How you serve effectively - Is the customer still in the queue?

If you've called customer service numbers, you're used to queuing messages. Familiar break music and interim releases tell you: you’re still in line. The queuing message is certainly better than just an alarm sound, and especially better than a busy line. But how long are your customers willing to wait for service, and how do you make sure the queue is as short as possible?

Multi-channel has clearly improved the accessibility of customer service. At the same time, it’s special that some companies respond faster via Twitter than over the phone, when Twitter is rarely the most effective tool for doing the same. Although business is increasingly moving to electronic channels, for many customers, the telephone is still the most popular - and sometimes easiest - way to communicate with a company.

Getting things done on the phone all at once is often the most efficient customer service - be careful not to let the addition of channels run past the functionality! 

Finding a competitive advantage can sometimes be very straightforward. At least as a customer, I am interested in getting my case done as effortlessly as possible. When that happens, I’m more likely to come back and buy more.  

If good customer service is a competitive advantage, why do so few stand out with an excellent level of service? There are many reasons, and it is very rare that customers or services are not interested. The company has been able to grow so fast that not all customers have time to serve them. It may also be that the number of customer contacts has temporarily increased sharply and customer service is therefore overloaded. 

It is possible to increase the probability of success in customer service

From the perspective of the cost efficiency of both customers and the company, it is important that customer service systems are properly addressed. Without customers, no company will run for very long. On the other hand, improving the level of customer service can open up huge growth opportunities.  

What should you do if you want to improve your company's reach and thus your customer service? For an SME, for example, the solution can be surprisingly simple. It can be accessed by delving into the subject from three different perspectives:

How many customer contacts will there be? Do we also know how many couldn’t wait when we didn’t respond? What is the number of customer contacts per month? 
Why do customers contact us? Do they want to buy or do they need help with a problem situation? No one calls for fun, so finding out the reasons is important. 
What kind of customer contacts do we hope for? And what kind of contacts would we like less?

Once this groundwork is done, you will have the information you need to design how your customer service systems will be dimensioned. At the same time, it is important to make a plan for ways to reduce contacts:

We develop the quality and ease of use of our products or services. As a result, we get fewer questions and requests for help. 
We invest in easy-to-use and functional self-service. When the service that is always open online is of sufficient quality, a large part of the customer contacts is inherently directed there.

The remaining customer contacts after these two measures to reduce the number of contacts are very important. At best, they are direct additional trade. 

Of course, we want to serve the desired contacts, ie purchasing customers, as quickly and effortlessly as possible. This is accomplished by introducing a scalable system that is flexible in terms of volume and offers customers options other than listening to break music. With the right solution, the quality of service experienced by customers is good, even if the service is congested.

However, a decision must first be made. Take a service jump or not?

It is important for the business that no customer is left unserved. With the help of the exchange service, the company and the customer reach each other.