AnswerNow! Blog

Customer service is a given for any business with consumers. However, most businesses fail to realize that well-honed customer service increases sales. Here are just a few statistics to consider:

• 86% will pay more for great customer service
• 40% will buy more when they experience great customer service
• Over time great customer service generates loyal customers, and loyal customers are worth up to 10X the amount they initially spend

Your customer service team is the gateway to customers who are in need of your business. Learn four ways that you can boost your customer service team’s ability to increase sales for your company.

Today’s world is globalized thanks to the wonders of technology. We can talk to people from any continent in real-time. We can even use video technology to speak and see individuals from thousands of miles away. Along with this wondrous ability comes the need to be culturally sensitive as a business. Every culture has its own faux pas and rules, which is part of what constitutes a group in society as a culture. As a customer service provider, it is essential to provide culturally appropriate contact center services. In lieu of this, here are 4 essential multicultural customer service tips to help your business.

Help desk call center agents empower small businesses to build strong, long-term relationships. While almost everyone would agree that customer service is mission critical, many small business owners don't realize how a full service, live answering service influences growth and stability throughout the life of a business. Did you know…

Poor customer service costs businesses $83 billion every year, primarily because consumers are twice as likely to share their bad experiences than they are to share positive brand encounters.

The customer service industry is always changing. That means keeping up with new technology and trends. This often results in a fun, fast paced environment, but can also come with its challenges.

Smart businesses need to keep evolving their processes and products in order to, not only stay ahead of the game, but in it. The customer service industry is not the only thing that is constantly changing. Technology is consistently improving and customers change their minds all the time when it comes to what they need from companies. Just because something worked in the past, doesn’t necessarily mean those same skills, technology or services will be beneficial today.

Hiring someone to “keep an eye on the phones” usually seems to become a much lower priority than some of the other critical tasks at hand. But, if you aren’t there when your customers need you, it will be tough to grow a successful business.

In the early stages of building your small business, it’s easy enough to ignore those ringing phones, especially if they aren’t really ringing off the hook quite yet. Some small businesses may even ask potential clients to call company officials directly on their mobile devices, which, from a customer perspective, can be great for bypassing any kind of gatekeeper, but can result in all sorts of interruptions or even create more small fires for busy executives to put out.

We are delighted to announce that for the tenth consecutive year AnswerNow Inc. has been honored with the ATSI Award of Excellence. The Association of TeleServices International (ATSI), the industry’s Trade Association for providers of telecommunications and call center services, presents this award annually.

To keep up with the competition, every customer and every minute of your day is important. Unfortunately, at one time or another, we have all had a customer or patient who was a no-show. Their reason may vary- whether it was due to a scheduling conflict or just slipped their mind- but the outcome is still the same. Missed appointments –and the time spent preventing them- can have a negative effect on your business’s bottom line. However, fear not. There is an easy fix to try to prevent this from happening in the future and it can save your business time and money. Partnering with a call center that offers automated reminders might be exactly what your business needs.

One of the best things about customer call centers is that they can help your business grow and make it more efficient.

In fact, the only reason your organization might not benefit from a center’s services is if you’re OK with it staying the same. That means the same amount of calls from customers needing help, people wanting to know more about your business, or people interested in buying whatever product or services you’re selling. It means the phones probably aren’t going to be ringing off the hook– they simply may not be ringing at all.

In today’s world, everyone wants right here, right now, customers would like to be able to contact businesses whenever they want, on whatever communication channel is most convenient for them. Can you imagine the number of customers you could acquire by being available at the right time? Although it has been around for almost a decade, one of the newest ways companies are communicating with their customers is through live chat. If your company has yet to bring chat support into your customer service mix, the time to start is now!

Customer service is often an overlooked aspect of business, yet it is, without a doubt, one of the most important areas a business can focus on. Many business owners do not realize the effects a bad customer service experience can have on a company.