Whether you’re an individual, a small business, or a larger organisation with many customers, making sure that your staff members provide excellent customer service outside of traditional office hours is important.
Before we go over the steps to improve your customer service game, let’s talk about what it takes for customers to even be able to contact companies and employees outside of their normal business hours.
There are several solutions that companies can employ to enable their customers to contact them outside of business hours. As an example, employees can be given a separate line for after-hours and weekend calls, online chat services can be provided for instant contact, and you can provide 24/7 email support. When implementing any of these options, it’s important to make sure that you have enough staff in place to enable fast response times so that your customers aren’t left waiting too long for answers.
When it’s time to go over the steps to improve your customer service game, it’s important to take into consideration how those steps will affect your business. The faster you respond to customers who contact you outside of office hours, the more satisfied they’ll be with your service and products, and the better overall reputation you’ll have with them. While there are many different ways to provide quality customer service during business hours, there’s no reason why an excellent customer service experience can’t be provided to your customers 24/7.
Below is a step-by-step guide that outlines the best ways to provide excellent customer service outside of office hours:
- Make sure your staff members are well trained.
It’s important that your employees understand their role in providing excellent customer service, whether they’re receptionists, customer service agents, or supervisors. Each staff member should be well-trained on how to handle calls and requests during normal business hours, as well as outside of business hours. They should also be well versed in the company’s mission statement and know how to communicate the company’s products and services to customers.
- Make sure customers know they can contact you outside of business hours.
This is important for several reasons. It ensures that customers don’t have to worry about scheduling their calls during the day if they need to, it makes it easy for them to contact you at any time, and it ensures that your staff members are well aware of the expectations surrounding their after-hours responsibilities.
- Designate staff members to respond to after-hours calls and requests.
When a customer contacts your business outside of office hours, they will be answered by trained staff members who have been designated for after-hours duty. When you’ve assigned specific staff members, and not everyone in the company is expected to field these calls, you ensure that your customers won’t get a variety of different answers from different people.
- Have a different greeting or answering system for after-hours calls.
Some companies have different answers or voice mails for after hours phone answering service, to make it easier for customers to contact them. For example, your company might have one specific voicemail or greeting that will be played when customers call during normal business hours, but a different message will be played when they call outside of business hours. This helps employees understand their roles during those times.
Why is customer service important in business?
Customer service is important in business because it’s a way for organizations to respond to their customers and ensure that they are happy, satisfied, and will return for future purchases. The customer service department will handle complaints or disputes that may occur with the organization as well as when a customer has an issue with their product or service. Customer service is important in business because it also can help determine whether a company will stay in business, or even increase its profits. If the customer service department is effective and efficient, companies will gain more customers, which increases the competition for that product or service. For example, a company that has poor customer service might have to increase its prices in order to compete with other companies that have better customer service.
Before the 1900s there were few options for customers to complain about products and services. The most common methods of complaining about a product or service were to talk about it in public venues or through the mail, which was both time-consuming and costly. Businesses responded by developing modern customer service departments. The first department was developed in 1907 by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, which had spent millions of dollars on telephone lines. Before the customer service department was established, customers with complaints would have to contact their local company branch and speak directly to an employee. As a result, many individuals were dissatisfied with the service they received because it was difficult for them to have their issues addressed in a timely manner. Businesses quickly realized that they needed a way to respond quickly to customer complaints and keep them content so they would continue buying from that company.
The evolution of customer service
Customer service is an integral element of the digital age. Customer service offers a wide range of businesses the ability to connect with their customers face-to-face, not just through text. This has changed how companies operate and what they offer to their customers. For example, customer service tools like chat, voice, and video provide real-time engagement with customers so that they feel like they are getting an honest response from the company as soon as possible. These tools give customers the ability to purchase and use their products in a way that is most convenient for them.
Some companies are even merging real-time customer service with artificial intelligence to create a unique experience for their customers that makes them feel like they are interacting with a human despite being automated. This seamless customer experience has also increased retention rates among companies as well as revenue. With the ability to communicate and connect with customers so easily, companies have an easier time finding ways to educate and accommodate their needs. They are able to explain products and services in a way that is more convenient for the customer than an email or phone call.
