a promise you made to your customers. If you offer same-day delivery but can’t realistically uphold that standard on a consistent basis, you’re creating dissatisfied customers.

Instead, try this: Estimate how long it will take to deliver the shipment and then double that time. Zappos promises delivery within five business days, but the majority of orders are shipped overnight. This exceeds customers’ expectations, making a positive impact and fostering trust in the brand.

Create a win-back email campaign.

Email marketing produces a conversion rate nearly twice that of organic search, and it also outperforms nearly all other marketing channels. But an average of 60 percent of email lists are full of “dead” subscribers? A roster filled with inactive hurts your conversion factor and leads to reduced deliverability as messages are routed to spam.

Start a subscription-model business.

The subscription-model economy is rapidly becoming the norm across industries and particularly in ecommerce. Amazon Prime and Sightglass Coffee have supplemented their revenue with this tactic. The subscription model helps ensure revenue from repeat customers. This gives you more control over revenue prediction so you can optimize your expansion plan and set a marketing budget accordingly.

How to Choose the Right Software for Customer Support Services?

July 13, 2018

Choosing the right support software is the first step to tackle after scaling your customer support team or simply realizing you’ve outgrown email as your current support solution. However, there is a ton of different support software out there.

Not only are the options pretty much endless, but every single help desk or support solution provider is obviously trying to put their product a step ahead of others. This means that they all look good at first glance, and choosing just one can be a pretty intimidating task.

The Process of Choosing Support Software:

Choosing the tool for you might seem complicated, but if you approach it in a structured way and involve your team into the process, it’s going to be much easier⁠—and hopefully also fun and constructive.

Here’s what you need to do on a very high level:

1) Figure out what you need as a company

The most important groups to think of when specifying your requirements are:

Your customers
Your support team
Your managers

2) Talk to your team

After you’ve put together a basic overview of your needs and future plans, you should also have a chat with other people in the team. The crucial people are obviously the ones who will be using the tool every day as well as those directly managing them.

However, having this discussion in an even bigger circle is great for unexpected but useful feedback and points, especially if you’ve cultivated an “everyone does support” culture in your company.

3) Put together a list of options

Go through as many unbiased review sites and listicles as you can, and just write down names of support software providers⁠—don’t worry about diving deep into features quite yet.

After doing your own research, ask your own network for recommendations. The best advice always comes from people that have actual first hand experience using these tools.

Who knows, you might be able to eliminate some options from your big list straight away⁠—or add some.

However, be careful to not take these recommendations too seriously. The fact that a solution didn’t work out for another company, doesn’t mean it won’t for yours.

4) Evaluate

You don’t even have to sign up just yet⁠—most serious providers have a list of features on their website or offer demo videos to show you what they have. This will help you see which tools immediately have (or don’t have) the things you’ve established you need for your team.Remove the options that don’t meet your criteria from your list. If the list is still long, you can also rely on your gut a little and get rid of the ones you feel are too complex, too expensive, or that you just don’t like the look of.

5) Play around and choose one

Now that you have your top options, it’s time to sign up and see how you like actually using them. Most awesome support software has a trial or a demo account you can use to get into it.Play around with it to get a feel of how it works and what the features you’re looking for actually look like.

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Source: GrooveHQ

How to Deal With Difficult Customers?

July 7, 2018

We all know that running a business in today’s world is not an easy job especially when you think you are having the most loving business of all the times. The scenario is becoming more and more genuine as the technology evolved its best and advanced of all the times. Those days have gone when people were complaining via contacting on the phone or reaching to the store/office manually. In today’s space, it’s very difficult to maintain and sustain a good reputation if you are selling online.

Difficult customers or better we can define them as the complex client are the ones who demand a lot for the cost that others are also offering for the same products or services. The question arises how to deal and handle such difficult customers? We’re offering a few points to analyze for the business owners and companies to think on such a case:

(1) Loyalty: If you are fair enough at the time of closing or dealing with the client and clarifying each of your deliverables to him i.e.terms or conditions or any hidden star, it would be great for the client to understands. If you are in a hurry of closing a deal without your customer’s conscience, you are being caught for the case and will face such a condition for sure.

(2) Perks: If you have a bad experience with a customer you are working with, there is still a chance to handle the worst. Reputation is the only food that your business eats! Never turn back if your customer gets happy with a little or an additional relevant service or product replacement makes him happy.

(3) Feedback: This is an era of rating including the customer’s words. Make sure you created enough space to live in the heart of him. If you are being failed to do so, you are left with an image makeover and generally comes more positive reviews and customer thoughts. Email your old or potential customers to give a rating or feedback on the channel where you have been trapped.

(4) Customer Research: This is orthodox and you should perform a research before closing a deal with the customer. If you find that a “company/client name check” gives you a negative taste, you can leave it from there only.

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Three C’S of Customer Service Success

June 29, 2018

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

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

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

How to Use Technology to Improve Customer Service

June 23, 2018

There’s no denying the fact that customer service is important to a small or mid-sized business. The quality of that service will either enhance or degrade customer loyalty to your brand and your business. With the economy in recession, customers have more alternatives than ever. The business that proves to be responsive to customer questions, complaints, or other needs can gain a clear competitive advantage. That’s why it’s so important to understand how new technologies can help you anticipate customer needs, tailor business processes to best serve customers, and ultimately improve the efficiency of your business – the latter of which can keep costs down.

Customer Service Technology

There are a few major areas in which technology now is able to help provide key advantages to businesses in engendering customer loyalty by improving customer service:

Websites. Providing areas on your website where customers can answer their own questions or seek answers from others.
E-mail. Using e-mail as a way to improve customer service and more quickly respond to certain needs or help requests.
Communications. Unifying communications so that you know that the customer who left a voice mail also sent an e-mail with the same request a few days ago.
Software. Better managing customer relationships with more sophisticated data-gathering tools, such as customer relationship management software.

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AI Virtual Reality and Internet of Things

How Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, and IoT are redefining the Hospitality Industry

June 16, 2018

Whenever it seems that customer expectations can’t rise any higher, they do. To continue to earn customers’ loyalty, hospitality brands are embracing technology. And in particular, they are finding that Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), and the Internet of Things (IoT) offer a mutually reinforcing equation of excellent service:

1. AI helps brands personalize the customer experience

Hospitality brands are increasingly on the hook for personalizing customers’ experiences the way Amazon recommends purchases and Facebook recommends ads.

While the idea isn’t new–rewards programs for capturing customer information have been around for decades–what’s different is that consumers expect continuity between their online and offline experiences. Guests want an offer they receive on an app to be valid at checkout, to fix an in-person service issue by chatting with the brand on Facebook Messenger, and for hotels, taxis, and airlines to remember their preferences. Because private Social Messaging conversations are asynchronous and persistent, they tie guests’ pre- and post-booking conversations together so service agents always know their history.

It can take a lot of work to unify all that disconnected data, which is why hospitality brands are investing in data warehousing and algorithms to help them know guests better than they know themselves.

2. Virtual reality allows travelers to try before they buy

VR allows brands to do more storytelling. VR is often touted for its ability to get viewers to empathize with what they’ve seen to a greater degree than is possible in video or print. This is why tourism boards from Wales to Singapore have launched innovation funds and VR documentary series to tell their stories in ways that strike an emotional chord. You may have seen the virtual reality office videos from your doctor’s clinic straight to your laptops. The impact of VR in marketing is definitely transformative and imperative for all types of brands.

3. Integrating home life with travel life

Have you heard about the Internet of things? Yes, an idea that has changed the world. You can have access to your home appliances while you are traveling or at a remote location.

Today, AI, VR, and IoT in hospitality are all converging. More connected devices mean more data. That means AI algorithms are trained on better datasets and can perform more functions. And a greater understanding of guests’ interests, desires, and experiences means more interactive and engaging VR experiences before, en-route, and at their destination.

As customer expectations rise, technology offers an answer. The challenge for hospitality brands is investing in the right systems before it’s too late.

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5 Tips for Building a Customer Interaction Management Team

June 4, 2018

Developing a great team of any type takes time, courage & patience. But, when it comes to taking care of the most important asset of a business (Of course people as customers), making sure you have the right people in place to manage these complex relationships is essential.

1) Look for excellent conversationalists – This won’t always show up on a resume, so make sure to interview potential team members in person to see how well they pick up and react to different types of language. Observe their reactions not only to what you say but also your body language and tone of voice. Non-verbal communication is just as important in business as what people say through words.

2) Lean towards prospects with a strong technology background – Even the best conversationalists are now expected to be well-versed across multiple communication channels. Being only a smooth talker on the phone with customers isn’t good enough anymore, employers now seek out team members who are concise yet thoughtful in text-based mediums including email, chat, and messaging apps.

3) Evaluate internal communication capabilities – One of the pillars of a strong customer interaction management team is actually having effective and efficient conversations with colleagues. Since many employees across various departments can interact with customers (especially in the B2B industry), it’s essential that two employees aren’t providing conflicting responses. Finding excellent internal communicators isn’t easy, but once you do you should hold onto these employees as the skill is rare and valuable.

4) Leverage a system to archive customer information – No matter how good your customer interaction management team is at creating engaging and impactful dialogue, they simply can’t remember each detail of every single conversation. A customer interaction management system that also acts as a repository for customer information is essential for ensuring conversations are frequent and effective. In addition, an archive of customer discussions is great for transitioning accounts should an employee get promoted or move to a different department.

5) Seek to hire people with different backgrounds and opinions – Most companies have a diverse customer base, meaning you should also have a diverse customer interaction management team. Try to find employees who are not only a good fit with your culture but also have unique perspectives created by their personal background and history. While lifelong “local” employees may be less transient, they also can sometimes have difficulty relating to customers from other areas of the country or even the world.

The article is sourced from Team Support. Thanks for reading. Please share it with your colleagues and friends.

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Category: Call Center