Can Leveraging VoIP within Your Business Turn a Customer Frown Upside Down?

With recent findings from Accenture revealing that nearly half of customers will never again buy a solution or product from a business if they suffer from a less-than-stellar experience, how can you ensure this isn’t the case for your organization? While there are many tips to remain mindful of, you first must begin to leverage a next-generation voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) platform within your business to ensure a satisfactory customer experience each and every time.

Other key steps to take include:

1.       Quick Response Time

I’m sure you have been in this frustrating situation at least once in your life—you call a company to ask a question and are put on hold for what seems like a lifetime. Not only did you not receive the answer you were looking for, you’re now pretty annoyed that the company you attempted to contact didn’t value your time enough to converse with you in an acceptable time period.

Sad but true, this type of scenario has happened time and time again, prompting consumers to turn to a competing provider. Luckily, it can be avoided by responding to a consumer in a very short time frame, something that can easily be done when leveraging the call routing functionality powered by a VoIP system.

2.       Accept the Fact that Angry Customers Will Not Stay Quiet

In the past, when an organization fell short in terms of assisting its customer base, individuals tended to spread this message of dissatisfaction to their loved ones, friends and colleagues. However, with the increasing popularity of social media platforms that enable users to voice their opinion to countless people all over the globe, the number of people who may lose interest in your brand without ever even using your product firsthand is outstanding.

Thus, it is very important to “watch for complaints in public forums and quickly respond to them in a positive, solution-oriented fashion. Even if you take the discussion offline, make sure other online users know that you’re responding to the person. A post or tweet such as ‘I’m sorry you’re having a problem. Please call me at (direct line of customer service rep) or e-mail me at (direct e-mail of rep) so I can help resolve this right away!’ will send a positive message about your business,” a recent blog post from business VoIP specialist Nextiva advises.

3.       Make All of Your Processes Easy Peezy

Things that are complex at a time when you’re already annoyed because the expensive item you just purchased isn’t working as promised is a recipe for disaster. This couldn’t be any truer when a customer is looking to speak with an organization’s employee but must first enter their information countless times. To eliminate the chances of this occurring, develop either a database or CRM to be used in house that will allow the people handling these calls to have important information related to the consumer pop up on their desktop. Not only will this help to save time, but it will show the individual calling that you are on top of your game.

4.       Ensure Employees Possess the Skill Sets Needed to Succeed

Last but definitely not least on this list toward driving customer satisfaction rates through the roof is hiring a workforce that will ensure a customer’s frown is immediately turned upside down through a great level of service. While tools like VoIP can almost guarantee both employees and consumers have what they need to interact in an efficient manner, an agent who is willing to go above and beyond expectations to grow a consumer base and extend a company’s footprint is important as well.

Edited by Rachel Ramsey