Telemarketing, telesales, cold calling, inside sales; they’re all the same, right? Sales approaches where a salesperson calls a lead and tries to sell a product or service? There is some truth to that. However, these approaches differ in their methodology and how involved salespeople need to be to convert leads. Learn about the key differences between telemarketing and inside sales so you can adopt a sales approach that is most effective for your business.
The Difference Between Telemarketing and Inside Sales
Telemarketing, inside sales, and cold calling are terms often used interchangeably. This is because they are similar services that make outbound calls to prospective customers and try to convert them. However, each approach and its methodology is different. Here we discuss telemarketing and inside sales so you can better understand the differences between the two sales approaches.
What is Telemarketing?
Telemarketing as a cold calling sales tactic has been around for years. The general understanding of telemarketing is that it is a scripted, one-call closing sales technique. In other words, telemarketing calls are highly scripted and they aim to close a deal or disqualify a lead in one call. These calls or prospects are usually about small-ticket, B2C products while the leads are low value.
Most people have come to expect telemarketing calls as spammy, disrespectful of time, and monotonous. Telemarketers get to the point; they engage with potential customers just once and decide if it is a closed or lost deal.
On the contrary, some businesses view telemarketing as more than just impersonal and monotonous selling. In this case, telemarketers don’t just try to close a deal in one call. Instead, they work on prospecting, building relationships, and sourcing opportunities, all during a phone call. And more recently, there has been a shift from scripted conversations to more personalized ones.
In short, telemarketing is quick and supports smaller sales cycles for low-ticket products.
What are Inside Sales?
The inside sales approach takes telemarketing to the next level. Inside sales includes multiple calls at various touch-points. The selling process in these calls is more complex with the reps taking a more involved approach and working closely with prospects. These calls are not scripted and tailored to the prospect’s specific situation and needs.
Inside calls target B2B and high-end B2C sales; that is, high-ticket sales. And they require longer nurturing and strategic targeting. Salespeople performing inside sales are well-trained and focus on personalization and relevance to bring new customers aboard. Inside sales also include:
Building rapport and trust with the customer or prospect
Providing expertise and information to help prospects make informed decisions
Developing genuine relationships with prospects
In short, inside sales is more detailed, has a higher value, and a longer sales cycle.
Telemarketing Versus Inside Sales
As you can see, the key difference between telemarketing and inside sales is how involved the salesperson is.
Telemarketers may not be required to study leads beforehand or work closely with prospects to help move them down the sales funnel. They may use call center software and predictive dialing to go through their list of prospects.
Inside sales teams may use more advanced call center software and virtual communication tools such as outbound calling, web dialers, engagement tracking, sales forecasting, and more. The sales acceleration technology used by these teams helps them identify and convert valuable prospects by finding the best times to call and preferred methods of communication. This leads to a better experience for both the prospect and the salesperson.
Making Sales Calls with Outbound Calling
Global Call Forwarding offers a variety of call center software tools that help businesses make sales calls more effectively. You can use our outbound calling service with our web softphone to make sales calls from any location. Our virtual phone numbers enable you to increase your local presence in a variety of markets the world over. Want to learn more? Speak with our global specialists or chat with us online today!
More and more customers expect their brands and businesses to offer 24/7 customer support. This is significantly important for businesses with a wide and international customer base. The Follow the Sun customer service model can help your business become more reliable and accessible. Secure valuable global clients and increase their trust and faith in your business by letting them reach you easily!
So, what is the “Follow the Sun model”? Follow the Sun is a customer support method that focuses on providing consistent customer support without regard for geographic location or time restraints. In other words, Follow the Sun is a 24/7 customer support approach for local and international clients.
Medium to large companies, especially international and multinational companies, can use Follow the Sun coverage to offer 24/7 global customer support without relying solely on one customer service team. With such a model, customer service reps are not overburdened or forced to work late shifts. Instead, businesses can use remote or distributed customer support teams or BPOs to offer uninterrupted customer service. This constant workflow helps businesses:
Offer accessible customer support and assistance
Increase response times
Build customer trust
Position your business as a reliable one
3 Principles of a Follow the Sun Support Model
The main purpose of such a model is for businesses to offer uninterrupted customer service without geographical and time constraints. To accomplish this goal, Follow the Sun coverage is based on the following principles:
1. Availability Across Multiple Time Zones
For this approach to work effectively, customer service and support teams need to be spread across different locations and time zones. This way, businesses can maintain continuity of workflow and support, and customers can find help wherever they are located.
2. Faster Responses
Customer service teams need to be on top of their jobs and resolve queries quickly and accurately. First call resolution rates should be high with agents available 24/7, not only for phone conversations or chats but also to resolve trouble tickets.
3. Knowledge Hand-Outs
Finally, a system should be designed where information, knowledge, and business processes are seamlessly transferred from one team to another. Handoffs for pending tasks and queries are essential so the next team member can resolve them and the customer does not have to connect with the business again for support.
Pros and Cons of a Follow the Sun Service Desk
There are numerous customer service approaches and models out there. All are trying to help businesses offer excellent and uninterrupted service. However, which model works best for your company depends on the type of business you run, your communication infrastructure, and your budget. More importantly, what are you hoping to achieve with a new customer service model? To determine if a Follow the Sun support schedule can help your business, let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages of such a model.
6 Ways Follow the Sun Schedule Can Benefit Businesses
1. Increased availability and accessibility
By having your customer service team work around the clock or in multiple locations, you greatly increase the chances of being available to every customer who calls your business. Every customer call is valuable and a potential sale. And so, losing out on customers who call during off-hours can hurt your business. Additionally, your business also becomes accessible to customers outside your target market. And this can help you find new leads (more on that later).
2. Faster responses and problem-solving
By employing agents at all times and locations, you can train your customer service teams to offer quick and accurate responses. Customers calling for assistance want their issues resolved as soon as possible and correctly. And if your business’ response times and first call resolution rates are high, your customers will come back for more and recommend you to their networks.
3. Consistent and reliable customer service
By doing all of the above, you can position your business as a reliable source of customer support. Current customers will rely on your service and continue to invest in it. You can then showcase them through customer reviews and testimonials that will inspire other similar customers to connect with your business.
Ah, the new leads. By making your business available in multiple time zones and locations, you have the opportunity to get customers in multiple countries. These may even be customers your business does not ideally include in top business personas. You can get insights into other areas for growth, new customer bases, and new ways to improve your product.
5. Considerate employee experience
Follow the Sun support schedule means not having to make your employees work overtime or odd shifts. Employees can work within their regular daytime office hours and provide support to customers in those time zones. This can help employees maintain a work-life balance and do a better job when interacting with customers.
6. Establish a global presence
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, your business gets to be on the global stage. You can establish a global presence without needing to open up multiple physical locations around the world. Some companies don’t need a physical presence to do business. However, an approach like this helps your company maintain a virtual presence in multiple locations and offer support to all customers.
Issues to Consider With This Approach
1. Communication and collaboration issues
When teams are distributed or spread across multiple locations, there’s a possibility of miscommunication and it is harder for teams to collaborate and be on the same page. However, we now have technology and communication tools that can help ease this process. Project management systems, chat, cloud-based CRM, and so on. Users can use these tools to enter and update customer info, assign tasks, update progress, and more.
2. Lack of coordination
Similar to the above point, a common issue with a Follow the Sun model is improper hand-off coordination. This happens when the previous team does not properly hand off pending or incomplete tasks to the new team or individuals in the next shift. Again, a well-designed CRM or project management system can help ease this process. However, employees need to take the time to update their records.
3. Unfamiliar tools and tech
Most of the issues mentioned above can be solved if efficient processes are set in place and advanced tools are used to streamline these processes. However, this means that your employees are well-versed in the different tools and technologies used. If not, then employees may spend more time learning the software or re-doing simple processes instead of taking care of customers.
How Can Your Business Offer 24/7 Global Support?
If you think your business can benefit from offering global 24/7 customer support, then you need to start planning how to provide this service.
First, Make a Plan
Establish goals and create a plan for how your business and customer service teams will offer round-the-clock, global customer support.
Some companies do this by having multiple customer service hubs or remote teams. They will use separate phone lines for each country or hub. Then, these companies get time-based routing or location-based routing from a virtual number provider like Global Call Forwarding. These routing strategies enable incoming calls to forward or route to different locations based on specific rules set by the business.
For example, time-based routing forwards calls to specific locations or numbers based on the time of the call. Location-based routing forwards calls to specific customer service teams based on the location of the caller. These strategies help callers connect with the most appropriate customer service agent in their time and location (and at times, language) preferences.
Another way to offer 24/7 service is to have all incoming calls (from different countries) forwarded to your main customer service hub and have employees work in shifts.
Next, Invest in the Right Technology and Tools
Don’t just “go with the flow.” Pay attention to the ways your teams can streamline and standardize the communication and hand-off process. Your teams will need the right tools and phone system to make this strategy work. For example, consider global SIP trunking to easily configure and manage your shift to a Follow the Sun model. Additionally, you will want project and content management systems that can help your managers and customer service teams communicate and collaborate virtually in real-time.
How you plan to adopt the Follow the Sun support schedule depends on your communication infrastructure, business phone system, remote teams, and budget. Make a decision that works best for your business.
Reach More Customers by Being Active
Follow the Sun coverage, if adopted and executed well, can help businesses reach more customers and a wider audience. More importantly, by offering reliable and responsive customer service, your company can secure valuable customer relationships and attract new leads. Learn how our call routing and call forwarding solutions can help your global expansion efforts. Call us today at 1 (888) 908 6171 or chat with us online!
Customers drive a business to success. Understanding your customers — who they are and where they come from — can help you offer better service. This is especially important when entering new markets. How do you know if this new market is going to be lucrative for your business? Enter: market research. Local market research helps businesses understand prospects and customers in target markets and regions. By gaining insights into your customers — their habits, preferences, goals, and motivations — you can improve your service and develop stronger relationships.
What is Local Market Research?
Local market research is the process of collecting specific information about your customers and prospective buyers. Your marketing or sales teams gather information about buyer personas and target audiences as well as existing or returning customers. The goal is to identify how your product will be doing in a new market or is doing in an existing market.
Benefits of Conducting Market Research
Market research helps your business slow down and pay close attention to your customers and buyer personas. More specifically, who are they? What are their pain points? What goals and solutions are they trying to achieve? And so on. Your business can then use this information to develop better products and a marketing plan that is more naturally appealing to prospects. Market research can help you identify:
Where your customers are looking for products and services
Where and how they conduct their research
What features and services (solutions) they are looking for
Which competitors prospects are looking at
What’s trending in your industry
What customers expect from a business or service like yours
Specific customer challenges and pain points
Who and what influences their purchases, and so on
By conducting market research, your business can identify strong markets, new areas of investment, strengths and weaknesses of your product, and new customer bases. Your teams can then create more effective marketing strategies.
Types of Market Research
There are many different ways to conduct market research and your teams do not have to do all of those mentioned below. Before doing any research, make a plan. Determine the goal of this research. Do you just want to learn more about your buyer personas or do you want to learn more about how your business stacks up against the competition? Similarly, do you have the budget to conduct a full-fledged analysis or can your teams make do with interviews and case studies? We have listed the different types of market research below so you can decide which ones make sense for your business.
1. Interviews & Focus Groups
Interviews (in-person or online) are one of the most common market research methods. Your teams take the time to speak with customers and prospects going through a series of questions and taking important notes. By speaking directly with the consumer, you can get a feel for their needs and preferences.
Focus groups are another common method of conducting research. With focus groups, a handful of pre-selected individuals are asked questions, test out products, watch product demos, and provide feedback or ask questions. This way, your teams can identify what aspects of your product and brand are clear and which areas need improvement.
2. Market Segmentation
Local market research gives insights into the new market that you plan to enter. And market segmentation helps you identify the best target audience for your product or service. Market segmentation is the process of dividing your target audience into smaller, more approachable groups or segments. Four main types of market segmentation include:
Demographic (B2C): based on individual attributes
Firmographic (B2B): based on company/ business attributes
Psychographic (B2B/B2C): based on attitudes, traits, values, motivations, etc.
Behavioral (B2B/B2C): based on usage, user status, purchasing/researching habits, etc.
By segmenting your market this way, you can approach product development, marketing, and sales with a renewed focus and cater to a wider audience.
3. Buyer Persona Research
This type of research is focused on creating realistic buyer personas that can help you develop better products and market more effectively. Buyer personas are semi-fictional representations of a target audience. Buyer personas are detailed and take into account a target audience’s:
Demographics
Work situation
Challenges
Desire, motivations, goals
What products or solutions they need
What they expect from your business
Your business can have multiple personas. Nailing these personas can help you target this audience better. Also note that personas develop over time so be open to modifying and updating your personas as new changes and expectations emerge.
You can also use market research to determine how well your brand or business is known in target markets and areas. Customers that are not aware of your brand will look to other brands for solutions that you offer as well. This part of local market research lets you know how much attention you need to pay to increase brand awareness.
You can even take this one step further to identify how well your solution is known. For example, customers in another market may not be immediately aware of how your product or service can solve an issue they might be facing. For that matter, some prospects may not even know they have an issue that your product can solve. This is an important aspect of market research because it lets you know where and how to market to these groups.
5. Qualifying Leads with Pre-Sale Surveys
Before entering new markets, every business needs to be certain that this new market is going to benefit the business overall. Otherwise, you might end up wasting money, time, and other resources. One way to test new markets is by conducting pre-sale surveys to qualify leads and prospects.
Pre-sales surveys are questionnaires reps use when speaking with prospective customers to collect qualifying information about them. These surveys help sales reps identify good leads, understand the leads better, determine their needs and pain points, etc. By doing this, the business can reduce time spent on acquiring bad leads by focusing on good prospects instead. This further streamlines the sales process making it more efficient.
6. Product or Service Use Research
This type of market research looks at how and why your customers use your product or service. More specifically, what features or benefits do they use the most and why. And also, what features are they struggling with. This type of research focuses more on the purpose and usability of your product so you can refine and create better products.
7. Observation-Based Research
Observation-based research is, as the name suggests, research pulled together through observing how customers and prospects interact with your product or service. This is similar to Product Use Research because it helps identify how usable your product is and what areas need to be clarified.
8. Pricing Research
If your business is a new one or you find that customers are not going through with the purchasing process, you may need to look at your pricing structure. One way to determine if your pricing strategy is well-developed is by observing what similar products and services or your competitors are offering. Pricing research focuses on getting insights into the prices similar products sell at, what target customers expect to pay, and what the competition is doing. These insights will help you build a better pricing strategy that customers are comfortable with as well.
9. Competitive Analysis Research
This type of market research looks closely at what your competition is doing. More specifically, what competition does your business have? What’s working well in your industry right now? What is your target audience looking for when it comes to products like yours? What additional features and services are competitors offering? These insights can help you develop better products and processes while being at the frontline of your industry.
10. Budget & Campaign Research
Businesses can also use local market research to plan out budgets and measure ROI on marketing campaigns and investments. Your sales and marketing teams can track call records, visit times, customer preferences, and customer pain points, to name a few. And then use this information to streamline marketing efforts and budget more effectively.
For instance, market research and metrics can highlight popular service times. In other words, periods of time or certain days that the business is more likely to have customer interactions. The business can then offer more services during those periods. Similarly, test marketing can identify which marketing and promotional efforts are working well and which are not producing desirable results. Your business can then decide to allocate funds and which strategies to pay more attention to.
11. Customer Satisfaction & Loyalty Research
Next, you can use local market research to improve your customer relationships. Connect with existing customers to understand how they use your product, how satisfied they are, and how likely they are to stick with your business. This information is essential in retaining valuable customers and learning how you can improve your product or service to attract more customers.
Take the time to understand your customers’ pain points and how they use your product to solve their problems. This can give you new insights into how you can refine your product and market it better.
To conduct original research, your business will need a research team (or your marketing or sales team) and a plan of action. Here are some things to consider when researching markets:
1. Make a Plan
Start by making a plan and setting goals. Consider these questions:
What do you want to research?
What core customer or target group do you want to research?
How will this research be conducted? In-person interviews? Observations?
What type of questions do you want answered?
Who will conduct this research?
How much do you want to spend or invest in this research?
2. Choose a Buyer or Audience Group
Next, identify your buyer personas and audience groups. Define and flesh out buyer personas so that they are specific and can help you narrow down core customer groups. Then, use this information to identify groups to target for your research. Compile lists, review your market segments, and create customer groups for engagement.
3. Decide on Methodology
Once you have your groups ready, decide what type of market research you want to conduct and how your teams will conduct it. Think: in-person interviews, video or phone conversations, on-field observations, social media polls, email exchanges, and so on. Make sure your methodology and budget go hand-in-hand.
4. Prepare a List of Questions
Based on your focus and goals, prepare questions or questionnaires that customers will answer. If you are doing a usability test, then prepare steps that customers will follow to complete a task or achieve a goal. Either way, give customers clear instructions and simple questions, then follow up based on their responses.
5. Use Local Phone Numbers
Local phone numbers make it easier to connect with local customers and prospects in different countries. This is especially significant for companies that have an international customer base. Make customers and prospects feel comfortable answering your research or survey questions. And if they receive a call from an unknown number, they will be less likely to answer your call and provide feedback. Your business can get local phone numbers from a virtual phone service provider like Global Call Forwarding.
6. Summarize Findings & Results
Finally, once all research and tests are complete, review answers and results and summarize your findings. Then share this data with the rest of your teams, especially with marketing and sales teams. The next course of action is to decide how this information can be used to create better experiences for your customers and prospects.
Conduct Research to Build Better Customer Relationships
Local market research goes a long way in understanding who your customers and prospects are and what matters to them. These insights can help you develop better products and experiences that draw more customers to your business. They can also show you how to develop better relationships with your customers so that they come back for more and recommend your business to others!
The process of call center quality assurance ensures that the results of your customer service practices match your desired outcome. Because you want to provide exemplary customer service, you must monitor the performance of your call center. This is a continuous process of collecting and analyzing data, training call center agents, and improving your service.
Set Goals for Call Center Quality Assurance
The first step is to evaluate the areas in which your call center needs improving. Outline the goals you intend to reach. Without a concise idea of where you want to start, you will not be able to develop a strong monitoring strategy.
Ask Your Customers Their Opinion
A good way to improve your customer service is by asking your customers what they want. But don’t simply contact them for their opinions as this is not likely to meet with a response. Instead, offer them some incentive. For example, offer them a coupon or reward if they take a few minutes to complete a short survey.
Monitoring Your Call Center With Software
Now you’ve set your goals for call center quality; it’s time to put your plan into action. The first step to assessing the quality of your service is to select the right software. When choosing monitoring software, there are several factors you need to take into consideration. These include:
Features: This aspect will largely depend on the size of your call center and the volume of calls you handle. Some software solutions enable you to automate parts of the monitoring process by analyzing speech and metadata.
Scalability: This is important if the number of your call center agents fluctuates seasonally.
Ease of use: You shouldn’t need to spend too much time training staff how to use it. Make sure the program is intuitive.
Security: The safety of your customer information it a top priority. When you are using software to track it, it must be secure within that program.
Which Metrics Will You Analyze?
There are many key indicators involved in call center quality assurance. However, it’s not possible to monitor all of them. Not only would it be too time-consuming, but you would not be able to analyze the overwhelming results. Choose indicators that are relevant to a particular type of activity and will interact to create a coherent result.
Record a Selection of Calls
Call center agents receive thousands of calls per month. It’s impossible for you to listen to them all. However, many software solutions enable call recording, but be sure to use it judiciously. Recording a random selection of calls can be a waste of time because it won’t be a sampling of a larger trend. Use the metrics you have already gathered and select calls which are not meeting your goals, for example, calls which ran on too long, or which were handled poorly, or those in which customers had to call back several times about the same issue.
Write Professional Scripts
Scripts are a customer call center staple. They help to ensure that your agents are maintaining the standards you’ve set for the quality of your customer service. A script is a necessity whether your call center deals with inbound calls. A professional script reflects the results of your monitoring. Your agents should be able to go off script when a situation demands it. This is where good training comes in.
Provide Regular Training
Training should begin with each new hire and should continue on a regular basis. Your quality assurance specialist should educate new hires about your customer service goals and how to meet them. Have your best agents buddy-up with new members of the team. This will give them extra confidence and encourage them to emulate your most successful agents. Training isn’t just for new hires, it should be continuous, but you need to make sure that it doesn’t become monotonous. Otherwise, you are defeating the purpose. Make sure agents stay engaged in training by varying your training methods and activities. Agents should also feel they are able to ask for extra training if they feel they need it. Training sessions should be tailored to suit individual agents as much as possible; if not, it won’t be relevant to his or her needs. Everyone’s time is better utilized when training is a direct result of call monitoring, and it will strengthen your call center quality assurance system as a whole.
As you can see, there’s much more to call center quality assurance than just watching over your agents. It’s about monitoring services and using the data to highlight areas where improvement is needed. It’s also about training staff on a regular basis, so they continue to improve. But that’s not all either. You must maintain a company culture of trust and cooperation to optimize your call center.
Perhaps you’ve noticed a newer trend among businesses that offer ways to reach them by phone: 855 numbers. You may be familiar with 800 numbers, which are typically toll-free, but you may wonder: is 855 toll free in the same way that 800 numbers are? In this article, we’ll answer these questions and more about 855 numbers.
Toll Free Numbers: Is 855 Toll Free?
If you’re curious and questioning, is 855 toll free?, the answer is yes. These numbers are toll free to callers and they work the same way that 800 numbers do. Instead of the caller being charged for the number, the subscriber is charged to allow its customers to avoid having to pay for time spent on the phone — something that many customers may balk at when faced with other types of communication. 855 numbers work in exactly the same way all 800 numbers do while being protected by the same porting rules as all other toll free numbers. The only difference is two digits!
Why Use 855 Toll Free Numbers?
Because 855 phone numbers are toll free in the same sense that 1-800 phone numbers are, you may be wondering why an 855 number is used at all.
First, considering that there have been lots of 800 numbers used by businesses throughout the years, the ability to find a number that hasn’t been used has dwindled. In fact, if you do the math, there are only 7.8 million possible combinations of numbers — and there have been plenty more businesses since the inception of 800 toll free numbers in the past. This can be a very important factor when a business entity uses the phone number as part of its branding campaign (1 800 MATTRESS, for example), with 855 being a new way to open up new letter combinations. With common letter combinations like CAT and BAT using the same numbers, businesses have had to settle for toll free numbers that may not have the same marketing and advertising impact that branded numbers have. With the relatively new 855 prefix, savvy businesses can finally get a piece of the action that older businesses have only previously had access to.
Another unexpected side effect of 800 toll free numbers being used since the 1960s is that many numbers have been used by multiple business, being, in effect, recycled. While this might not seem like such a big problem for the consumer, your business is on the hook when it comes to these misdirected and erroneous calls. Telemarketers are notorious for targeting businesses in hopes to scam employees and levy unfounded complaints for mislabeled phone numbers. 855 toll free phone numbers offer a less used selection of numbers that prevents this waste of your money and resources.
Thirdly, 855 toll free numbers give your business the same type of nationwide presence and similar credibility as 800 numbers, used widely by both Fortune 500 companies and small businesses that want a professional image. Customers do not want to be responsible for calling costs and it is very much expected that the companies they do business with to foot the bill. For businesses, using 800 and 855 toll free numbers can establish a professional rapport that local-based numbers lack. And according to research, customers automatically view your business enterprise in a different way if you have a toll free number, as opposed to just using local numbers.
855 Numbers and Beyond
Is 855 toll free? Yes they are, and there are actually many other variations to the standard 800 number.
In terms of availability, there are more phone numbers with the 855 prefix available than 800, thanks to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) efforts to make more toll free phone numbers available for business communication. Since their release in 2010, 855 toll free numbers have seen a skyrocketing demand among businesses that have jumped on the opportunity. Additionally, other prefixes have become popular due to the FCC’s release of new prefixes, with 844 toll free numbers and 833 toll free numbers also in high demand among businesses looking to separate themselves from the pack. These prefixes are all part of the North American Numbering Plan, which allows the U.S., Canada, and other territories (i.e. the Dominican Republic) to communicate toll free. Other toll free numbers have been in existence, which includes the prefixes 833, 866, 877, and 888. In the future, you can expect to see the toll free prefix 822 become more widely used, followed by 887 and 889.
Getting an 855 Toll Free Number from Global Call Forwarding
For those questioning, is 855 toll free? The answer is yes. If so, then subscribing with Global Call Forwarding can make the process seamless and easy. Simply visit www.globalcallforwarding.com and select the prefix 855 from the dropdown menu. You’ll see a list of available numbers or have the ability to select a vanity number for a nominal fee. Pick the toll free 855 number you want and specify the destination number or numbers, depending on where you wish to route your call. Then, select a plan and plan options to finalize the process. Once selected, your 855 number will be available for use by the following business day.
You may be surprised to know that 96 percent of dissatisfied customers do not complain. However, 91 percent of those unhappy people will never buy from you again. Your top priority is to keep your customers happy. But how can you tell if your customers are satisfied with your products and services? It’s not as straightforward as it may seem, but there are some very useful methods and metrics available. Here is how to measure customer satisfaction that you can start applying to your business right now.
Customer Satisfaction Surveys
The satisfaction survey is the most popular approach to collecting information about a customer’s experience. The basic survey asks each customer how satisfied they are and usually has a few follow-up questions. You can utilize customer satisfaction surveys in three ways:
Email survey: An email survey is a good way to get an in-depth insight into your customer happiness. Although they have a lower response rate than other methods, they allow your customers to answer multiple questions.
In-app survey: For this method, you need to integrate a feedback bar on your website. An in-app survey will usually consist of just one or two questions.
Service survey: This type of survey focuses on customer service or delivery. The survey is taken immediately after the service was provided and can be done by email or live chat.
The standard customer satisfaction metric is to ask your customers to rate their satisfaction with your service, product, or business on a scale of 1-5 or 1-10. The advantages of this metric are its simplicity and its directness. The disadvantage is that customer satisfaction can be hard to rate, even for the customer.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
The NPS measures the customers’ probability of referring your company to someone else. This is the most common way to gauge customer loyalty. Each customer is asked how likely he or she is to recommend your business on a scale of 1-10. The NPS is easier to answer than the customer satisfaction survey because it’s about the customer’s intention to refer rather than their emotional satisfaction. This data can easily be gathered using in-app or email surveys.
Customer Effort Score (CES)
This metric analyzes the effort it took to get the customer’s issue resolved. It is typically measured on a scale of 1-7. Market research shows that customers with a high effort score show a reduction in loyalty down the line. You need to aim for as low of a CES as possible.
Pricing Issues
Allowing your customers to express their feelings about pricing will give you useful information, not only about how they feel about the total price of your products or services but also how they feel about their value for the money.
Complaints
It essential that you evaluate complaints thoroughly every time you receive one. You can also broaden your analysis by checking out unsolicited feedback in online reviews and social media. When a customer contacts you with a specific issue, always get back to them and provide a possible solution quickly to restore their happiness.
Social Media Monitoring
The impact that social media has had on the relationship between customers and businesses cannot be overemphasized. This is mainly due to the fact that it enables customer experience to be shared with a much wider circle than ever before. That means it’s the perfect platform for you to find out how your customers feel about your brand. Facebook and Twitter are the obvious platforms but don’t forget the other ones like Yelp, Quora, and TripAdvisor. It’s also worthwhile to sign up for Google Alerts, as this will notify you when your brand is mentioned online. You should also try out Socialmention. It’s a free tool that analyzes mentions of your brand in social media. It will give you information on the likelihood of your brand being discussed online and the ratio of positive to negative mentions.
Motivate your Customers to Participate
Once you have your customer satisfaction metrics in place, you need to make sure as many customers as possible are using them. Asking customers for their opinion will make them feel valued, but some people just don’t want to spend the time. This is where it helps to offer incentives. For example, adding a coupon, reward or additional information will often encourage them to participate in an online survey.
This is a valuable checklist of How to Measure Customer Satisfaction, that can help you get started with measuring your customer satisfaction. If you are struggling to come up with a survey that you think is right for your business, you will find many templates and suggestions online. Get started on satisfying your customers right now!
One of the most important factors of marketing a business successfully is your voicemail greeting, yet all too often, this is overlooked. It’s crucial that you present yourself professionally on the phone. Here are some voicemail greeting tips to help you maximize the value of your voicemail service.
Eliminate Background Noise
Top of the voicemail greeting tips is to make sure you record your voicemail greeting in the right place, where there is no background noise such as noisy children, animals, or honking traffic. If your callers can hear background noise, it will not only impair your professional image, but it will also make your callers feel slighted. It will only take 5-10 minutes to record your message, so do it at home or in your office when you have some quiet time.
Show Your Brand’s Individuality
Your brand is unique, and your voicemail message should reflect that. Avoid using generic greetings like, “I can’t get to my phone right now, please leave a message.” Your voicemail gives you an opportunity to make your business stand out and stick in your callers’ minds. You can incorporate a fact or two about your business or something related to your mission statement. For example, “hi there, you’ve reached Brewster Farms. We provide the finest quality organic mushrooms for restaurants and domestic kitchens. Leave a message so we can help you stock up your larder.”
Keep Your Callers Engaged
Despite the brevity, a business voicemail has a lot in common with a business conversation. Imagine you are creating a dialogue between yourself and a potential customer. That will give you a much more upbeat tone, and your message will be engaging. They will leave the call with a good impression. A good way to encourage engagement is to ask callers to do something. For example, “we’ll get back to you ASAP if you include the name of your favorite movie in your message.” You may not realize it but when you smile, the tone of your voice completely changes. It will make your greeting sound much friendlier.
Write it Down and Practice
Not many people can pull off an unscripted voicemail message. So, unless you’re an experienced public speaker, you’re better off writing it down and rehearsing to avoid those awkward “ums” and “erms.” You’ll also sound clearer and more confident.
Update Your Greeting on a Regular Basis
By updating your greeting frequently, you can keep it fresh. You can easily do this by adding new information such as your latest special offer, or the newest inventory item. You can also mention who to contact while you are unavailable. Just make sure that all your greetings are time-sensitive.
Keep it Concise
Don’t ramble on during your voicemail greeting. Provide just the amount of information that’s needed. If you make your greeting too long, your callers will just hang up without bothering to listen to it, and that means you may be losing another customer. Your greeting certainly shouldn’t be so long that a caller has to call back to listen to it again because they didn’t catch all the information the first time. The optimal time length for your greeting is 20-25 seconds.
Set expectations
Always remember to let your callers know when they should expect you to return their call. And try to keep the wait time to a minimum. For example, let them know you will be available to return their call in two hours, or between 2 and 4 PM. Whatever the window you state in your greeting, remember to stick to your word. Customers will not be impressed if you don’t call them back when you promised to. If you forget to call them back or you are late calling them, it’s unlikely they will deal with your company again.
Check your greeting: Once you’ve completed your outgoing voicemail message, listen to it once or twice to make sure you said what you meant to say and be sure that it matched the professional expectations of your company. If you really want to see how effective it is, dial in from outside as a customer would and make sure the transition to voicemail is seamless.
A Simple Example
Here’s an example of a professional sounding greeting.
“Hello, this is Rebecca at Ambiguous Media. I will be in a meeting this morning, but I will be able to return calls between 1-3 PM Eastern Standard Time. If you need immediate assistance, please press 1, and your call will be transferred to our customer service manager. You can also reach me at [email protected]. I will be responding throughout the afternoon. Thanks for calling!”
Using these tips will keep you on track when you need to create or update your voicemail greeting. You will always sound professional, and your customers will never feel let down when they call, even when you are unable to answer.
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