Using Effective Call Centers To Grow Your Customer Base

When you own a business, it’s important to get as much exposure as possible for your company. Not only are you responsible for the marketing, when you are starting up, you must also attract new customers while fulfilling orders for your product or services. Your time will be infinitely stretched.

When you gain some success, the demand for what your business offers will have the phones ringing off the hook. This is what you have been working for but if the demand for your product or service goes unfulfilled because you lack the manpower, you need to reassess your business operations, and look for resources, such as virtual call centers, that will help smooth over any rough edges in your business.

For the past decade, call centers have taken the pressure off of small business owners who need help answering telephones, taking customer inquiries and orders over the phone, following up with customers’ concerns, processing credit card orders, making cold calls to attract new customers and conducting surveys. In some instances, call centers have multilingual agents.

Today’s Call Centers

Traditional call centers are found in brick-and-mortar buildings while agents in virtual call centers, also called “cloud-based” call centers, work in their homes. In both cases, call center workers go through a rigorous hiring process and those with previous customer service work experience are more than likely to be hired.

Workers must possess good customer service and business skills, be adept at typing and have some data entry skills. Workers undergo training to learn about the products or services of the businesses for which they work.

What’s more, agents at virtual call centers have their own home office equipment, which usually includes a computer, fax machine, printer, and a telephone and headset. Because of the software used, virtual agents can stay connected with call center staff and managers while they work. Managers are also available to help agents who may get stumped with customers’ concerns.

Modern call centers operate using VOIP, which is voice over internet protocol, allowing for international calls without expensive toll charges. Using a service, such as VOIP solution Avoxi, can widen your customer base incrementally, because there are no down times when your office would be closed to a potential customer who is half way around the world.

Call Center Reviews

According to TopTenReviews.com, small- and medium-sized businesses that use call centers save money because they do not pay direct employee costs and call center workers bring in new sales and new clients. Call centers are used by a wide variety of businesses, from banks to bakeries, credit unions to car repair companies, and from health care to telecommunication companies.

In addition, the review said that call center services are available around the clock, which makes it less likely for customers to have to leave messages on voice mail or listen to a “voice tree” with a mechanical voice directing them to “Press 1” for a particular service. Having agents available at all times help companies to grow their business.

Today’s technology now allows small- and medium-sized companies to operate on a global scale, which is why it’s important that business owners be accessible to their customers and clients easily, and at any time. Make it easy for your customers to ring your bell!

Featured image source flickr.com/photos/huaweipress/4798036091/sizes/z/in/photostream/