Making that First Impression: The importance of getting it right first time
The first impression is the one that counts. Above all else this is something that will stick in the mind of the (potential) customer and help form their opinion of your company. Professionalism and positivity are two of the key things that many businesses want to portray, remember – a call is often the first point of contact someone makes.
Making the right first impression can really help to build your company’s reputation and a quality, efficient call handling service is key to this. Here are some of our top tips for ensuring you’re giving the first impression that your company deserves.
Call Back Counts
If your customers experience long waiting times they’re likely to get frustrated, therefore many companies are beginning to offer a call back service. Many companies have a cap at which they will always offer call back such as 1 minute on hold whilst others have an automated choice of call back so holding can be avoided altogether. Call back really pleases many customers as they recognise the cost of many customer service calls.
Personalise It
Little things such as ensuring your call handlers speak to their customers in a friendly and personable manner to more in depth things such as giving customers a choice of being called by their first or second names really count. Even a little bit of chat can go down well. Yes, you should provide a script but your call handlers should also know that straying from that script isn’t a punishable offence. A little bit of personality often endears the company to customers and potential customers.
Professional Recordings
Opting to have automated messages recorded by a professional voice artist can really help cement the image of your company. You may be lucky enough to have someone in your company who has the voice which fits the persona of your company but if not, think about the ideal representative of your brand – getting this right will help you shape a customer’s initial opinion of your company.
Self-service Options
It’s important for the customer to get through to the right person as quickly and efficiently as possible and, from a business perspective, the least amount of resource. Including automated response routing, as part of your inbound call handling, can help to direct the majority of customers to the team they need.
Not only does self-service options help to manage the volume of calls coming in to your business but overall helps to reduce the amount of time a customer is on a call but helps to reduce the time on call, positive from both customer and business perspective!
Feedback Surveys
More and more customers are willing to share their feedback and more and more contact centres have integrated this feedback option into their automated service. Feedback surveys can be attached on to the end of calls as an optional extra for the customer to answer. They can also be sent in text or email format after the call and these provide your company with real, tangible evidence about the quality of the way the calls are being handled and the impression they give across the board.
The first impression customers have of your company is really what counts. The speed at which people’s thoughts & experiences can be shared online means that companies need to be on their game and ensure everything is as customer focused as it can be.
