Once you’ve done all you can to market to potential clients and have been successful in reeling them in, how do you act on their response to your call-to-action? It’s important that your business maintains excellent customer service to assist in maintaining your current clientele, and help nurture new prospects. To do so, the work environment must be comfortable and relaxed, while still maintaining professionalism. This culture will work its way from employees to clientele. So what can be done to ensure you set up your customer service center to be as effective as possible?
Set Your Customer Service Staff Up for Success
Define “excellent” customer service – Set the expectation with your employees with the definition of excellent customer service. Communication is key. If you’re unsure how to define a clear expectation, try thinking about your own customer service experiences of the past, and which ones worked (and didn’t) and why.
Training – Your first step is hiring people who have a genuine interest in public interaction and have the ability to remain calm, even when under pressure. Your next step is ensuring your employees are well versed on the company’s products/services. Keeping the client happy is the first priority, rather than defending against unhappy ones. Providing written policies and guidelines will create an atmosphere of expectation and give them the power to make their own decisions when it comes time to resolving an issue.
Relaxation – Not all calls will go as planned or be smooth sailing. It is important that your customer service center has an area to “blow off steam” and recover from a rather stressful situation. Whether that means you provide a room with a punching bag or dart board – this may be the very relief your team needs to get back into their office and continue providing excellent customer service.
Fun – Allow employees to personalize their work areas with photos, posters toys, etc. Don’t be afraid to change up the paint scheme to happier, vibrant colors, either.
Comfort – Setting up your customer service center with comfortable seating with proper ergonomics and updated computer hardware/software encourages your team to feel relaxed and at ease. This doesn’t need to be an expensive event; however, it is important to consider it as an investment.
Evaluate – Survey your customers to track the effectiveness of your team and whether your efforts in establishing a comfortable environment are paying off. Also, create suggestion boxes for your employees to ensure your team is set up to provide your clients with the best customer service experience.
Your Go-To VOIP Provider
One final note for setting up a successful customer service center: ensure your employees have the proper communications’ technology at their fingertips, along with an experienced staff dedicated to providing around-the-clock service.