The CRM Buyer has come through with another great article. They have interviewed several prominent executives in contact center solutions and service provider companies. The issue is that during an economic slump service-oriented businesses must concentrate on two things: lowering costs, and keeping customers.
If you’re interested in how the experts are dealing the slump, check out the posts here:
Echoditto blog has posted an interesting read. They follow the life of a dot com start-up, zappos.com and discuss the strategies that have made them a success.
Their plan has focused on two main ideas:
1) Put customer service before marketing
2) Favor long-term investments and short-term financial sacrifice over short-term investments
This includes many different tactics, but the most interesting one deals with their call center.
“They don’t measure average call time, they don’t up-sell, they refer to competitors, and everyone who answers the phone is already authorized to do what it takes to make you happy (even if that means, in one case, looking up local pizza parlors).”
Clearly, they take customer service seriously.
Web analtyics are great. They allow you to track your leads. But what if the customer sees your phone number on your site and dials that instead of filling out a form? The lead is lost. Previous analytic systems have failed in this regard.
If I refer someone to a website, and they go and pick up the phone to call them, well then I’ve lost my referral! Thankfully InsideSales.com has just released a feature that will track these calls. I expect more companies in the analytics game to follow suite eventually.
Internet retailers like Amazon.com are not required to charge sales tax. In fact a supreme court ruling in 1992 says that the purchaser is supposed to pay the tax on his or her own.
New York governor, Eliot Spitzer, is wanting to change all of this. His state is losing $47 million dollars a year to internet sales.
The full story is on The New York Times website.
Years ago, in the ancient days before the world-wide-web, way before Yahoo appeared and Google and Wikipedia provided topical information on any subject, how did people get their information?
In the dark ages before time as we know it there existed a company with a fiery beacon of light called The Question Shop which fielded questions on any subject. They performed much like the oracle in ancient Greece or like Google today. However, they did not require a devine presence or search engine technology. Imagine!
Here’s the link!
Deciding on an answering service can be a rough trial. With Globalization and the rise of cheap, easy to get equipment, the number of answering services in the world is climbing. There are many tactics you can use to help determine which answering services are legitimate and which is right for you.
The first is the age of the company. How long have they been in the business? Many new answering services are hurt by poor customer service. If it is an older company, then their customer service techniques are tried and true. If they have been training employees for years and are still going strong, then they will surely be able to meet the needs of you and your clients.
Another important item to check on is if the answering service has any specialties. Today there are many nich specific answering services that deal only with one type of business. For instance: medical answering services, real estate answering services. These are generally smaller companies that cannot handle large amounts of calls or varying types of calls. Most non-nich services also specialize, but train their operators to takes all kinds of calls. It is always good to ask and see. Especially if your business has needs that spread out over many areas.
Price is always a factor when you’re in the market. As with anything, you pay for what you get, but you must always keep your budget in mind. Price varies considerably with different companies so it is a good idea to shop around. Many services will allow you to pay by the month, rather than roping you into a year long contract. These are great because then it is possible for you to test them out.
Lastly, ask them for references. Any reputable answering service will have several clients who will be willing to provide testimonials. Make sure to pay special attention to references from people in the same line of work as you. For instance a plumber would not care at all how well someone’s operators can enter orders into a clothing website.
As always, use common sense and ask a lot questions. If you are expecting over 200 calls a night, it may not be a good idea to hire Nancy, who just set up a home answering service next door in her living room. If something seems fishy, ask questions in different ways, or go somewhere else. Answering services can be powerful tools if the business is a professional one. I wish you the best of luck in finding the service that is right for you and your clients.
Internet Retailer published an article this week that is predicting explosive growth in the call center industy. They attribute this to a trend in large corporations to start outsourcing their customer service. Also to online companies needing a telephone alternative.
Oh! I just found this inappropriately titled article: Hire a call center? Are you crazy? It is, of course, a pro-call center article. After all, who would ever want to write negative words about an answering service?
Although holiday retail growth was only three percent this last year, online ordering has increased significantly. That’s understandable. How easy is it to go online with Paypal and order a t-shirt or a movie?
So this year, online business has seen a nearly one-fifth (19%) improvement in its online sales (Good job eCommerce! Pat yourself on on the back). This development should also mean an increase in call center usage, since most eCommerce sites use answering services for their phone orders.
Call center managers should remember to keep these stats in mind during the upcoming year.
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