Build relationships with your customers

There are really only two types of customers: those who know and love you, and those who never heard of you. All businesses spend virtual fortunes trying to get new clients and that will constantly stay important. But don't spend the total fortune on just attracting new clients Spend some of those dollars keeping in touch with existing consumers because you want to keep them.

One of the goals in growing your business should be that the same person you sold to today will still be spending money with you ten years from now. So don't celebrate the close of a sale. Celebrate the beginning of a long relationship. People want to do business with people who appreciate them and look out for them. Which brings me to yet another salient point.

In your part as an unrelenting self-promoter, start off in your own backyard. How many people in your office building know you and what your business is all about? Introduce yourself to people in the hall, in the elevator of your building. Let everyone in the urgent vicinity of your office know who you are and what product or service you offer.
People do business with people they know because they've heard about them from a friend, read about them in a magazine. So your job is to make yourself known to potential customers.

In other words the real sales come after the sale. I have followed his suggestion all these years and became an unabashed, relentless self promoter of my business.
All I ever wanted for my business was an unfair benefit. I'm not talking about lying or cheating. Exactly the opposite. An unfair advantage is doing every tiny little thing better than your competition. In this instance, your competition can be your best teacher.



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Customer Relationship Call Center by Global Response

Technical Call Center and Beyond

Communication technology has been a part of the modern life. From ordinary telephone call up to sophisticated military secured communication system, it is no doubt that this is one of the modern marvels of the 21st century. Together with new technologies that constantly improve our way of life, services like technical support call centers are needed to help customers maximize the usage of the products they purchased. Not to mention a good technical support service can promote recurring sale which is one of the many factors to further develop a certain product.

Technical call center is a good source of data that needs improvement. Even if a company hires a hundred employees to debug a product there will always be errors that will be overlooked. With technical support service, customers can report errors that needs to be fixed immediately especially when security of the customer’s data is concerned. Customer suggestions can also be generated in a call center service. Feedback of the customers is essential in a product, it will help the inventor/developer know what the consumer really needs, by improving the product, it will also improve customer satisfaction.

Now that almost every company either employs or outsources technical call center agents from outsourcing companies, we can expect new technologies will be invented for the technical call center industry and also to feed humanities never ending need for innovations that will make everyone’s life faster and more exciting. With technology continues to advance we can expect new business fields to emerge just like technical call center that generates thousands of opportunities all over the world. And even though we’ve seen too many improvements in the past years, there can never be time to sit back and relax. We are bound to fail, to try again and in the end succeed.

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Technical Call Center by Global Response

Graveyard Not Bad At All

One of the worst things in life is getting stuck with an enduring question that keeps popping in and out of your head while you go out and try to make a living for yourself. A question that goes in and out but you don’t get to answer because you are anxious with an activity called work. What is worst is if that question is directly related to it

We enlisted the help of some alleged "experts" when it comes to doing the graveyard shift and they came up with almost the same answers. Normal answers like hassle free traffic to and from the office stands to be the best reason to do graveyard. Yeah, I think they do have a very good point there. I would rather cross the Avenue knowing that I wouldn’t get to see yuppies, old time employees and newly grads strolling along and making the beeline to the nearest building entrance. Another reason would be the less hassle on your pocket. I can probably say that I can survive one shift with P20.00 in my pocket because I don’t have to worry about any parking fee and other incidentals that come along with doing a morning shift. Yes, it’s less expensive in the evening.

Some of our more trendy "experts" would reason out negligence in dress code as one big factor why graveyard is so cool. Doing the morning shift gives you the feeling of formality. The graveyard shift provides you with an outlet to be whatever you are, just as long as it is within the bounds of the company's rules and regulations. Call Center “owls”, when it comes to fashion, only have one motto, diversity.

Some also consider the non-presence of the sun as one big aspect why they prefer to do graveyard. With all factors considered. I thought long and hard and I came to the conclusion that hey, it’s not all of the above mentioned factors that made me understand that I made a good decision with sticking to graveyard. It’s the vibe, the feel that you are doing something out of the ordinary; something that feels different from the norm. Sure, I'll graduate eventually into a morning shift that comes with a shift in priorities. But as of now, I will enjoy the fact that some time within my so called life, I came to do something different and I enjoyed it, made some money out of it and made some lasting relationships along the way.



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The world’s most prestigious brands trust Global Response Call Center with their single most important asset: their customers. Find Out Why.

Follow up calls to the client? Ineffective

The most normal system of consumer’s fulfillment measurement is the follow-up phone survey, where a person often a survey specialist at a third-party firm calls the customer anywhere from one hour to several days after dealing with the call center and asks the client quite a few questions concerning his or her experience. This method is straightforward trendy and, according to experts… ineffective.
“While issues exist with all customer satisfaction measurement methods,” says Dr. Jodie Monger, president of Customer Relationship Metrics, “this method is the least money-spinning, has many biases allied with the compilation method and results, and provides the largest challenge to reliably linking results to a CSR.”
Some call centers still use mail surveys, which, says Monger, are also not very cost-effective and have even more biases associated with them. Even more awkward is the issue of timeliness when using such surveys; consumers normally don’t receive the survey in the mail until three to five days after the interaction with the call center took place making it nearly impossible for the customer to clearly remember the details of the experience. Consequently, consumers either ignore the assessment or respond as best they can despite the time that has lapsed, which can lead to watered-down ratings or comment that doesn’t perfectly reflect what transpired during the operation.
Timing is the whole thing in consumer’s satisfaction capacity according to analysts at Gartner Group.
Real-time consumer feedback is the pulse by which an enterprise can regulate and modified its designed consumer experience to guarantee that it meets and exceeds, where necessary customers’ expectations. …The most significant aspect of response is timing. Gartner has determined that feedback composed instantly after an event is 40 percent more accurate than response collected 24 hours after the even the affair.

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The world’s most prestigious brands trust Global Response Call Center with their single most important asset: their customers. Find Out Why.

An overview of Chat support

There are different kinds of support a company can provide for their customers. Commonly used is Phone support, wherein the customers call-in and have their concerns, request be processed through phone. Today, with the availability of the Internet to almost everyone in the world, more and more companies are resorting to Live chat as an alternative way to provide support for their customers.

Any company can use Live chat as a form of support to their consumers or customers, having an online support such as Live chat can increase sales and improve customer satisfaction. Through this online support the agent can provide product knowledge, technical support, can process order fulfillment request and billing inquires. One of the great benefits of having an online chat support is that your customers around the world can access it freely and have support in real time, it does not have any barriers and wait time is reduced therefore makes both the client and customers happy. One advantage of having an online support is that agents can provide helpful links to the customers, by doing that they are providing support and educating the customer at the same time. Compared to Phone support, Live chat is less expensive. In addition, online chat support can handle more than one chat request at a time, therefore reducing the wait time for the customers and providing more business to the call center.

Three Advantages of having a Call Center.

One of the new and exciting trend is the call and contact center market. This trend is affecting and helping many service-oriented industries. Major businesses mostly use call centers to interact with their customers. Example in Global Response they are handling Toyota, Puma, National Geographic Magazine, Norwegian Cruise Line and World TV. Even small businesses uses service internal functions through call centers.

1. Cut Costs

Operating a call center is, in many cases, less expensive and more cost-effective. This is because, once the system is in place, the coordination between the company and the customer is much easier. One example is customer issues can be easily addressed.

2. Increase Efficiency

Quality call center agents have one thing in mind each day: help customers. Empowering agents, through training, can provide instant and efficient solution to customers. This means agents can, in a nutshell, be more efficient and give the company they work for more value.

3. Improve Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty

Customers, quite simply, want to talk to a call center agent if they are having difficulties with something. Agents should always be customer friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. They also want to have their questions addressed in a timely manner, preferably through first call resolution. By providing them call center support are helping them to get the answer when it is needed.

As is evidenced here, call centers offer many advantages. To learn more, you may visit Global Response.

What makes a Call Center Great?

Call center, a physical place where customers are handled by an association, usually with some amount of computer automation. Characteristically, a call center has the ability to handle a considerable volume of calls at the same time, to filter calls and forward them to someone qualified to address their concerns, and to log calls. Call centers are used by directory assistance companies, telemarketing companies, online market companies, product help desks, and any large business that uses the telephone to sell or service products and services.

There are three factors that are dependent with each other that makes a great Call center. These factors are Efficiency, Customer satisfaction and Revenue generation.

Efficiency, the ability of being effective without wasting time or effort or expense. When a customer contacts your center, they would want a fast, efficient answers to their questions, they want the same thing every customer desires and that is customer satisfaction.

Customer satisfaction occurs when a call center deliver what the customer wants, when and how they want it. Persons highly skilled in customer service understands that the customer doesn’t always articulate what they want, Sometimes you must dig for it, investigate. Once you have determined the reason why the customer contacted you in the first place, you will be able to determine ways to help him/her. The more you know about the customers concern, the better you will be able to help them, resulting to one satisfied customer.

Revenue generation is the lifeblood of any organization, good revenue generation will not happen without satisfied customers and the more efficient the call center, the more time is available for generating revenue. Efficiency can’t be achieved without Good revenue generation and Customer satisfaction. For example, when a call center fails to seek a customer on the first attempt, revenue isn’t maximize because customer who really wanted the service/product must call back to get what they wanted. This creates inefficiency by duplication of effort, it also represents poor service as it makes the customer do more work to get what they wanted when they initiated the first call. Our company, Global Response produce quality agents that gets the job done with little waste of time and energy. Inspired and driven to satisfy customers’ needs, resulting to additional and continuous revenue for our clients.

Call Center Family

Helping the world’s leading retailer’s progress in their journey towards excellent performance is a remarkable experience for Global response.

We believe that the success in every call center is based on how they manage their employees. Different factors comes into play when call center performance is tackled, however, one of the most important performance booster for call centers is employee management. We at Global Response value our employees, we treat them as a family, because we believe that treating every employee like family is the right thing to do. When agents are happy, customers are happy, they stay longer, and the longer they stay, the more they know.

Global Response takes pride in our employee retention rate, it is the envy of our industry. Most of our agents have been with us for years. Providing career path is one of Global Response’s goal, we would like our agents to grow with us. We encourage employees to apply for team leader, supervisor and management openings.

Treating people with dignity and respect is ingrained in each and every employee of Global Response. Our “open door” policy applies to every agent. Because we would like hear what our employees have to say, and we make sure we address all their concerns as well. We compensate employees at above-industry averages, and we offer a wide array of employee benefits. Global Response began offering paid child-care benefits when it was unheard of, gaining favorable attention from the The Wall Street Journal.

Other benefits that we offer to our employees include flexible scheduling, health, dental, disability and accident insurance, a 401K plan, paid vacation and personal leaves. We also offer tuition subsidies for qualified employees.

A variety of employee incentive programs are also offered in Global Response. Our performance and attendance programs includes theme park coupons, premium parking spaces, client merchandise discounts and awards.

The success of our company depends on our employees, they are the bread and butter of this company. The reason why we achieved so much in the past years is because of their hardwork and dedication to their family, Global Response.

E-Learning Solution

In every call center, when we heard the word workforce management software we tend to think about the agents shift depending on the volume of the calls. Workforce management scheduled representatives according to the high and low call volume. Most call centers is dealing with their staff’s training and coaching problem that leads agents not to performing the role very well.

Call center companies now realize the importance of e-learning system. Instead of having overtime for training why don’t use of the time with fewer calls coming in and take advantage of it using e-learning solution. With this, training schedules are effectively and more likely to get followed by the agents. This web-based e-learning solution can be done during shift on their desk or in any end point on the contact center network.

The problem is how training and coaching are scheduled. We often think of a schedule that is precise so that it will not have a negative effect on customer interaction and services.

Global Response is currently working on it and making sure that it will not only serve the customer well but also treat the staff right.

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The world’s most prestigious brands trust Global Response Call Center with their single most important asset: their customers. Find Out Why.

Outsourcing Customer Support

One of the most crucial elements in making a business grow is handling your customer needs. It is a part or will become a part of any business when your well planned business strategy shows big positive results. Whether you sell something or offer services, customer satisfaction is no doubt a major key in business success. Although there are some customers that are not satisfied with your product/services, there are ways to cover what they need and further improve customer experience. One way is by outsourcing call support to a well experience call center company with good customer satisfaction rating.

The benefits call center companies can offer to a business has been proven for more than a decade, that even big companies such as Dell, American Express and Microsoft use call center services to cover some of their the customer problems regarding their products.

One of the reasons why businesses big or small outsource their customer support is because of the much lower cost. You don’t have to worry on mass hiring call center agents and training them to support your products, also you don’t need to invest on office space and equipments to accommodate the agents. Not to mention call center companies like Global Response has enough highly trained call center agents to immediately start new projects while you sit back and plan your next step in improving your company’s worth.

With so many call center companies in the market today, it is best if you have criteria in choosing which call center can give you more. Make an extensive research on which call center can give you more quality results.

IVR's New Frontier in Australia

IVR or interactive voice response has been around since the 70s' where touchstone technology was used. It has developed through era, which is the tone dialing designed by engineers, small-vocabulary speech recognition that was plotted by speech technologist, and the highly-developed and logicaly-constructed ivr technology designed by professionals interested with end user contentment rather than human engineering.

Evolving to a more sophisticated sytem it has serve and supports different idustries whether in paying bills and inquiring order status. Though IVR has been highly critizised by many user mainly because of the time consumed in talking to pre-recorded voice.

United Customer Management Solutions (UCMS) announced a partnership with Enterprise Integration Group (EIG). EIG being an an expert in improving IVR utilization and customer satisfaction will address the major deficiencies while UCMS resell the technology and custom design software to the bussiest call center operation. With this partnership they aim to make IVR problems a thing of the past not only for technology solution but also for customer needs.


With this partnership, clients will look forward to a better guidance to their callers with the reliable IVR or speech recognition system that will be serve by EIG and UCMS. ______________________________

The world’s most prestigious brands trust Global Response Call Center with their single most important asset: their customers. Find Out Why.

Call Center Agent Work Flow

Nowadays where technology plays a big part of everyone’s lives, technical support is always needed especially for those who are just learning to use technologies such as the computers, mobile phone and etc. If you are planning to take a call center job you should consider if you can handle the pressure talking to irate callers giving them instructions and the graveyard shifts. There are lots of call center companies out there that often search for call center agents to help them handle callers. If you know you can handle this pressure then knowing how a call is handled by a call center agent will give you an edge in applying for the job.

1. Greet the caller with a smile, ask for their full name then try calling him/her by their first name. In this way you are actually personalizing the call and will improve customer experience.

2. Proceed in helping the customer. You can use all of your resources to that can help you. You can ask your supervisor if you can't find the best resolution to your customer's problem. While helping the customer you can ask some personal details such as phone numbers and email address once she is already comfortable communicating with you. By means of this the caller will not think that you are doing unnecessary things during the call.

3. To avoid dead air, you can make rapport by asking not offensive personal question.

4. Always ask for permission in putting customer on hold. Tell them how long and why. Never put the customer on hold for more than 2 minutes. Customer might think that you leaved her already. If you're not yet done finding the best resolution ask another minute. Customer will understand that, just be transparent and true to your client.

5. End the call in a polite way, try to leave a mark on the customer that you still want her to call and you are still interested talking to her. Try to give your contact details if allowed for her lifeline.



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The world’s most prestigious brands trust Global Response Call Center with their single most important asset: their customers. Find Out Why.

Dealing With Irate Callers

Have you ever watched any short call center movie clips from youtube that features an irate caller going ballistic to the agent? Sometimes it’s funny to watch movies like that but if you are the call center agent in that situation you probably think otherwise. Irate callers from any call center business are something that cannot be avoided since calls are randomly selected depending on the department. Whether it’s from inbound or outbound call there is no escape from the explosive and frustrated voice of irate callers.

Among the types of calls in a call center, an outbound call has the largest chance to get an irate customer. Well simply because outbound calls are done by calling customers which often not happy to entertain unsolicited calls, especially if the agents are selling something. While inbound call centers always get callers that need support, they also get irate customers that are often triggered by their frustration in following the instructions of the call center agents.

Now, if you are planning to start a call center business or career, it is best to prepare for the inevitable irate callers. Here are some tips that will definitely help you in handle their calls without making you frustrated as well.

• Assume all calls are from irate callers
Having a mind set that all calls are irate callers will help you give your best service in handling the call. Thus, making the callers feel confident that you can help them.


• Always think that it’s nothing personal
If the caller goes ballistic and keeps on swearing always remember that its nothing personal. They are angry because of the situation not because of who they are talking to. Don’t get angry with the caller because that will produce negative feedback not directly to you as the call center agent but to the company you are representing.


• “Yes Sir, I Understand!”
Never interrupt an angry customer because if you do they’ll just continue in swearing. If they stop the word “Yes Sir I understand how you feel” will help ease their frustration.


• You Can’t Please Everyone
If you tried everything to make the caller calm down and failed, then you can transfer your call to someone who can handle it like your supervisor. Well you can’t please everyone.


• Ask Follow-up Questions
If you feel that your caller is starting to get frustrated ask follow-up questions to help you get back to the problem and try your best to solve it.

These tips are proven to work in most call center agents I know and for me as well. Being a call center agent is not an easy job, it still depends on the calls that you’ll get.

The world’s most prestigious brands trust Global Response Call Center with their single most important asset: their customers. Find Out Why.

CRM On Demand

The popularity of CRM applications in a business cannot be denied at all. But now in the last few years, there has been yet another change on the CRM front.

Traditional CRM software has been replaced by much sharper and precise on demand solutions called ‘CRM on demand’. What exactly does CRM on demand comprise of and what does it offer to your business that more conventional forms of CRM applications don’t? Well, for starters it is completely tailored and created just for your business. So you save a lot of time and money on upfront IT investment.

There are of course a lot more benefits of CRM on demand.

Benefits for your business
• One of the most important benefits that has been instrumental in the growth of ‘on-demand CRM solutions’, is the cost.
• While more traditional forms of software will cost you on a yearly basis with costs running up to millions of dollars up front, the on demand CRM software comes with a monthly subscription charge per user.
• Exclude the cost of implementation, infrastructure and yearly support and you have a deal that you simply cannot afford to lose out on.
• Also the pricing can be altered as you wish. There are many CRM vendors who allow you to pay only for the services that you need.
• Since most ‘On demand’ CRM solutions are web based, it eliminates the need for servers, databases and a complex network system.

Features
• On demand CRM solutions will bring about a marked improvement in all aspects of your business including sales, marketing and service.
• You are giving your sales reps a powerful tool that enables them to make faster and improved decisions.
• Your marketing team will be able to hit the right target audience at the right time with the right message.
• Increased efficiency will help you to keep your customers loyal and minimize costs.

For More Information visit: http://www.officeinteractive.com

By: venkatbabu

What Answering Service Company do you prefer?

Technology and communication are undeniably an evidence of humanity’s progress. In this fast phase of progress, no one wants to be left alone. Especially when you own a business that you expect to grow after several years of hard work and a bunch of luck. With the rapid growth of communication technology several services were made and formulated to help businessmen in communicating with their prospects and clients.

Answering service has been a part of the corporate world. It plays an important role in the business field as an online receptionist ready to take important calls even after office hours. Being available 24 hours a day means you extend your support for your clients and customers which will definitely help increase your customer satisfaction rating and probably your profit as well. Without answering service to take care of your business calls, important deals with your clients may be loss and might give negative feedback to your company.

In getting answering service from reputable company such as Answering Service Care, there are some things you have to consider such as the following:

1. How long was the company in the Answering Service Business?
Experience of Answering Service Company is an important factor to consider to give you assurance that they can handle what you require and produce the results you expected.

2. The location of the company
Knowing the location of the company will give you an idea, if the answering service company can serve you even when natural calamity strikes.

3. What major companies do they serve?
Doing a research on which company your prospect answering service serve is a good basis to know whether they are trust worthy and can keep the confidentiality of your business dealings. You also have to know how long does an average client stay with the answering service company.

4. How do they train their answering service agents?
Quality and quantity is important in almost every part of business. Therefore knowing how they train their agents will give you an idea how they assure quality in each agents they deploy for the client.

Following this guideline will definitely help you land in the right and the most professional answering service companies that will help boost your company’s image in the corporate world.

Need a professional answering service company? Let Global Response Contact Center and Fulfillment help you. Contact us and hear the difference.

How To Improve Your Customer Service Call Center So You Can Achieve Double-digit Response Rates

When your customers buy an important product from you, they trust your company will support them after the sale. In many companies, this trust is being violated. Customers are experiencing "customer service blow-offs" and translate these experiences into your company saying:

• "You've already bought. Now our priority is getting more new customers".


• "You want service? Go figure it out on the Web or wait on hold for one of our poorly trained customer service representatives".

Per my company's research findings, the damage from poor Customer Service Call Center experiences is serious. Here's how…

• Sharply reduced willingness to buy from the company: 86.3%


• Negative perception of the company: 98.9%


• Sharply reduced likelihood to recommend the company to others: 91.5%.

Poor Customer Service is Not Company or Industry Specific

Companies spanning all industries and sizes are hurting their company image and credibility with their customers due to poor customer care experiences.

In fact, 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 Center experiences as negative or neutral. Only 34% report positive experiences with Customer Service Call Centers.

This alarming statistic demonstrates the strong need for companies to focus on customer service, if they want to keep customers and grow their business. The first step in improving and re-engineering your Customer Service Call Center, is to know exactly what customers want.

Top 7 Customer Service Improvements Your Customers Are Begging For Now:

1. Issues resolved in a single call by one customer service representative who speaks clearly, understands their needs and has access to customer records quickly.


2. Customer-friendly experiences including an easy-to-use menu with a minimum of clutter to quickly reach a representative.


3. The ability to call back the same rep, should the need arise


4. Don't out-source customer care centers. In our recent research we discovered that most professionals (98%) report a negative to neutral impact when Customer Service Call Centers are located offshore or outsourced in the United States


5. Adequately trained representatives who know how to actually solve customer problems, and who will provide customers with a case number they can use for credit if they do not receive great service.


6. Rapid access to a live person from a company with sufficient staff so customers are not on hold for more than five minutes.


7. The ability to speak to a highly-qualified supervisor quickly if the customer problem is not resolved in an efficient manner.

Here Are 3 More Tips to Help You Improve Your Customer Service Call Center

• Do not view customer service centers as cost centers. These are revenue-generating centers. In your rush to cut costs, you must consider the financial ramifications of losing customers due to poor post-sales experiences. Positive customer service call center experiences solidify relationships between your customers and your company resulting in more future sales.


• Do not cut back on training, quality control procedures and investments in Customer Service Call Centers. The damage from poor customer service call center experiences have significant impact on repeat purchase likelihood and willingness to recommend the company


• Personally check your Customer Service Call Center to see if it's up to your standards. Take note on the amount of time it takes to get a live person or just to navigate the phone tree. Experience the frustration of talking to someone who is not a native speaker. Ask questions that are not in your pre-made scripts and experience the irritation you get when you talk to someone who is not familiar with the product or service they are selling.

By improving their customer service call centers using these guidelines, one of our clients, Golden Rule Insurance improved their sales conversions by 88%. You can expect to achieve this magnitude of increases to your bottom line as well when you follow these proven customer service call center techniques.

Call Center Re-Engineering Pioneer Ernan Roman achieves consistent double digit improvements in customer satisfaction and revenue for large corporations IBM, Microsoft, Golden Rule Insurance and small companies like Palms Trading. Get your tips now at www.erdm.com/14tipsform.php5 and start implementing breakthrough relationship marketing programs today.