Markets are becoming increasingly competitive each year.
New players, technologies and innovations are disrupting the market more frequently than ever. While R&D should remain a key focus for a business, intelligent managers and business owners also need to emphasise one of the most important pillars of business success—customer experience, especially the post-sale services.
COVID-19 has made businesses realise the importance of building healthy and long-lasting customer relationships.
Renowned customer service experts and consultants have also highlighted the need for a strong CX during and post the pandemic. However, the pandemic has also substantially changed the way businesses operate. They have moved to a virtual or remote working environment—one that has unique communication needs.
Businesses today need a communication technology that is reliable, easily scalable, flexible and yet inexpensive.
Sounds tough to find? It isn’t! Cloud telephony solutions are here for you.
This article will discuss the importance of post-sale services and how cloud telephony solutions help you optimise them. Without further ado, let us get started!
Why are post-sale services important?
Imagine you want to purchase a new laptop and improve your work-from-home setup. After extensive research, you finalise a model. You have gone beyond your budget to choose a product that promises better performance.
However, a few days later, you identify a glitch in the system and need assistance. Now, nobody is replying to your emails or picking up phone calls and have gone bizarrely incommunicado.
How would this experience affect your original decision? Would you continue to buy products from this company or switch to an alternative?
According to a survey conducted by American Express, one-third of the customers would consider switching companies after a single instance of poor customer service. Furthermore, more than 70% of the customers are willing to pay extra for quality services.
The message is clear—customers value post-sale services as much as the product itself. Therefore, businesses need to give more attention to this channel and perfect it to keep their customers engaged, happy and build long-lasting relationship.
How can cloud telephony products enhance post-sale services?
The following reasons are responsible for hampering the after-sale services:
- Unavailability of agents
- Long waiting times
- Inaccurate response
- Wrong customer information
Cloud telephony has the solution to each of the abovementioned problems and much more! It can improve internal communications, ensuring round-the-clock availability, enhance user engagement, etc. Let us understand it in detail.
1. Ensure round-the-clock availability
Customers may need some assistance or might face a problem at any time of the day. As a responsible business owner, you need to ensure that your business communication channels are available for your clients at their convenience. However, this does not necessarily mean hiring additional staff or adding extra phone lines.
Leverage cloud telephony solutions—IVR and auto-attendant to facilitate 24/7 operation. No matter when a customer calls your business, they will be greeted with a warm pre-recorded message. Your customers will feel heard and valued.
Furthermore, if someone calls beyond working hours, the cloud-hosted system will generate an auto-alert for the missed call. This approach will allow your agents to get in touch with the customers at the earliest.
2. Give customers quick access to information
Many customers demand quick solutions and do not want to wait for an agent. Automating the calling channels and cataloguing common queries through the self-service feature of IVR can immensely benefit businesses.
When a customer calls, they will be greeted with a message. On interacting with the virtual menu via the keypad, they can access a self-service module. This shall further ease the load on the agents, who can then focus on resolving complex issues or queries.
3. Reduce waiting time
Many call centres face the problem of long queues and waiting time—one of the biggest threats to provide quality after-sales service.
Intelligent call routing algorithms can substantially improve this metric. Calls can be automatically routed based on various parameters like location, time, query, agent’s skill, etc. Identifying the right routing strategy can improve the overall operations multifold.
Yet another cloud telephony feature that can reduce waiting time is queue call back. Using this feature, customers can reserve their ‘spot’ on the queue and request a callback. This saves the customer’s time and elevates their experience.
4. Enhance personalisation
Imagine calling a customer service number, and the agent immediately recognises you and identifies any pending queries. You would be impressed, wouldn’t you?
When integrated with CRM (customer relations management) software, cloud telephony solutions enable such high levels of CX. As an agent receives a call, a pop-up appears on their screen with all the relevant customer information, including that about any pending or past queries.
Agents can further take notes during the call, ensuring they do not miss any crucial data. This information would also come in handy for the agent who interacts with the same customer in the future.
5. Ensure satisfactory resolution
Sometimes customers are given incorrect or incomplete information. This may further agitate the customer and cost you a dear client. Such inaccuracies primarily happen due to two reasons.
One, the concerned agent did not transfer the call to the correct department, or the agent was too insensitive due to the lack of necessary oversight.
Innovative call features like call forwarding, transferring, whispering, barging, monitoring, etc., offer quick solutions to the above problem. Agents will have access to a user-friendly dashboard—listing all agents and departments with their specific roles. Using the forwarding and transferring feature, agents can conveniently patch the call and even summarise the query to the next representative.
Meanwhile, call monitoring and recording features are a powerful ally for agent training and oversight purposes.
Managers can track all calls and identify agents who might be slacking. Call barging feature further allows managers to directly enter a conversation and correct an agent if they are providing any misinformation.
6. Facilitate after-sales engagement
In order to establish a long-term relationship with a customer, businesses must invest in creating campaigns to engage customers even after the sale. Such campaigns would not only drive loyalty but also invite repeat purchases.
Cloud telephony products like bulk SMSes, voice broadcasting, outbound IVR, etc., are exceptional engagement and promotional tools. Keep your customers in the loop about special discounts and offers through regular updates via SMSes.
Businesses may further use these tools to conduct short yet effective surveys. This initiative would increase customer interaction and help managers identify and work upon any pain points.
Conclusion
Post-sale services are crucial for business continuity. As customer behaviour trends keep changing and new technology hits the market every few months, developing a strong and loyal client base is vital.
High-quality business communication tools, the ones offered via cloud telephony solutions are the key to excellent CX. Investing in this inexpensive yet powerful tool can do wonder for your business.
Want to know more? Contact our technical experts today at 1800-120-4132
