Business.com |
- For Corporate Change, Start With Small Steps
- Things You Should Know Before Hiring a Call Center
- 6 Ways to Take Your E-Commerce Brand to the American Market
- Breaking Down the Basics of Great Customer Support
| For Corporate Change, Start With Small Steps Posted: 09 Jan 2020 08:00 AM PST  Change is hard. I know this personally because I've been meaning to sign up for the gym for a year now and just haven't gotten around to doing it. I am not at the proof of concept stage: the concept has been proven beyond doubt and I know that going to the gym will make my life better and create tangible value for me on many levels. And still, I don't do it. I've been meaning to do it, I've been honestly planning to do it, but it just seems to somehow sink to the bottom of my to-do list, day in and day out, against my better judgement. And I think corporate change works a bit the same way. I have gone through numerous iterations of running software companies and was lucky enough to work closely with design partners and prospects who expressed complete buy-in into the concept of the solutions we were building. They could clearly see the value they would gain by using the new technology. It would give them the ability to do something significant that they couldn't do before. When the product is set to go, stakeholders are earnestly excited and optimistic about the results. An account is set. But then a week goes by, and nothing happens. Dialogue is repeated. They are thrilled, this can really change the team's workflow and KPIs. A week passes, and nothing happens. You can see where this is going. There's a conflict between the expressed recognition of value and an internal resistance to action. The energy paradoxIn order to create any kind of change, we need to invest energy. Even if the promised payoffs are greater than the effort required, we'll often opt to preserve the status quo. This is due to the fact that humans tend to prefer the devil they know over the devil they don't, and they have limited power of imagination. For instance, I know that signing up for the gym demands energy and willpower now, but that it will eventually make me more energetic and will even save me the mental energy I now spend agonizing over not going to the gym and related consequences. So, I know that I'll benefit – I just can't imagine it. I can feel the energy that changing my routine to accommodate the gym demands now, but I can't feel the benefits that exercising will bring me later. The same paradox applies to individuals in their professional capacity, and for organizations. Understanding how the organization and the team will benefit from a new technology is not the same as actually experiencing it. And since the benefits are intangible, it's hard to muster the energy needed to facilitate the change. Individuals – and enterprises – vary in their response to the change imperative. Individuals run the gamut between change-happy and change-averse. Some of us are simply more adept at handling the emotions and the real-world consequences that change brings about. Organizations may be anywhere between very conservative and highly progressive in respect to change, and this may be influenced by variables such as the industry the business is operating in, the age of the company, the internal brand values, and the founders' and c-levels' tendencies and styles. However, another important variable is the area in which change is to be enacted. Even within an individual's or a company's general mindset towards change, there are areas that are more prone or more resistant to progress and development. For organizations, for example, production workflows may be very flexible and easy to change, while efforts to change a product may be met with reluctance. For individuals, the same duality is manifest when, for example, a relocation opportunity is immediately embraced, while signing up for regular workouts across the street is a perpetual struggle. Overcoming the resistance to changeSometimes change doesn't happen for objective reasons. Everyone is pressed for time, and you may have other priorities that need to be worked around to make a place for change. But if these are all taken care of and still nothing happens, there are probably other factors at work. Knowing your company's or your own general attitude towards change is important, but probably not enough to get you out of the rut. If you really want to move forward, these are the steps you need to take: 1. Acknowledge that you're resisting changeProcrastinating change can take many forms that give it the aura of rational choice: the timing isn't optimal, you don't have the bandwidth, it's too risky. Facing the fact that you're irrationally resisting something that will most likely impact you favorably reframes the situation and allows you to deal with the root cause of the problem. 2. Identify the underlying fearNow that you know what you're up against, ask yourself why. In your professional capacity, are you worried about the impact on your team? If you're a couch potato, do you fear coming face to face with the physical enormity of the task? There may be multiple attributes at play here, related to areas such as a lack of agility, a fear of exposure or failure, or a tendency to overthink the mission. Taking the time to examine fears sincerely will help you break through the vague cloud of "this is just not happening" into concrete reasons that you can then deal with concretely. 3. Actively imagine the value this change will bringImagining the hardships is always a breeze. Imaging the payoffs is the hard part. That's because humans are inclined towards the negative and the morose (for example, we give on average three times more weight to negative feedback compared to positive feedback.) That's why you'll need to actively, methodologically, imagine the value you're expecting to gain. Close your eyes and walk through the payoffs of the change, or vividly write it down, not in bullets, but as a narrative (which is more cognitively influential). 4. Think in small stepsFinally, take a small step. Just do one thing. The ancient Chinese – who weren't signing up for either new software or new exercise regimes – were still able to note by the 4th century B.C. that "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." If you wait until you have all the steps figured out, or if you start out with a complete overhaul of your existing mode of operation, chances are you'll hit a wall and your premonitions will indeed come true. But if you do just one small thing, and then another small thing, and after that yet another smallish thing, you will suddenly notice that change is underway, that you're already benefiting from it, and that you have no idea why you had been putting it off for so long. While the general gist of progress and improvement is almost a human – and a business – imperative, not everyone attends to it in the same way and with the same zeal. Leaps and bounds are great for some people in some situations. But, if you feel a paralysis setting in just from the mere notion of taking a big jump, trust that you can achieve exactly the same goal at your own pace. Taking the first step is all you need to do. We don't all need to be high divers. Some of us can be just as content with a good set of sit-ups. |
| Things You Should Know Before Hiring a Call Center Posted: 09 Jan 2020 07:45 AM PST 
Oftentimes, when running a business, there doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day. Small businesses, especially, require staff to wear many hats; certain tasks, such as answering the phones, can easily fall by the wayside. While manning the phone lines might seem like a distraction from more pressing operational requirements, good customer service is key to both retaining existing customers and securing new business. When you don't have enough people on hand to manage the phones, or when your call volume is spiking beyond your capabilities, a call center service could fill the gaps. Businesses of all sizes employ answering services and call centers to manage their phone lines in a variety of ways. Some companies work with call centers only if call volume increases momentarily, while others contract with them for regular, around-the-clock answering. A call service that can serve as a professional representative for your company at all times is essential if you want to maintain a high customer satisfaction rate. After all, customer support is a key consideration when people are choosing which businesses to buy from or work with. Whether you need someone to capture overflow calls or to represent your brand, there are a few things you should know before hiring an outsourced call center. What does a call center do?Call centers, at their most basic, answer the phones on behalf of your business. When your business receives an incoming call at a phone number you've forwarded to a call center or answering service (or set up specifically for the call center,) an agent responds using either a script or set guidelines relevant to your business. A good call center agent is indistinguishable from in-house staff, making your customers feel as though they've reached your business directly. Core inbound call center services include message taking, call forwarding, answering frequently asked questions, and even order taking and processing. Call centers are generally capable of more than just these basic inbound services. Many also offer email and social media monitoring and management, as well as live web chat services. Some include outbound services, which can help your business drum up new leads or reach out to existing ones. Regardless of the services you need, though, call centers should be transparent and communicative, ensuring you have access to all caller information so you can follow up as time allows. There are also many bilingual call centers or multilingual call centers that can help businesses cater to multilingual clientele. The most common languages call centers support in the U.S. are English and Spanish, but many support a range of languages. In some cases, when multilingual service is unavailable, a call center might partner with a translation service. Answering services vs. call center servicesAnswering services and call centers are similar in many ways, often offering several of the same services. However, they differ in important ways that make answering services more useful for certain businesses and call centers the go-to option for others. Answering services can be conceived of as smaller, niche providers, often working in fields that have specialized needs. For example, attorneys' offices often require added security or a personalized touch when dealing with clients, and so a legal answering service could step in with particular expertise. The healthcare industry also frequently employs medical answering services, which come with significant experience in communicating with patients and appointment setting, not to mention healthcare-specific regulatory considerations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Answering services' focus on specific industries and markets means they can generally operate to a greater extent independently from the business. Instead of just answering phones and taking messages (which answering services certainly do), businesses can partner with answering services in situations where more complex decision-making is required. This focus on specific market segments tends to differentiate answering services from call centers. Call centers, on the other hand, tend to be more general in their approach and often have the capacity for managing larger call volumes. Call centers are also more likely than answering services to provide outbound services, such as lead qualification and remarketing campaigns. Some call centers engage in cold calling and lead generation services, though these are somewhat rare to find. Across the industry, many call centers have rebranded themselves as a contact center or "business process outsourcing" (BPO) company to more accurately depict the scope of their service offerings. As more businesses have taken a digital, omnichannel approach to marketing and customer services, call centers have expanded to include new channels, including email, social media, live chat on websites and even SMS text messaging. Editor's note: Looking for a call center service? We can help you choose the one that's right for you. Use the questionnaire below to have our vendor partners provide you with free information: How much does a call center charge?Generally, in the call center industry, rates are based on the amount of time an agent spends handling your account. Most call centers charge per minute, sometimes associating your rate with a monthly minimum requirement. Some offer "pay as you go" plans for businesses with a small call volume or that only need infrequent coverage. The rates an answering service or call center charges vary greatly from company to company. Generally, rates depend on several factors, including the services requested by the client, the expected call volume to be outsourced, the incremental billing policies of the call center, the time an agent works on your account, and any fees or additional costs charged by the call center.
To avoid any surprises, request a breakdown of all pricing from any company you are considering before signing up for their services. Ask the representative to include any setup fees, monthly minimum fees and additional costs in the proposal they send. If you are unable to obtain or decipher an itemized list of costs, that's a red flag the call center isn't dealing with you in good faith. A business's relationship with its call center must be based first and foremost upon trust; if you cannot establish trust in the discovery phase of your buying process, then it's best to look elsewhere. What companies need a call center?Any company in need of a customer service representative but without the internal resources to dedicate to the role can hire a call center. This includes both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) companies, despite their very different customer service needs. If you are leaving inbound calls unanswered, it could be an indication that you need to partner with a remote call center to bolster your customer support resources. However, even if you have your phone lines covered internally, a contact center can still offer key support in other areas. A contact center can manage your email and social media channels, for instance. You could also work with a contact center to set up a live chat on your website, a channel that many customers are increasingly looking toward as a first point of contact. Finally, if you want someone to comb through your existing database of leads and ensure the information is up to date and accurate, a contact center could be your best bet for getting it done quickly and cost-effectively without diverting in-house staff. Answering services are best suited for certain companies, generally those that operate in niche market segments or require more advanced work on the part of the agents. These companies can include those operating in the following industries:
Of course, answering services are not limited to the above industries. If you feel your business has specific needs or you want a more flexible agent picking up the phones on your behalf, consider an answering service instead of a call center. Are there call centers for startups?Many call centers offer services that startups might find valuable. In addition to their core competencies, which helps take the burden of customer service off a startup's limited staff, they support internal operations, such as recruiting and making hiring decisions. For example, a call center can formulate interview questions and even administer pre-employment tests for job candidates; this is especially important when you're hiring employees with seed capital and trying to get a new company off the ground. A call center with robust outbound sales services could also benefit a startup by generating early revenue. While finding a call center that offers lead generation services, such as cold calling, isn't always easy, there are call centers out there that offer these outbound services. The many reasons to hire a call centerWhether you need assistance answering incoming calls, help managing omnichannel communications or a boost to your marketing efforts, there are many good reasons for a small to mid-size business to partner with a call center. However, take your time and do your research into each company you are considering. There are a lot of call centers out there, but some charge exorbitant rates and pile on the hidden fees, driving up your costs to an untenable level. Others might charge low rates but provide poor service, which could reflect poorly on your brand, harm customer satisfaction and ultimately lose you business. When choosing a call center, the first consideration should always be trust. A trusted partner is key, because the call center you choose will represent your brand directly to your customers. Only sign up with a call center when they have demonstrated to you that they are transparent, considerate and honest. Anything short could leave your business picking up the pieces. Although it is important to proceed with caution and do your due diligence, there are many excellent answering services and call centers out there. Most are capable of scaling with your company as well, so once you find a partner that works for you, it's easy to maintain the partnership, even as your company grows. A good call center service will be instrumental to the growth of your business and, as such, will be invaluable to keep by your side as your business finds success. Our best picks offer a closer look at some of the best call center services out there, along with detailed reviews of each company. |
| 6 Ways to Take Your E-Commerce Brand to the American Market Posted: 09 Jan 2020 07:00 AM PST  As we greet a new decade, the world has never been more global. E-commerce has made it possible for any business to be an international business. Many international e-commerce brands have looked to the lucrative possibilities of selling to American customers. Successfully taking a business into the American market can lead to exciting opportunities for your business, but you'll want to make sure to maximize those opportunities. So, how can you best reach the American consumer? 1. Optimize your taxes.Tax optimization should be a priority when moving into the American market. Sadly, too many companies overlook this step. International companies desiring to enter the United States market often create a physical presence in the country, which subjects them to American corporate tax rates of around 30% to 40%. If your company establishes an overseas operation in a tax haven such as the British Virgin Islands or Hong Kong, it is possible to circumvent these tax liabilities. Some people fear shipping to American customers will take too long if they do not create a physical presence in the United States. A simple solution to this problem is to use warehouses in Canada and Mexico for shipping and holding inventory. This allows you to ship to American customers within three days. I can't emphasize this enough – tax optimization is a critical step in your expansion into the American market. 2. Make customer service a priority.American consumers are used to a high level of customer service from the businesses they frequent. It's important to understand what customer expectations will be as you expand into this new market. According to a 2019 Gladly Survey, 84% of customers will switch to a different company after three negative experiences with customer service, and 17% of these customers leave after just one bad experience. The way you treat your customers will be a major determining factor in the outcome of your brand's expansion into the American market. The best way to ensure customers feel taken care of is to respond to questions quickly. According to Gladly's findings, consumers expect a response to email inquiries in about three to four hours. Live chat is also gaining traction as an efficient way to communicate with customers. Consumers expect a response to a live chat inquiry in under a minute. There's a reason it's called "live chat." The expectation is that it is constantly being monitored. A failure to meet these quick response rates can, unfortunately, leave a bad memory of your brand in customers' memories. Avoid this issue by making customer experience a top priority, a quintessential aspect of your e-commerce operations. Although American expectations for customer service are high, these expectations are frequently not met. Consumers are always looking for a new brand that will take care of them better than all the others. This gives you an opportunity to break into the market by showing consumers you have a higher quality of service than the competition. 3. Cut out the middleman.It is a common practice for international e-commerce brands to partner with large distributors when expanding to the American market. Companies such as Amazon and Walmart have profited greatly from this practice. Large distributors will sell your product but keep a portion of the revenue. This may be convenient, but it cuts down your profit margins. More and more successful brands are realizing they can increase profit margins by cutting out the middleman and selling directly to customers. It can be difficult to compete with e-commerce giants like Amazon and Walmart when trying to break into the market, but with the greater profit margins you'll receive from selling directly to customers, you can focus on improving your marketing efforts and strengthening your branding strategy. This way, your direct-to-consumer strategy is sure to pay off quickly. 4. Design your brand with care.A consumer's first exposure to a brand is a critical moment. When expanding to a new market, think carefully about what you want consumers' first impressions of your brand to be. You'll want to be sure people's first impression of your brand is a memorable one. It's important to not only be memorable, though. You also want to make sure that your brand is remembered in a positive light. It's likely your business has already established a persona for your brand in the markets you currently sell in. Determine whether or not to use the same branding in this new market. Do some research into the brand preferences of your target demographic in the American market. Look at things like color palettes, typography and logos. Even if choosing a color seems trivial, it can be a critical part of a consumer's decision to buy from your brand. According to research from the Emerald Group, around two-thirds of a person's decision about a brand during the first exposure is decided on color alone. No part of your branding process is too trivial to pay attention to. Well-designed brands sell products. Be intentional with your branding strategy. 5. Partner with influencers.Industry influencers are people who already have traction in your target market. They might have a large following on Instagram, YouTube, or a popular podcast. Partnering with one of these influencers will be a huge advantage during your expansion. These people have already done the upfront work of building trust with an audience and establishing themselves as a reliable source. With an influencer's help, you can reach new audiences more effectively. When looking for an influencer to partner with, you should find someone who really believes in your product. It's important that the person representing your brand believes in what you're selling because audiences have an excellent eye for spotting inauthenticity. In fact, the most successful influencers have built trust with audiences by proving their authenticity. Hiring someone who (with the right size paycheck) is willing to represent any company will not help you acquire customers as effectively as someone who genuinely enjoys your product. It's important to keep your own brand's personality in mind when searching for an influencer to represent your brand. If your brand is highly polished and sophisticated, find someone who shares those qualities. If you have a casual and humorous brand, the people representing you should be the same. With the numerous influencers out there, keeping this principle in mind will help you narrow down the list of people to reach out to. 6. Understand American marketing channels.With over 2 billion active users worldwide, Facebook globally dominates the majority of social media users' time. Because of this, it is likely your brand has utilized this platform regardless of which national e-commerce markets you are currently in. The U.S. market is no different than other countries in that Facebook is a highly important marketing channel to utilize. In fact, 80.4% of U.S. social referral to e-commerce came from Facebook. It's imperative to be using Facebook as a marketing channel. The difference between the U.S. and many other countries is that the U.S. uses other social media platforms besides Facebook at a much higher rate than most other nations. Americans are typically on Instagram and Snapchat in larger numbers than residents of other countries. Use these platforms to reach broader audiences. |
| Breaking Down the Basics of Great Customer Support Posted: 09 Jan 2020 06:00 AM PST  Providing effective customer support seems fairly basic, right? You need a customer support email address, such as help@yourbusiness.com. You need a guy or gal who knows what they're doing and can chat with your customers. Depending on your business, you might need a phone line. There you have it: customer support! Not so fast. As any new business owner knows, providing effective customer support isn't as straightforward as it seems. Shortly after your brand launches, your sleek, brilliantly-conceived product or service seems to give rise to a seemingly innumerable number of challenges and questions. You're inundated – and providing support to your customer base is quickly becoming a time- and cost-sucker. Fortunately, building a framework to provide effective customer support doesn't have to be complicated. You need a competent staff, a clear and accessible database of information, and most of all, organized communication. Here's a breakdown of the basics of building a great support team and an effective organizational system. Your staff: the backbone to effective supportYour agents form the backbone of providing effective customer support. In a support interaction, they're the face of your brand and as such, exercise powerful influence over whether a customer leaves an interaction feeling enthusiastic and satisfied or disappointed and angry. Hire support agents with people skillsWhen you initially think of "customer support," technical knowledge and prowess probably come to mind (we'll get to that in a second). But perhaps more important than hard skills are soft skills. If your agents lack people skills, they're not going to go very far in helping your customers. Ultimately, your brand reputation and retention rate could suffer from frustrated clients who believe they've been treated rudely or unfairly. When hiring support staff, look for potential team members who are empathetic, patient and especially effective at communicating. Empathy simply means that you're able to put yourself in the shoes of another. This quality is particularly useful when dealing with a customer who has a question or request that seems unnecessary, or when interacting with someone who is irrational or angry. Empathetic agents are able to exercise the ability to see from that customer's perspective, and effectively resolve the issue with kindness and compassion. Like empathy, patience is also key to dealing well with people. Ideally, customer support interactions are smooth and quick. But in reality, support interactions can involve long, drawn-out exchanges that sometimes result in feelings of frustration on both ends. Like anyone who works in customer service, your support staff benefits from a healthy dose of patience. Finally, look for potential agents who are great verbal communicators. The ability to hold a conversation and clearly explain solutions and systems is critical to being a great support staff member. Train support staff on technical know-howNow, for the hard skills: Your customer support staff need to have a thorough knowledge of your product or service and technical savvy to provide effective support. To train your support staff, consider not only obvious problems that might arise (a feature isn't working, or a refund is required) but also any potential issue that might cause a customer to email you for support. Put yourself in the shoes of your customer and walk through your customer experience as a total newbie. Are the features and capabilities of your product or service clearly described? Do you accept all kinds of payment? How does your refund/exchange process work? How would you resolve any and all problems that could arise with a particular feature of your service? Your agents need to be able to effectively resolve any potential issue or problem that arises – or at the very least, communicate the problem to the right department or staff member in your company. Depending on the kind of product or service you provide, you may need agents with advanced technical savvy. If you sell a website creation tool, for example, your support staff will need to have the knowledge required to help customers customize and build their sites. Or, if you sell a SaaS tool, your support staff will need to be able to understand how to operate your service, potentially log in to customer accounts and troubleshoot any glitches. Organize your help deskAs any new business owner will quickly discover, the most significant challenge of providing effective customer support is managing, tracking and organizing customer support requests, or tickets. Unfortunately, customer support emails seem to have a "multiplying" effect that makes them difficult to manage. As each support interaction requires ongoing attention, new requests pour in. The result? A flooded inbox, overwhelmed agents and management that doesn't necessarily know who is responding to what request and how or if requests have been resolved. Help desk software can help you tackle the challenge in the following ways. Filter, track and organize email exchangesHelp desk software can help you organize and view your email exchanges as a series of trackable conversations. Rather than diving into a messy inbox, support staff can simply scroll through a clean, logical list of customer support conversations to identify and address a specific ticket. Interactions will also be filtered and tagged according to:
Ultimately, being able to view and respond to exchanges this way can help both agents and managers effectively manage and respond to support requests, thus eliminating that sense of feeling overwhelmed that comes with multiple support tickets. Spot trends and compare dataIdeally, the information you gather from customer support interactions will give you powerful insight into improving your product or service, delivering a better customer experience and ratcheting up overall satisfaction. But to gain insight, you'll need to be organized enough to spot common trends. Help desk software will help you store and report on data in order to identify common themes in your customer support requests. For example, many of your customers may have issues with your product hardware, return policy or payment plan. Spotting common complaints can help you take action to prevent future requests, improve your product or service, and increase customer satisfaction. Prevention is the best policyIn a perfect world, your customers have zero requests, complaints or concerns. And while that may never be attainable, you can take certain measures to prevent requests from coming in. The best way to reduce support requests is to help customers help themselves. One study from Harvard Business Review showed that a full 81% of customers will try to resolve their own issues before requesting help from support staff. That's great news for you! But in order for customers to be successful at this, you need to provide great self-service resources. To help customers be self-sufficient, create a database of self-service articles on your website. The topics of your articles will vary depending on your product or service, but most businesses will want to include information on payment, refunds, and the specific features and functionalities of your product or service. The more tech-heavy your product or service, the more service articles you will need to provide. You can use help desk software to build this portal of self-service articles. Happy agents provide great customer supportFinally, don't forget about providing a great experience for your customer support staff. Happy, organized agents with access to the tools they need to succeed will enjoy their jobs more. Ultimately, they'll become the kind of agents that create friendly and helpful experiences for your customers (which is what great support is all about, anyway). |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Business.com. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
No comments:
Post a Comment