Tuesday, April 24, 2012

TeleDirect: A History of Outstanding Customer Service!




TeleDirect is well-known today for its extraordinary customer service, and this is because we’ve built up a long history of helping businesses communicate effectively with their customers. In fact, we now have over 50 years of experience in the call center industry! In these five decades, we’ve formulated the perfect recipe for customer service, and we continue to make improvements every single year.

TeleDirect was founded in 1961 and instantly began serving business owners with all of their inbound customer service needs. Like any company, TeleDirect had humble beginnings. However, the call center soon grew into what businesses see today: a successful full-service, on-demand center that is appropriately recognized as one of the leaders in its industry.

At TeleDirect, we have become particularly successful thanks to the wonderful customer service representatives that we have working for us. These representatives are trained to be as helpful and knowledgeable as possible. These days, everything about customer service is instantaneous and “on-demand,” and our representatives are trained to give your customers the best service in the most efficient way possible.

This training is extremely important to the success of TeleDirect. All customer service representatives undergo constant training and reviews even after they are first hired by the company. After all, the nature of the world of customer service is constantly changing, so it’s important that all our representatives are able to adapt with the ebbs and flows of the business. Most importantly, our representatives are trained to create the perfect “moment of truth” with your customers, to ensure the best possible customer service experience.

The technology used by TeleDirect has also significantly helped it to become the success it is today. Our online tools like Instant Project Expert, Work the Lead, SeminarEdge and more have revolutionized the way businesses operate. Our instant 800 numbers, SMS messaging services and CRM tools all add to what is truly a cutting-edge call center service.

We’ve been going strong for 50 years, so clearly we’re doing something right! If you’re interested in learning more about what TeleDirect can do to transform your business’s customer service operations, contact us today. We’d love to get you started.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Leadership Tips for Customer Service Managers




Working in customer service can be extremely rewarding, but it can also present a unique set of challenges. Customer service representatives occasionally have to deal with difficult customers to solve problems, or answer difficult questions. However, customer service managers also deal with a set of challenges of their own. After all, keeping representatives happy ensures that they are more likely to keep customers happy.

So what are some things that you can do as a customer service manager to encourage happiness and high-quality work? Here are a few ideas:

Be optimistic! It’s easy for customer service representatives to become discouraged if they encounter rude or demanding customers. The best way you can counter this is by promoting an optimistic and encouraging work environment. Be sure to let employees know that they’re doing a good job, and their hard work is appreciated. They will appreciate this!

Empower your employees. Your representatives can’t make customers happy if you don’t give them that ability. Give your representatives the power to issue refunds, give extra incentives or discounts and other things of that nature. When they can make customers happy, this will drastically decrease the potential stresses that they can encounter.

Be consistent in your methods. Your standards for customer service should always remain steady, so that representatives know what it is they have to accomplish and how they can accomplish it. Always maintain that the customer should be treated with respect as a top priority. It also helps to occasionally send out emails or memos to maintain customer service focus.

Provide the necessary knowledge. Your representatives can’t help your customers if they don’t have the knowledge to do so! Ensure that they are thoroughly trained and knowledgeable before they go on calls, and the likelihood that they can diffuse problems over the phone will greatly increase.

Go above and beyond. Quite simply, let your employees know that you appreciate them, and do little extra things here and there to let them know. Birthday cards, small office parties, thank you notes and more are great, personal ways to encourage a friendly, enjoyable work environment.

TeleDirect has a great deal of experience in providing top-notch customer service, and it’s thanks to these methods that we continue to make customers everywhere happy. Contact us today if you’re interested in learning more about the services that we can give to you!





Tuesday, April 10, 2012

How to Stay Productive in a Call Center



Every business occasionally has to address the issue of productivity in the workplace, and call centers are no exception to that. Working in a call center has its own set of challenges, and as such there are a unique set of ways that customer service representatives or other call center employees can maintain a high level of productivity.

Stay comfortable. If call center employees are uncomfortable, chances are that they’re not going to be able to focus on all of their tasks. They may even grow irritable with the customers they’re speaking to, which could have tragic results. All employees should have a desk large enough to hold all of their supplies, with enough space under the desk for their legs to fit comfortably. Chairs should comfortable to sit in, and the climate in the center should stay comfortable. As long as employees are comfortable, there’s a greater chance that they’re happy!

Use mirrors. This is actually an old trick in the call center business that many people don’t know about. Encourage customer service representatives to keep a mirror in their personal space, and have them look into them while on calls. It’s crazy how it works, but if a representative is smiling, chances are that the person on the other line will hear that and respond accordingly!

Give constant feedback. This is important for the supervisors in a call center. Everyone wants to hear how they’re doing, especially if they’re doing a good job. Be sure to praise employees when they’re doing well. If they’re doing something wrong, remember that it’s almost surely not intentional. Give them constructive criticism in a friendly manner, and then afterwards reassure them that they’re doing well. Treat all employees with this same respect, and it will go a long way toward creating a healthy work atmosphere!

Keep a code of conduct. Every now and then, representatives will encounter difficult customers. Be sure that you have plans in place to combat a wide variety of different, difficult situations. This will help you to avoid having representatives get in heated, awkward debates with customers. Document this code in a written form and make it easily accessible.

Show appreciation! Just like you have your representatives show appreciation to the customers, show appreciation to your representatives. Go out of your way to make them feel like the work they do is noticed and truly appreciated.

All of these are great ways to keep productivity levels high in a call center, and it’s methods like these (and others) that help make TeleDirect such a success. Learn more about our services today by visiting the TeleDirect web site!


Wednesday, April 4, 2012

TeleDirect’s Work the Lead Software





TeleDirect has a number of programs designed to make your customer service more streamlined than ever, and our Work the Lead software is just one more way that your outsourcing is made simpler than you’ll find anywhere else! With Work the Lead, you can take the contact center to a totally new level, ensuring that your all of your business’s leads are captured and then routed in a direction that is most profitable for your business.



This multiple-location lead management system gives you faxing and emailing features, as well as password secure web reports that can be created, accessed and managed online. These features come with absolutely no extra charge; instead, they are automatically included in our basic per-minute pricing.



Changes to FAQs and scripts are extremely easy to make, and go live to our customer service representatives as soon as you make them! If you have an active account with TeleDirect, you can also take advantage of toll-free and point to numbers, which will be activated immediately. There’s no waiting involved!



Getting started with Work the Lead is simple. First, create a FREE account to access and explore our software. You’ll be surprised at how easy to use it is! Once you’ve got your account set up, you can build a custom script or your calls. This script shows up whenever any of our representatives field one of your calls. The third step is to set up your lead management. Your leads may be assigned to multiple locations, all with a few keystrokes. Finally, you can choose to fund your account if interested in the service, and get a working toll-free number for your business. All of these toll-free numbers work immediately, so you don’t have to wait a second to get started with Work the Lead!



Once your account is up and running, you have full online access to your leads, toll free numbers and order data, all day on every single day of the year, no exceptions. If you ever need to make last minute changes to scripts, on call schedules or lead distributions, don’t worry! Work the Lead gives you this option, and it’s extremely simple to do any of these tasks.



If you have any further questions about our Work the Lead lead management software, feel free to contact us at TeleDirect. Don’t wait a second longer to get the lead management abilities that you need!