Customer service is a huge part of any business. After all, studies show that two out of every three people will switch brands due to a poor customer service experience. When people move away from your company or brand, it can affect your bottom line. So, there’s obviously a direct relationship between customer service level and the bottom line. But how do you increase the former while decreasing the latter?
At its core, the answer is simple: differentiate yourself. Standing out from the crowd doesn’t have to be expensive. (It can even help you save money if you do it right.) One easy way to differentiate is by providing excellent customer service. But who says you have to do it yourself? Hiring the right call center can solve all of your customer service problems and decrease your bottom line in the process.
Why Call Centers Increase Your Service Level
You might think better customer service training or an automated answering system would be the best way to improve customer service, but each has their cons. Training costs time and money, plus you have to deal with things like employee turnover, which can be overwhelming. Automated answering systems can be cost-effective, but they take away personalized service and often result in more hang-ups, missed messages and lost customers.
Hiring an exceptional call center, on the other hand, can drastically improve customer service. Here’s why:
- A personal touch: Unlike automated answering systems, call centers can give each call the personalized touch of talking to a real human being.
- High call-volume capacity: Your customer service department may not be able to handle a high volume of different calls, but call center agents have the training and experience to do just that.
- Streamlined messaging: Some customer messages are timelier than others, which is why a call center can prioritize messages better than automated systems. Call centers also utilize the latest messaging technology.
- 24/7 service: You may not be able to provide customer service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but call centers can. This gives your customers added convenience and opens up your revenue potential.
These are just a few ways hiring a call center improves customer service. They make sense for your bottom line as well.
Why Call Centers Decrease the Bottom Line
Let’s compare the cost of hiring a call center to the cost of an in-house customer service department. The latter requires a full-time staff, a large office space, equipment, training and a variety of other expenses. By out-sourcing your customer service to a call center, they deal with all those extra expenses and allow you to focus on other things like increasing your margins.
As for automated answering services, it’s true that they may sometimes cost less initially, but are they a smart investment for the future? It costs much more to obtain a new customer than it does to retain a current one and automated answering services are notorious for not being able to keep customers. Call centers, on the other hand, have a history of retaining customers and growing businesses.
Increasing your customer service level doesn’t have to increase your bottom line. After hiring a call center, you’ll see why it’s an affordable way to make your customers happy and keep them coming back.