Virtual PBX: How Happy Are Your Customers?

Keeping customers happy – it can be a delicate balance to achieve both a happy customer and a healthy margin. Not all customers want the same things and unless they are very happy or very unhappy, you may never know exactly what they’re thinking. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to keep a customer happy. And, believe it or not, it all starts with one complaint.

According to this Nextiva blog, there are three different types of customers who will tell you what they are thinking. The very happy customer can’t wait to share with you how happy they are with the product or service and how it has changed his or her life. They tend to fall all over themselves in an effort to express gratitude in person, by phone or even via the Web.

The very unhappy customer is likely to do the same. He or she can’t wait to share with you how the product or service has ruined his or her life. This customer tends to wish your company didn’t exist and he or she tends to relish the opportunity to express their frustration in person, by phone or on the Web.

You can also get information from customers you pay. There are some who just love to be bribed to share their position on a topic. A number of retail stores are known to offer a discount on a subsequent order in exchange for a completed survey.

A Quite Customer is Not Always a Happy Customer

The feedback captured with these methods may be valuable, but the majority of disgruntled customers won’t say anything directly to you or another employee. They may get upset and never buy anything again. It’s easy to assume that no news is good news, but in this case – it could be an indication that something is broken internally. If customers don’t tell you, how can you know?

A Harvard Business Review found that 25 percent of customers are likely to say something positive regarding their customer service experience; 65 percent are likely to speak negatively about it; 23 percent with a positive service interaction will tell 10 or more people; and 48 percent with a negative experience will tell 10 or more.

When a customer shares about a bad experience, it’s an opportunity to examine current methods and processes to see what might be broken. A fix can then be applied before additional customers are affected and more business is lost.

The Virtual PBX Can Help

To keep a customer happy, listen to their questions and concerns, answer their questions the first time around and respond to them in a short amount of time. Even if you do have set business hours, provide a way for your customers to contact you 24x7. The virtual PBX is the perfect tool to allow you to provide flexible communications.

The virtual PBX will tie to a 24x7 call center to support your initiatives; can be seamlessly integrated into the network to capture customer calls; works alongside your customer relationship management (CRM) solution to tie customer information to the individual’s account, and so much more. Remember that the key to long term profitability is to create a happy customer base. If you aren’t hearing from your customers, it’s possible something needs to be addressed.


Edited by Jamie Epstein