Why the Location of Your Call Center is of Crucial Importance

 

In times when everyone is trying to save a buck or two, the question of outsourcing always comes to mind for business managers. When it comes to customer service lines, everyone always wants to know—does the location of your call center really make a difference?

While there are a few ways to answer this question, there are a couple of major factors that play into it. The first and usually most important to the service provider is about price. It’s often much cheaper to outsource customer service calls offshore.

This brings up the second factor: customer comfort. Most customers want the ability to share questions and concerns with someone who not only understands English, but also has a firm grasp on conversational colloquialisms and tone. This type of communication is something that comes with shared cultural experiences, which is often lacking in speakers who are located across the globe.

Many companies opt for oversees call centers because the working rates of operators are much lower, allowing for service at a lower price. What they may not be factoring into these costs, however, is the additional call time that may be required to effectively understand or respond to a customer need, not to mention the impact of lost customers due to unsatisfactory service.

The third most noted factor in choosing a call center location is supporting the national economy. When companies choose to outsource call center jobs overseas, the money spent from employee incomes does not circulate in the U.S. This has been a huge issue for many American business owners interested in improving the economic state of our country as a whole.

With all these factors, it's safe to assume that location may be one of the most essential aspects of providing quality customer service. While price is a major consideration in choosing a call center, service and customer satisfaction are equally, if not more, important. 

At TeleDirect, we offer professional and courteous customer service directly from our Sacramento based call center. Each of our customer service representatives has all the necessary tools to meet the needs of your customers in an efficient and friendly manner, along with support from knowledgeable supervisors and trainers. 

We would love to provide your company with customer service solutions. If you are interested in learning more about our call center services, please visit us at www.teledirect.com.

Instant Messaging – Grownup Style

Getting the most from a call center means going with a company that is able to provide the most up-to-date options for customer service. That’s why TeleDirect has integrated instant messaging into the way we handle our clients’ needs, one customer at a time.

Many people are initially put off by the idea of using instant messaging in the workplace, but this tool can be extremely valuable in saving you time and money. The mobile generation has come to rely on efficiency and effectiveness, and adding instant messaging to customer service provides just that. 

Here’s how it works: When a call is taken by one of our customer service representatives, we do our best to provide the caller with adequate answers to real questions. However, sometimes a question might be so specific that it goes beyond the field of a particular CSR’s expertise. This is where instant messaging can play a major role in efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Rather than placing a customer on hold, our CSR is able to use our instant message feature to ask another representative for a solution. This open dialogue between CSRs ensures that all information is readily available without the inconvenience and lost time of transfers or holds. 

Remember, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. By implementing a network of shared knowledge directly into your call center service, you can create a user-friendly interface designed to help your business or organization run as smoothly as possible.

Not only does instant messaging make service faster, it also saves your business money. When CSRs are able to find solutions quickly, they are able to assist more customers, who become happier when their questions and concerns are addressed by one representative in a timely manner. Cutting down on hold times and missed transfers is always a good thing for customer relations.

When considering ways to make the most of your call center service experience, look into available instant message or chat features. This once juvenile boredom buster can drastically transform your customers’ experiences and generate loyalty and trust, all while saving you money.

Talk to a Competent CSR – Not the Hand

Have you ever been stuck with an automated telephone system after calling a business with questions or concerns? While some of these automated services are able to help, there are many times when one feels trapped in telephone limbo, unable to move forward, but afraid to hang up and be forced to start the whole process over again.  

If you’ve felt this way, imagine what your customers must feel like. When calling a business for assistance, there is something satisfying about having a live human being on the other end of the line, ready to help you quickly and efficiently. Providing clients with a trained call center customer service representative is a worthwhile endeavor that can make business experiences better for everyone involved.  

Many business owners are interested in the cost savings automated services provide, but if customers cannot get the help they need in a timely manner, chances are they will be more than happy to find their services elsewhere. In the long run, satisfied customers mean continuous business, and everyone knows keeping existing clients is easier than finding new ones.  

If you’re concerned about too much staff time going into customer service calls, consider looking into TeleDirect’s CSR service. We know how important it is to give customers the answers and personal attention they need, when they need it.  That’s why we provide reliable, professional customer support services on behalf of our clients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  

We take care of your customers, freeing you up for the job you do best—running your business. This saves you from worrying about stressed employees attempting to field calls or losing time from your own schedule. Our competent call center staff has been trained to provide courteous and timely service, answering calls in 20 seconds or less. For more than twenty years, we’ve been there for businesses looking to streamline their phone communication with customers.  

Take your clients out of limbo and put them into the hands of our competent CSR professionals. Once you’ve made the switch, you’ll see the difference in how you connect with your customers.

How a Call Center can help your business with lead management

Your business, regardless of its size, can make a highly profitable use of a real time and effective lead management system. However, creating such system on your own would require the commitment of tremendous time, energy and expertise. That commitment can seriously distract you from your core business operation. Getting distracted in this economy can be fatal to your business.

The good news is that leading call centers have a state-of-the-art lead management system that is already in place and ready for your use. All that your business has to do is link up with the call center. In an instant, your business can enjoy increased leads without being plagued by huge capital expenses and maintenance costs. Most importantly, you enjoy the benefits of the lead management system without getting distracted from your core operation.

The lead management system in top call centers provides your business with a complete view of your prospects and customers. Your key departments, such as the sales, marketing and customer service departments, can then share and use the information in real time. As a result, your business turns more prospects into customers, and new customers into repeat customers. Efficiency in these conversions puts your business way ahead of your competition.

The key to lead management is consistency. The lead management system consistently monitors inquiries for your business. It then routes these inquiries to the right department in your business organization. Because timing is critical, this process has to happen in real time and without glitches.

State-of-the-art lead management systems in call centers allow your business a mix of automated and manual routing systems. This way, every piece of information lands on the lap of someone in your business organization who would use it productively. Nothing gets wasted.

How do top call centers develop the database? The lead management system gathers information from your online forms. Visitors of your website encode requested information on these forms. Information usually includes the name and email address, along with information on what the visitor is interested in. The system then captures this information and integrates them into the lead management database of your business.

The other sources of leads would be the database of prospects gathered from your other online and offline sources. These include your seminars, conventions, trade shows, direct mails, and the like. The lead management system can import the data from these sources and integrate them into your lead management database. There is minimal need for manually typing the information.

The integration process is where the rubber hits the ground in lead management. Data from all sources come in different formats and data structures. Duplication among leads and existing accounts is also solid reality to be dealt with. Manually done, integration can eat up precious time and resources of your business. By the time it’s done, information is most likely stale. That’s not a good thing for your business.

However, the expertise of call centers in the integration process helps your business digest and store information fast, so that your business can use it while it is still hot. That’s the bacon that you really want to bring home.

In lead management, there is absolutely no need to reinvent any wheel. Your business just has to engage a leading call center. It already has a lead management system in place and ready to use. Your business can then instantly focus on your core business operation and pursue hot leads. You leave all lead management headaches to the experts.

What is Seminar Reservation Service and how it works

The Seminar Registration Service is a call center facility that brings the right kind of audience into your seminars. Just give the necessary instructions to the service through their sign up pages. With these instructions on their monitors, the call center agents would then effectively represent you in calling up prospective participants. Their output would be a list of confirmed participants that you expect to come on the seminar dates.

To avail of the Seminar Registration Service, just sign up for the service. Leave us your instructions. A step-by-step process helps you ensure that you cover key details. After that, you leave everything to us.

Step 1 - Log in to TeleDirect.com. If you don’t have an account yet, you can create one for FREE. Yes, there is no charge for signing up with us.

Step 2 - From the TeleDirect Dashboard, go to Seminar Edge. Click create a new account. You have the option of carrying over your TeleDirect profile to the Seminar Edge account.

After completing all information, you would see the Seminar Control Panel. This panel keeps track of all your current and pending seminars. You will also see here some incoming messages.

Step 3 - Create a seminar. Indicate the title of the seminar, the seminar dates, the opening greeting, the closing line and a few other requested information.

Step 4 - Create the reservation call scripts. You won’t literally create it. Just check the boxes opposite each standard script when deemed applicable to your seminar. You may also add some custom-made responses if you wish.

Step 5 - Indicate the number of meetings for the seminar. This is one of the many beneficial features of the system. It can let you organize several meetings in different locations for the same seminar.

For each meeting, indicate the date, time, location, answers to frequently asked questions and related information. This is also where you encode the meal plans.

Step 6 - At this stage you will be shown a summary of all meetings you have organized. You have the option to edit or delete them. Otherwise, just confirm them.

Step 7 - Select a Pricing Plan. You will be billed for the services only at this point. Payment is easy, fast and secure.

Step 8 - Choose the toll free number you want.

Step 9 - Sit down and wait as the call center works for you. You may even want to dial the toll free number that you have chosen just to see if work has indeed started.

The system allows you to view the list of participants as names get added to it. For a more personal touch, you may print mailing labels for sending letters to them. You can use the printable labels provided by the System so that you can focus on sending the mails.

Most interestingly, the system will give you hints about what each participant is looking for in your seminars. With these hints in mind, each one would go home feeling that you created your seminar just for them. They won’t forget you.

You have a seminar that people can benefit from. TeleDirect has the means to help you make your seminars happen. You focus on your message. TeleDirect focuses on bringing in people.

Your success is what the Seminar Reservation Service is all about.

Increase Customer Conversions With Phone Answering Services

What is the number one question asked when a company has to make the choice to continue letting phones ring off the hook or attempt to have help from others? Will using an answering service really increase my conversions or is my company going to fall flat on its face? Now how could extra hands, ears and a mind for your company be a bad thing? Really, it’s a simple question but many tend to juggle if it’s actually worth it or not.

How many times have you lost a prospect only to learn later they went to another company, a competitor for the lack of support your company is providing (or not providing)? People research before they purchase or even lease. On the web, by the phone, in person - they will test you. If you are willing to let your hard work slip away, continue missing calls & customers then please stop reading. But if you want to increase your sales, give 24/7 support and increasing the overall gain please read on.

Right now many companies have switched over to answering services and there are many reasons for this. One is that no one can ever be 24/7/365, people are humans not robots and we all need our down time. No one can work every hour of every day, so for those hours an answering service of fresh and upbeat staffers are available to take your calls (inbound) or give the calls you need (outbound) during the hours you cannot.

Another great reason is labor, not all companies have the same budget in mind for their employees working overtime. With a service though, you can be assured that there will always be someone on the other end of the phone in case a call comes in when an in-house employee is unable to do so. Why spend that extra money on over time when you really do not need to? Save the money, have guaranteed help when needed and not waste your budget at the same time!

Quick, simple and dependable – an answering service can save you time and money. Now do not forget, the service is only as good as the representative behind the line so when you are checking out possible services make sure they vet their reps otherwise you get what you pay for. Do you have a company behind you that will stand for exactly what your company will? Are they going to provide top notch service to your customers or prospects like you would? How about being professional? What are their average conversion rates for similar company needs like your own?

When you are looking for a company to help your own, make sure you are able to ask questions and get the answers you need to make the proper decision for your specific needs. It’s possible you may need an agent who can work with you to fine tune everything that they can offer to you and what you need, not just what you want or what they want for you.

Automated Voice Menus Can Save Your Business Time & Money

What exactly comes to mind when you hear “Automated Voice Menus”, even more what is this foreign language that you have just been asked about? Does it talk to you when you are bored, when you may need a listening ear or even to listen in while you practice an important speech? Of course not, but it can help to save you time and money when you break down exactly what its role is with you – company side or client side.

Automated Voice Menus have been around for years now and if you are not too sure exactly what we are talking about, call up the first large company you can think of. That little voice inside the phone that picks up to help you navigate through the system, that’s your AVM working hard to take care of you the client, to make sure your needs for that company are met and handled with ease, quick & simple.

Not all automate voice menus are built the same, and it’s true! You want to make sure the AVM that you are using for your company does exactly what it should; it needs to be able to recognize many voice types (even with accents) in a clear and precise manner in order to route the call to the proper department. There are many people who hate AVM systems for this reason alone, however doing it right the first time prevents you from having to back pedal later to fix a useless IVR.

Think of the time and money that you spend for your company or charity; whichever the case may be. How many man hours, the building rental fees (or mortgage) take up another chunk of funds, the electric bills, the furniture, and everything else you could add in cut into your bottom line? How much money are you spending on an entire staff to take care of the needs that an AVM can drastically cut?

What would you do if you were able to save those funds, put them to better use and still have the top shelf service that everyone expects from every company out there right now? Would it be worth it? Of course it would, but how can you start a slow trickle of change and focus it onto the larger picture over time? An automated voice menu allows just that, an auto attendant that lets you do the same job for more savings to better fund other areas of your business.

The options are almost endless. If you have high or low call volumes, need support help 24/7 or just part time, an AVM is a great asset to have. As a menu system that allows for the routing of calls to specific departments of your company to others which allow for line coming in which can be routed to another extension for support representative, something general like taking a voice mail or even a greeting after hours that can help to provide information for your company.