January 2020 - VCC Live

Archive for January, 2020

How to provide excellent customer service (even) on social media

Posted on: January 31st, 2020 by Dóra Rapcsák 2 Comments

Research reveals that 1 in every 3 customers turns to social media to communicate with a business. With such high demand, it’s a good idea to provide excellent customer service on social platforms as well as on more traditional communication channels.

So, how do you handle customer service on social media? Below are a few tips from us.

Sometimes less is more

These days most companies represent themselves on as many social media platforms as possible. However, having a social media profile will only do any good for your company if you have the resources to take care of them.

Keeping several social media platforms up-to-date is particularly time-consuming. What is more, some of these platforms might be completely useless for your business. Therefore, I suggest that instead of being everywhere you rather focus on the platforms where your customers are.

Also, don’t make the mistake of assuming that the most popular channel is the best fit for your audience. If you don’t know where your customers are, just simply ask them. An online survey, for instance, will be a great idea to do that.

Listen to what they say

Your social media sites are not simply platforms where your marketing team can share photos and interesting stories about your brand. These are channels your customers will most probably use for communicating with your businesses.

But replying won’t be enough, you’ll also need to listen to what they say. Paying attention to your customers’ opinions on social sites will provide you with some of the most important information, particularly in terms of product development. After all, it is customers who use your services.

Track and monitor volume

I’m sure you’ve already noticed that every year more and more people start using social media platforms in order to reach out to a business. As a result, chances are that the volume of your customer inquiries via these channels is on the rise as well.

Another important rule of social media customer service is to track and monitor the volume of your incoming queries. This will not only allow you to manage them in a timely manner but will also help you plan your staffing responsible for social media messages.

You can easily keep track of your social inquiries by relying on a contact center software that can be integrat ed with your social media channels. Our system, VCC Live, can be integrated with Facebook Messenger, the world’s most used social network, with only one click. This way, your agents will be able to handle your customers’ Facebook messages directly in your customer service system. As simple as that!

Hopefully, this article showed you the importance of social media customer service, and you’ve managed to pick up some essential strategies for providing efficient support for your channels!

Software can help automate customer service on social media

Given that handling customer queries on social channels can be a little tricky, there are plenty of solutions that help you automate and streamline many tasks. These includes using a common dashboards for all communication channels (so that social is visible among voice, email, web chat, and more), ticketing systems, social listening, post scheduling, and a lot more. To help you out, we’ve collected a comprehensive list of top tools that help you better handle customer service on social media.

Provide various communication channels

Social media is just one way of getting in touch. As many people still prefer more traditional ways to contact customer service, consider improving these channels as well:

Why You Need to Introduce Callback Technology in Your Contact Center

Posted on: January 30th, 2020 by Roland Háry No Comments

In our ever-competitive world, call centers that handle incoming calls cannot afford to lose a single call. It doesn’t matter what industry you operate in, you can be sure that the competition will never sleep, and will always be looking to win over customers from your business. Luckily, callback technology can help you prevent that!

Every company that wants to strive in the long run must be able to handle incoming calls at any time, whether customers are asking for information, requesting support or making a complaint.

There are two options for successfully handling your contact center’s incoming calls:

Your first option is to increase the number of agents in your team who are responsible for handling incoming calls. You’ll thus be able to ensure that every call is addressed by an agent within an acceptable period of time.

However, as we all know, agents’ salaries are the biggest expense for any contact center, so this is not the most cost-effective solution.

Your other (and better in my opinion) option is to benefit from contact center callback technology, meaning that you rely on a technology solution that efficiently offers callbacks to customers.

So, if it seems that your contact center has enough agents to comfortably handle incoming calls even during peak periods, maybe this means you are employing too many agents and could easily save money and operate more efficiently by introducing callback technology to your workplace.

Interested? Okay, let’s see what you need to know about callback technology and its possible benefits for your contact center!

Callback Technology in Contact Centers – the Benefits

One thing is for sure: customers don’t like to be left waiting on hold for too long. Callback technology is a great solution for handling this problem, as it can eliminate the need for your customers to wait at the other end of the phone line until one of your agents is ready.

It does this by allowing customers to choose to have an agent call them back if they feel they are waiting too long in a line. The result is reduced wait times, less lost calls and more satisfied customers.

Furthermore, it is a cost-effective solution that helps with handling peak periods, increasing agent productivity and boosting contact center efficiency.

VCC Live’s callback technology is particularly impressive, as with it you can offer two options to your customers when they request a callback:

Firstly, your customers can request a call back after a specified number of seconds, and wait for you to offer a callback during a less busy business period.

Secondly, thanks to our speech-to-text technology, customers can also choose an exact date on which they wish to be called back by simply saying it out loud into their phone handset.

Of course, customers can also decide to continue to wait in the line and, once they hang up the phone, our system can automatically assign a callback to the first free agent in the queue.

VCC Live’s two options work perfectly depending on your company’s field of operations and company culture. The first option is a great solution for contact centers that tend to receive urgent technical issues, while the second option is ideal for companies mainly receiving calls requesting general information.

What You Need to Know About Contact Center Compliance

Posted on: January 24th, 2020 by Dóra Rapcsák 2 Comments

In our ever-connected world, data is everywhere. But having access to an ever-increasing amount of information has also led to a number of challenges. The possibility of data breaches, with their potentially disastrous consequences, is one increasingly important challenge that businesses need to face.

When you take into account the huge amount of customer data collected and stored on a daily basis in contact centers, it is not surprising to learn that data breaches are the single biggest risk factor in the contact center industry. And although there is no way to 100% guarantee you will avoid a data breach, with thorough preparation it is possible to mitigate the potential risks.

Below, we compiled details of the most important contact center compliance legislation related to data security you should be aware of.

Telephone bank card payments

These days most companies provide customers with the opportunity to make immediate online purchases. However, when it comes to paying online (especially in a post-GDPR world), data security is always a major concern – for both companies and customers.

With that in mind, it’s vitally important for companies that provide real-time telephone-based payment solutions to ensure that the customer data they process while handling card and debit card transactions is completely safe and secure, and in particular is based on PCI DSS regulations.

The PCI DSS certificate, issued by the five largest credit and debit card issuers in the market (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and JCB), is one of the strictest security standards in the world, and applies to any organization that accepts credit and debit card payments. To be able to begin initiating real-time payments during phone calls your company, or the outsourced call center you rely on, will need to be in possession of the PCI DSS certificate.

Having been the proud holders of the PCI DSS certificate for four consecutive years, we here at VCC Live can confirm that it is the ultimate proof of a solution’s success in keeping its business data safe and secure.

GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into force on 25 May 2018, is a regulation that contact centers have no choice but to comply with. Aiming to strengthen data protection across the EU, the regulation gives people more control over how organizations can use their personal data.

GDPR has brought major changes to the business world, and call centers, which usually deal with a huge volume of data, are no exception. It also introduced heavy penalties for organizations that fail to comply with the new legislation.

This legislation requires contact centers to operate in accordance with strict rules, such as making sure customers can easily access their personal data and providing them with the right to be forgotten.

Even though GDPR is now in effect, many organizations are still trying to determine what their obligations are under the new rules (if you’re still unclear whether your call center is GDPR compliant or not, it’s time to check out our GDPR checklist).

Call recording

Call recording is a common call center practice, with most contact centers recording customer calls for security and training purposes. However, the correct handling and processing of recorded calls can cause (and indeed are causing) headaches for many businesses.

Voice files are considered personal data as they can include personal details, such as the caller’s name, address or financial information. As a result, call recording is classified as a form of ‘data processing’, and falls under the new rules covered by GDPR.

When it comes to call recording the golden rule is that agents will need to specifically request permission from their customers to be able to record calls. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that your staff always pay special attention to obtaining consent from your customers.

In particular, contact centers should never assume that informing customers about call recording is enough to indicate consent. Instead, they need to directly ask customers for permission, while also telling them they can opt out of the call before the conversation continues.

Take away

As you can see there are several important rules and regulations contact centers must abide by. And as new rules continue to appear every year, it’s best you always stay prepared by making your organization fully aware of the importance of data security.

Bad customer service can affect your business even more than you think

Posted on: January 17th, 2020 by Dóra Rapcsák No Comments

According to a recent survey, 61% of clients would leave your business for a competitor after encountering just one negative customer service experience. Apart from losing active users (and thus, part of your revenue) bad customer service may also lead to damaged reputation and resigning employees.

In this article, you can learn more about these dangerous consequences of bad customer service.

Revenue loss

Did you know what happened to MoviePass in 2018?

For less than $10 a month, the subscription offered access to one film every day from any movie theater. The company soon acquired 3 million subscribers.

After just two months of operation, MoviePass realized they could not sustain their current business model, and they converted users to an annual plan with only three movies available per month. On top of this, customer service did not offer sufficient help for people wanting to opt out: some people complained that they were not refunded, others were charged even after canceling their subscriptions.

The company faced lawsuits and lost over 90% of customers within just one year due to their unpredictable upcharges and terrible customer service.

Damaged reputation

Without a doubt, your reputation is one of the most valuable assets of your company. Unfortunately, it takes only a few minutes to lose your reputation due to bad customer service.

Whether you like it or not, customers are your company’s most powerful marketing weapon. If they have a bad experience with your business, they will tell their friends, family and colleagues. In the worst scenario, they will leave a negative online review about your company, which of course will greatly damage your reputation.

Indeed, customers these days are quick to share their negative experiences online, leaving comments on review sites and social media channels. And for new customers, it will take only a few minutes to check your company’s negative reviews, resulting in staying away from your business.

Customers leave

With competition becoming fiercer than ever, customers these days can choose from many options when it comes to purchasing a product or service. And you can be sure that if they experience poor service, they will leave you for the competition in no time.

As acquiring new customers takes more effort than to retain the existing ones, losing customers due to bad customer service is something no business can afford.

Furthermore, when you lose a loyal customer, chances are they will share their bad experiences with their acquaintances, further damaging your reputation.

Employees leave

Bad customer service will have a negative side effect on your team as well, resulting in not only losing your customers but your best employees, too.

When your company provides bad customer service, your employees will be the first ones to hear about it straight from your customers. And some of these upset customers will not be a pleasure to talk with.

As nobody likes to talk to angry customers, having to constantly deal with complaining customers will definitely take a toll on your employees as well. This will lead to burnout and eventually, your employees will desert the sinking ship.

Avoid bad customer service at all costs

Now that you really can see the dangerous consequences of bad customer service, will you go the extra mile to always provide exceptional service? We hope you will. Here are some posts to help you maintain excellent customer service:

How to Improve Your Call Quality Monitoring in the Call Center

Posted on: January 16th, 2020 by Magdalena Horváth No Comments

Let’s admit, it might be difficult for both customers and agents to understand each other when it comes to solving an issue via customer service phone lines. In such stressful situations, having the right approach and handing the call with no interruptions is vital in order to keep customers calm and satisfied.

The same goes for outbound activities. Given the high volume of customer service interactions call centers have on a daily basis, monitoring your call quality is critical in order to make sure that your processes are going smoothly, and that your team is handling customer interactions professionally.

Below are my tips on how you can improve call quality monitoring in the call center.

Which elements contribute to the quality of your calls?

Having local hardware, accessories and internet services, together with an up-to-date contact center system, is essential for quality calls. VCC Live is definitely among the best solutions for stable operations: our primary features come with a 99,5% minimum availability guarantee, enabling smooth and continuous contact center operations.

Furthermore, in order to able to take and make quality calls, you’ll need to leverage good-quality telecommunications services that are able to smoothly operate within your software. At VCC Live, we make sure that the quality of our call connections remains at their highest by working together with more than 40 highly-reliable telecommunications providers around the world. We assure service continuity by providing you with multiple failover routings if you fall victim to service interruptions on the partner’s side.

Last but not least, your agents’ dedicated work and your contact center software’s technical solutions can also help you keep your quality management at the highest level. VCC Live comes with a sophisticated Quality Management module that lets you easily assess and provide feedback on your agents’ work. You can also listen in, whisper or join a call in conference mode. And with our latest feature, the monitoring dashboard, you can see your key performance Indicators in real-time, no matter where you are!

The importance of monitoring call quality

The aim of quality monitoring is to identify calls that are failing to meet predefined standards and customer expectations, and then take action to make the process better.

Tracking customer calls is a common practice in call centers, and for good reason: call quality monitoring will allow you to observe your team’s performance, and as a result be able to adjust their activities for better results.

Furthermore, if you suspect any anomalies regarding your workflow or how your agents are handling certain situations, you’ll be able to easily intervene and react in time, again for better results.

Monitoring your calls systematically will also help you save the time and money you would normally spend on solving problems post-factum.

Call quality monitoring is essential for outbound calls too. By tracking your workload, average wait time and call abandonment rate, for instance, you can once again monitor your performance and overall customer satisfaction. And it is just one example of important KPIs that you can easily watch live in VCC software.

And last but definitely not least, we all know that one major mission of any customer service team is to make (and keep) customers happy. And what better way to keep them happy than by continuously monitoring your customer interactions and taking action to improve them.

How to improve your call quality monitoring

By implementing and applying call quality monitoring best practices, you’ll be able to detect areas that need work, and improve them in the long run.

First and foremost, create a list of the most important KPIs that you will frequently follow to ensure the smooth operation of your call center. There is no need to keep track of all data, just focus on what’s important for you and work on reaching your targets.

Then, make sure to choose a call center software that allows call recording and real-time call monitoring. With VCC Live’s software you can not only record your calls but also, with the help of features such as real-time monitoring, dashboards and wallboards, keep track of what’s happening in real time.

Furthermore, always take time to provide your agents with appropriate training sessions in order to enable them to excel at their jobs, while also frequently updating them about the system solutions that are available for them to use.

Providing feedback should be an important part of your monitoring processes. Make sure your supervisors are actively monitoring calls – for instance by listening into customer calls –and providing useful insights not only to their team but also to the higher managers and owners. It may be also a good idea to create real-time agent performance reports and display them on dashboards so that your agents can be made aware of their performance levels, and your managers can keep up-to-date with the results. Remember that there is no great monitoring solution that will do the job for you, so be active in verifying your results to make 100% use of it.

Another great call quality monitoring practice is to identify and save examples of your “best calls” and use them as training aids to help your agents acquire successful techniques to handle customer interactions.

And as we all know, practice makes perfect. Once you developed your call monitoring processes, it doesn’t mean your work is done. Testing your procedures and dynamically adjusting them to the changes that your company may be facing is equally important. Turning this into regular practice will make all the difference.