By A.J. Windle, Director of Operations
Cell phones. These magical handheld computers have come a long way since the days of vehicle bag phones. We’re now a mobile society with over 90% of Americans now owning a cell phone. It boggles my mind that more businesses are not utilizing texting in their call center. The primary opportunity is to text enable your company’s main business number, your customer service phone number, and your customer service and sales team’s DIDs.
Here at QCS we have taken a proactive approach to increasing outbound call program response rates and inbound customer service satisfaction by adding text communication to the mix.
1. Adding a text channel in the call center just makes sense!
In a recent study released by US Health Department they found that roughly 50% of households only use cell phones and this number keeps increasing by 3.7% year over year. If you’re reading this article there is a high likelihood that you are reading it on your cell. It’s not just a tool anymore, cell phones have literally become an addiction. Walk into any business, stand in a grocery store checkout line, sit in a dentist office waiting room and look at the people around you, I’m confident that most of the people you see will be mesmerized by this captivating device. Bad news for social interactions that require verbal communication and eye contact, however where there is an obstacle, therein lies the opportunity.
By adding text as a communication option for customers to communication with your business, you will find that customers like texting and it costs less to provide customer communication via text. One call center agent can text with multiple customers at once and your text platform can also be built to include some auto-responders for frequently asked questions like, “What time do you open today?”
2. Customers get quicker issue resolution when you add a text channel in the call center
Get this! 95% of text messages are opened and most of those are read in under 3 minutes. In the world of Customer Service, the primary goal is to satisfactorily solve the customer’s problem and do it as quickly as possible. That’s what we want and that’s what the customer wants. The longer issues hang out there today the more complaints we get from consumers who are used to quick response times and complaints go a lot further today in the age of social media.
Offering customers an option to text your organization provides a communication channel which will help you resolve issues quickly.
3. Increase customer engagement by texting promotions, coupons or links to opt-in text subscribers
Customers like promotions. The difficult part is getting them to use them if they are sent by snail mail. Most direct mail promotions end of in the trash as junk mail because it’s more a pain to save them and use them before they expire. Using text messages to share promotions, coupons or links to other key information will score your company points with your customers. You can give them immediate promotions that are stored on their cell phone and take up no extra space.
Another great use case is this: Let’s say that you’re on the phone with a potential new customer and the next step to signing up for your service is they need to go to a web form and fill something out. We’ve found that if you immediately text a link to that form, they will be much more likely to take the next step and complete the form. Waiting to send a link via email is no longer a preferred vehicle for these types of communications.
Almost all websites are mobile friendly these days and speaking from personal experience, I fill out more information online with my cell phone then I ever do with my computer. It’s just easier.
At QCS we have helped many of our clients’ text enable their customer service phone number, their main business phone number and their call center agents and sales reps’ DIDs. Our secret weapon is TextBetter.com (it is a solution provided by our sister company, Quality Voice & Data). Our clients love it. Our customers and prospects love it. Our owner-operated call center partners love it. And best of all, it’s quick and easy.
If you are interested in adding a text channel to your call center give us a call at 1-866-963-2889. Or email me at aj.windle@qualitycontactsolutions.com. We’d love to help!
Other Articles You Might Find Interesting:
Why Use Texting in Your Telemarketing Services Campaign
Successful Outbound Call Center Project Management
A.J. Windle is the Director of Operations of Quality Contact Solutions. A.J. is responsible for ensuring every client program is successful on a daily basis, including achieving the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that matter most. With a deep call center operations background, A.J. is a hands-on leader and has built his career on creating win-win-win relationships for his team, his clients and the owner-operated call centers he is responsible for. A.J. loves to keep score and he is proud of his team’s scoreboard. A.J. knows that great leaders find a way to make sure their team wins. A.J can be reached at aj.windle@qualitycontactsolutions.com or 516-656-5106.
