The more that technology like the virtual PBX is making it easier to run a business, the more customers crave human contact. In a nationwide survey on what shoppers dislike most about today’s brand of care conducted by the Consumer Reports magazine in 2011, 71% of survey respondents were “tremendously annoyed” when they couldn’t reach a human on the phone. But innovations in technology are inevitable so why deprive your business of availing services like a hosted PBX? Why would you hire a fleet of customer service representatives when you could simply use a virtual Private Branch Exchange? So to make both your business and customers win in this situation, the best solution is to humanize your phone system.
Avoid Computer Generated Greetings
Instead of computer generated greetings, try recording the voice of your willing employees. Brainstorm with your staff to come up with unique welcome greetings. Innovate from greetings that people usually hear like “How may we help you?” or “Your call is very important to us!” It’s human nature to want something new all the time. It also makes your business interesting to customers.
Simplify Your Directory
Create two or three extensions if possible. Too many extensions can build up the caller’s irritation. For example, upon reaching your system, they will hear a greeting, after that, they will have to listen to an endless directory and then when they select from the directory, there will be another sub directory. Then after going through the directory they will be put on hold for a human representative. Place yourself in the shoes of the customer going through that, would it not irritate you too? Fifty six percent of the respondents in the Consumer Reports survey felt “tremendously annoyed” about having to take multiple phone steps to reach the right place. This also shows that not so many customers are patient. Most of the time, they will dial customer service when there is something already wrong with your product or service so be careful about that.
Make Every Employee a Customer Service Representative
This is the beauty of the virtual PBX service with a call routing feature. It makes every employee within reach anytime, anywhere using any kind of device. With that, each employee can be a customer service representative. There is nothing wrong with outsourcing customer service representatives if your company or business could afford it. It’s just that outsourced customer representatives are less exposed to your company’s operations, products or service. It may take some time before they develop in-depth knowledge about your company in order to be a hundred percent reliable to answer your customers’ inquiries. One advantage of employees being customer service representatives is that they will know what they are talking about and they are humans.
Use Easy To Recall Numbers
Use easy to recall numbers or better yet use the dial by name feature. Instead of creating options that says, “Press 1 for billing inquiries, press 2 for shipping information…” you may use the dial by name feature to say, “Press 1 for (an employee name)…”
Another main factor that you should also consider in making your customer service more human is the features of your hosted PBX service. Service providers of virtual PBX offer a variety of features, find out what works best for your business and customers’ needs.
Instead of computer generated greetings, try recording the voice of your willing employees. Brainstorm with your staff to come up with unique welcome greetings. Innovate from greetings that people usually hear like “How may we help you?” or “Your call is very important to us!” It’s human nature to want something new all the time. It also makes your business interesting to customers.
Simplify Your Directory
Create two or three extensions if possible. Too many extensions can build up the caller’s irritation. For example, upon reaching your system, they will hear a greeting, after that, they will have to listen to an endless directory and then when they select from the directory, there will be another sub directory. Then after going through the directory they will be put on hold for a human representative. Place yourself in the shoes of the customer going through that, would it not irritate you too? Fifty six percent of the respondents in the Consumer Reports survey felt “tremendously annoyed” about having to take multiple phone steps to reach the right place. This also shows that not so many customers are patient. Most of the time, they will dial customer service when there is something already wrong with your product or service so be careful about that.
Make Every Employee a Customer Service Representative
This is the beauty of the virtual PBX service with a call routing feature. It makes every employee within reach anytime, anywhere using any kind of device. With that, each employee can be a customer service representative. There is nothing wrong with outsourcing customer service representatives if your company or business could afford it. It’s just that outsourced customer representatives are less exposed to your company’s operations, products or service. It may take some time before they develop in-depth knowledge about your company in order to be a hundred percent reliable to answer your customers’ inquiries. One advantage of employees being customer service representatives is that they will know what they are talking about and they are humans.
Use Easy To Recall Numbers
Use easy to recall numbers or better yet use the dial by name feature. Instead of creating options that says, “Press 1 for billing inquiries, press 2 for shipping information…” you may use the dial by name feature to say, “Press 1 for (an employee name)…”
Another main factor that you should also consider in making your customer service more human is the features of your hosted PBX service. Service providers of virtual PBX offer a variety of features, find out what works best for your business and customers’ needs.
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