Записи с меткой «communication»

Inbound Call Center: Email and Chat Support

The modus operandi for businesses has changed drastically in the recent past. The same can be said for the BPO firms. You would associate the call center firm to deal only with telemarketing. When you look at them now, you see they handle a diverse range of services that can be broadly classified into inbound call center and outbound call center. Other than this broad division, there is a subtle one as well. Contact with customers is not solely depended on voice calls. Other methods of contacting and dealing with customers have come up as well. Primary among the alternate methods of call center services are email and chat support.

Email is the communication medium for the future. There is nothing that is not being done with the email. BPO firms were quick to pick up this trend. They realized that many customers preferred emails because they could write emails at their convenience. Moreover, the fact that everything is written down reassures them that they are not making mistakes. When the call center agent calls, they might be busy on other work or just distracted by the ambiance. They may also feel at a loss because of information overload. Emails are useful that way. The inbound call center team answers each of their queries in a professional and precise way. They get their answers and the call center services team gets their opportunity to push their sales.

Answering emails is a huge opportunity for the inbound call center team. They have a written document to respond to. This is not just easier to do than convince a disinterested customer. This is also a chance to pitch in your sales stuff. Answer emails in a way that the customer can get to the information without any digging around. A sloppily written email, with grammar and syntax errors, can do a lot of harm to the company’s brand. So the call center agents responding to customers’ emails have to be really careful. There are zero margins for error, just like there is no end to the possibilities of cashing in on the opportunity.

Chat support is another non-conventional method of touching base with your customers. The inbound call center team uses the chat option to interact with the customers informally. Customers feel at ease when they are chatting. They feel comfortable to ask questions which they would have skipped if it was a telemarketing call. BPO agents understand this psychological advantage that they have. They know they have the attention of the customers and can direct the flow of conversation. The chat excerpts can become a coaching manual for future agents who are dealing with similar customers or products/services.

Email and chat support substantiate the fact that BPO in general and inbound call center in particular would leave no stone unturned to tap their customers. Customers have the freedom and the comfort level to connect with the call center agents through a medium that they prefer. The written word holds more value for many. When emails and chats are the vehicles of corporate communication in the modern world, why not use them for marketing?

Keeping The Meeting Monsters At Bay — Preventing Personal Attacks

You remember these people for the wrong reasons.

They are the monsters who hurt others with insults, ridicule, and sarcasm. They bully. They threaten. They attack.

And that ruins your meeting.

Personal attacks are unacceptable because if one person is being hurt in your meeting, everyone else feels it. As a result, the participants retreat into making safe and generally useless contributions.

So, how do you respond to attacks?

First, take a big breath. Grab your courage. And then use one of the following approaches.

Approach 1: Speak to the group

Respond to a hostile remark by making a general comment. Look at the middle of the group and say:

«Just a moment. Let’s pause here to calm down. I can tell we’re upset about this. And we want to find a fair solution for everyone.» (Take slow deep breaths and relax to model calming down.)

After saying this, pause a moment to let the group respond. Often, someone else will support your request. Then continue as if everything were normal.

Avoid looking at the attacker when speaking to the group. Making eye contact acknowledges and returns power to the attacker.

Approach 2: Explore for the cause

Sometimes people throw insults from behind an illusion of presumed distance. You can respond by calling for an explanation. In this case say:

«Pat, you seem upset with that.»

«Tony, you seem to disagree.»

«You seem to have reservations about this.»

I realize these statements may sound like naive responses to an insult. However, such understated responses improve the situation because they sound less threatening, feel easier to deliver, and preserve the other person’s self-esteem. Realize the attacker may have viewed the attack less seriously than it sounded.

These statements also transfer the focus from the target to the attacker’s feelings. And this is what you need to talk about in order to resolve the dispute.

After you speak wait for the attacker to talk about what caused the attack.

If the attacker continues with hostile remarks, interrupt with:

«Excuse me, we need to respect each other. And I wonder what makes you feel upset over this.»

«Excuse me, we heard that. Now, what makes you feel that way?»

«Excuse me, I’m interested in hearing what your concerns are.»

Approach 3: Call a break

If the first two approaches fail to end the attacks, then call a break or end the meeting. This will give you a chance to meet privately with the attacker, rewrite the agenda, rebuild communication, and (if appropriate) schedule another meeting without the attacker.

You could say,

«We seem to be at an impasse. I want to take a break so we can calm down.»

«This hostility makes it impossible to get any work done. So, I’m adjourning the meetings. We’ll work on this later and then reconvene at another time.»

«We need to work on this outside of the meeting. So let’s adjourn.»

Note that some people use anger to intimidate others into cooperating with them. If you adjourn the meeting, you will have to meet with the attacker to resolve the conflict.

Meetings are a forum for finding solutions, making decisions, and reaching agreements. When you apply these approaches to disruptions, you will maintain the productive environment necessary to accomplish your goals.

This is the seventh of a seven part article on Monsters in Meetings.

HOW CAN OUTSOURCING LIVE CHAT SUPPORT SERVICE INCREASES SALES?

Today, e-business has become a popular trend to promote business online. To meet the competition of online market, it is obvious to promote your business using e-marketing tools. A number of business activities are commonly being outsourced to have the benefits of online world. A competitive field that is successfully being outsourced is customer care.

Customer care works to add a personal touch in your business activities and now, it has become a significant part of organizations. Online businesses also offer customer care to provide solutions online. Live chat support is a comprehensive part of customer care.

Surprisingly, the e-customer care support industry has become largely dependent on live chat facility. Here are some important points that emphasize on the perception that live chat outsourcing increases sales.

•    Live chat support outsourcing increases sales to 25 to 35 percent. That is because, live chat operators not only provide solutions to the problems , but also, suggest using newer services or goods that provokes interest in the customer
•    Live chat operator can deliver 70 percent of the information with the help of  previously answered queries and can simultaneously deal 4 recipients
•    Through live chat outsourcing, it is obvious that productivity is affected positively. By having operators all the time for clients, it is a best practice to build confidence and credibility which is directly related to sales
•    Live chat outsourcing can bring in huge sales by cutting the cost of the expenses previously usd for telephonic communication
•    Live chat outsourcing offers 24/7 access to your clients’ world wide that means having a global market with in your approach
•    Live chat outsource enables easy access to trained and efficient operators that means no more wasting money on training an e-team or live chat operators staff.

Businesses are not about making money, it’s about building credibility among your clients and potential customers, it merely depends on profit generation, it depends on how satisfied your customers are from your services?

Live chat outsourcing is a tool that can help your e-business to groom and flourish, by meeting the needs of e-marketing.

How to Find Good Personal Injury Lawyer

The personal injury cases are commonly very receptive in nature, you have lost or injured a part of your body, and you must have the most excellent opportunity to get compensation. Here are five tips, using which you can stumble on the most excellent personal injury lawyer to represent your case.

1. Search for an experienced lawyer specializing in personal injury cases: Personal injury law practice is a forte; look for lawyers who only practice such cases, not anything else. In large law firms, there is commonly a whole department committed to personal injury. First of all, go by referrals that you get from your friends, bar association, on the online listings, yellow pages or referral services. Go for a lawyer who is qualified. Your best stake will be someone more than the age of 30.

1. Meet them all before committing: When you have picked out a few lawyers, meet up all of them with your case before selecting one. In your first convention, clarify your case to the lawyer. If he or she is a qualified lawyer; you’ll get to identify if you have a strong case, what time frame should you look at for settlement and what additional records/documents you’ll require. Moreover make an effort to identify regarding the payment structure and payment terms. Be ready, you may get rejected by lawyers too as a consequence of a lot of reasons.

1. Choose a local lawyer: rather than appointing a reputed lawyer who has the offices in another city, it’s always good to employ a local personal injury lawyer. A local lawyer has a reputation to keep in the local community, therefore is likely to be more considerate and liable to you. You can arrive at their office and plan meetings with them more easily. They won’t be able to pay no heed to your phone calls either. Accordingly you’ll have healthier communication and the local attorney will be more comfortable and familiar with the courts in your city.

1. Number of people involved in your case: If you select a large law firm, you’ll have a team of people working for you. The senior lawyer will allot the associates to prepare your case and handle the easier, usual facets of the case. While in small firms, lesser people are implicated, it’s easier to reach all of them through a phone call. Settle on the size of firm based on your comfort aspect, problems of the case and duration expected for the case.

1. Do you like your lawyer? Last but not the least, you must like and be liked by your personal injury lawyer. These cases are very personal; therefore it’s essential for you to be open and comfortable with your lawyer. Consecutively, your lawyer must like you too, in order that there is no communication gap and you must identify with each other. Consequently, if you get positive feelings regarding a lawyer and he/she appears to be pleasant and worried for you, choose them!

How to Throw Out your Cold Calling Scripts — Five Ways to be yourself Again in Cold Calling!

Recently you may have received a cold call from someone using an old-style linear sales script. You probably recognized it as a cold call because the person sounded a bit robotic and kept talking without allowing the conversation to «breathe.»

If you’ve been selling for a while, chances are you’ve been asked to use sales scripts yourself. Consequently, you’ve probably used them because they were the only way you knew to start a cold calling conversation.

Here are some questions you need to ask yourself:

• How do you really feel when you use a script?

• How do your potential clients feel when they know you’re using a script? (And they do know.)

• How many sales are you losing because you’re using a script?

When people call me and ask how they can throw out their scripts and cold call the natural way, the first thing I do is ask them whether they’re willing to role-play with me using their script.

After a few moments of listening, I gently stop them and tell them they’re sounding like a totally different person from the one who called me and talked with me so naturally about their sales issues. You know what they always say. «Ari, you are so right. When I use a script, I feel as if I can’t be myself. I feel like a robot or an actor, and it’s awkward and uncomfortable. Is there any way I can be myself again?»

Here are five ways to throw out your linear selling script and be yourself again:

1. Admit that Scripts Make You Sound «Scripted»

When you begin your sales script, potential clients detect the very subtle change from your natural voice to your unnatural scripted voice within seconds.

«Fine,» you might say, «I’ll just work on making myself sound natural.» However, that in itself creates a conflict. You can’t «work at» being natural. Really, you either are or aren’t.

2. Start your Cold Call as a Conversation, not a One-Way Pitch

If you’re used to scripts, you’re probably wondering, «How the heck will I know what to say without a script?»

You might want to ask yourself why you think you won’t know what to say, because the reason for that is important. It means you’re basing your cold call on what you have to offer, and not on what’s important to the prospect.

Pitching your solution as soon as you begin a cold call is one of the biggest problems with linear sales scripts. That’s because you trigger sales pressure by doing that. This causes potential clients to react with defensiveness or immediate rejection.

3. Create Openings Rather than Forcing a «Yes»

Selling scripts are designed to be linear and step-by-step so you can move cold calls in the direction you want them to go. From the traditional cold calling point of view, that direction is toward a «yes.» The belief is if you don’t get a «yes» at the beginning of the cold call, you’re not «selling.» However, that’s the biggest problem with scripts. They give you only one path to follow.

If you can start a conversation that triggers a «What do you mean?» response from your potential client, then you’ll find you can explain yourself in a natural way. It creates a two-way dialogue, which in turn lets you learn what you need to find out. You flow with the conversation without feeling you’re getting off-track.

4. Tape-Record yourself talking with someone you know. Then Record yourself Reading your Script.

Have you ever heard yourself calling a potential client and reading your script? The answer is probably not. Most people who use scripts think they sound natural because they’ve never actually heard themselves before. If you do this simple exercise, you’ll hear the same kinds of differences I hear when people role-play with me.

In our day-to-day relationships, we simply want to get to know and communicate with others. However, when we go into cold calling using scripts, we have an agenda, which is to make the sale. People sense this immediately and put up their guard. Between our hidden agenda and their reaction, there’s no chance to build trust through communication.

5. Set a New Goal for your Cold Calls

Focus on simply opening the conversation rather than trying to control it, so that potential clients feel comfortable telling you the truth about their situation. We’ve been taught for too long that we have to control the process. We never stop to think that scripts make it impossible for us to be flexible in how we communicate.

Surrendering your use of a script probably seems scary. Nevertheless, when you are able do this, you can begin to engage total strangers on the phone in ways that feel as comfortable as calling a friend. Yes, it’s possible, and don’t let anyone tell you that it’s not.