A Customer Service Expectation survey by HubSpot reported that many customers tried to skip a business’ IVR to speak with a representative. Meanwhile, a Harvard study saw the call volume of a bank increase several fold after they installed self-help IVR systems.
With customers wanting human interaction and personalized experiences, your team’s call handling skills can make or break your company’s reputation. While upskilling your team is essential, having a good call handling solution is indispensable.
Switch to Community Phone, the best call handling solution for businesses in the U.S. With custom plans and features to cater to your business and 24/7 reliable customer support, Community Phone is what you have been looking for!
Talk to our landline specialists to learn more about Community Phone and to get a custom offer for your business!
Call Handling Best Practices for Businesses
Call handling is the management of incoming and outgoing calls. Empower your team with technology and training for efficient call management to generate goodwill for your business.
Community Phone has curated some best practices your teams can follow when handling customer calls:
1. Skill-based Call Routing
Your sales and support teams can create a great first impression when you connect a caller to a person in your team most appropriate to help them.
With the Community Phone Live Call Transfer feature, anyone in your company can transfer the call to any extension by pushing a button without placing the customer on hold. This feature enables the first respondent in your business to transfer calls to the person ideal for solving the customer’s issue or answering their questions.
2. Focus on First Call Resolution (FCR)
Customer satisfaction surveys reveal that most customers feel they are treated as tickets, not as individuals. When a customer calls your business, your support team should focus on solving the customer’s problems and not their average call time.
If your sales team answers the phones, they should work towards answering all of the customer’s questions or finding the person who can.
While Community Phone can ensure you never miss another customer call through business features like call forwarding and live call transfer, your team can take care of creating an incredible customer experience.
3. Create Call handling KPIs
Studies show that customers can dissuade friends and family from signing up with your business if they are dissatisfied with your service. Some of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) your business can adopt for efficient call management are:
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Answer time: Customers don't want to wait ten rings for someone to answer. It is ideal to have a call answered between 1-3 rings and ensure consistency in this process across the organization.
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Follow-up time: 24-27% of customers move away from a business after one bad experience. If your business has missed a customer call, ensure your team calls the customer back and provides assistance. Establish a strict follow-up time frame to get back to customers. Customers like companies that call them back and make them valued. So the importance of this parameter is indisputable.
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Call Routing: Routing calls to the correct department or person without playing a game of “transfer tag” with the customer can leave a positive impression about your business in the customer’s mind.
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Hold time: A recent study states that an average of 75% of your customers get frustrated when placed on hold or when calls get disconnected during a transfer. Ensure you have proper hold-time protocols and transfer protocols to ensure customer satisfaction.
Community Phone’s Live Call Transfer feature enables anyone in your business to transfer the calls to the appropriate department or person without placing the caller on hold. This reduces frustration caused by hold times.
4. Create a script
Research studies reveal that customers get upset when different reps give them conflicting replies when addressing the same issue. This inconsistency can have a substantial negative impact on your brand.
Standardizing call handling in your business is vital to provide the best customer service possible. Ensure a scripted response is available to your team members to minimize the chances of miscommunication.
5. Listen to Your Calls and Analyze Them
Recording and analyzing customer calls can be hugely insightful and help you strategize ways to improve customer satisfaction and reduce churn. Community Phone’s call recording feature is just what you need to ensure continuous and consistent improvement in your customer communication.
Sign up with Community Phone TODAY or Chat with a Specialist to get a custom quote for your business!
6. Collect Contact Information
Collecting a caller’s contact information, and promising them a callback, would be an excellent way to show them your business cares about them. Enforce strict follow-up protocols to ensure every callback promise is followed through.
7. Hang Up Only After Leaving a Positive Impression
Customers will stop purchasing or recommending your services/ product if they feel neglected by your company.
So how do you ensure you leave a positive impression about your company in the caller's mind?
Your support teams should try to resolve customer concerns completely or promise to get back with a resolution and stick to the promise. Your team can use Community Phone’s live call transfer feature to route the call to the appropriate person for assistance or patch them into the customer call using 3-Way calling.
Your sales teams could use the same features to answer every one of the questions the customer may have, before letting them off the phone, to help them close the sale.
8. Continuous Improvement
With almost 70% of customers willing to pay more for excellent customer service, you can’t let outdated customer service practices run your business. The key to consistently providing a great customer experience is continuously improving your team’s skills.
You can hold weekly team meetings for employees to discuss the wins and losses of the previous weeks and the lessons learned.
Your team can continue to draw from the experiences of successful support or sales agents and calibrate themselves to ensure a great customer experience.
The Best Call Handling Service
Community Phone is the best business landline service provider in the U.S that does not need internet or copper wires to operate. Their landline base connects to cell towers in your area and provides strong coverage and 99% connectivity across the U.S, including rural areas. The landline base's superior design ensures crystal clear voice quality even in areas with poor reception.
Though the company does not bind you in contracts, Community Phone customers signed up for the Annual contract after the 14-day risk-FREE trial, as they loved the service.
Create a Great First Impression Among Your Customers
The first impression you create about your business in your caller’s mind lasts forever. Ensure you create a great first impression through a host of Community Phone business features:
- Custom Dial Menu: With this feature, you can play a professional greeting to create a great first impression in your customer’s mind. You may also use this to convey important information about your business, like business hours, transfer options, critical news releases, etc.
- Simultaneous Ring: You can program several numbers in your business to ring simultaneously to ensure customers get the quickest response. This way, whoever is available can get to the call first instead of waiting for a specific person to answer the phone.
- Live Call Transfer: Notify the most appropriate person to handle customer concerns or queries using the Community Phone Live Call transfer feature. Anyone in your company can transfer the call to anyone else with the push of a button without placing the caller on hold.
- Ring a Second Number: Never miss another customer call. You can program the phones in your business to ring in succession. If the first number is busy, the second number will ring. Equip your teams to provide customer support with the best of Community Phone’s business features.
Reliable Solution for Your Business Needs
Community Phone is a combination of reliability and future-proof technology. The company has helped several businesses ditch expensive contracts with their old providers and signup for reliable service with Community Phone. Here are some of the benefits when you switch your provider:
- No internet required: Community Phone’s landline base connects to cell towers in your area, eliminating the need for internet and copper wire connections.
- Keep Your Business Number: When you switch to Community Phone, you can keep your business number or get a new one from them. The company offers three types of numbers: local, toll-free, and vanity, to suit your business needs.
- Works during Power Outages: The 12-hour backup battery of the Community Phone landline base ensures your phones work even during a power outage, unlike VoIP phones.
- Hassle-free Setup: You don't need a technician to setup your Community Phone landline base. You can set it up yourselves in 30 seconds, saving yourself hundreds of dollars in installation costs.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the 5 Ps of telephone etiquette?
The 5 Ps of telephone etiquette is Prepared, Present, Polite, Patient, and Professional. Always remember to have excellent phone etiquette when talking on the phone.
How do you maintain call control?
To maintain call control, your reps must listen to the caller carefully and not interrupt them. The caller would have given verbal cues they can pick up from to phrase their response.
What is the golden rule for handling calls?
The golden rule of call handling is to be a good listener. Listening to a customer’s query, paying attention, asking pertinent questions, picking up on verbal cues, and making the customer feel valued can all go a long way in creating customer satisfaction.
Conclusion
The right technology and continuous upskilling of your people can help your business create a WoW experience for your customers. Check out Premium Business features offered by Community Phone that can complement your team’s call handling skills to help your business increase customer satisfaction, maximize revenue, and reduce churn.