Category

On The Phone

Mar 19
0
phone call

5 ways for call deflection to enhance your customers’ experience

By | Blog, On The Phone

There’s a certain irony that although the telephone is still the preferred choice when it comes to customers dealing with your brand, they’re often very happy to go online if it means they can help themselves quicker or more efficiently.

Be warned, though – getting your “deflection” options wrong has the potential to backfire hugely if mishandled. After all, there’s a big difference between giving your customer alternative options and simply fobbing them off.

The key word here is options, and with our top 5 tips, you can highlight how well you’ve incorporated deflection into your IVR.

1. Lay out the alternatives

If large groups of your callers enquire about the same thing, and if the help they need is available online, then make sure you tell them how they can do it themselves. Sure, they might still stay on the line. But they might not. And more importantly, once you’ve educated your callers about the options available on other channels, they may very well “deflect” in the future.

2. Get callers to “be prepared”

If a caller is on a line where they’ll need a reference number, take a few seconds of your “on hold” time to let them know. If it’s left to your agent to remind them, it may take a couple of minutes per call to gather the relevant information, which can add up to be a significant waste of time.

3. Offer a joined service

With customer service, communication is king, and letting your customers know what types of things they can do by deflecting online makes them feel informed. This leads to new sales and upsell opportunities, and as you’re only informing them of what they can do if they want to, it’s not at all intrusive.

4. Be open to viewing your stats differently

Call centres, more than most industries, use statistics to measure their success, but sometimes information can be viewed incorrectly. If “abandoned calls” is something you mark your business down on, make sure you factor in the heighted amount of positive abandonment that can come as a result of deflecting callers away from your agents.

5. Always let the caller end the call

Anyone who has ever had a phone put down on them can attest to how infuriating it is. Therefore, even if a customer’s initial query has been dealt with in your IVR, the smart move is to always assume they may need something else. Therefore, instead of making the call end, you should always provide options such as returning to the main menu or visiting your website for online services. Although the options your offer will include deflection, it still has a magical way of making the caller feel loved.

Adopt these 5 tips to your telephony channel and you’ll be the masters of deflection – but in the nicest possible way.

OnBrand | Smart marketing using customer knowledge for digital, audio, social and events

Jul 13
0
Omnichannel bingo

Omnichannel Bingo!

By | Blog, On The Phone

Omnichannel, ooh that sounds fancy doesn’t it? Well, if the agency are using those words then I must be getting value for money? In the old days (and maybe still today) agencies used to proactively play buzzword bingo – you write up a list pre meeting of buzz words and tick off those ‘cooler than you’ words as you dropped them in a client meeting, The winner, would then have to construct a final sentence using the word ‘bingo’ without the client picking up on it. Seriously, it happened.

Anyhow the word omnichannel keeps coming up, but its just one of those words that just doesn’t roll off the tongue. When heard, the protocol is just to politely nod, whilst at the same time thinking why didn’t the speaker just say multichannel because that’s what they meant.

The thing is that they’re completely different. Multichannel has become more commonplace with the emergence of multiple digital and social media channels. Loosely speaking, multichannel means that your customer has access to you via multiple touch points. For example, the local gym may reach you via local press and posters initially, then perhaps through data capture via email or text, and then perhaps remarketing to you via those google ad boxes telling you how you need to get in shape every time you read Sky News – or maybe that’s just me 🙂

In response to this, many companies sprung up various departments to meet the customer needs. Specialist teams dedicated to resolving customer service matters, with expertise in communicating in those channels.

Sounds great so far, right? Well, here’s the problem. It doesn’t work. Let me give you an example that happened to me yesterday.

Now, I’m a loyal customer of a certain red brand of mobile phone network. In fact I’ve been on the same number for 25+ years, and never strayed (apart from a small fidelity issue with the unlimited calls, minutes and texts worldwide from 3, and the need for an iPhone). You see, I’m the last man on the planet using a blackberry. I’m simply hooked on those little black keys and the ability to bang out a quick book or two whilst the average iPhone user is deleting and autocorrecting every 4 seconds. So finally when they announce a new one, this time on Android I could hardly contain my kid like excitement. However one week later disaster struck and the device simply didn’t power up at all. I pressed all the buttons , but alas it was dead. So, I called my network provider, as you do.

The issue was that I had migrated my personal account over to the company name two weeks ago. Under the business team, they had no record of my upgrade three weeks before instore and as a personal customer. 20 minutes of fruitless search later, they divert back to the personal team who i was under then, who would no doubt help me as it was on their watch and their job to replace the handset. Another 20 minutes later (a further 5 in security – why do they do that thing where they ask you to enter the mobile number you’re calling from and then ask you in person again for it? How to have tech and fail to execute?!!), we establish that my account has been wiped and no records longer exist since I migrated to the business team. 20 minutes more later I’m reconnected to the business team, who tell me the only way they can help is with the serial number of the phone, which they want me to find. Press, this that the other and it will come up on the screen – brilliant – if the phone worked in the first place to do that I wouldn’t be on the phone to them! The impasse that now confronts me is that neither department can actually help me. I’m caught in the middle of the machine, and no has authority to apply the common sense solution i just simply crave – a phone that works!

And this is where i get to the problem with multichannel – multi channel business’s scale their organisations to deal with customers across different channels. I, however am not a multi channel customer, i am simply a customer. I don’t think in touch points and how i interact with you. I expect you to treat me the same regardless of the channel. I have a problem and use my prerogative to engage how i want with them. JE SUIS OMNICHANNEL.

Multi channel has created siloed thinking where there are gaps in the customer journey, and walled gardens with limits on what the customer service team can do, and it needs to change – and fast. Customer data simply isn’t being shared amongst teams , and technology isn’t being joined up.

How refreshing however, to visit a client premises a couple of weeks ago – positive naming and shaming now – Rank Group – who are deploying an omni channel call centre. Each call centre agent is being skilled to work across social, web and telephony channels and treat customers simply as people. I am sure from what I have been privileged to see that they will excel in performance from this adoption alone.

In conclusion, more brands need to start treating their customers as people not data, using technology to gather data and use that data smartly to interact with them or they will fast head into the abyss of customer retention disaster.

And finally, in case you’re curious, a bright young chap in the local store, managed to reboot the phone, and I only managed to get ‘bingo’ once !

PS. You can play yourself at bit.ly/Ik5Shd if you’re looking for a social strategy.

Sent from my Blackberry, of course!

Jan 25
0
Audio Options: The Consequence Of Choosing A Male Or Female Voice

Audio Options: The Consequence Of Choosing A Male Or Female Voice

By | Blog, In-Store, On The Phone

The decision as to whether a man or a woman should be used to front a particular brand might seem quite inconsequential to some, but the gender behind a voice helps to establish a number of unspoken factors, as well as prepare the listener for the type of message they’re about to receive.

When you think about the psychology of this, it kind of makes sense. To oversimplify, many of us learn discipline through our dad’s voice, and we often learn affection through the voice of our mother. Once an emotional connection is established, it often lasts our entire lives, so it can certainly be used to our advantage when advertising.

As such, the qualities generally associated to male and a female voices are as follows:

Specific qualities in a male voice: Specific qualities in a female voice:
  • Authoritative
  • Professional
  • Dependable
  • Warm
  • Welcoming
  • Reassuring

Although speaking in very simple terms, few people would disagree with the statements above, and depending on what type of brand you are, your messaging will more naturally lean towards using a male or a female.

Now let’s consider the effect that both a male and female voice has on the gender of your shoppers or callers:

A male customer listening to a female voice is likely to feel: On the flip-side, a female customer listening with a female voice is likely to feel:
  • Relaxed
  • Confident
  • Welcome
  • Reassured
  • Desired (it happens!)
  • Relaxed
  • Confident
  • Welcome
  • Reassured

As a rule, a female voice can cater for any task – whether offering general information, user directions, or dealing with sensitive issues – and instil trust in the customer. This is great should a consistent voice be needed for a variety of different needs.

Now let’s look at a male customer listening to a male voice, which is likely to make them feel: Similarly, a female customer listening to a male voice is likely to feel:
  • Alert
  • Confident
  • In good hands
  • Alert
  • Reassured
  • In good hands

It’s natural that the early part of our lives have made us consider a male voice to be more forceful and assertive, so we’ve become wired to expect directions, instructions and a request for action whenever we hear it. This makes a male voice great for winning the customers’ focus.

At OnBrand, we’re passionate about delivering messages that customers get the most out of, and we research all these little things to help you sound as good as you are.

For Valentine’s Day, we’ve recorded our shopping centre messages in both male and female voices for the very first time, allowing our customers to personalise their messaging with the click of a button.

Hear Audio Examples

Nov 24
0
The value vs cost of audio messages

The value vs cost of audio messages

By | Blog, In-Store, On The Phone

What does a business do when they know they need something, but are finding it very hard to justify the cost? For example, we offer audio messaging to anybody that needs it – whether a shopping centre needs a radio announcement, or a company wished to refresh the automated messages on their telephone system – we can deliver great professional messages to suit their needs.

More often than not, the reason companies acquire a service is because they aren’t specialists in the area themselves. The problem is, all the so-called specialists claim they’re the best and use a bunch of jargon to tell you why, but how can you decide who to outsource your work to when you don’t really know what they’re talking about?

Brexit flashback, anyone?

Politics aside, we understand this plight all too well, and that’s why we don’t try to sell our products by putting other companies down, or by throwing a load of words at you that don’t mean anything. Instead, we focus on the problems you have, the solutions we offer, and the value of having your problem/s solved.

Here are the 5 steps we take to achieve your goals:

1. We listen

We don’t blindly claim to have the answers you need. Instead, we really take time to discover what your issues are in the first place. Only then can we begin to think of the services that can work for you.

2. We assess

When it comes to consumer behaviour or the customer journey, we like to do research to help us understand what works. We marry that information with the challenges you face and find ways of achieving your objectives.

3. We plan

You know what they say about failing to plan, right? Well, our ethos is all about building solid foundations so that our clients see long-term benefits as well as fixes in the short-term.

4. We’re transparent

When we do business, it’s incredibly important that people are clear with us, and so we treat everybody with the same level of respect. Transparency is key in setting out plans, expectations, costs and timelines, and so we’re up-front about everything we say and do.

5. We deliver

Our work history includes some wonderful brands, and not only do we deliver our product, but we always work to exceed expectations. After all, our main aim is to build long standing working relationships, and there’s only one way that can happen – by showing you the value in what we do.

How we add value

Spending money on external services can often be the cause of trepidation, but of course a business can only thrive when wise investments are made, so it’s always a catch-22 situation.

We always start by outlining expectations, because it’s vital our clients know what we’re doing and why. At OnBrand, each of our services either:

  • helps you make more money, or
  • saves you a great deal of time, which can be used to develop your business in other areas

Put simply, any good investment should give you a solid return, so if we could prove we’ve saved you time and money, and we can show you exactly how through our analytical systems, then it can only be viewed as a great investment, right?

That’s the true mark of good value.

Got a question? Simply sayhello@onbrand.co.uk or give us a call on 03333 220 022 to find out how we can help your business.

Nov 22
0
Top 10 things callers hate to hear

Top 10 things callers hate to hear

By | Blog, On The Phone

The way that a brand communicates with its customers is integral to its ongoing success, yet so many companies drop the ball when it comes to the telephony experiences they offer.

Our experience tells us there are two glaring mistakes that brands make when mapping out their customer journeys – if they’ve taken the time to do it at all:

  1. They believe the customer experience starts from the moment the caller reaches an agent, as opposed to the moment they dial the number
  2. They fail to create scripts in line with the company’s Tone of Voice

To highlight some potential pitfalls, here is a list of the top 10 things that callers just hate to hear.

What you say   What your callers feel
Your call is important to us If it was, I wouldn’t be on hold
Sorry for the delay (or any apology)
 I have a right to be annoyed
Press number 9 to . . . How many options?!
Beep-beep. Beep-beep. Beep-beep. What, not even a message?!
Please hold. [Cue elevator music] This music is terrible
To speak to an advisor, please
pre–[dead line]		 You did not just cut me off!
For calls of this nature, visit our
website. Goodbye.		 At least give me an option
Your call will be answered shortly You’ve said that 8 minutes ago
Jargon, jargon, jargon. Blah, blah, blah.
We have exceptionally high call volumes Then hire more staff

A successful telephone journey is one that is short and easy to understand. It should lead the caller to where they need to go on the first attempt, and put them in the best possible frame of mind when the time comes to connect with your agent. Should any of this fall down, then you can be sure to expect some very unhappy callers.

The truth is, nobody likes being on hold, but sometimes it’s necessary. On hold times will always be forgiven, though, providing you can show you have the callers’ best interest at heart.

Want us to rate your telephone journey? Simply sayhello@onbrandgroup.co.uk or give us a call on 03333 220 022 to find out how we can help your business.

Nov 17
0
5 tips for brand survival this Christmas

5 tips for brand survival this Christmas

By | Blog, In-Store, On The Phone

As wonderful a time as Christmas can be, the increased interest from shoppers and callers does have the potential to negatively impact upon a brand’s reputation.

To make sure you’re not one of them, ask yourself these 5 questions for festive survival – whether your business is done in a mall or over the phone:

1. Have I got into the Christmas spirit?

Let your website reflect your shoppers’ excitement with seasonal banners and updated festive logos to portray the feel good factor inside of yourself. Are there great offers available to customers? Put on a festive show to let the whole world know!

2. Have I got the atmosphere right?

Music is an incredibly subjective art form, but Christmas is one of the very few times where a plethora of songs are universally loved by all. Therefore, make sure to treat your customers to songs that will make them excited – on the phone and in store.

3. Have I updated my trading hours?

If your operational hours are due to change over the holidays, it’s vital for you to make the details readily available. A short PA announcement or IVR message embedded into your telephony can do just the trick.

4. Am I promoting special events as well as I can?

It’s always such a shame when a well-planned event is poorly attended, but with audio messages raising awareness to 100% of shoppers in the mall, why not create messages for the build-up to key events? Likewise with your telephony – if you’re running a competition, or doing something special for Christmas, use on-hold times to let your callers know.

5. Have I planned for contingencies?

Do you historically need to close near Christmas due to bad weather conditions? You can use this knowledge to your advantage by recording an automated message telling your customers just that. Then, should the worst should happen again, you’ll be fully prepared for it.

Get to the point where you can answer yes to all the above, then you’re sure to have a very merry Christmas indeed.

Got a question? Get in touch by emailing hello@onbrandgroup.co.uk or give us a call on 03333 220 022 to find out how OnBrand Offers can help your business.

Nov 07
0
Do they know it’s Christmas?

Do they know it’s Christmas?

By | Blog, On The Phone

By now,  the meetings are over, agents have been notified and you’ve worked out how you’re going to handle the Christmas rush. But have you told the customer? What expectations do they have, or will they only find out when they hear the dreaded ‘due to high call volumes….”  Let them know in advance and get your seasonal messaging organised with OnBrand.

We know Christmas is a great time for generating more business, but tempers can be easily frayed as your resources are tested to their limits. This can be avoided by keeping your customers’ wants and needs in mind and one way to ensure you go into the New Year with your reputation intact is to create a series of personalised Christmas and New Year messages.

Three steps to a better Christmas

1. Trading Hours
If a change in trading hours causes your customers any inconvenience, you might find yourself constantly on the back foot. This means you won’t have a Merry Christmas, or a Happy New Year. Instead, make your updated hours the first thing people hear when they call, and get them excited about extended hours where applicable. This will put your callers in a good frame of mind from the offset.

2. Contingency planning
Do you historically need to close near Christmas due to bad weather conditions? You can use this knowledge to your advantage by simply recording an automated message that tells your callers just that. Then, should the worst happen again, you’ll be fully prepared for it.

3. Wish Your Callers Well 
You can not only protect your brand’s reputation, but actually enhance it, by wishing your customers well. At no part of the year is it easier to earn some extra brownie points with your customers. By covering yourself with up-to-date messages for the Christmas and New Year period, you’ll be able to hit the ground running in 2017. And what could give you a better reason to celebrate than that?

You are welcome to contact us via sayhello@onbrandgroup.co.uk, or give us a call on 03333 220 022 to see how we can help your business.

Aug 22
0

Contact centre of the future: what does it look like?

By | Blog, Digital, On The Phone

very now and then comes a buzz word that gets everybody worked up to a frenzy. For instance, you can’t mention Pokemon Go these days without being trampled on by a herd of avid Gamers.

For many people who run a business, it’s highly likely they’ve heard the term “omni-channel” thrown around quite a bit over the past year, and so the debate begins: is omni-channel really the future?

What is omni-channel?

There are a few differentiating terms that help sum up what “omni-channel” is:

  • Multi-channel: meaning you offer a select choice of channels to your customers (IVR, SMS, web, email, etc)
  • Multi-modal: meaning you offer a mixture of channels whilst engaged, completing the customers’ journey in a single interaction
  • Omni-channel: meaning you offer many channels over a series of interactions with a claim to consider the entire customer journey

Put simply, “multi-channel” contact centres offer only a handful of contact options and hold the information from each separately, whereas “omni-channel” centres offer options across all eight points of contact, and have a full, unified view of all interactions.

The eight points of contact

  1. Voice (Inbound and Outbound)
  2. Video
  3. SMS
  4. E-mail
  5. Social Media
  6. IVR
  7. Self-Service
  8. Web Chat

Each of these contact points holds its own strengths and weaknesses, and catering for all of these comes with definite challenges, such as resourcing each area to a high enough standard to keep customers satisfied. So is omni-channel something each contact centre should aspire to, or is it more of an idealist dream?

Amazon, for example, would consider themselves an omni-channel brand, yet it’s very clear they only want to talk on the phone if they consider it absolutely necessary, so they deal with the vast majority of customers through self-serve and automated messaging. When things go well, the service appears faultless and it’s fantastic, but we still live in a world where many don’t like to – or aren’t able to – use technology. And even those happy to do so occasionally experience problems where they need to speak to a person, and it can be frustrating when that’s not an easy option.

This brings us onto another very important point.

Robot Vs Human

Streamlining and downsizing companies in favour of technology makes a certain amount of economic sense, but what is the knock-on effect of minimising the human interaction element of your company?

Self-driving cars are a good example of how opinion is divided, with some arguing there would be far less accidents if we removed human error. The more nervous among us though are entitled to ask a very important question: when the technology fails – and technology does fail – who will be accountable for the accidents caused?

Outsourcing

Some companies have realised that customers still crave human interaction, but in an attempt to cut costs they allow certain staff to work remotely. Again, there are pros and cons to this, but modern customers expect to receive the same experience regardless of what channel they communicate on, and it’s harder to drum a company’s ethos into staff that work outside of the office.

Also, if somebody answers the phone from home, what will the acoustics of their work space be like? If a customer calls Nike and hears a washing machine on in the background, it wouldn’t exactly fit the brand, and that can be a problem.

Fads and trends

When e-books became the next big thing, experts viewed sales charts on a weekly basis and claimed the rise in digital sales spelt the end for physical books. There was mass panic among traditional printers and publishers, and many knee jerk reactions as a consequence. However, over time the sales plateaued and it’s now clear there’s plenty of room in the marketplace for both to co-exist.

Final thoughts

For the majority of contact centres, the smart thing may be to just focus on a strong multi-channel offering and ensure their brand identity is strong across each one. After all, customers stay loyal to brands that offer great service, and aren’t so interested in how many ways they can connect with the contact centre. They’ll simply communicate via the method that best suits their own habits.

If resources are not an issue then omni-channel is great, but you must be prepared for it to shape your company in unexpected ways, too. For instance, when Twitter rose to prominence, many companies only created Twitter profiles to appear “in the loop.” Suddenly, their feeds were bombarded with unresolved complaints and, feeling the need to avoid public shame, the companies appeared to deal with these issues more urgently, which encouraged more customers to do use it as their go-to portal when they wished to vent their frustration.

There are now countless teams of social media account handlers all over the country that wouldn’t need to be in place had the companies in question not created a Twitter account in the first place, so the key takeaway is to consider your demographic carefully and understand their habits before taking the plunge into omni-channel. Once you do it, you are likely to be overwhelmed with correspondence across multiple channels, and unless you can deliver suitable responses it can do far more harm to your reputation than good.

Jul 20
0
Customer service – does yours satisfy or infuriate?

Customer service – does yours satisfy or infuriate?

By | Blog, In-Store, On The Phone

There used to be a saying that “the customer is always right,” which may be flawed when you view it as a blanket statement, but in terms of mind-set, it’s the only way to run a business. It shows a passion for customer satisfaction, and when customers are happy, businesses always have a chance to thrive.

“You’re going to hear me mention customers a lot,” says Steve Rowe, CEO of Marks & Spencer. “And for that, I will never apologise.” That’s how the brain behind M&S has been known to address a room, and all CEO’s should be just like that, shouldn’t they?

Indeed they should, so how has a recent survey run by the Express found that 93% of British shoppers feel “frequently wound up” by the shopper experience?

It seems that shoppers don’t only experience poor customer service, but that they do so repeatedly, citing pushy sales tactics and a disconnect between shoppers and retail staff as their main frustrations.

All of this puts a great responsibility on call centres, with customers filling the lines to register complaints. However, with poorly conceived telephony journeys, and incoming calls being outsourced to external call centres, many customer’s moods only seem to get worse once they pick up the phone.

Rather alarmingly, the Express’ survey states that 60% of customers are considering moving companies due to bad service, and that 10% of callers admit to being brought to tears due to the way they are handled.

These statistics make for terrible reading, and how ironic that this dip in customer service is happening during the “golden age” of social media, when people are supposed to have been brought closer together. Perhaps it’s the case that many companies are now so obsessed with becoming “omni-channel” brands that they accidentally spread themselves too thin.

Most customers – particularly when there’s a problem – prefer to communicate over the phone, so a company’s telephone journey is worth its weight in gold and can drastically increase the number of happy shoppers once implemented.

Jun 23
0
OnBrand Group’s Policy of Reducing Effort and Maintaining Experience Paid Off

OnBrand Group’s Policy of Reducing Effort and Maintaining Experience Paid Off

By | Blog, On The Phone

Providing a positive experience in a regulated environment can be a real challenge due to the level of information that legally needs to be provided to customers, often causing customers to switch off.

In a recent project with a major supermarket insurance provider, we proved that getting the Tone of Voice right and ensuring we provided phone menu options early in the call kept customers alert. Since implementing this strategy, our client’s customer self-serve has increased by 34% in just 3 months, increasing customer satisfaction and reducing costs of contact.

Taking advice from OnBrand Group on their telephone policy really did pay off!