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How to Set Up a New Customer Service Center – The Checklist

How many customers do you have? Enough to start a customer service center? In this post, we’ll cover the five essential steps to take when setting up this facility. But first, let’s discuss the reasons why it’s so important for an up-and-coming business like yours to have a solid customer support department.

Happy customer, happy life

These days, customers are more empowered than ever. Not only they have lots of choices, but also they can share their experience with other people via social media. That’s why your goal as a business owner should be to focus on your customers and provide them with the value that they won’t find anywhere else. Make them feel special. How do you do that? Set up a customer service center for a start and provide the best customer experience.

Your business needs a customer service center

Hopefully, you’re not one of those entrepreneurs who doesn’t see the benefits of having a customer service center yet. Customer service department is an investment that pays off, and an increase in customer retention is only the most obvious advantage. Don’t miss out on all the great opportunities it brings to the table. We don’t have to remind you that it’s much cheaper to retain the existing customers than to attract the new ones.

A positive value of a customer service department

It helps you understand the needs of your customers – you can spend years on end developing what you think is a groundbreaking product or service, but all your efforts will be worthless if that’s not what your customers want. Similarly, customers’ needs and preferences are constantly changing. You can’t come up with an awesome product once and rest on its laurel for decades. That’s why it’s essential that you listen to your customers and process their feedback (both a positive and a negative one).

It increases profit in the long run – it’s important to emphasize “in the long run” part because customer service center is an investment. You’re going to splurge on its establishing: people, software, office space; all this costs money. However, the financial benefits that you’ll enjoy later will show that having your own customer service department is a major advantage. Provided that you ensure a top-notch customer service, you’ll see the real increase in sales.

How to start a customer service center from scratch?

Now that you know that setting up a customer service center is a smart business move, let’s decompose the whole process in smaller actionable steps.

Step 1: Outline what’s “excellent customer service”

At the very beginning of this process, you need to define what does “excellent customer service” mean for your company. This is a very important step to take and you need to be very clear about the meaning you put into your definition.

You need to have a real clarity here to develop measurable standards that you’d be able to implement while monitoring the effectiveness of your team. Find answers to the most critical industry-specific questions for your future customer support center and based on that, develop a comprehensive action plan for your support agents.

Step 2: Select a preferred communication channel

Let’s be realistic. It’s very difficult for a small business to manage multiple communication channels and provide consistently great customer service through each of them. Don’t try to cover everything at one fell swoop, especially if you’re building a customer service center from scratch.

In an abundance of available options, it can be hard to choose the best option for one’s business. Do some research and explore the pros and cons of every channel. Also, check what platform your target audience uses. If it’s a telephone, then you’ll probably need to invest in a cloud based call center software. In any case, your choice will determine your next move.

Step 3: Pick the right tools

Select proper technology based on the preferred communication channel. In the previous step, you were to bear in mind your customers. Now, you need to think about your agents. Choose a versatile and easy-to-use solution. The software must be functional but not confusing. Again, mind the needs of your business. What is it that you need apart from the basic features? An effective CRM? API integration? Spend some time on this because having the right technology can make a real difference.

Step 4: Hire the best agents

Now that your customer service center has the right technology, it’s time to bring the most important element – customer support agents. Remember that your customer support center is the main point of contact between the customers and your company, so this step is crucial.

Never compromise on the expertise of your agents. You can screw up the strategy, or pick the wrong software, but it will not impact your business as much as incompetent customer support agents. Recruit the best people and be prepared to train them so that they would acquire the right skill set for this job because customer support agents are the face of your company.

Step 5: Establish a performance measurement system

Last but not least, establish an effective performance measurement system. Step 5 is the best time to check whether the objectives set during the step 1 are achieved. Pay attention to the most significant metrics for your customer service center. Is everything going as planned? Do you need to make improvements? Be prepared that the whole process of setting up a contact center is quite lengthy. You might need to make lots of improvements. During the first months, the technology and business operations testing will be ongoing.

Collect a feedback from your clients and use it as a basis for your future actions. Also, ask your agent to share an honest opinion about your customer service center. They might share some valuable insights too.

Follow these five simple steps to set up your own customer service center and watch your business grow.

John Morris
John Morrishttps://www.tenoblog.com
John Morris is a self-motivated person, a blogging enthusiast who loves to peek into the minds of innovative entrepreneurs. He's inspired by emerging tech & business trends and is dedicated to sharing his passion with readers.

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