Archive for the 'Customer Service' Category

Telemarketing: Inbound Telemarketing Services

by Lynn Garland

The United States and overseas are experiencing the rise in inbound telemarketing. This service is mostly outsourced to other countries that can provide excellent service for less.

Customers who want answers do not want to wait for business hours. Most businesses are very competitive in the United States and customer service plays a huge role in getting the business from the customer. A customer may be more inclined to go with a business that can answer their questions for them twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. When a customer wants information, they want it right away. And they are willing to pay for it.

The telemarketing service that you choose must respond to customer’s calls promptly and efficiently. Being courteous is a must and their tone of voice should always reflect a polite and considerate manner.

Your telemarketing service actually represents your business. When the service receives inbound calls from your customers, they should be aware that your customers have no idea that they are not calling you directly. If you are outsourcing your calls to another country, be sure that the people who will answer the calls for your customers are English speaking.

For those companies that have hubs or branches in other parts of the country, employing bilingual telemarketers would be beneficial for those people who do not speak English.

Wages in some areas overseas are a lot cheaper than in the United States. Therefore, you will find many businesses outsourcing their telemarketing services to theses areas. In addition, when handling more technical questions you will find the people to be very polite and patient with the customer’s inquiries. This is an example of why a lot of American businesses are sending their technical inbound telemarketing calls to other countries.

If you use a call center, you can give your customers the service that they expect, which is their questions answered twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. An inbound call system also provides a script for the representatives so that they can give your customers even better service.

Having some type of call record showing number of employees at the call service center, average wait for a customer call to be answered and the length of time for each customer call will inform you of the way in which the service is being operated. But before signing with any telemarketing service, it is recommended that you personally call the telemarketers to get an idea of how they will respond to your customer calls.

In order to provide customer service support around the clock, consider employing an inbound telemarketing service. There is more competition out in the market now that more and more businesses are choosing this method of customer service. You should be able to find a reputable telemarketing firm at a competitive price with good rates.

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How Can Customer Loyalty Building Make You More Money?

by Ashley Lichty

There’s no reason in the world why a customer who has used your product once shouldn’t use it again and again. No reason why they shouldn’t be a life long customers. Customer loyalty building can bring past clients back to buy again and again.

It seems as though few companies bother with past companies. They don’t develop any kind of customer loyalty building campaign. The funny thing is, it’s a lot like prospect cultivation in that follow-up is a necessity. Of course, first you better make sure your product or service is truly worth coming back to.

Providing REAL quality service is the first step of customer loyalty building. The second step is to never let your customers forget about you. Too many businesses cut contact with their customers the moment the sale is made - as though that is the end of the transaction. In reality, your company’s interaction with customers should end until - well, until the customer dies, honestly!

Now you can see the value in customer loyalty building, so what’s stopping you from building your won plan? A consumer that buys once will most likely buy again and again. There are different ways to go about building customer loyalty, but coming up with a plan is first and foremost.

Customer loyalty building is similar to regular marketing in that you have to consider your target audience to come up with a good plan. Keep a database of every customer, what they purchased and when they made the purchase. You can build your campaign timeline around this. However long your product lasts is how long it will be till they’re ready to buy again. A car obviously has a longer shelf life than toilet paper.

The next step of customer loyalty building is brainstorming creative and innovative ideas to stay in touch with your past clients- informational packets, free giveaways, holiday and birthday cards, etc. Any excuse to build top of mind awareness for your product. Once you’ve got the ‘content’ of your campaign, it’s time to work on the method of delivery.

Of course, the more systematic your approach to customer loyalty building, the more efficient you’re likely to be. It’s important to map out a system of follow-up for your past clients, including direct mail, email and phone contact. A CRM (customer relationship management) program for your computer systems is a must for this process, and saves time and money.

Your customer loyalty building plan will often mirror your prospect follow-up - both should definitely employ CRMs at the very least. Prospect cultivation and customer loyalty building are just different ways of turning leads into customers. Of course, at least with past clients, they already know what an amazing product you have!

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