«The telephone is just another interface that needs to be managed properly, and to do so, it is necessary to establish protocols for action and define a style for dealing with the customer.» Underline & Share
If you don't have these tools, sooner or later you will end up committing one of the seven deadly sins that make you lose clients when they call you on the phone:
1 Do not pick up the phone
There is nothing worse than having a telephone available for customers to call and then, when one calls, it is impossible to contact them. Whether because the number of lines or people to answer calls is incorrectly sized, not answering the phone is the same as opening a shop in a local and not opening the door to buy, leaving customers wanting on the street. If there is a telephone, you must indicate the opening hours on the media in which you communicate (website, brochures, cards, etc.) and prepare to handle the volume of calls, taking into account possible seasonality and variable flows .
2 Agree with the client one thing and do another
If a customer calls and you agree to do something, you do it small business email list or else the relationship dies. If you tell them you will call them back to answer a question or put them through to the right person, you do it. Sooner or later, but you do it. Not acting as agreed breaks the bond of trust and gives them cause to think that the business cares little or nothing about you. If you repeat the mistake a second time, you will have to face the consequences.
The typical problem arises when a customer calls, has to be attended to by a busy person and gets missed. If the message is misplaced, which is easy when you don't work with professional customer service tools , what will the customer think? Certainly nothing good. The ideal answer to avoid this type of problem is the use of customer management tools, CRM , which allow you to manage each contact with the customer, whoever attends to them and through whatever channel.
3 Making the customer wait longer than expected
A customer's phone call must be answered within a reasonable time , and a good strategy is to inform them of the estimated average time to answer their call and give them the option to leave their contact phone number so they can be called when an operator is available. This way, their time is not wasted. Highlight & Share
