3 Tips for Effective Call Answering for Business Owners

Outsourcing your calls to a call center can be a smart financial move for any small or medium-sized business. However, it’s critical that your business benefits from this switch, not suffer. Customer care is the most essential part of your success; the critical component is listening to be effective. You can utilize several tactics to ensure that all your customers are getting the best possible support.

“… In one of our recent studies about the impact of poor Customer Service Call Centers, we discovered that two-thirds. 

(66%) of professionals rated their recent Customer Service Call Centre experiences as negative or neutral. Only 34% report positive experiences with Customer Service Call Centers.”  – CustomerServiceManager.com

Flexible Script
Unfortunately, setting up your call center representatives with a simple script that maps out the phone call is easy. While this may be set to avoid confusion or incorrect information, it can keep the ring from going where it should. According to InsideCRM.com, telesales expert Flyn Penoyer said, “The biggest error in scripts is first the writing and second the formatting.” Follow three rules of thumb to avoid this.

•  Start with a script, but be sure that employees are phasing them out as their knowledge of the company, products, and service improves.
•  Have employees use personal experience and knowledge as much as possible.
•  Avoid speeches or long blocks of text – the script should be a guide, not read verbatim.

Avoid Over-Selling
Customer service representatives are there to hear your customers, solve their problems, and amend any issues. While up-selling is ideal, not every phone call should be treated as an opportunity to make more money. To avoid making an angry customer angrier, be sure that the problem is solved before taking a sales opportunity.

•  Listen to the customer first
•  Assess their needs and wants
•  Then offer other products that would add value

Keep Constant Communication
While most people your agents will talk to are one-time callers, it’s essential to keep precise records for better communication. To do this, you want to invest in call center software that allows you to keep detailed records of every customer and phone call.

This will make the interactions more effective and avoid repetitive questions, giving your agents a chance to listen. When choosing your software, consider the following features:

•  Social: Purchase software that integrates social interactions like those on Facebook and Twitter. This allows you to refer to previous conversations even if they weren’t over the phone.
•  Cross channel: Your software should integrate email, chat, and phone conversations.
•  Software integration: When you integrate your call center software with other programs, agents can get more information quickly and efficiently, leaving no lag time for the customer.

Utilizing a call center to route phone calls can be a strategic financial move for any business. However, you want to be sure you aren’t harming your customer service in the process. Be sure that your first line of defense is listening, and then worry about up-selling or following a script. Customer service should always come first; call center or no call center.

Bio: Jessica Sanders is an avid small business writer touching on topics that range from social media to business management. She is a professional blogger and web content writer for ResourceNation.com.