  Nothing helps a business grow more than happy customers. Happy customers turn into loyal customers, which become repeat customers. According to research from Bain & Company, increasing your customer retention rate by only 5% can increase profits up to 95%. Better still, loyal, repeat customers are much easier to convert and make many more repeat purchases than new customers.
As you can see, repeat customers can have a tremendous impact on your bottom line, so it’s important to keep them happy. And, keeping your clients and customers happy means developing meaningful, lasting relationships with them. However, creating these types of relationships needs to begin at first contact with the customer and continue with every single interaction after that. Regardless if it’s the first time a customer calls, though, or if a customer calls to complain about something, thoughtful and professional customer service is essential. With that in mind, here are some ways that a service-focused call center can help your business promote better relationships with your customers. Eliminate Missed Calls and Opportunities In a recent consolidated report for phone system statistics, Finances Online shared that over 71% of consumers still prefer to do business over the phone (even with the all the other contact methods that are available.) So, when potential customers cannot contact your business by phone, chances are good they will just move on to another company that will answer the phone. If the caller is a current customer with a problem, and you don’t answer, your brand reputation suffers even more. Nothing frustrates customers more than not being able to get a hold of a company when they need service or support. When you partner with the right call center, missed calls and missed sales opportunities become a thing of the past. And, if your customers don’t have to worry about being able to contact your company, they will trust your brand more (which increases the likelihood that they will become repeat customers.) Direct Traffic and Reduce Phone Menu Stress In the last few years, reports from The Conversation, HuffPost, and many other sources reveal just how much customers hate phone menus and automated systems. In fact, customers hate phone menus so much that there are now guides on how to bypass them. When customers call, they want to hear a live (actual human) voice on the other end of the line. Call center agents and customer service representatives are real people who can direct traffic to various departments when needed, listen attentively to problems and complaints, and offer support when needed. Being able to speak to a friendly and attentive customer service agent reduces stress for your customers, prevents premature hang-ups, and helps close more sales – not to mention that it helps promote better brand reputation and customer relationships. Minimize Customer Hold Times Infinite hold; if you’re not familiar with it, try calling the IRS some time. There are few things more infuriating to customers than when agents, operators, or automated systems place them on hold for too long. What’s too long? Well, a PRWeb survey of 2,500 of random consumers found that 60% of respondents said waiting more than a minute was unacceptable, and more than a third said they would not hold at all. If that’s not enough to convince you of the need to minimize customer hold times, an Inc. Magazine report states that companies lose more than $100 billion dollars every year because of customer service wait times. Ouch! If you’re handling your customer support services in house, you may not have enough people to man the phones when you need them most. This makes it incredibly difficult to handle calls from multiple customers at busy times or during peak seasons. And if the person holding on the other end of the line hangs up, you lose a potential sale or (at the least) your company’s reputation takes a hit. A call center can add additional agents quickly, even during the busiest times. And, they can do so at much lower costs than you could by employing permanent or seasonal staff on your own. Keep this in mind; increased agent availability equals reduced wait and hold times, which equates to better customer relationships and higher levels of customer satisfaction and retention. Address Customer Complaints and Support Issues Customers have issues or problems with even the very best products and services, so virtually no company is immune to complaints. Therefore, when your customers do have problems, they expect prompt service and support immediately. When they reach out for support or help, it will (more than likely) be by phone. Of course, when customers call for help, or to complain, they also expect someone to pick up the phone. But more than that, they want an attentive customer service professional to talk to. With kind, highly trained agents, a professionally run call center can do wonders to help soothe angry callers by providing experiences tempered with restraint, empathy and understanding, which are the cornerstones of deescalating complaints and repairing customer relationships. When an angry customer reaches out with a complaint, the importance of handling initial contact properly cannot be stressed enough. With your own dedicated call center customer service team, problems associated with handling complaints and support issues are minimized and less stressful for everyone involved. People Helping People We have already discussed just how much customers dislike fumbling through phone menus or automated systems. However, most of the issues and problems that customers have with these systems boil down to one simple truth: they want to speak to a real person. But even then, the reasons for them wanting to speak to a real, live person go much deeper. When customers call, they’re seeking help, advice, or even empathy or emotional support. For instance, when customers call searching for new products or services, they want advice and someone to guide them. When they’re angry and calling, your customers just want someone to hear them and perhaps even apologize. It is these types of things automated systems simply cannot do and something that well-trained call center agents do exceptionally well. In short, it’s people helping people. Overcome Communication Barriers According to the language-teaching gurus over at Babbel, Spanish is the second most widely spoken language in the world (behind only Chinese). But what may be even more surprising is that the United States has the second largest population of native Spanish speakers in the world (second only to Mexico.) What does this mean for your business? Well, it means you’re missing out on an untold amount of sales and revenue – if you don’t have someone who can converse with the people in this demographic in their native language. The best call centers employ bilingual and multilingual agents who are fluent in Spanish and can provide excellent service and support to those customers who are not comfortable speaking English. Even if your business does not cater to the Spanish-speaking community specifically, providing access to call center staff fluent in the language can help immensely in promoting better customer relationships with those who speak Spanish. Steadfast Brand Ambassadors “Customer satisfaction is worthless, customer loyalty is priceless;” or so says author Jeffrey Gitomer in his book under the same name. While the sentiment may seem extreme, it is (at least somewhat anyway) reasonable. As we mentioned previously, customer retention can do wonders for your bottom line (much more so than even attaining new customers.) One major part of increasing customer retention is having motivated, competent brand ambassadors (or those that advocate strongly for your brand or company.) A call center agent does much more than just answer the phone, provide tech support, or take orders. They promote better customer relationships by building trust and loyalty for your service and brand. Simply put, they are there to help your customers anytime and anywhere. Nothing speaks higher of your company or brand than excellent customer service through the thoughtful handling of support calls. But it doesn’t stop there. Strong, helpful brand advocates at the customer support level help to also transform your customers into brand ambassadors. If your call center support team can help customers find solutions, solve problems, and/or rectify issues, those same customers become much more likely to speak up for your company and recommend it to others. With IA Call Center, Better Experiences Equal Better Relationships We get it; you’re busy running your business and doing all the things that make it great. That’s why you may not have the time (or perhaps maybe even the staffing or resources) to really concentrate on providing the best possible in-house support to your customers. Nevertheless, creating excellent customer relationships through improved customer service experiences is something you should make a priority. At IA Call Center, we specialize in creating world-class call center service and support experiences for the customers of our clients (and we have been doing so for more than 50 years.) When you partner with IA Call Center, we tailor our services to help your company provide the best service and support possible for your customers. Perhaps just as important is the fact that we can help your business develop better relationships with your customers at costs that don’t impact too much on your bottom line. If you’re considering ways to improve your customer service processes, we encourage you to reach out and contact us today - we can help. To schedule a no-cost, no-obligation consultation, please click here.
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 Outsourcing your customer service or support activities to someone else is never a simple decision. Nevertheless, modern consumers are more demanding than ever and require nothing, but the best when it comes to customer experiences. These days, an increasing number of companies are discovering that professionally managed call centers can help do just that — provide stellar experiences to their customers.
Whether you’re thinking of making the transition to outsourcing with your first call center (or if your first experience was not all it should have been), partnering with the right organization is of paramount importance. While a good call center partnership certainly provides numerous advantages and benefits to your business, choosing the wrong provider will probably do your company much more harm than good. Therefore, in this post, we will cover some of the most important factors that you should consider when selecting your next (or your first) call center partner. What to Look for in a New Call Center According to statistics compiled by IBISWorld, there are about 31,000 call centers in the United States alone. And other sources estimate there may be 100,000 call centers worldwide. In a separate SmallGenius report, statistics show that the global market value of call centers will reach approximately half a trillion dollars by 2027. What do all the numbers mean for your company? Well, it means that there is no shortage of call centers that want to compete for your business. However, it also means that wading through the thousands of call center options available to you can be overwhelming – especially if you’re not sure where to start. The purpose of this article is to help you develop a series of questions that can help you build a shortlist of call centers that may be right for your business. While there are many things to consider when choosing a call center to partner with, the following list of questions can certainly help make that decision much easier. What Types of Services Do You Need? Perhaps the most important factor to consider when beginning the process of selecting a call center is to determine exactly what type of service(s) you need. Generally, there are two major options available – call centers that offer inbound services and those that provide outbound services. Of course, there are many call centers that offer both types of services (and hybrids that mix the two for clients.) Nevertheless, inbound and outbound are the two you should concern yourself with most. According to CustomersFirst Academy, inbound call centers are best for companies that may need help in enabling their customers to reach out for customer service or support. On the other hand, an outbound call center makes better sense for companies that need agents to reach out and contact customers or potential customers on behalf of the company. For instance, if you need agents to provide round-the-clock service, offer tech support, resolve customer complaints, or man a help desk, then inbound services will be a much better fit. Conversely, if you want to outsource cold calling, sales follow-ups, lead generation, or surveys, then an outbound center is the more obvious choice. As mentioned, there are many call centers that provide hybrid inbound/outbound services as well. So, if your needs are more complex and require a little (or a lot) of all the services mentioned here, a good call center partner should be able to handle your situation with minimal issues. Where is the Call Center Based? The location of your own business is really not that important when considering potential partner call centers. However, the physical location of the call center itself (or the location of its agents) can be very important depending on the needs of your business. In fact, in a Business News Daily article by Adam Uzialko, the author writes, “Where your call center service company is headquartered, as well as where its agents are located, is one of the first things you should identify.” Call centers based in the United States may offer more comprehensive services than their foreign counterparts, and most domestic services use native-English speaking agents. However, the costs associated with utilizing US-based call centers are significantly higher than using offshore services. American-style English fluency of foreign-based agents in countries such as the Philippines, South Africa, and others has improved considerably over the last decade or so and now rivals that of US, UK, or Australia-based agents (English has been a primary language in the Philippines and South Africa for a few hundred years.) Therefore, for many companies, offshore call centers in these locations generally provide a much better value overall. Depending on your company’s specific needs, a domestic call center may be a better option – but be prepared to pay a premium. On the other hand, if you don’t require native-English speakers (with no hint of an accent,) offshore options will surely be more affordable. Keep in mind, though, that just because offshore call centers are more affordable does not mean that they are less capable. Quite the contrary, many offshore centers provide services and benefits that rival (or surpass) even the best US-based call center providers. Does the Call Center Offer Flexible Pricing Models and Contract Terms? For most companies, the most important concern when considering a new call center partner will be cost. This is only natural, as the costs of partnering with a call center will affect profits across the board. Therefore, before you decide on a particular vendor, it’s essential that you understand their pricing model and contract terms and be aware of any unexpected or unpleasant surprises that might arise. In most cases, call centers like to advertise their pricing models as “pay as you go” or offer a bundle of call minutes for a certain price point (much like the old cell phone plans.) At first glance, these types of pricing models may appear to be more affordable than they actually are. In a Business.com article, the author points out (correctly) that call centers may charge additional fees or employ billing tactics that can lead to surprisingly large bills at the end of the month. Services You Will Use Some call centers offer many different services from which you can choose. And as with many other vendors, most call centers often attempt to get you to use as many of these services as possible. Of course, the amount you will ultimately pay to a call center will depend primarily on the services you use. For instance, services, such as simple message taking or order processing, will usually cost considerably less than outbound services that require dedicated agents or teams. Therefore, always compare estimated monthly costs with those of other vendors (or with the costs associated with creating your own in-house customer service team). Another thing to consider is if your company requires a dedicated team of call center agents or if you can get by sharing agents with other businesses. A team of dedicated agents will provide service and support tailored to your business, but will be much more expensive than using “general-availability” agents shared between several client companies. Minimum Monthly Call Volumes Does the call center require a minimum monthly call volume? Or in short, does the call center charge for a minimum number of call-time minutes, even if your business does not require the minimum levels dictated by the call center? If yours is a smaller business or one that does not rely too heavily on inbound call services (but still wants to provide great customer service), then call centers with minimum monthly call volumes are a big “no-no.” Select a call center partner that will work with you without charging for more than you use. Incremental Billing Be sure to ask a potential partner call center if and how they use incremental billing. Incremental billing is, by far, the biggest “gotcha” with call center expenses. Incremental billing refers to how call centers “round up” call times. Many, if not most, call centers bill in six second increments, which means they always round up to the nearest one-tenth of a minute for billing. Some call centers, though, take this much higher and round up to the nearest full minute. Over time, of course, this can cause an enormous difference in the amount you pay every month. On the other hand, some call centers bill only for the actual time an agent spends on the phone. This is referred to as real-time billing and can decrease the costs of your call center services significantly compared to incremental billing. If the call center offers real-time billing, it’s definitely a plus to consider. Additional Fees and Costs Besides call-time fees, call centers may charge other fees. For instance, many call centers charge some sort of “setup” fee, charge additional for work done on holidays, or assess overage fees. In other cases, a call center may charge more for implementing an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system for your business (press 1 for sales, press 2 for support, etc.) And most times, call centers calculate IVR costs in addition to and separate from inbound calling services. Agent Work Time This can be a huge “gotcha” if not considered beforehand. Some call centers not only charge for time on the phone, they also charge for what is known as “Agent Work Time.” In the call center industry, agent work time refers to any time spent working on your account – whether or not the agent is on the phone. If agents need to spend “off-phone” time researching issues, following up with customers, or performing other tasks associated with your account, this can cause additional costs that are difficult to project or predict. Avoid Surprises To avoid costly billing surprises, be sure to ask for a breakdown of all pricing/cost models and scenarios from the call center – before signing a contract. Make sure that breakdown includes detailed information on setup costs, incremental billing and any other miscellaneous fees or agent work time charges. Contract Flexibility Many call centers will offer lower rates to lock you into a long-term contract. And while this may be something to consider in some situations, it may be best to avoid jailing your company to a particular provider for a long period – at least at first. Great call centers are completely up front about their contract terms, and most have no problem allowing you to “try before you buy” with a generous trial period. If a call center insists on locking you into a “draconian” contract from the beginning, it’s probably best to look elsewhere for another vendor. Is the Size of the Call Center a Good Fit for Your Business? This is a question that some overlook when shopping for a new call center vendor. Many call centers will advertise their services with slogans, such as “we help businesses, big and small” or “no business is too big or too small.” However, more often that not, this is simply not the case. If you require a call center partner that can handle thousands of calls daily, a smaller partner with only a few agents cannot handle the volume. However, on the flip side, it is easy to get lost in the “mix” when partnering with a really large call center. When a call center is large and has agents taking calls for many different client companies, attention to customers and service personalization for your company may suffer. And while smaller call centers will be less able to handle huge call volumes, they can often provide a much more tailored experience for your business. Ultimately, though, when it comes to call center size, you really just have to consider call volume and how much personalized attention and service your company needs. What is the Availability of Agents at the Call Center? Ask the call center when their agents are available to take calls. This simple question is easy to overlook; but it is important. If the call center employs agents in different time zones, shifting could become an issue if times do not align with your business hours or after-hour handling requirements. The best call centers offer 24/7/365 agent availability so that shifts and time zone considerations are never an issue. If possible, Does the Call Center Have Viable Contingencies for Outages or Disasters? One important factor to note when considering call center vendors is also one that’s frequently not given much thought; that’s how call centers plan for service outages because of calamities, natural disasters, bad weather, political unrest, or other emergencies. It might not seem important now. But if a call center has to cease operations because of an emergency, it will affect your business greatly – even when the call center’s agents are far away from your business or its operations. Does the call center have its facilities in areas known for bad weather or political troubles? Does the call center have multiple locations or does it employ all its agents in a single building? Does the call center employ work-at-home agents that might offer better availability during emergencies or other types of outages? Can a fire or storm potentially destroy all the call center’s infrastructure, or do they utilize cloud services that help to protect against such problems? All of these are important questions to ask, and things you really should know before making a decision. Flexibility in locales and infrastructure, backups, cloud redundancy, and other disaster or emergency mitigation measures are enormously important and cannot be stressed enough. So, be sure to ask a potential partner about what types of emergency response measures they have in place. Does the Call Center Offer Multilingual Services? Does your business cater to the Spanish-speaking community? Well, even if it doesn’t, call center agents fluent in Spanish can help you reach a vast number of potential customers who speak Spanish as their native language. Spanish is the second most-widely spoken language (right behind Chinese), and the US has the second largest population of native Spanish speakers in the world (second only to Mexico.) So, as you can see, partnering with a call center that has agents fluent in Spanish can be of significant benefit to your business. Does the Call Center Provide Agents with Specialized Training in Your Industry? If your company’s call center requirements are modest (think basic answering services or billing support), then general-knowledge agents are more than up to those sorts of tasks. If your clients and customers need support and call services that require extensive knowledge in your industry, though, specialized training is a must. Many call centers focus on being everything to everyone. Therefore, their services seem to align better when clients need general-level answering and support services. And while this does indeed work well for many companies, it’s certainly not for all businesses. Specialization can help build trust and confidence among both your current customers and those thinking of doing business with you. If your call center offers agents that specialize in supporting your industry, it’s a definite advantage. What Type of Technology Does the Call Center Use? Does the call center use on-premises software to manage calls, or do they use cloud services? In most cases, cloud software is more robust, more secure, and offers more flexibility in terms of management, reporting, and analytics. If a call center is still using older on-premise solutions, they may not be the best suited to help when you need to expand or require additional services. If you require advanced IVR or automated CRM services, you might want to look into call centers that utilize AI technology. A FinancesOnline article asserts that while the technology is not yet perfect, great strides have been made in AI that enable it to act as an automated advisor to callers and not just a phone menu or database system. Of course, if your business requires a more personal approach for customer service and support, nothing beats real live call center agents. What Type of Culture and Environment Does the Call Center Provide for Employees? In a Connections Magazine article about the importance of call center culture, author Gabriel Bristol writes, “Professionals use frequently the phrase ‘corporate culture,’ but they seldom really define it. Simply put, corporate culture describes and governs the ways in which a company’s owners and employees think, feel, and act.” The way call center agents feel about their work and environment plays a major factor in how well they perform in terms of exceeding customer expectations and providing stellar service. If call center managers and executives don’t promote a pleasant and productive atmosphere for agents and supervisors, not only will those employees be affected – your business will probably suffer as well. After all, if agents are unmotivated because of an unproductive work culture, how can they provide your customers with the service and support they deserve? If a call center shies away from questions regarding their work environment or culture, just move on to one that will share how they cultivate an environment of excellence and productivity. Remember, great customer service requires proper motivation, great attitudes, and a high desire to succeed from everyone who comes in contact with your customers. Data Security These days, there is perhaps nothing more important to keeping customer loyalty and trust than properly protecting their data and personal information. Nevertheless, data breaches and system hacks continue to occur at an ever-increasing rate. And if customer data is compromised or lost due to a breach or attack, the reputational damage to a company’s brand or image can be devastating. It doesn’t matter if a breach or data loss is the fault of a vendor or call center; customers and users will blame your company for the problem. Therefore, it’s absolutely essential that your call center partner do everything possible to protect and secure customer data and information. Articles on sites, such as TechTarget and Customer Think, provide excellent advice and suggestions for ensuring call center data security. However, the list of things needed to protect data in a call center is long and a bit technical. But, in a nutshell, experts recommend that call centers employ the following strategies to protect from data loss, hacks, breaches, and ransomware:
These are just a few of the important security concerns you should think about before partnering with a call center. Before you make your final decision, be sure to ask the call center to review their security methods and procedures with you. Also, be sure to do your own research (or hire an expert) to determine if their security protocols and policies align with your company’s requirements. Management Involvement and Commitment In many call centers, the gulf between agents and supervisors and upper or executive management couldn’t be wider – especially in really large centers. When upper management and executives don’t engage frequently with agents and supervisors “on the floor”, they lose touch with what’s really happening in the call center and how effective employees are in meeting the needs of their customers. If you are considering a new call center vendor, one of the most important things to consider is how involved upper management is in the day-to-day operations of the “floor” or actual call center experience. Sure, executive meetings and calls with investors are important; but nothing helps increase productivity and boost agent morale than seeing the “boss” on the floor. When management displays a high level involvement, it’s a very good indicator of a call center’s commitment to their customers. Will the Call Center Be a True Partner? We know many companies tout “being a partner” with your company or brand. But at IA Call Center, we really do mean it. When you choose to partner with us, we take that relationship seriously and do our best to nurture it so that both your company and ours benefit. We accomplish this by learning as much about your business as possible and tailoring our methods and training so that we can provide specialized, expert customer support services and experiences for your company and brand. IA Call Center is not the biggest call center, for sure, but we strive to be the best call center partner for everyone of our clients. And in that regard, we pride ourselves on providing exceptional services at reasonable costs. If you would like to find out how partnering with IA Call Center can help strengthen your business and its customer service efforts, please click here to contact us for a no-cost, no-obligation consultation. We look forward to hearing from you.  Customer demands are heightening at an accelerated rate and that means technology will also keep pace with those needs. The pursuit for high- quality customer experience becomes the most essential mission than ever before.
Brands nowadays want customer loyalty, repeated sales, and longevity, while customers want speed, accuracy, friendly customer care that is empathetic and solutions-oriented. However, is your business equipped to provide this gold standard? Customers know they have many customer experience companies to choose from. The prevailing question is which of you is actually human- focused? Successful companies know that the customer is at the forefront of any business and that a customer care team must be human-focused. People treating people the right way is the business and that stellar customer engagement translates to more revenue and more happy customers that will help spread the word for you. So, how do you produce an extraordinary and authentic customer experience? It is about understanding the mindset and perspective of a customer and what they go through on the customer journey. Knowing the impeccable details of the customer’s wishes and anticipating their needs are what helps pave an unforgettable, personable experience. Every engagement of the customer will either determine a repeat customer or a lost one. Here are some Top Tips in Providing a High- Value Customer Experience:
By listening, observing, and offering personalized service for the customer, both parties are happy. The brand would have completed their mission and can now better define and refine strategies that can ultimately benefit the overall customer engagement. The customer, on the other hand, will remember the positive feeling of how they were treated and most likely will become your greatest brand advocate. IA Solutions by IA Call Center IA Solutions by IA Call Center is a second-generation family-owned contact center with a 50-year history of innovation in the answering service and BPO sectors. As your strategic partner, we now offer a full-fledged business solutions & technology component that focuses on specialized services for businesses and enterprises. Our mission is to empower our partners to scale their customer service and sales to new heights by leveraging our unique capabilities in an omni-channel environment. We provide customized service packages that meet your brand needs with a 5 star, white-glove customer care service. For more info: www.iacallcenter.com  Seeing things from a customer perspective is a winning strategy.
As a customer experience provider, one must discern what the business thinks is a successful customer experience versus what the customer actually experiences. Many times, the provider receives feedback from department heads that work in silo environments and picks up data of what appears to be winning metrics, but is not reflected in the total customer experience. So, how does one create the ultimate CX strategy? Businesses think lowering costs of services, impressing them with only impeccable product, or changing the internal culture will directly impact the betterment of customer journeys and enable them to keep coming back. The root cause of why the customer experience is not improving is then neglected. It’s critical to assess and ask the customer what they want and to make sure the front-line employees are trained properly to accommodate the needs of the customer. It’s not just about the retention of the customer, but understanding their overall needs and encouraging them to become lifetime customers. When customers renew or repurchase, that is the greatest testimony to a successful customer experience. Customers’ behavior can typically range from complaining constantly and yet, stay with you to customers that appear to be satisfied on the surface level and never come back again. This great disparity is a factor to recognize and address by designing tools to help analyze the customer funnels and data. By observing it from a customer perspective, the provider can design its best services and product offerings to meet the current desires of the customer. Transforming a mediocre customer experience to a stellar customer experience consistently is not an easy feat. By utilizing performance metrics, technologies and analytics, one can see and study customer behaviors in situations that require quick thinking and resolution. Customer benefits such as compensation for a missed flight can be a credit to the next flight which will appease the disruption and negative emotions of the moment. This is an example of positive customer benefits during the journey. With decades of contact center and customer experience, IA Solutions can help lead the way to a more successful and seamless customer program and help businesses gain strong, positive brand representation and increased revenues. IA Solutions by IA Call Center IA Solutions by IA Call Center is a second-generation family-owned contact center with a 50-year history of innovation in the answering service and BPO sectors. As your strategic partner, we now offer a full-fledged business solutions & technology component that focuses on specialized services for businesses and enterprises. Our mission is to empower our partners to scale their customer service and sales to new heights by leveraging our unique capabilities in an omni-channel environment. We provide customized service packages that meet your brand needs with a 5 star, white-glove customer care service. For more info: www.iacallcenter.com  Delivering on a brand promise and brand reputation require thoughtful strategy, planning and deployment of services. As every business owner knows, to become successful in any business is to become successful in knowing who your customers are.
Knowing who your customers are is the #1 criteria in designing the right marketing campaign and customer experience for them. Every customer wants to feel heard and understood and what they buy and whom they interact with equates to either a superb customer experience or a horrific one. Today’s digital age and customers demand consistent, superior service and products. The customer approach of pushing products and features is antiquated. It is now about knowing and anticipating the immediate needs and long-term needs of your customers that will sustain the relationship as well as customer loyalty. Many of times a customer leaves because of an unmet need or discrepancy in the customer experience. Do you know why or how to encapsulate what their customer journey was? Who Are Your Customers? Defining your customer persona, key attributes and their challenges is your first step. This will help you market and offer customized solutions for them. Learning about your customer’s behavior from point of sale, where they started to what their buying patterns are critical data to connect with your customer’s mindset and needs. By learning who your customer persona is aka targeted audiences, it helps you devise the marketing messaging and tools to address the customers’ priorities and pain points. It also helps you with delivering impact and customer integration in all areas of products, services and journeys. Who You Thought Were Your Customers Sometimes we may misinterpret or misunderstand a customer’s identity and only offer a superficial level of services when in actuality we can serve them in a way that is in deeper understanding and congruence of what they need even when they don’t know it. That is superb service. Or, we discover down the road, that who we thought were our customers were not the demographics that are in alignment with our core services. Transforming the Customer Experience The only way to resolve any problematic customer experience is to transform the entire customer experience by starting with customer-centric as focal point. IA Solutions by IA Call Center recognizes the pain points and any disconnects in the typical business -as-usual model. We are designed to help businesses with specialized services with the component of contact center services to give customers a full-fledged customer experience and in filling areas and units of staff that the customer would not be able to typically support by themselves. We get to know our customers first-hand and build around them so they are positioned for success. IA Solutions by IA Call Center IA Solutions by IA Call Center is a second-generation family-owned contact center with a 50-year history of innovation in the answering service and BPO sectors. As your strategic partner, we now offer a full-fledged business solutions & technology component that focuses on specialized services for businesses and enterprises. Our mission is to empower our partners to scale their customer service and sales to new heights by leveraging our unique capabilities in an omni-channel environment. We provide customized service packages that meet your brand needs with a 5 star, white-glove customer care service. For more info: www.iacallcenter.com  With the current saturation of contact centers, technology companies, and CX consultants, how does one differentiate with more value with loyal customers?
It starts with evaluating what your customer journey mapping looks like and finding ways to improve and close any loopholes in the customer experience. At IA Solutions, we have witnessed and experienced a plethora of customer situations that indicate this demand for specialized services. Understanding customer behaviors is part of the customer journey mapping. The better we understand the needs of a customer in a deep level, the better we can support them. Every touch point with a service provider agent will determine the trajectory of a happy customer or a disgruntled one. By analyzing and drawing information from every cross- departmental services where a customer interacts at key inflection points, it is an opportunity to gauge how satisfied the customer is and the overall experience. Designing and customizing specialized services for a customer will benefit their customer journey in the long run and also create a sense of fulfillment for both customer and agent relationship. Like any new programs, learning the pros that can outweigh the cons will make it worthwhile. Here we assess the benefits of specialization services. Benefits of Specialization Services:
As the future requires more advancement and scalability for businesses and competitive edge, specialization will become a “golden ticket” to customers that evolve and demand more options. IA Solutions by IA Call Center IA Solutions by IA Call Center is a second-generation family-owned contact center with a 50-year history of innovation in the answering service and BPO sectors. As your strategic partner, we now offer a full-fledged business solutions & technology component that focuses on specialized services for businesses and enterprises. Our mission is to empower our partners to scale their customer service and sales to new heights by leveraging our unique capabilities in an omni-channel environment. We provide customized service packages that meet your brand needs with a 5 star, white-glove customer care service. For more info: www.iacallcenter.com  It’s true.
It is no longer just about price or product features. It is about how the customer remembers their experience with you. Today’s businesses have evolved to focusing on human relationships and defining what a high-value, positive, memorable customer experience looks like. This has become the primary goal over price and features that businesses know can change the game for customer retention, loyalty and revenue growth. Offering a superior customer experience requires meticulous planning, strategy, and customer feedback while ensuring all touchpoints of a customer experience is delivered seamlessly and with joy. Customer experience strategy is now a critical element in understanding customer behavior, needs, and paying close attention to who they are. What are some of the criteria to assess and implement? 1. Setting Core Values & Principles Before implementing and accommodating customers, the customer support team will need to understand and enforce the core values and principles of the company’s philosophy. A customer- centric mindset combined with humility and empathy should be at the heart of any customer engagement program. 2. Who Are Your Customers? Knowing who you are serving is of paramount importance. Assessing the persona, purchase history, demographics and buying patterns of your clientele will help you define how that experience can be enhanced to convert your customer into a lifelong VIP. Creating an emotional connection between customer and brand understanding, purchasing intent and tendencies is critical to creating a positive customer journey. Anticipating their next needs and creating personalized offerings shows that the brand cares and the customer will stay loyal to it. 3. Where Are The Touch Points? Every customer journey has nodes of customer engagement and interaction. The touch points are opportunities for the customer service team to show their appreciation and care to them. From answering the first customer call to billing questions or entering a brand’s facility, the journey will reveal its consistency of top-notch service or loopholes that indicate customer service improvements. Solving a customer’s needs is essentially what we do and to perform it well. 4. Metrics and Customer Feedback Customer data and metrics help measure the success of the customer journey funnel. By analyzing the performance metrics, the brand can better gauge the pulse of a customer’s needs and if they were satisfactorily met. Customer feedback also shows the brand’s sincere efforts to better understand and improve any inadequacies within the customer journey so that it is not repeated again. 5. The Bottom Line After the process and cycle of customer journeys, businesses can measure the ROI for specific new procedures or any increases in revenue for making customer adjustments. Is customer retention and an upsell a more economic move than acquiring a new customer? Did your customers become loyal to your brand and have them become your aka “brand ambassadors”? Customer expectations are on the rise because of the speed of technology and our modern environment. When you have sources like Amazon, people are becoming accustomed to getting everything quickly with ease of use and convenience. Having a strong and solid customer experience strategy will help you rise above the noise and in the long run, keep your existing customers happy and attract new customers that want and expect stellar customer experience. IA Solutions by IA Call Center IA Solutions by IA Call Center is a second-generation family-owned contact center with a 50-year history of innovation in the answering service and BPO sectors. As your strategic partner, we now offer a full-fledged business solutions & technology component that focuses on specialized services for businesses and enterprises. Our mission is to empower our partners to scale their customer service and sales to new heights by leveraging our unique capabilities in an omni-channel environment. We provide customized service packages that meet your brand needs with a 5 star, white-glove customer care service. For more info: www.iacallcenter.com . Enhancing Customer Journeys With Best-in-Class Business Solutions and Call Center Technology5/18/2022  As a new brand positioning, IA Solutions by IA Call Center is now a digital & business solutions provider and consultancy for growing and high- valued businesses that look for specialized services in the customer experience industry. Businesses that come to IA Solutions by IA Call Center seek business guidance and call center technology services to help improve their customer engagement pipeline and create a more impactful and memorable, positive customer journey.
Our decades of business experience and rapid build-out of specific service programs customized to the brand’s needs, culture and mission are what differentiates us as the top experts in the customer experience industry. We are ready to expand staffing forces and elevate the brand’s capabilities and brand awareness. By mapping out customer journeys and nodes of engagement, we are able to analyze and troubleshoot areas that could risk customer loss and quickly rectify with effective solutions to keep customers happy. Moreover, we keep your business moving at an aggressive growth trajectory. Our comprehensive business and call center solutions can transform businesses and enterprises to the level they seek. We bring the A Team and A Game to the table and deliver on every business decision. We rollout expansion and scalability for businesses that have immediate business pain points and operational needs. We strive to transform and bring in a ready-to go staff that is professionally-trained and educated in the brand’s product offerings and tone. Not only does IA Solutions by IA Call Center deliver on core skillset, we deliver on impeccability of right offerings, right actions and right timing for the customers to continue specialized services or to upgrade in areas that suit its current needs with no interruption or hard sell. The proven track record and caliber work that we’ve executed for clients speak for itself in confidence, trust and customer loyalty. It is how we serve our clients. With such a strong saturation of the call center space, it is critical to have an aerial, 360 -degree view of the current standing of businesses and areas that need improvement. We are that “it” factor and strategic partner that can help you achieve business goals and overcome any challenges. We are a premier partner for digital solutions, technology and customized customer programs to accelerate and achieve high-value customer experiences. IA Solutions by IA Call Center IA Solutions by IA Call Center is a second-generation family-owned contact center with a 50-year history of innovation in the answering service and BPO sectors. As your strategic partner, we now offer a full-fledged business solutions & technology component that focuses on specialized services for businesses and enterprises. Our mission is to empower our partners to scale their customer service and sales to new heights by leveraging our unique capabilities in an omni-channel environment. We provide customized service packages that meet your brand needs with a 5 star, white-glove customer care service. For more info: www.iacallcenter.com  It is not an easy task to design the ultimate customer experience for any business.
In our hyper competitive marketplace and high -speed technology, people expect answers fast and service accommodated flawlessly, and all done with a friendly voice. It is no longer just about the product offering and receiving a superb, tangible product or service; only one terrible customer interaction in the customer journey can ruin or even lose a customer for good. Every successful business knows the customer journey is essential in keeping the customer as well as keeping them coming back. It is imperative to understand the customers’ needs and wants and not to just deliver a standard plate of services because it is what you have always done. Hearing and seeing from the customer’s eyes are your cues on how to design and deliver a stronger and more pleasant customer experience for them. Using data intelligence and customer intelligence will give you the competitive edge and the secret sauce to increasing customer loyalty and profit margins while lowering operational and marketing costs. An important exercise to define in your client services is to map out your entire customer journey of whom the customer will most likely interact with. From sales representative, to billing, to after-sales-support, each step is crucial in supporting and upholding the customer value. By troubleshooting this process and improving on the areas of lack, a stronger transformation of the customer experience can help with sustaining a good brand reputation that offers distinctive, 5 star customer service. Helping a customer navigate through the complexities of any queries, and follow-ups are necessary services to ensure a smooth journey. By empowering our employees and staff with proper training, EQ, and personal development, we also empower the customer journey to be the best possible. With accuracy and speed of fulfilling customer requests, we are demonstrating consistency of delivery and quality. With IA Call Center, we design customized, bundled business solutions with a call center component to enhance the overall needs and expectations of the customer. We personalize and deliver all areas of support including sales, product support, technology and brand extension. Our omni-channel communications give the customer easy access at all points of support. About IA Call Center: IA Call Center is a second-generation family-owned contact center with a 50-year history of innovation in the answering service and BPO sectors. Our mission is to empower our partners to scale their customer service and sales to new heights by leveraging our unique capabilities in an omni-channel environment. We provide customized service packages that meet your brand needs with a 5 star, white-glove customer care service. For more info: www.iacallcenter.com  Elite, high performing companies have a full understanding that raising the standards of customer service and care is what helps certain companies stand out over others and ultimately retain customers. How do we ensure that your customers’ experiences are elevated throughout their entire journey with your company?
Our professionally-trained agents and team are fully trained in your products’ specifications so that their depth of product knowledge matches and exceeds your own knowledge of your products and company. This experience that IA Call Center brings to your company will ensure that our agents will have a seamless integration into the world of your company’s customer service needs. At IA Call Center, we are truly redefining elite customer service and brand partnerships. This depth of knowledge that we bring to your customers will improve their overall experience and maintain a relationship between you and your customers now and into the future. Our main goal is to increase the value of your brand throughout your customer’s journey – isn’t that the main goal of any company in today’s technological world? You may be asking…how do we do this? Let’s start at the beginning with Onboarding. The practice of making sure your employees understand their position, job requirements and your culture so that they can integrate effortlessly with your company. We want to ensure our employees fully understand your customers, products, and concerns. That way, we are establishing a great experience for your customers from the start. The numbers don’t lie – having a solid onboarding program increases staff retention by 82%. If our company had a revolving door where employees come and go on a regular basis, we would have to keep training, and retraining them on your products and needs. Luckily, our staff retention is stellar, and this commitment from our employees influences their embrace of your customers. Our stellar onboarding has increased the confidence and competence of our employees because, at IA Call Center, we maintain that if our employees are happy, your customers will be happy. Our professionally-trained agents are fully-engaged in your company and are the experts in making your products an experience. They also have a full understanding of how to increase the incremental value of your customers’ purchases. With more knowledgeable and tenured agents you will see an increase in customer retention. Our agents become so well versed in your product line that guiding the customer to the right offer and right action becomes second nature. Reducing subscription lapses in subscriptions or reactivating lapsed customers have become our specialty and we make your customer experience a competitive advantage. In the end, it’s a win-win! About IA Call Center: IA Call Center is a second-generation family-owned contact center with a 50-year history of innovation in the answering service and BPO sectors. Our mission is to empower our partners to scale their customer service and sales to new heights by leveraging our unique capabilities in an omni-channel environment. We provide customized service packages that meet your brand needs with a 5 star, white-glove customer care service. For more info: www.iacallcenter.com |
AuthorIan Tempro, Head of Special Projects, at IA Call Center writes about his 20+ years of extensive contact center experience in leadership, client relationships, operations and specialized vertical markets. Archives
November 2022
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