Consumers have indicated that customer service is at the top of their list of priorities when dealing with a company. This comes before the price of the product, the delivery time or even the range of products that they have on offer.

The above-mentioned are likely to be areas of your business that you spend a lot of time considering. But do you spend as much time thinking about your customer service?

According to a recent survey by NewVoiceMedia, UK companies who have poor customer service are losing up to £12 billion a year. Of those consumers surveyed, half have or would take their business elsewhere as a result of a poor customer service experience. Even more worrying, 49% of consumers are put off from calling a business all together due to a fear of being put on hold or waiting in a call queue.

Customer service involves all of the areas which a possible client could contact you, and the way that you deal with their enquiries and orders when in contact with them.

One of the most important areas of your business will be answering customer phone calls. Although many businesses are dealing with their clients by using e-mails, social media and so on, calling a company is still the number one preferred method of contact which consumers use.

It is therefore important that you make this a priority in your business. Do you have enough staff to answer customer calls and enquiries? Are your staff trained in customer service skills? Do you have enough phone lines to handle the volume of calls you receieve, particularly during or out of office hours?

There is nothing worse than trying to contact a business and being constantly put on hold, or placed in a call queue. It is very difficult to like the company from the offset if this is the way that you have been initially treated. A possible client may decide to hang up the phone in favour of a different company, simply because of the quality of customer service that they feel they have received.

If you are looking to really make a difference and impact on your customers, it might be a wise idea to outsource to a call centre. By utilising these services, you can guarantee that each and every one of your callers has their call answered within just a few rings. They can also deal with the caller’s enquiry much more easily, by transferring them to the correct department rather than putting them on hold.

By paying particular attention to this area of your business, it will almost certainly pay off. A positive customer service experience leads 74% of those surveyed to be more loyal to a company, 71% would recommend a company and 44% would use the business more frequently, with 34% spending more money with the company following good customer service.

You may feel aggravation towards these complainers, but they must be dealt with professionally. Although in many cases you may believe that the fault lay with the customer, the old saying goes that the customer is always right. You must therefore handle their complaint professionally and in a way that shows that you are responsible company. If you do not do this, then name may tarnish your reputation by spreading a bad word about you. You may also be in trouble in other circumstances, such as in a legal matter or perhaps news of the complaint reaches the press. It is better to deal with these instances sooner rather than later.

Many people believe that the best way to deal with complaints is to set up a dedicated complaint or enquiry line. This is most easily done when you work with the UK-based call centre, who can offer you professional services dedicated to meeting the needs of your customers.

A trained representative will be able to answer all of your calls, and if a customer does complain then they will know exactly how to deal with this complaint. Perhaps you would like to offer a future discount to the person who is making a complaint, or perhaps you would like to personally speak to them as the manager of your business to apologise. However your business works, the call centre can work with you to ensure that the customer is not left even more aggravated by the poor customer service that they receive in making the complaint.

Remember that your customers will be the ones that recommend your business, and if you fail to meet all of their needs properly, then you may lose custom or even the reputation which the brand-name upholds.

A call centre will set up your telephone lines so that any of your business calls are directed straight to the call centre. A dedicated and professional member of staff from the call centre is then able to answer the calls, which can be very beneficial. Not only are they trained to deal with the call appropriately, but they are able to answer the call quickly, which can be more than you are able to do when your own business offices. Your current staff may only be able to answer one call at a time, and they may even have to put callers on hold which can cause frustration.

A call centre can work around your specific needs. For example, if you simply need a telephone answering service set up for busy periods of the day when your normal staff will be unable to answer the phone, this is possible with a UK-based call centre. However, it also works if you are a growing company and wish to dedicate more time to answering your customers calls, to help build your customer service reputation.

Choosing a UK-based call centre is important. Outsourcing to a foreign country can frustrate your customers, as it can take some time to connect their calls and they may not receive a very clear line when they speak to the foreign representative. Many consumers also prefer to speak to UK based people, where regional accents are clearer and more welcoming.

In recent studies, the Manchester accent was voted one of the friendliest in all of the UK. By using a Manchester-based call centre, you may find that your customers are immediately impressed with your business simply because they are speaking to what they perceive to be a very friendly and approachable representative to your company.

So it was certainly no surprise that rapidly growing Manchester corporate law firm Gunnercooke have acquired his expertise to join its litigation team. CallCare know exactly the type of man they are bringing on board as we have benefited from his vast amount of knowledge and experience in our legal services arm of the business.

This move has made waves in the business world and is currently featured in the Manchester Evening News.

For the full article click here.

Following the news that a retired IT manager grew so frustrated of spending too long navigating through company call centre menus that he decided to launch a website created to both cheat the elongated call centre menu process and plea for companies to do something about it.

The man in question, Nigel Clarke, built a site designed to note the sequence of numbers required for the customer to punch in to reach the level of the call menu they needed to get to. He led research into hundreds of call centres of some of the leading companies in the country including BT, Halifax, Vodafone, Boots and Sainsburys.

An example given by Clarke was that a customer of Lloyds TSB home insurance who would want to report something like a water leak would normally spend more than four minutes working through as many as 78 menu options over seven menu levels to arrive at the point they would need.

When it is generally a companys priority to be as asccesible and user friendly to the customer as possible it sometimes becomes lost in the dozens of levels of menus they have to negotiate before reaching the desired service.

The majority find this tiresome to say the least.

So why such a lengthy process to get what you want from a call centre menu? Could it be that these companies just do not have the resources to direct your call as effeciently as they would like? Is time and/or money a factor?

The best and simplest solution that screams out immediately would be the option to make use of call centre outsourcing. Outsourcing is a great and inexpensive way of providing your customers and clients with an all round better service by allowing their call to be answered after fewer rings, without frustrating call menus and at any time of the day.

With the retention of customers at stake, a company can’t afford to lose the business of their customers which is why outsourcing is becoming an increasingly attractive option for companies looking to stifle the loss of business by using an out of house telephone answering service.

To reduce the number of unanswered calls a good idea would be to research which service accrues the most traffic on your lines and dedicate the above mentioned outsourced telephone answering service to tackle the number of lines of enquiry you will receive for that service.

Outsourcing is more affordable than you would expect and for the top notch, professional service you will recieve from CallCare there is no reason why you should continue to lose customers for either excessive call centre menus or for being on hold too long.

A number of business owners would offer the exact same sentiments as the demands being placed upon you continue to grow and grow as your business develops.

If you want to function as effectively as possible however, it’s vital that you learn some time saving strategies. The more efficient you can become in your operations, the more time you will have to devote to what matters most – growing your business share.

Let’s go over a few key ways to save time as a business.

Know Your Primary Goals

The very first thing that you need to do in order to save time as best as possible is to know your primary goals.

If you don’t have firm goals and directions in place, you’re going to be rather scattered with your efforts. The more you can really dial in on what you must accomplish each day, the greater the chances are that you will actually get those things done.

Consider Outsourcing

One of the best ways to save time in business is to make good use of outsourcing. More and more businesses are doing this to help them run more effectively and are being met with great rewards because of it.

There are a number of things you can outsource from call centre outsourcing to admin support to having a personal assistant.

Whatever your need, you can get help for it.

Don’t Over Work Yourself

Next, make sure you know your limits. While some business owners think that the more work they can do, the faster things will get done, this isn’t always the case.

If you’re burning yourself out on a daily basis, your performance on all tasks will be impacted and you may actually complete them slower than you otherwise would.

Make sure that you do schedule in some down time for yourself each and every week. Taking care of yourself needs to be a priority if you hope to take care of your business.

Know Your Power Hour

In addition to this, make sure that you know when you function your best. Some people are morning people and need to guard this time very carefully.

If this is when you are most productive, don’t let anything creep into the picture.

On the other hand, for others they work best at night.

Knowing when you run optimally will help you make the most of this time, thus being more productive overall.

Say Up To Date With Technology

Finally, make sure that you’re staying up to date with technology as well. This is important because there are many technological advancements, especially when it comes to outsourcing as you can now do this all in a virtual set-up, that will quickly save you loads of time throughout the day.

Read up on the latest trends and decide which will work best for your business.

So keep these time saving strategies in mind and make sure that you consider employing them as best as you can so that you can reach the next level in your business development.

If word travels quickly, you could find yourself rapidly losing more than that one particular client.

Fortunately, if you keep a few key rules in mind, you can supercharge your customer service and make sure your business stands ahead of the competition.

Always Answering Your Phone

Nothing is going to be more frustrating for a client than trying to call a business that’s not available. If you aren’t able to answer calls regularly throughout the day due to whatever reason, make sure that you have a call answering service or outsource to a local call centre

Stay True To Your Promises

Another must-do for any business is to be very choosey about the promises you make. If there are any doubts about your ability to keep them, don’t make that promise.

Nothing will sour a customer’s viewpoint of your business faster than when a promise is not upheld, so make sure you are prepared to back up everything you say with the appropriate action.

Deal With Complaints Respectively

Complaints are going to happen to every business at some point or another, there’s really no way of avoiding this.

But, if you handle them properly, they won’t turn away your frustrated customer. Make sure that you handle them quickly and always treat your customer with respect, making sure they feel heard throughout the process.

It’s very worthwhile to spend a little extra time training your employees to deal with complaints so that no mistakes are made throughout this process.

Add In Something Extra

One thing that will really help to set your business apart from the rest is to do something extra. Going that distance shows your customers that you really care for them and aren’t out to just make a dollar.

This could be something as simple as a future discount, a combined product offer, or follow up service with their new product depending on the nature of it.

Look for little ways to set yourself apart like this and it will make a massive difference on how happy your customers are with your business.

Be Friendly

Finally, make sure that you are being as friendly as possible. Do not overlook how important this is. A simple smile can go a long way, so make sure you are hiring staff that have a welcoming attitude and are going to give off a positive vibe to your customers.

If you can implement these simple yet highly effective customer services practices, you can rest assured you will have some happy customers who are coming back for more.

CallCare are proud to have supported Christian Dior for their one month exclusive celebration event at Harrods by providing a dedicated team of cherry picked staff to assist with their bookings and event queries.

To mark the event, which ran from the 14th of March until the 15th of April 2013, Dior transformed Harrods to create an historical playground of the fashion powerhouse’s journey to the present day.

Dior achieved what only Dior could; they created an atmosphere of pure indulgence and invited all to celebrate with them at Harrods, for more details please click the logo below…

A recent study that was conducted by YouGov and Cognito found that 53% of customers are going to be more likely to buy from a company who is delivering great customer services.

So while you may think that it’s more costly to implement good customer services policies, the fact is that this could very much influence your total revenue share in the market.

If your business is well-known for having the best customer service policies, not only will you retain your current customer base that much better, but you will attract new customers with much less effort as well.

82% of those who were surveyed said that if they had a poor customer service experience, they would most definitely be telling others about it, so if you aren’t up to par with your policies, word will spread fast.

So what can you do to ensure that your customer service is where it needs to be?

Let’s go over a few things to remember.

Make Good Use Of Social Media

First, make sure that you are staying up to date with the latest in social media trends. This is going to be important because times are changing and more and more people are turning online to find information out about businesses and also as a means of communication.

While you never want to completely do away with phone calls, you must also maintain a good social media presence.

Whether this be Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or otherwise, make sure you have your basis covered.

Make Sure You’re Answering Your Phones

Next, always taking the time to answer the phones quickly in an upbeat and positive manner will also rank in well with customers.

Never allow there to be long wait times on calls as this could possibly be the most frustrating experience a customer could face.

If you can’t handle the call volume yourself or your hired employee is unable to keep up, consider outsourcing to a virtual assistant or call centre service.

This is a very low cost way to really bump up your customer service level.

Offer Discounts From Time To Time

Finally, make sure that you are rewarding your customers from time to time. Offer ‘frequent flyer’ discounts to customers who are coming back to you again and again as this will help encourage their continued loyalty.

Try and create a database list of all the customers that you serve so that you can easily reach out to them from time to time and give information about special discounts or events happening with your company.

The more often you can do this, the faster good word will spread about you.

So there you have some important points to keep in mind. The facts are clear and you simply cannot afford to overlook good customer service.

The study also suggested Geordies and Scottish people also have a “nice sounding” regional accent which has a positive public perception and is ideal in customer facing roles.

This differs from traditional views that received pronunciation or “the Queen’s English” is the best accent for customer service roles, which portrayed a typically business like and formal personality to the caller. It is now thought that a regional accent, such as the Manchester accent, gives the caller a sense of friendliness, comfort and identity when contacting a company. It may even encourage a customer to speak longer with the staff member, which could in turn create a stronger relationship with the client.

An expert, Daniel Lafferty, commented, “Perhaps surprisingly, a Manchester accent is seen as industrious and creative. That might be because of the city’s links with the industrial revolution and its prominent music scene.”

The Newcastle accent is also seen as a trustworthy and genuine regional accent, according to the study, which is similar to the Irish and eastern Scottish accent. These accents are also viewed very commonly as reassuring, which is a quality you really want to encourage in your business when dealing with a customer facing role. Speaking with a reassuring staff member on the phone when contacting a company will allow the client to feel confident in their buying decision, and in fact in their faith of the company in general. Building positive relations is important for customer loyalty and retention, something no company can afford to overlook.

In terms of the worst connotations of accents, the Birmingham accent came up in the study as one of the least desirable voices. Public perception is that this accent comes over as “unintelligent and dull” whilst Liverpool accents also have a slightly negative connotation.