Help desk call center agents empower small businesses to build strong, long-term relationships. While almost everyone would agree that customer service is mission critical, many small business owners don’t realize how a full service, live answering service influences growth and stability throughout the life of a business. Did you know…
Poor customer service costs businesses $83 billion every year, primarily because consumers are twice as likely to share their bad experiences than they are to share positive brand encounters.
Experienced call centers offer a full range of service options that can be customized to complement your business plan. Not to mention, they can deploy dedicated staff members to handle specific roles within your customer service strategy.
Looking to grow your small business? Check out the following four ways a stellar help desk call center can help take your company for just getting by to thriving.
1. Supporting Your Staff: Increasing Productivity
Small business owners often don’t have the luxury of investing sufficient time in every part of the business and that may mean having less time building the relationships needed to keep customer retention rates high. They are extremely busy running the daily operations to devote one-on-one time to their clients without putting something else on the back burner temporarily.
Incoming calls can interrupt production activities and take support staff away from other vital duties. A call center has only one job – to help callers get answers to their questions and resolve problems efficiently. Call centers also spend time coaching and training their agents on how to effectively and efficiently take calls and use active listening skills to create a unique, customer-focused approach that ensures positive experiences one caller at a time.
2. Help Desk Call Centers: The Gold Standard Alternative to Hiring More Employees
Creating a customer service platform that meets the needs of a demanding clientele requires a dedicated customer service team. If you look at thriving enterprises, you’ll find they have a team of people who make it a priority to answer every call within three rings and they rarely hand off callers to another agent or place them on hold to manage other, “more important” issues.
Negative (or indifferent) customer service experiences lead to businesses losing roughly 12% of their customer base every year, according to a Tom Peters Group study.
The cost of employee turnover is staggering. Hiring a dedicated receptionist is expensive when you consider tax burdens, training and professional development, employee benefits and lost productivity during the on-boarding process since someone has to supervise new hires. And, even with a skilled, professional in-house agent, peak call times often mean some callers have to wait in queue. Consistency often suffers when other employees fill in for the receptionist while she is on break, sick or on vacation.
A live answering service is an extension of your brand. Using approved scripts and guidance from the business owner, help desk agents set the tone for every conversation. They ensure consistency is never compromised, saving you money and boosting your brand image. Plus, every call is answered promptly, even when multiple callers dial in at the same time. It is typically more expensive to hire a new employee than partner with a dedicated call center agency.
3. Never-ending Support for Your Customers: 24/7 Availability
Even though small business owners work around the clock especially during the startup phase, it isn’t always possible to man the telephone twenty-four hours a day. Customers may have a problem with their HVAC in the middle of the night or someone may just need to schedule an appointment but are unable to call before your office closes at 5 o’clock.
If you want to offer 24/7 customer support, a call center can help you to do that without increasing payroll budgets or putting your team on a revolving schedule. Speaking of scheduling, with an around-the-clock inbound call service, agents with scheduling authority may be able to reschedule a client rather than simply document a cancellation. That means you won’t lose revenue because a consumer had a sudden scheduling conflict. It’s a win for the client and a win for your organization.
4. Enhance Customer Experiences to Maximize Revenue Potential
Customer service can literally make or break a business. Forrester Research puts the overall financial impact on businesses in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Research shows poor customer service sends consumers scrambling to find another brand. Professional, customer-focused call center teams give small business owners the assets they need to overcome dissatisfaction and to turn poor experiences into positive encounters.
If you are concerned about your bottom line or if you’re just ready to grow your business, it’s time to take a look at the myriad ways a call center can help you save money, increase productivity and improve retention rates.
Leveraging the Power of Partnerships
The consumer journey is personal. Successfully growing a thriving business hinges on how well business leaders understand their customers. You have to invest time to learn their shopping behaviors, find out why they searched you out, and discover what performance metrics influence brand choices.
Personalizing brand encounters are crucial if you want to grow your business with repeat customers and not spend all your time trying to make hundreds of single-purchase connections.
Some business leaders worry that no one can handle their customers as well they can. In reality, the customer experience is often better when calls go directly to help desk agents because they don’t have anything distracting them from focusing on the caller on the other end of the line. Hiring a professional call management team puts the power in your hands to exceed customer expectations.
Many people think the most important aspect of brand building is hiring a professional PR or ad agency. There’s nothing wrong with advertising, but it would be a major mistake to forget that without exceptional customer service, your marketing budget spend won’t do anything to help you boost retention rates.
Learn more about AnswerNow’s help desk call center. If you’re serious about building relationships and boosting retention rates, download our free guide on ways to get over small business growing pains.
