The world is getting smaller, and the number of ways people can contact your business is growing. As a result, customers expect to be able to reach someone immediately when they have a problem
To meet this expectation, many businesses are employing more staff. But it's not just about having plenty of people available to answer enquiries. The right communication systems can help you operate more efficiently.
A tool that's growing in importance is voice over internet protocol (VoIP), a type of flexible telephone system that routes all your calls over the internet. Here's how it can help you provide better customer service:
1. Offer 24/7 service
We live in a culture that is increasingly 24/7. Customers want to speak to someone at 8pm on a Sunday or 3am on a Friday - at their convenience, not yours.
VoIP's powerful forwarding tools make it easier to provide 24/7 service, because you can route incoming calls to a customer service team in any time zone depending on the time of day.
2. Low-cost call-backs
Calling people back is a common task of every customer service team. As calls placed through a VoIP system are generally cheaper than calls made with traditional phone lines, VoIP provides a low-cost way to maintain great customer service standards.
3. The personal touch
Each of your customer services people can have their own individual telephone number. When they're away from their desk, the VoIP system can automatically transfer their calls through to a colleague who will be familiar with the customer's query or case.
4. You always have a local number
Your customers may be located all over the world, but with VoIP you can give them a local number to call. You can have different numbers for customers in the UK, China, the USA - wherever you like. The customer dials a local number, you pick up in your contact centre.
5. It's easier for home workers
If you want to expand your customer service team to include home workers, you can set up VoIP to forward your calls to the individual home worker's phones. It's a good way to rapidly expand your customer service team whenever you need to do so.
6. No calls go unanswered
You can make sure no calls go unanswered by setting your VoIP system to continue forwarding calls until they get picked up.
This means that when operatives from one team are busy, operatives from a less busy team can take calls to support them. This approach helps keep staff productive too.
7. You'll save money
In general, running a customer service system through VoIP is cheaper than using traditional phone lines.
8. Stay in complete control
When you implement VoIP across your business, you'll get complete control over calls. You can see who is calling, how long each call lasts and how many calls you've failed to answer. Many systems will also let you listen in to calls as they happen.