Business Phone System Provider and Customer Support Platform Vonjour Discusses Phone Support Best Practices
Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) September 26, 2013 -- In the age of IP communications, consumers have a myriad of ways to communicate with each other: web, chat, text, video, voice, email, and social media. As such, a business has to have a strategy of supporting customers on multiple channels. Providing a holistic customer support experience will increase retention and help brands acquire users more than traditional marketing channels.
While there are multiple customer support channels that are necessary, phone support is often the first channel a customer turns to get a problem resolved.
Successful phone support requires subtle social skills to move an often time irate customer to a resolution point. It’s an art that can be taught.
Vonjour, the new uber intelligent business phone system and customer support platform, has created a best practice guide for providing optimal phone support. Here are some best practice tips for providing optimal support:
1. A smile makes a world of difference.
A warm and friendly voice can disarm an irritated customer. It’s much harder to be mad at someone that’s warm and personable than it is with an anonymous person that an agent will never talk to again. Simply putting a smile on one's face can provide an agent a more welcoming voice to earn a customer’s trust.
2. Mirror the caller.
It’s important to match the caller’s tone and emotion. Of course, if a user is yelling, do not yell back. However, it is important that the agent match the caller’s tone, while subtly building a rapport that is needed to bring their intensity down.
3. Acknowledge the customer’s concerns.
It’s important to listen to the customer’s concerns and acknowledge their pain prior to moving to a resolution. Let the customer vent if needed. An angry customer might not be able to listen to what an agent has to say. Once the customer’s pain has been acknowledged, then the agent can move the conversation towards resolution of that problem.
4. Summarize your customer’s problem.
It’s important for an demonstrate that it understand the customer’s problem. Once a customer has had the chance to communicate their problem, provide the user with a summary of their issue. This kind of responsiveness will instill confidence that their problem is properly understood.
5. Be careful of putting a user on hold.
Being on hold too long can kill a customer support experience—it can seem like you are being completely ignored or passed on to another agent. When putting a customer on hold, an agent should be sure to ask for the customer’s permission first. When they get permission it is important to wait no longer than two minutes to get back on the call. If it’s going to take more than two minutes to resolve the issue, the agent should ask for a number where the customer can be called back at.
6. Follow Up.
Look at a conversation as a series of interactions that are getting that customer to a resolution point. After the call, schedule a time to follow up with the client. The customer will have more positive associations with a brand and is more likely to recommend the company.
7. Log Your Calls.
Nothing makes your customer more irate than calling into a call support center and having to re-explain their situation. Be sure to log calls into your support software or CRM during the call. It might take more time processing those calls, but it will make for a more seamless experience in the long run.
8. Measure Your Effectiveness.
As with any other aspect of a business, incremental progress is critical. Find tools that measure how effective your support team is in addressing customer needs. With concrete metrics, implement best practices to reduce call times and lead to more resolutions and conversions.
Providing optimal phone support means showing empathy for users and having the soft skills to instill confidence with the user. It can take some time to develop those skills, but doing so can lead to long lasting relationship with the customer and more customer referrals. Good support has the greatest return on investment as customers keep coming back and recommending a product.
Vonjour’s business phone solution provides businesses with tools to more swiftly and intelligently respond to their customer’s support needs. Vonjour’s desktop version will be available October 15th. It includes the first ever free enterprise virtual phone service. The system includes toll free numbers and local phone numbers, unlimited extensions and call groups, a virtual receptionist and auto attendant, advanced call routing, online voicemail, faxing, conferencing, and analytics.
Vonjour provides customer support centers with real-time queue details and analytics to give operations teams a better idea of what’s going on in your contact center at any time.
About Vonjour: Vonjour is the uber intelligent business phone system and customer communications platform. Vonjour offers new channels for businesses to support customers, while providing businesses visual analytics to measure organizational effectiveness. Vonjour makes any organization faster, more responsive and more sophisticated in supporting its customers.
Rob Smith, Vonjour, http://www.vonjour.com, +1 (310) 773-8288, [email protected]
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