In every type of business that is eager to deliver a high-quality customer experience, call management is one of the most important tasks. Call management involves ensuring that clients and customers get timely, round-the-clock, and satisfactory responses to their calls.
Call management also involves keeping track of callers to ensure the continuing relationship with the customers and prospects and to make sure that they are delivered with the right information and products and services they are looking for.
From small brick-and-mortar stores to big e-tailers, every successful business takes business call management seriously. How a business manages client and customer calls affects the brand image, customer experience, and their perceptions about the business.
The emotional component that comes into play determines whether the business gets to keep a client or lose the client to the competition.
How do you know if your business needs a call management system?
Any business that has a dedicated service line or business phone system to attend to customer calls already has its version of call management. Consider a plumbing service run by a small business. A member of staff might be required to interact with clients when they call in to request plumbing services or make inquiries. Its owner may also need to follow up on clients to ascertain that a job done previously was satisfactory.
What if your business does not work the way the plumbing business works? How do you know if your business needs a call management system?
Here are a few points to consider that will help you determine if your business needs a dedicated call management system:
If your business requires to attend client calls to order your product or service
For example, if you offer technical services, you need a call management system to handle your customer inquiries more effectively. Also, if your pricing system is based on quotations, then you probably need a customer care agent to take care of pricing negotiation. If your business has any of the features described earlier, you need a dedicated call management system.
If your business services the same customers repeatedly
For instance, the cleaning business may keep servicing the same set of customers for years. As new customers ask about the business or use their services for the first time, it is important to help new clients understand their services.
Calling new clients after rendering them first service, helps to make them more comfortable with your business and build a connection. Excellent customer service helps to keep existing clients happy and improves the prospects of securing new clients.
If you have staff assigned to manage calls
Whether your business uses a front desk officer or a customer care agent, they both help manage your business calls. As long as you keep employees to attend customer calls, you need to track their effectiveness. A dedicated call management system will help you achieve this.
What should I consider before choosing a call management system?
A lot of companies offer call handling solutions for small, medium, and large businesses. Picking the one that suits your business the most requires paying attention to what competencies of the company or their software are most valuable to your business. Some factors to consider while choosing a good call management solution provider include:
Experience
Companies that have a long history of providing call management solutions tend to have more to offer in terms of quality of service. They must have had rough days that made them better adjusted to accommodate the needs of different clients.
A call management company with a history of good services also puts your mind at ease. You know you are dealing with a legitimate company, not the ones that will disappear at any moment.
Excellent customer service
Your vendor should be able to guide you step-by-step all the way. From the moment you decide to use their system, there should be an arrangement to train you or your personnel. The training will guide you on the best call management practices to adopt. There is also a need to learn how to track calls and interpret data.
After the initial training, there should be an opportunity for you or your personnel to get timely help when needed. Choose a vendor that offers 24*7 dedicated support services. You can be sure to get help anytime you need it.
Integrations
As you begin to install your call management infrastructure, there will be a need to integrate them with some software you are already using; like sales and CRM software, etc. Make sure that the solutions you choose can work perfectly with the app you have been using initially to manage calls. This may also include compatibility with the client phone contacts directory and the likes.
Also, as your business grows, there will be a need to upgrade your infrastructure and accommodate more and more support agents. You need to be sure that your call management solutions will be able to grow with your company.
Affordable pricing
One importance of effective call management is to enhance your marketing ROI. You don’t need to spend too much to get excellent call management solutions.
Having said that, don’t make price the only criteria for your selection. You must also consider other factors outlined above (i.e. quality of service and customer experience, support, and integration with other software and apps) before making the final move.
How to improve call management in your business?
You should know that having an effective call management solution is only the first half of the requirements for delivering better customer experiences over calls. The other half hangs on how you or your business manages the system.
You may have the best solution and still not get the results you want if you don’t make an effort to improve call management quality. Below are some tips to help you:
Make use of your call management system
Have you ever noticed that sometimes you keep calling a company line forever, and nobody will pick up the call? Some businesses may not even be aware of missed client calls until after the client is seen in person. These situations happen, and they are bad for business.
If you employ a front desk officer or customer agent, call your business line without giving your employees prior notice. Get first-hand experience of how your customers might feel when they call and interact with your call center agents. Find quality gaps and provide necessary training to your support staff to fill those gaps.
You can also motivate your call center agents by giving rewards for specific quality performance. All things being equal, a motivated team will perform at higher levels of productivity and competence.
Train and retrain customer care staff
To be more effective at their jobs, your customer care staff needs to be trained. Take advantage of your vendor’s resources to train your staff if those resources are available. If those are not, you can outsource the training to an HR firm. This investment in your business efficiency will increase your marketing ROI with time.
Follow-up with your clients using daily task tracker apps
For clients who call on your business number, a follow-up call will give a positive and caring image of your business. Since you are likely to have a list of clients to follow up with, automating the process will help.
For timely follow-up with clients, you can use the follow-up functionality of the call management system. Alternatively, you can use a daily task tracker to track your client calls so you can follow up on their inquiries. To make this practice a routine, dedicate a specific date and time for checking up on your clients.
Evaluate your call center team
There should be proper monitoring of calls to improve efficiency. You can periodically listen to sampled call recordings so you can judge the quality of customer care service.
Where there is a need to make some adjustments, you note them. The things and areas of improvement that you noticed can be worked on when you give your monthly progress report.
Why is business call management critical?
Business call management solutions may cost you some money. Does that spending make sense? Well, here are some ways effective call management will boost your business:
Build a good business image
When you give your customers good customer care service via calls, you connect with them at a deeper level. They see your business as being more organized when they see that their calls are handled professionally.
With each call response, the emotional side of selling comes into play. Your business reputation improves, and somehow your business is considered with great regard. This feeling will determine how long a customer will remain loyal to your business.
Track marketing ROI
If your business relies on pay-per-call marketing, an efficient call management system will help you keep track of ad performance. You will be able to determine the number of new leads generated and the volume of deals won as a result of the campaign. These are key metrics that will determine if your marketing ROI is good or not. Results from your analysis will help you make the right marketing and organizational reforms.
Positively impact quality of customer service
Excellent call management helps to boost your customer care services. Once your customers know that the solution to their problems is just one call away, they are more likely to call you to get the problem solved. This is much better for your business in comparison to the situation when they ditch your company due to a lack of quality customer care services.
Improve patronage
The ultimate aim of the call management solution is to increase customer satisfaction and patronage of your business.
Your business will enjoy more recommendations when current clients enjoy your services. You will save more on your advertising costs and make your brand more visible without paying spending huge budgets on paid campaigns. After all, nothing compares to positive word-of-mouth marketing!
Engage your clients
When you effectively engage your clients, you will be able to find out more about their needs. Some clients will give your business valuable insights on how to serve them better. Your business becomes more client-oriented, and you dramatically increase your number of loyal customers.
Conclusion
If you want your customers to enjoy better phone experiences, you need to choose the right call management solutions for your business. After implementing the system, you need to use your team’s feedback and call analytics for the evaluation of your performance. With the insight you get, you can develop strategies to improve your customer experience until you get the desired results.
At MyOperator, we empower business call management systems of 6000+ businesses across 50+ countries. To get started with the MyOperator call management system for your business, you can sign-up for a 3-day free trial or contact us for a 1:1 help and consulting session.
About the Author: Lori Wade is a journalist from Louisville. She is a content writer who has experience in small editions, Lori is now engaged in news and conceptual articles on the topic of business. If you are interested in an entrepreneur or lifestyle sphere, you can find her on Twitter & LinkedIn. She has good experience and knowledge in the field.