Making a Personal Connection with Customers

You should always be focused on providing an outstanding product or service to your customers. Sometimes, however, that simply isn’t enough. Customers want to know that they are cared about, and the best way to do that is by providing the highest level of customer service possible.

An extra personal touch can make all the difference in customer satisfaction. With that in mind, here are some tips for how you can make personal connections with your customers that will keep them coming back to your business:

• Ask questions. Don’t just launch straight into your sales pitch—take the time to get to know your customer and what he or she is looking for. Once you know that, then you know exactly how to shape your pitch so that you give them the information that correlates with their needs.
• Talk about yourself. Not that you should babble on and on about yourself, but revealing something about you or your organization that the customer can relate to can make a customer service phone call much more personal. People like doing business with people, not robots, and sometimes it’s easy to forget that there’s an actual person on the other end of the line.
• Listen. Customers will feel extremely insulted if they feel like they’re being ignored. Pay close attention to what the customer is saying and ask follow-up questions if necessary to reassure them that you care about their questions and issues.
• Be patient. Don’t rush the process. The customer will notice if you’re trying to hurry through the call. Treat the customer with respect and take as much time as is needed to satisfy their needs. This will make return business much more likely.
• The little things matter. If you have return customers, try your hardest to remember one or two details about them and bring them up in conversation. Your customers will be quite impressed that a business keeps tabs on its customers in such a manner, and this personal touch will keep them coming back.

TeleDirect has been offering high-quality customer service at its call center for over 20 years, and we know that it’s how you treat people that makes all the difference in the business world. If your organization is in need of outstanding customer service, we can provide it for you. Contact us today!

Start Your New Year Off Right With TeleDirect

A new year is a time for new beginnings and new commitments. Why not start anew in the area of your business’s customer service with the outstanding call center services from TeleDirect? We guarantee the highest level of professional customer service 24 hours a day, seven days a week all year long.

Our customer service representatives are trained to handle all of your calls with a cheerful demeanor and a helpful nature. Since 1988, we have been entrusted by many businesses to answer all of their calls in 20 seconds or less. The great service we offer comes as a result of our excellent representative training programs; all of our CSRs undergo constant training and tests to ensure continually high levels of performance on the job. Our managers and supervisors work closely with these representatives to ensure that they handle your calls with the utmost professionalism.

It’s not simply the call services that make TeleDirect so great. As a TeleDirect client, you will have 24/7 access to our software and your data. This software truly separates TeleDirect from the rest of this competition. Software likeSeminarEdge, Fill The Lot and Work The Lead have been the subject of rave reviews from our clients and add a new dimension to what call centers can do for your business.

Does your business have a lot of bilingual customers? TeleDirect offers customer support in both English and Spanish, 24/7. We also support video customer service using American Sign Language. This language flexibility will allow you to reach out to brand new markets without placing a huge investment in your direct staff and infrastructure!

We don’t limit ourselves to communicating with your customers over the phone, either. Our website features a live chat support system that allows your customers to instantly ask questions and have them answered by one of our talented CSRs. We provide email and SMS messaging services for a quicker, simpler means of communication.

All of these features and many more are great reasons why your New Years resolution should involve the high quality services from TeleDirect. After all, there’s no better time to start!

Start Your New Year Off Right With TeleDirect

A new year is a time for new beginnings and new commitments. Why not start anew in the area of your business’s customer service with the outstanding call center services from TeleDirect? We guarantee the highest level of professional customer service 24 hours a day, seven days a week all year long.

Our customer service representatives are trained to handle all of your calls with a cheerful demeanor and a helpful nature. Since 1988, we have been entrusted by many businesses to answer all of their calls in 20 seconds or less. The great service we offer comes as a result of our excellent representative training programs; all of our CSRs undergo constant training and tests to ensure continually high levels of performance on the job. Our managers and supervisors work closely with these representatives to ensure that they handle your calls with the utmost professionalism.

It’s not simply the call services that make TeleDirect so great. As a TeleDirect client, you will have 24/7 access to our software and your data. This software truly separates TeleDirect from the rest of this competition. Software like SeminarEdge, Fill The Lot and Work The Lead have been the subject of rave reviews from our clients and add a new dimension to what call centers can do for your business.

Does your business have a lot of bilingual customers? TeleDirect offers customer support in both English and Spanish, 24/7. We also support video customer service using American Sign Language. This language flexibility will allow you to reach out to brand new markets without placing a huge investment in your direct staff and infrastructure!

We don’t limit ourselves to communicating with your customers over the phone, either. Our website features a live chat support system that allows your customers to instantly ask questions and have them answered by one of our talented CSRs. We provide email and SMS messaging services for a quicker, simpler means of communication.

All of these features and many more are great reasons why your New Years resolution should involve the high quality services from TeleDirect. After all, there’s no better time to start!

Online Customer Service During the Holiday Season

During the month of December, everything gets quite a bit busier. Just as the stores fill up with customers doing their holiday shopping, the phone lines and internet also light up with customers who have questions about products or services.

Here are some tips you can follow to help you prepare for the busiest online customer service season of the year.

First, be ready for all kinds of feedback on social media sites. Sure, customers may come to your Facebook or Twitter pages to talk about how great of a shopping experience they had at your business, but more often than not they go online to sound off after they’ve had a negative experience.

On Facebook, you should always have it set so that people who “like” your page can post on your wall and tag your business in photos, but you should also have it set so that you get a notification every time someone does so. That way, if there are negative posts to address, you can do so quickly, and if there are positive posts, you can thank them immediately for their business.

The same goes for Twitter. Chances are that the users who choose to message you are going to do so to complain about something. Make sure you have your Twitter set so that you receive an email notification every time someone mentions you or sends you a direct message, so that you can address every issue as it arises.

Review sites can be just as powerful as social media when it comes to how your business is perceived by the general public. If you haven’t already done so, make sure that you have accounts for your business on sites like Google Maps, Yahoo Local and Yelp. Make sure you get notifications via email every time a new review is sent in. If you have a bad review, make sure you leave an appropriate response. You don’t want to censor these reviews, but you do need to reassure other customers who might find the review page.

The holiday season is also a great time to offer discounts, considering how much shopping the average person is doing. One way to do this is by giving special discounts to anybody who checks into your business via the social network Foursquare. Another is to put together a discount policy for unsatisfied customers. You want to keep people coming back to your store, and unless you do something to make their situation better they probably will not do so.

Customer service isn’t always easy or enjoyable, but it is extremely important that you provide the best service possible, particularly during the high-stress holiday shopping season.

Using Fill the Lot from TeleDirect

As you know, TeleDirect Call Centers' Fill the Lot feature is a great tool for car salespeople everywhere, and using it is unbelievably easy. When you do, you'll have customer service all day, every day dedicated to capturing your leads and setting your appointments.

As you know, TeleDirect Call Centers' Fill the Lot feature is a great tool for car salespeople everywhere, and using it is unbelievably easy. When you do, you'll have customer service all day, every day dedicated to capturing your leads and setting your appointments.

To create your campaign, all you have to do is click “Create New Campaign” at the top, under “Control Panel.” When you add the name of your campaign, keep in mind that you can have multiple campaigns going at one time, so you should try to keep each one distinct from the others. You can then enter the form of advertising that your campaign will use, and let the program know if you’d like to give your leads directions to your dealerships.

Choosing the script type customizes how you want your calls to go. You can pick appointment setting, short and sweet or standard loan by phone. In the next step you can customize the script, adding or removing any questions you desire, among other options. Once you’ve finished customizing, the bottom of the script shows what your price per lead will be, a handy feature that makes budgeting easier than ever. After you’ve finished your script, add custom FAQs about the campaign so that TeleDirect’s customer service representatives are well-versed in your business.

The next page focuses on lead distribution, and allows you to add different leads to each one of your locations. You may add as many or as few dealerships as needed. If you have more than one location, you can distribute leads by percentage, area code or zip code.

The final step is to fund your account. Enter your credit card information and pick your toll-free number. Once you’ve completed this step, congratulations! You now are set up with TeleDirect’s outstanding Fill the Lot service!

If you have any questions, contact the call center pros at TeleDirect today to learn how Fill the Lot can benefit your business.

Seminar Reservation Services

Running a business seminar can be a challenge, which is why TeleDirect Call Centers has created SeminarEdge. This feature can help your business deliver the most professional yet user-friendly seminar reservation services possible, all online.

SeminarEdge is a form of an 800 answering service, which is a program that you access online to manage all of the guests who are attending your seminar. With the SeminarEdge online answering services, all the attendees of your seminars will be given exact driving directions so that they will be on time to arrive at your venue.

The service is available to answer all of your attendees' needs at any point throughout the seminar. Live custom scripting allows you to personalize all of your calls whenever you want to change them. The service also offers high-tech confirmation call programs integrated in the system, which helps to ensure that all the attendees you have booked are, in fact, coming.

Never again will you have to deal with the last-minute inconvenience of unfulfilled bookings. Our available printable letters and labels add to the ways in which you can personalize your communication with your clients. Even meal selections will be considered in SeminarEdge, as they are made available to suit every attendee’s tastes.

Most importantly, all of your calls are being taken by trained operators at our call center, so you can be sure that your calls are being fielded by people with experience and a professional demeanor. Our operators also communicate with your clients through a free message center online. Not many other services can offer you the type of professionalism you’ll get with SeminarEdge.

To get started, the first step is to create an account. This account is absolutely free; you’ll be able to check out the customer service interface and configure it to your liking before you decide whether or not you want to use the service for your business. You can then build your custom script, set up your lead, reservation or order management, fund your account, and get a working toll free number.

For more information on getting started with SeminarEdge, contact TeleDirect Call Centers today. The attendees for your seminars will be more excited than ever to attend them thanks to the professional, user-friendly services we can offer, direct from our call center!

TeleDirect's Pledge on Demand Software

It has just gotten easier than ever to accept donations, thanks to TeleDirect’s Pledge on Demand software offered by our call center. The software allows your company’s donors to call in 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year and experience a friendly, professional and (most importantly) efficient donation process. This “moment of truth,” as we call it, will let your donors know exactly how much you appreciate their contributions.

Real-time reporting on the web allows your programming staff and management team to stay up to the minute on what is popular with your donors. TeleDirect provides you with features like live demographic look-up and instant revenue reports, which can be ordered by gifts, program or the geographic location of your donor. Online ACD reports allow you to see the number of calls received, true minute usage and average call time. You’ll also have the ability to create user accounts to give permissions to your support staff and on-air talent.

When it comes time to send gifts to your donors, TeleDirect provides you with plenty of options, including email gifts, time-based premiums, controlled inventory for tickets, charge incentives and more.

The pledge page also allows you to keep track of your donors and arrange them by “comments” or “no comments.” This gives you a smaller list of donations that may require further review.

There are also plenty of features with TeleDirect’s Pledge on Demand software that will save you both time and money, including schedule uploads, break codes, premiums and your membership database. You’ll be able to edit frequently asked questions as you wish so that all critical information is available immediately to your donors without them having to spend call time on those issues. A scripting tool allows you to change your call scripts on the fly so that they are personalized for each donor.

The best part about the Pledge on Demand software is the way it connects you with your donors. The interactions through the software are as seamless as if they contacted you directly. Meanwhile, their data is completely safe, as evidenced by TeleDirect’s ISO certification.

What are you waiting for? Maximize your donations today while increasing your donors' security with TeleDirect Call Centers. Contact us today to learn how you can get started!

Why Call Center Careers are More Fulfilling Than You Think

Have you heard a lot of negative opinions about careers with call centers? Take them with a grain of salt. There are certainly negatives to any job, including those in call centers, but you shouldn’t let them sour you to the overall experience. In fact, making a career out of working in a call center can be way more fulfilling than you might initially think.

Here are some of the best parts about working in a call center. Perhaps after reading these, you’ll have a different opinion about the daily life of a call center employee!

• You have the freedom to move. Most call centers have branches of their company all across the country. If you want to pack your bags and move to a different place, chances are you’re going to have a lot of options that allow you to still remain as an employee.
• There are many different departments. Call center employees aren’t necessarily all taking calls. There are IT departments, training departments, management departments, quality control and more. You aren’t limited to the kind of work that you can perform in a call center, and you can easily learn new skills should you desire to do so.
• Rapid advancement opportunities. Because all of the departments in these organizations are housed in the same center, it’s very easy to gain experience in multiple areas. Most companies prefer to promote from within, so the experience you gain may allow you to move up the chain in a call center more quickly than you might be able to in another business.
• The pay. Obviously this depends on the company and the type of call center, but the pay can be very lucrative for call center employees. Call centers that don’t outsource their work will pay more than call centers that do. If you’re performing any sales work, you’ll have opportunities to make more than just an hourly wage. The competition to hire employees is high, so call centers are forced to pay fair, competitive rates.

These are just a few of the benefits that go along with a call center career. If you’d like to hear more about why you should choose a call center career, contact TeleDirect, and we’ll provide you all the information you need about your daily life on the job!

Instant Messaging Services from TeleDirect

At TeleDirect Call Centers, we’re focused on providing you with the highest level of customer service possible. This means we have to go above and beyond outstanding phone service. We venture into all different realms of communication, including the instant messaging services that we use on a daily basis at our call center.

Some people with more traditional views on the way business should be conducted are put off by the idea of using instant messaging in the workplace. However, the high level of efficiency that this tool provides means that you’ll save a tremendous amount of time and money upon implementing it. Since mobile devices have made so many people come to rely on quick, easy forms of communication, instant messaging can be exactly what your company needs to get business done in the most efficient manner possible.

The greatest use for TeleDirect’s instant messaging comes when a customer has an extremely detailed question that may take some time to answer properly over the phone. Let’s face it, we all hate being put on hold, and so do your customers. This is where instant messaging can be so effective. Rather than placing the customer on hold, our customer service representatives can fire off an instant message to ask other representatives for solutions to the customer’s problem. This process allows you to completely wipe out the inconveniences of transfers and lost time.

Since instant messaging helps you get business done faster, it’s also saving you money. Since customer service representatives will be able to find solutions quicker than ever before, they’ll also be able to address more customers in any given day. Meanwhile, your customers will be more satisfied than ever, because they don’t have to spend much time on a phone call to have their problem addressed.

Don’t think of instant messaging as being a distraction or a time-waster; think of it as something that can help your business achieve its maximum efficiency levels. When used correctly, chat or instant message services can give your call center the edge it needs to provide the highest level of customer service you can!

Are you ready to implement an instant message service with your call center today? Talk to TeleDirect to find out how you can get started! www.TeleDirect.com

TeleDirect’s “Fill the Lot” Program

Losing a sale on your first call is a frustrating experience, but TeleDirect Call Centers has a program that aims to limit and even eradicate those difficult moments. The “Fill the Lot” program from TeleDirect is a live lead capture and appointment setting system that enables our customer service representatives to bring your auto dealership the highest level of customer service possible, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

One of the greatest things about Fill the Lot is that there are no per-minute charges. TeleDirect will provide patient, excellent customer service that will guarantee us to get the leads you need. We give the caller step-by-step directions to your dealership, using MapQuest if needed. We will listen to all of their stories about credit trouble or all of their concerns about making purchases, give them sound and helpful advice, and not charge you a penny, no matter how long the call goes.

To get started, go online and create your free account. In creating an account, you are under no immediate obligation to begin our services or make any payments, and you are able to set up a Customer Service interface! You’ll be able to explore the software and see how easy it is to use, before you even begin using it for actual business purposes.

Once you’ve created your account, you can begin to create your custom call scripts that will be used on all calls with your leads. The scripts will automatically be sent to our customer service representatives, and will allow for seamless openings to each call.

You also have the ability to organize your leads however you like. You can arrange them by location (or assign them to multiple locations), mark the status of an order and update an appointment all online. TeleDirect will provide a complete seminar registration system, order entry system and lead management software.

Are you interested in beginning the “Fill the Lot” program? Get in contact with TeleDirect Call Centers today, and we’ll help you to get started with our service. It’s quick, easy, and free!

Impact of Customer Service on Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Great customer service can have an effect on everything you do as a business. It drives more return business. It presents a professional image of your company. It creates an enjoyable experience for your customers. But what you might not realize is that it can also have a positive impact on your business’s ability to reach new customers, particularly through word-of-mouth marketing.

Every business has a goal to get to the point where its customers are able to do a good deal of marketing for them. Keeping this in mind, it’s important to have the mindset that cultivating a long-term relationship with customers is extremely important. The longer you provide high-quality service to your customers, the more likely they are going to recommend your business to friends and family. In this sense, excellent customer service is more of an investment than it is an expense. While it does require some resources up front to get off the ground, you will be heartily rewarded in the long run for providing it.

What’s more is that stories of good customer service are simply rare these days. Whenever you log on to review websites, you’re far more likely to see horror stories than success stories. If people have a bad experience with your company, particularly with customer service, you can bet that they are going to let other people know about it. This will negatively impact the perception of your business.

Don’t give people that chance. If you consistently provide excellent customer service, those sorts of negative reviews won’t get out there. While people aren’t as likely to spread the news about great customer service as they are about negative customer service, it’s also worth noting that people are more likely to try out companies that have a high percentage of positive reviews.

TeleDirect Call Centers specializes in providing a high level of customer service. Our customer service representatives at our call center are trained to care about each customer as an individual and to helpfully guide him or her through any issue that might come up. Simply put, TeleDirect is in the business of people, and that makes all the difference in customer service.

Don’t settle for anything less than excellence. Contact us today to learn how you can get started with our services. Soon, you’ll be reaping the benefits of all the positive word-of-mouth advertising that we can help generate for you, all based on our experiences at our call center.

TeleDirect’s Referral Program

There are many benefits to working with TeleDirect Call Centers beyond our outstanding customer service. Under our referral program, for example, you can earn 10 percent off everything your referrals pay TeleDirect for their first 12 months of working with us! And, we’ll make it easy for you: with online access to track all of your clients, you’ll be able to manage your revenue stream while letting TeleDirect do all of your work for you. Basically, you’ll make more money, and do less work! It’s a win-win situation, and it's all possible through our call center.

If you’re already a client with TeleDirect, all revenues that come from the referrals you give us can be applied directly to your account. If you send enough referral business our way, you will eventually be able to use TeleDirect 24/7 Live CSR service, Fulfillment services, Interactive Voice Response, and Automatic Messaging, all for free!

Are those benefits not enough to convince you? Here are a few more:

• TeleDirect will handle all of the sales and the entire setup process for your referrals.
• TeleDirect will provide all of the customer service for the ongoing business.
• TeleDirect will send you a check each month without fail for your residual income stream.
• If you so desire, you can take that check and give it to clients you referred as a discount, or even hire someone to work on projects you can’t seem to get done, courtesy of TeleDirect!

To qualify for our referral program, the potential client must have spoken to you about a need for TeleDirect's call center services, and you must provide us with the prospect’s complete contact information. You can do this easily from our website, and once you have, our team will do the rest.

Less work, more money. It’s a concept that every business would salivate over, and TeleDirect is offering it to you. Contact us and see if you qualify for our referral program, or send us the information for your prospects to get started. It’s about time you took even greater advantage of the outstanding services TeleDirect Call Centers has to offer!

Converting Marketing Leads to Sales

So you’ve successfully created awareness in your brand. Congratulations! This is an important step in building your business, and one that can often be extremely difficult. But the next step is even more challenging; now that you’ve created a brand awareness and have numerous marketing leads, how can you convert those leads into actual sales?

The route you take in converting your leads to sales can really make or break your company as you know it. To see some real returns on the investments you’ve put into your marketing campaigns, you need to be able to follow-up effectively with the leads you’ve discovered.

First, you must always remember that your response time is crucial. According to Leads360, conversion rates are nearly 400% higher when a lead is called back within one minute of their inquiry, and 120% higher within two minutes. While consumers often will shop around for the business that can give them the best prices, they do wind up feeling a sense of loyalty to the company that called them back first, which is why it’s extremely important to have a fast response time with your calls.

You also need to make sure that you properly align yourself to your customer’s position in the buying process. A customer calling in who has already reached a certain level in their decision doesn’t want to hear the entire sales pitch over again; it makes them feel like just another face in the crowd, and it’s a waste of time. Be sensitive to where your leads are at in their process, and adjust how you assist them to fit their exact needs. You will be much more likely to convert a lead to a sale in this manner.

Finally, you should get away from the idea that your job is to sell a product. Rather, be of the mind that you are helping someone buy a product. This mindset makes it easier for you to place yourself in the mind of the customer to see exactly what it is that they want and how they can get it. Your leads will appreciate you making the effort to see things from their perspective.

TeleDirect trains all of its customer service representatives in all of these tactics, and we successfully convert marketing leads to sales opportunities every single day. We’d love to help your business accomplish this as well. Get in contact with us today to learn more about what TeleDirect can offer you!

Tips for Retaining Great Customers

You might have built up an outstanding customer base, but the work doesn’t end when you’ve attracted them to your business one time! A great business works just as hard to keep the patronage of its existing customers as they do to attract new ones.

Retaining your customers isn’t extremely difficult, but it does take a willingness to go the extra mile in a lot of situations, particularly customer service. Here are some tips we've found at our call center for how you can keep your customers coming back to you over and over again.

• Customer Service should always be extremely positive and friendly. People don’t want to deal with negativity! Their experience with your business should be pleasant.
• Aim for perfection. Customers won’t be able to help but be amazed at your dedication to providing the perfect customer service experience.
• Listen. Customer service representatives should be as good at listening as they are at communicating. Make sure your customers know that you are listening to them and understand what they’re telling you, and that what they think is important to you and your business.
• Go above and beyond. Exceed your customers’ expectations by giving them a little something extra, whether it’s a coupon, a gift of some sort, or simply a genuine compliment. People love to feel as though they’re receiving special treatment, so this is a great way to keep your customers happy.
• Give options. If a customer comes to you with a question or a problem, give multiple possible solutions and then recommend which course of action to take. This will show that you are knowledgeable about the situation and are personally invested in helping them solve their problem.
• Make your service efficient. You can be the most pleasant person in the world, but in the end, people don’t want to be dealing with customer service representatives for a very long time. Be polite, yet help solve their problem or address their question as quickly and easily as possible so that they can happily go about their business.

TeleDirect Call Centers' customer service representatives practice all of these tips every day, and love the feeling that comes with seeing a satisfied customer. Visit our website or contact us at TeleDirect today to learn more about the outstanding customer service we can offer you and your company!

 

Reminders vs. Events on the TeleDirect System

If you’re familiar with our Instant Project Expert, or IPE, software, then you’ve probably heard a lot about “reminders” and “events,” and alerts or other features that correspond with them. But what exactly is the difference between a reminder and an event?

Through IPE, you are able to schedule reminders that are directly related to a task or milestone. Obviously this is a very useful tool when you are constantly having to shift your focus between different projects. Clicking the reminder allows you to go from your calendar straight to the task that you set the reminder for, instead of being forced to wade through a long list of tasks. If you’re involved in a lot of projects, this will save you a great deal of time.

Events, on the other hand, are items you put on the calendar that you want to remind yourself about. These items are not attached directly to any tasks or milestones, and include items like meetings. It’s better to use events to remind yourself of meetings, because using a task or milestone, one person could (in theory) not show up to the meeting and get graded as though they completed a task, or everyone else who did show up would have to take a bad grade.

Another advantage to using events is that when you invite someone to an event in IPE, the event automatically shows up on the invitee’s calendar. No emails are exchanged back and forth, saving you time from having to switch between IPE and your email account. However, should you choose to send out email reminders about your upcoming event, you can do so by checking the available “email” box and clicking “update.” Just remember that everyone already gets emails every morning regarding their reminders and events, so you don’t want to flood their inboxes with unnecessary reminders.

If you have any more questions about events, reminders, or the Instant Project Expert software in general, we’d love to answer them. Call us at TeleDirect Call Centers today or use our website’s live chat feature!

TeleDirect: Helping You Grow Your Business

Here at TeleDirect, our top goal is to help you grow your business in all regards. Our daily operations at our call center are performed with your business in mind, and all of our customer service representatives are trained to work in a manner that facilitates constant growth for your business. All of our software, training tools, and telephone services will put you on the cutting edge of customer service. The people who call in to your lines will notice the professionalism we provide!

Here are a few of the many ways TeleDirect Call Centers is able to help spur growth for all of our clients:

• We send leads for warm-up, appointment setting, and hot transfers back to your closers, allowing for a more streamlined method of doing business.
• We keep an extremely high level of organization through tracking tasks, milestones, due dates and who is or is not performing up to expectations. In this manner, we are also able to hold all of our employees accountable to make sure they are doing everything possible to aid in our business’s continued success!
• We route calls to different locations based on the time of day or how a caller answers certain questions. This helps us weed out wrong numbers as well as give the optimal level of service your customers desire!
• We reach out to your customer base ad prospects immediately through text and/or email. This allows for quick, efficient and personal means of direct communication with the people who are interested in your product or service!
• We perform careful research of your market and your customer satisfaction levels. By gaining a thorough understanding of your company, we are able to provide customer service that is tailored to fit your exact needs.

Our reputation at TeleDirect speaks for itself; we provide quality customer service that simply cannot be matched. You don’t have to take our word for it, either; check out the reviews that previous and current TeleDirect customers have written at teledirectcallcenterreviews.com!

Are you interested in learning more about TeleDirect? Perhaps you’re ready to jump aboard and get started with our services? No matter what the purpose, our representatives eagerly await your call!

 

Google AdWords’ Click-To-Call Technology

Since its inception, Google AdWords has been changing the way online marketing is performed. Now, a new “Click-to-Call” feature promises to once again revolutionize Internet advertising for the foreseeable future. For businesses with call centers, this feature will be key in generating new customers and expanding business possibilities.

The Click-to-Call feature is meant for mobile web browsers. All non-clickable phone numbers in AdWords advertisements will be converted into Click-to-Call numbers. Now, mobile users will be able to tap on these phone numbers and immediately place a call to them through their phones. This new technology adds a great level of convenience to mobile web browsing, and serves as an effective new way to generate business for advertisers.

The click-to-call enhancement must be enabled through your AdWords account. Once it is enabled, you will begin to receive clicks and calls to the number in the advertisement (it should be noted that it is against AdWords’ policy to place phone numbers in the ad headline). Just like phone calls placed via a call extension, you will be charged for any clicks on your phone number that result in a call.

Through the “Campaigns” tab in your AdWords account, you will then be able to review exactly how many calls have been placed through the clickable phone number in your advertisements. Simply select the “click-type” option under the “Segment” drop down menu, and you will be able to view your full report and analytics.

You don’t necessarily have to change your phone number in your advertisements if you don’t want to. Google, however, recommends that you remove the current phone number in your ad and replace it with a call extension, along with your phone number. This strategy will allow you to get the most value from your click-to-call advertising campaign.

At TeleDirect Call Centers, we are excited to begin using this brand new technology, and will work carefully with all of our clients to make sure that the implementation process goes smoothly. If you have more questions about Google AdWords’ Click-to-Call, feel free to contact us at www.TeleDirect.com today!

The Grading Process at TeleDirect

One of the ways in which we hold our employees at TeleDirect Call Centers accountable for their work is with our comprehensive grading process. Each task that is completed undergoes this process, and in this way we can assure that our customer service representatives are maintaining the high standards that we have set for them. Here’s a little bit of information about how the process works:

Grading only begins after a project is published. Before that, it stays in brainstorm mode, which allows for team members to edit the project at will. After publication, the project is graded by the average of all tasks and milestones, unless the project date is moved or the project becomes overdue. In the event a project due date is moved, it is instantly downgraded by 10 points. Should the project become overdue, it is downgraded by 30 points, and the best grade it can receive is a D.

Tasks, however, are graded differently than projects, as they are not affected by the average grade of milestones. If task dates are moved, it will turn yellow and lose 10 points. Canceling tasks altogether results in a 20-point deduction, and if the task goes overdue, it gets downgraded by 30 points. So if an employee moves the due date after the task has been published, his or her best grade possible is a B, but if they give up altogether it becomes an F. Tasks may not be closed until all milestones are canceled or finished.

This grading system makes using the brainstorming mode extremely important. This allows TeleDirect employees to communicate with owners of tasks and get the highest grade possible. The grading system keeps owners of tasks, as well as those who carry them out, accountable for their work. We invite you to read our recent blog post “Training in a 24/7 Environment” to learn more about employee training at TeleDirect.

If you have any other questions about TeleDirect’s grading process for our call center, please contact us today. We have representatives available to answer any questions you may have about our services, and we look forward to hearing from you! www.TeleDirect.com

Training in a 24/7 Environment

Hopefully, if you’ve worked with us in the past, you know that the customer service representatives (CSRs) at TeleDirect Call Centers provide great customer service. And that’s no accident. In fact, while we hire people who clearly have a desire to help people and who can pleasantly answer calls, the real secret to the success of our call center is the ongoing training we provide.

Because TeleDirect does not believe in giving our employees only a week to learn their jobs, our CSRs are constantly learning and improving in order to provide you with the most outstanding service they can.

All of the customer service representatives at TeleDirect are set up with their own personal dashboard. This area presents them with any training “quizzes” that need to be completed, or training issues that must be taken care of. The dashboard also features a training center, which is put into place to make sure that every CSR is held to the same level of accountability.

Any supervisor or manager can change or update training issues or tasks. If any problems or updates arise, they can be addressed with self-trainable methods. The representatives read through these on their own, although there are no self-trainable issues that must be addressed in a classroom environment. Regardless of the type of issue, we make sure to emphasize the importance of completing the training. Not a single CSR will be answering calls without having completed all of their training items that have been allotted to them.

Our representatives are entrusted with keeping up their own training databases, but we do make sure they stay up to date. A significant portion of the bonuses our CSRs earn are based on how well they keep up their databases.

When representatives finish their training issues, their progress is logged and they are able to return to work. Our quizzes are specifically tailored to ensure high retention rates, and trainees must score at least 80% to pass the quiz. Should they fail three times, they must meet with a supervisor or manager to discuss why they failed and what they can do to improve.

These training methods allow TeleDirect Call Centers’ CSRs to offer you the highest level of customer service possible. You can be sure that our employees at our call center are constantly learning and improving, with the goal of doing great things for our clients’ businesses!

A Day in the Life of a CSR

The daily life of a customer service representative may not be glamorous, but it can certainly be fulfilling. Spending your days working with customers is only one part of the job. The great interactions at the call center, the feeling of contentment after wrapping up a successful call, and the satisfaction of a day of helping people are all experiences and emotions that a TeleDirect customer service representative is extremely familiar with.

Upon arrival in the morning, our CSRs (many of them sipping their favorite coffee) immediately check for any messages left via email, phone, fax, or instant message, and make any callbacks that are necessary. As all of these checks and any other duties are performed, our CSRs are constantly alert and prepared to answer phone calls or any live chat messages that come through our website.

As emails, snail mail, packages, faxes, or any other communications arrive, our CSRs check to make sure all leads are covered. Of course, our CSRs get breaks throughout the day to relax and to eat lunch, but otherwise they are busy fielding calls and managing the communication for our clients.

After a while of working in a call center, customer service representatives pick up on some of the quirks of the trade. For example, they may get certain callers that become regulars. Or they may notice that certain times of the day are busier than others, or commonly feature a certain type of customer personality. They come to learn exactly how to deal with a frustrated customer and how to ensure the repeat business of a satisfied one. This on-the-job education is a major aspect of work in any call center, and TeleDirect is no exception.

Outside of their regular duties, the CSRs of TeleDirect Call Centers go through regular training and performance reviews to ensure that their work is always top-notch. They know exactly what is expected of them, and devote parts of their days to logging their activities so their reviews go smoothly.

Most importantly, our CSRs are polite, enthusiastic and helpful. Every day, their main goal is to ensure customer satisfaction. To learn more about how the outstanding CSRs at TeleDirect Call Centers can help you, contact us today!

The Benefits of Having a Live Chat at Your Call Center’s Website

Just because we're a call center doesn’t necessarily mean that all of our customer service interaction needs to happen over the phone! These days, there are plenty of options available for personal, online interactions, not the least of which is using a live chat feature on your call center’s website.

Here are some of the most prominent benefits that come along with using a live chat feature:

• The ability to multitask. Many live chat features allow customer service representatives to chat with more than one customer at a time. This exponentially increases the amount of work your call center can get done within the same amount of time! In a world where time is money, the importance of multitasking can not be underestimated. 
• Great first impressions. Live chat enables customers to get instant and brief answers to their questions. Many people don’t want to spend the time on a phone call, so these instant answers give a great impression to customers. 
• More feedback options. Live chats can be coupled with a post-chat survey that asks customers to rate their experience with the customer service representative and the company itself. These surveys take less time than a survey over the phone would, so response rates will likely be greater. 
• Build instant leads. Live chats allow your customer service representatives to give links to the company’s website or to quickly gain contact information from the customer. This is a great way to build up business. 
• Instant statistics. Some of the best chat providers offer the ability to see statistics about the customer’s referring URL, IP address, geographic location, and more. This allows you to see who is contacting you, where they’re coming from, and how they found you! 
• It’s easy! Live chat is easy to set up and easy to use. For the amount of benefits you can reap from such a simple feature, there is no reason to not take advantage of it.

Are you interested in learning more about live chat? Check out the live chat feature at www.teledirect.com to get some first-hand experience! Then, contact us to let us know what you think!

Maximizing the Productivity of Your Call Center

Let's face it—distractions happen in the workplace, and there’s simply not much we can do to completely avoid them. As much as people may enjoy their jobs, every workplace occasionally suffers from days where productivity is lower than normal. This is particularly true at certain large call centers, where employees might feel as though they’re just another face in the crowd.

At TeleDirect Call Centers, we have made specific efforts to maximize productivity in our workplace by keeping our employees engaged through our business and its processes. The following are some of the efforts we've found to be effective in getting the most from our customer service representatives, and we'd like to share our knowledge with you:

• Get your employees involved. Arrange different types of contests, or possibly days devoted largely to fun activities. These ideas allow your employees to interact with other people in the company outside of their department. This serves as a reminder that there is more going on in the company than what they’re doing, and gives them a sense of being an important part of a team. Plus, people just enjoy having a good time!
• Reward people for a job well done. Employees like to be told they’re doing a good job, especially when it comes from a superior. It really increases people’s sense of motivation to know that all of their hard work doesn’t go unnoticed. This is especially effective when congratulating people in front of other employees, by giving an Employee of the Month award or simply giving public recognition of their hard work.
• Break the monotony. Working in a call center can occasionally grow monotonous, so find ways to occasionally change up the daily work life of your employees.
• Avoid micromanagement. People should know that their managers are there for them should they need anything, but managers also shouldn’t interfere too much in their employees’ work. It often comes off as insulting and even a bit condescending. Employees will get much more work done if they are not being constantly badgered.

At TeleDirect, we know the importance of keeping employees happy and motivated at our call center, and because of that our productivity is constantly at high levels. If you’re looking for a call center full of enthusiastic, hard-working employees, contact us today to learn how to get started!

Forming a Long-Term Relationship with Your Call Center

When working with a call center, it's important for companies to find centers that make the day-to-day operations of a business as easy as possible. And, just like with any business relationship, once you find a great call center, it's important to build a long-term bond with that company. If you are sure that the work you are choosing to outsource is a great long-term investment, then it’s important to find one high-quality call center and stick with its services.

Forming a long-term relationship with your call center not only ensures that you will consistently have high-quality customer service representation, but it’s also simply a smart financial option. While call centers like TeleDirect make it as easy as possible to get started, there can be some growing pains associated with moving all of your call center services from one provider to another. That's why we see ourselves as partners to our clients, integrating seamlessly with their business processes and procedures.

Perhaps most importantly, no matter what length of time you plan on using a call center, you’re placing a high level of trust in its services. If you feel like you can trust a call center enough to use them for a short period of time, then you should be able to feel the same way about using them for an extended period of time, as well. If you don’t, then chances are you’re using the wrong call center and you need to look for one that better suites your needs.

Here are some questions to consider when trying to choose that perfect call center for your business: 

• What is their approach to customer service? 
• Do they put forth a culture and attitude that is consistent with your business? 
• Do they provide a high level of training for their customer service representatives? 

These questions and more should all be a part of the backbone of your call center research.

TeleDirect wants to be that company that you can trust for the long haul. Check out our website today, and feel free to get in touch with us should you have any questions.

How to Get Certified to Become a Call Center Representative

Have you been considering working as a customer service representative for a call center? You’re not alone—many people are attracted to customer service positions and greatly enjoy them. But before you begin the application process, there are a number of things you should consider, ranging from necessary personality traits to the proper training.

Here are some items you should put on your checklist before you apply to any call center CSR position:

• Have the right kind of personality. A call center representative should be friendly, outgoing, and eager to help and meet new people. If you are the kind of person who is easily frustrated or prefers to be alone, this might not be the job for you. You should be able to deal with happy customers, as well as the ones who are not satisfied.

• Make sure you have the necessary skills. It is optimal to be comfortable with multiple computer operating systems, have good problem solving skills, have a solid memory, a strong attention to detail, and more. Being a call center representative is more difficult than many people first anticipate. There is also currently a great demand for bilingual representatives, particularly those who speak Spanish.

• Set a plan for where you’d like to see your career go. Do you have a particular call center where you would like to apply? Do you have aspirations beyond a job as a call center representative? Is this something that you actually want to do? These are all questions that you should be able to answer for yourself.

• Seek out the necessary training. There are numerous training and certification programs for call center representatives, and some companies require different training methods. Your certification will differ if you are a home representative as opposed to an office representative. How do you decide whether to do home or office training? That depends on personal preference, but if you have small children at home, for example, you may be more inclined to work from home.

Are you interested in learning more about the training required to become a call center representative? Contact TeleDirect Call Centers today!

Why Being Personal and Relatable is Important for a CSR

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that customers want to be treated with respect and care, but truly exemplary customer service should go above and beyond what is expected. 

At TeleDirect Call Centers, we believe it is important for our customer service representatives to be as personal and relatable as possible when on a call with a customer. Being as friendly as possible to customers can only do great things for your business; a customer who has a great customer service experience is more likely to have return business with your company or recommend your company to other people.

Are you having a little trouble figuring out how to go above and beyond the call of duty in terms of customer service? Here are three simple tips on how you can personalize your customer relations to keep your customers satisfied and ready to come back for more.

• Make a connection. If you create an emotional connection with your customer, the call will be much more personal. For example, if your customer is calling to complain about a product not working, you could share a brief story about a similar predicament you found yourself in, how you felt and how you then resolved the problem. Doing this rather than rehashing a textbook-style answer shows a customer that you can really relate to their situation.

• Offer some deals with your product/service. People love getting things for free, especially when they’re not expecting it. It makes them feel special and important, and it shows that your company cares about their business. Whether it’s simply a coupon or an extra item, people will appreciate you going the extra mile.

• Don’t dance around the issue at hand. Just because you are going out of your way to be friendly and personal doesn’t mean you should stray away from the entire point of the call. Make sure that you answer their questions immediately and as thoroughly as you can, while still keeping the other ideas above in mind. As much as people will appreciate our kindness, they most likely don’t want to stay on a customer service call for long!

At TeleDirect, we take great pride in the fact that our call center is staffed by friendly, responsive, and eager CSRs who know what it takes to guarantee customer satisfaction. To learn more, visit www.teledirect.com today!