When you get a call from a customer, you can’t always deal with the issue immediately. You want their problem dealt with by the best agent, but that person isn’t always immediately available. It makes sense to arrange to call customers back, and it’s vitally important that you do so quickly.
It’s Downright Polite
When a customer calls, it’s almost always because they have a problem. They have a pain point, and this is your chance to address it. When you do this well, you provide an excellent experience that inspires customer loyalty and gets them promoting your brand to friends and family.
When you fail to provide this experience, the opposite happens. The customer’s problem doesn’t get solved and they feel even more frustrated than ever. This frustration becomes anger, and you not only lose their loyalty (and perhaps their business) but you risk it spreading through negative reviews online.
Don’t forget: people are far more likely to post a complaint than a comment. And, unfortunately, the online community pays more attention to negative reviews than positive ones.
It Respects Their Time
Calling a customer back does more than just offer good service and a chance to address their pain point. It also communicates your respect. When you call back, you’re saying you recognize their time is valuable and they’re worth your attention.
When you show respect, you empower and build loyalty. You also inspire respect in return, and that shows itself in how customers talk about you to their friends, family, and followers.
If someone feels you aren’t taking them seriously or don’t care about what they have to say, you’re creating a rift between you and them. Systemic disrespect can even lead to violent reactions. All this can be avoided by simply showing enough respect to call someone back.
It Keeps You Ahead Of The Game
In cutthroat business culture, who is going to come out on top? Increasingly, it’s the brand that doesn’t lose sight of the end goal and comes in fresh every day with that hunger to succeed. What does that have to do with calling back a customer?
When a company starts to get complacent, they take things for granted. They may take for granted that the political winds will never change, for example, or that their one supplier will always be there or will always be the right choice. They may start taking customers for granted, too.
Calling customers back shows you’re interested in their long-term satisfaction. It shows the relationship didn’t end when the transaction went through and that you’re interested in keeping their business.
It Gives You A Chance To Be Tech-Savvy
A cloud based call center software can be configured to ask callers if they want a call back rather than waiting on hold for an available agent. You can also set up the system to elicit info from the customer about what they need so you assign the call to just the right agent: the one who can most efficiently address the customer’s problem.
You could also consider voice broadcasting. Maybe customers are calling with a common question, you want to follow up with helpful information, or you need to communicate a simple message but don’t necessarily need a back-and-forth conversation. In that case, consider using free voice broadcasting to send simple, quick communication to as many people as you need.
It Helps Your Team Learn Empathetic Skills
When customers call, they likely have a problem; and there’s a chance they’re angry. Coach your agents in the techniques they need to defuse angry situations, like resisting the urge to get defensive, remaining calm, and practicing proactive empathy.
