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.

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!

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!

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!

Tips for Attracting Long-Term Customers

One of the most important aspects of business is ensuring that one-time customers can become long-term customers. You need to make an effort to reach out to the people who give you business even just once in order to see substantial long-term success.



Here are some ways that you can keep customers coming back, over and over again:

Sell your company’s image. You’re not just selling a product; you’re selling a brand. Think about what it is your company does that makes it different or better than any of its competitors. What do you do well besides your product or service? The fact is, your customers can get a good product from a number of different places, but if you find a way to make them loyal to your brand, then you’ve truly succeeded in making them a long-term customer.

Don’t focus on the competition. Just because one of your competitors is doing something that gets results doesn’t mean it will work for you. Everything your business does should be based on the opinions and responses of your customers, not on what someone else is doing.

Build relationships with existing customers. If people have already bought from you, they’re statistically more likely to buy from you again. You might consider developing specials for “preferred customers” who come back and do business with you. This gives them the feeling that they’re “inside.” You could even let them in on developments with your company before you announce it to the public.

Work with other companies. There’s a natural tendency in business to have an “us or them” mentality when it comes to other companies, but reciprocation can be extremely profitable for both sides. Give recommendations of each other’s products or services, or work with retailers to advertise special deals for your company.

Do the extra things. Send out messages and discounts during the holiday season. Provide customer service that is helpful, friendly and welcoming. Go out of your way to do all of the extra things that make your customers appreciate the service that you’re providing to them. People want to feel like their business is appreciated, and if you make it clear that it is, then they’ll come back.

TeleDirect can help your company convert customers into return business with the outstanding customer service that we provide. Our helpful customer service representatives have extensive training to field calls and queries from your patrons. For more information, visit our website or contact us to see how you can get started with our services!

Best Practices in Improving Customer Service

It’s never a bad idea to aim for improvements in the area of customer service for your business. After all, your company’s reputation will be based heavily on the perception your customers have of you, and customer service is the most direct way that you can positively influence that perception.

Improving your customer service doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated; there are a variety of different ways that you can improve how you handle customer relations without having to make significant changes to your business operations. Here are some tips for how you can do this:

Hire the right people. The people you have representing your business in customer service should be reliable, knowledgeable and, most of all, personable. There’s nothing worse than having a condescending or easily annoyed representative dealing with your customers. Of course, one of the best ways to combat this issue is to make use of a reputable call center to deal with your clients!

Know your customers. The best way to provide great customer service is to know the personality of your customers. If you work with technology products, for example, your customer service representatives may need to take a more technical tone. If you run a nonprofit organization, your representatives may need to be more empathetic.

Use the internet. Online chat features, customer management software, social media and more can all be extremely helpful in gauging what your customers are thinking and in helping you to serve them most effectively. Some people simply prefer internet conversations to telephone conversations.

Be helpful. Even if you don’t necessarily have the answer your customer is looking for, point them to somewhere they can get it. Stay in touch even after the problem has been solved to ensure that they’re satisfied with the solution. Make it easy for your customer to back out if your company isn’t a good fit for them. All of these tips are ways that you can be helpful and respectful of your customer’s time and wishes.

Go above and beyond. Offer discounts or other special incentives, or attempt to solve problems before the customers even have time to complain about them. These are great ways to show your customers that you care about the quality of your product or service and their satisfaction with them.

TeleDirect has a great deal of experience in managing customer service for businesses, and our highly trained customer service representatives are passionate about helping others. If you’re interested in gaining a customer service team that follows all of these tips, contact TeleDirect today and find out how you can get started!

Why a Domestic Call Center is Better than an Overseas One

It’s a natural instinct for many business owners; when figuring out how to take care of your customer service, you want to opt for a service that will provide the lowest cost. For this reason, many businesses choose to outsource their customer service to countries like India, Indonesia and many other countries in Eastern Asia that have much lower labor costs.

However, it’s important to take more than just the cost of a call center into account. There are many ways in which domestic call centers have a significant advantage over overseas call centers, and all of them bear worth considering.

One of the most obvious of these advantages is the lack of a language barrier with a domestic call center. Many people who call customer service lines get frustrated when they can’t understand the person on the other end of the phone. The easier it is to understand someone else, the shorter the call will take, which means the happier the customer will be.

Another advantage of domestic call centers is the level of training that call center employees in the United States receive. Unlike many foreign call centers, representatives for American call centers undergo a high amount of intensive, job-specific training that can be specific for the call center that they work at. This means that you’re getting a higher quality of service from representatives that will actually be understood by your callers.

While choosing a large, overseas call center might seem more economical, but these call centers are also more impersonal and harder to manage. When you choose a smaller domestic call center, you’re able to keep up a constant stream of communication in terms of how you want your calls to be handled, and be sure that the information is getting to the right people.

Finally, choosing an overseas call center may not even be as economical as you might expect; quite opposite of popular belief, many foreign employees are paid only 15% less than representatives based in the United States. This isn’t a very significant difference, especially when you take into account the other advantages that domestic call centers can provide you with.
#mce_temp_url#
With TeleDirect, you have a call center based in the United States filled with highly-trained and courteous representatives who will take your calls eagerly and professionally. Contact us today to see what outstanding services we can provide your business with!