Customer service is an important part of every business. Good customer service can be the reason many of your customers are loyal to you, and bad customer service could severely damage your business. For many people, their first point of contact with your company is over the phone. This is no different to any other interaction and the customer’s experience needs to be exceptional. Here are some tips to make sure your telephone customer service is at its best.

1. Firstly, you should have a script written outlining certain situations and questions and how to answer them. This will make it easier for your employees when dealing with customers on the phone. It will also make it easier orientating and training new people. It can’t be a word for word script, there is no way to know what is going to be said, but it could include standard greetings, a list of frequently asked questions, phone etiquette, what to avoid, and how to speak to an unhappy customer.
2. Another thing that will help your employees is to create forms for them to fill out when on the phone. Customer enquiry forms are popular forms, and usually include details such as the clients name, email address, phone number, date of enquiry, who took the enquiry etc. Filling out this form, helps the employees in collecting and remembering all details of the phone call, and makes it easier if the client’s file is transferred between departments. All the important details are on hand and can be easily read by all people in your company.
3. You should also consider outsourcing your telephone service department so that your customers can get support 24/7. Some people are against outsourcing, but you don’t need to outsource the whole department. You could have your staff in your office answering the phones in normal working hours, and outsource for the rest of the time. Outsourcing can be very cost effective and will keep your customers happy.
4. Hiring the right people for the job is another way to ensure great customer service on the phone. To make sure they are suitable for the job, note how they speak to you and their manner on the phone or in an interview with you, look at their previous experience and put them through a test phone call or customer situation. Once you have hired someone, if you think they may not be right for the job, let them know the areas in which you want them to improve. If they haven’t improved within a month, sadly you will have to let them go. This can be a hard thing to do, but you are better off terminating their contract sooner rather than later so that your customer service isn’t affected.

When reviewing customer service in your business, please remember the importance of your telephone customer service and the impact it can have on your customers’ satisfaction. These 4 tips will definitely help to keep your telephone experience perfect!
If you need help reviewing your company’s customer service or any other communication matters, give Clarity Marketing and Communications a call on 1300 060 204 or email us at info@claritymarketing.com.au