Customer contact centers must quickly adapt to dot-com clients’ changing needs, providing new strategies and product offers
Dot-coms and their clients have become accustomed to the speed of today’s technology. To meet their expectations, the teleservices agencies that partner with them must provide rapid response to customer support requests.
Contact center associates must also quickly adapt to constant changes in customer relationship management (CRM), updating marketing strategies and devising new offers and approaches.
All of these elements must work in tandem and are vital to a successful customer service program – one that can’t rely on a dot-com’s Web site alone. The point is that contact center associates should be able to make it easier for dot-com companies to do business with their clients.
Specifically, these agencies can take inbound calls, make outbound follow-up calls, respond to e-mails, send product information and even browse the Web site with customers.
TLC Through Technology Dot-coms and their teleservices partners can create this “we care” approach by using Internet technology available to both of them. In fact, there are greater opportunities with Web marketing because there are more ways to make contact with customers and prospects.
For example, clients can e-mail, fax or leave a voicemail message with questions about a product or service as well as place orders electronically. Or they might call the partner service agency from a link on a dot-com’s Web site.
Good customer contact firms are geared to handle and respond to e-mail, fax, voicemail inquiries or orders within four to 24 hours. Real-time communications capabilities with Internet clients are what distinguishes customer contact centers from more traditional companies.
Superlative Support Some technological applications that have raised the bar include voice-over-IP, collaborative Web site browsing and click-to-chat capabilities, as well as the more common inbound/outbound call, fax or voicemail message.
With voice-over-IP, customers are able to click on an icon from the dot-com’s Web site, which directly dials a customer contact center associate. The agent is then able to service the customer over the phone while they navigate the Web site together. Click-to-chat allows the customer and the associate to communicate in real-time via e-mail.
These capabilities demonstrate the agency’s “we care” policy of satisfying a dot-com customer’s needs. And they often make the difference between ordinary and cutting-edge customer support.
Active Adaptation In addition to quickly responding to customer’s inquiries or product orders, the contact center must adjust to an online company’s constant changes in marketing strategies, which are triggered by the Internet industry’s speed-to-market requirements. Agencies that support dot-coms must proactively recommend strategies and solutions for their clients’ CRM programs. This value-added service is crucial because most dot-coms are preoccupied with the day-to-day business of getting their product or service onto the market. If the agency takes a leadership role, it will be an important asset and, thus, a true partner to the dot-com.
Online firms frequently update their Web sites to reflect new marketing tactics such as adding products and services, testing price points and offers, and implementing advancements in Web site technology. Agencies must react to these new strategies by constantly retraining employees and updating procedures. Dot-coms rely on customer contact centers for their expertise in CRM.
Stable Service Since dot-coms frequently revise their marketing strategies and Web sites, it’s important for their teleservices partner to bring stability to the partnership.
Customer contact associates can provide this sense of security, for example, by continually suggesting adjustments and improvements (as warranted by contact with customers) to the client’s program and services. They can and should recommend service enhancements, question perceived Web site inconsistencies and create and implement – with the dot-com client’s approval – new approaches and test programs.
In addition, customer contact associates can interact with customers to obtain feedback that can better direct a dot-com’s ongoing marketing strategies. Thus the agency can serve both parties.
Enhancing the Experience Whether quickly responding to a customer’s inquiry, completing a product order in rapid turnaround time, or proactively helping to direct a dot-com’s marketing strategy, a customer contact center partner’s main objective is to enhance the customer’s experience, and improve the client’s Web site and products by providing a caring voice. This is a value-added service that allow a dot-com to concentrate on running its business.
