According to Forbes, meeting your customers where they are is key to business success. That may mean communicating with authenticity, in their language of choice, or focusing on the customer experience instead of a sales pitch.
One of the simplest ways to improve communication with your customers is by partnering with a reputable answering service that can do all these things for you. Below we will answer and discuss the following questions to demonstrate how an answering service can help you improve customer communication:
- How does a bilingual answering service improve customer communication?
- How does a 24/7 answering service work?
- Do my customers prefer text messaging answering services?
How does a bilingual answering service improve customer communication?
With more Spanish speakers living in the United States than ever before, it’s important for businesses to communicate with customers in their preferred language. This way, you can provide authentic interactions while growing your business. By doing this, you won’t miss the opportunity to make a sale and risk them going to a competitor where they will likely have bilingual support.
A bilingual answering service can help improve customer communication by mitigating the need to transfer calls (or worse- losing a call) because there is a language barrier. Your answering service can also customize coverage to meet your needs, such as answering the phone afterhours, providing HIPAA-compliant live agents, responding to text messages, and more.
Most of all, partnering with a bilingual answering service will show your customers that you care about communicating with them and are committed to providing first-class customer service. When customers feel valued, they will remember your business and come back! They will also refer their friends and family, helping you to expand your client roster.
How does a 24/7 answering service work?
Another key component to customer satisfaction is accessibility. In today’s world, your customers and clients will not always be looking for answers during traditional business hours. Trying to keep up with this will quickly become tiring for you and your staff, leading to burnout. But if you aren’t available, your customers will call the next business listed in their search.
When you partner with a 24/7 answering service, it guarantees that an informed and professional live agent will answer the phone regardless of the time. After picking up, live agents can do many of the things that an in-house receptionist does, such as scheduling appointments, answering general questions and taking messages. In most cases, the caller won’t even realize that they’re talking to a live agent who is working remotely. Your live agents can also flag important calls for you, respond to text messages, monitor emails for alerts and important messages, and assist with disaster recovery.
Do my customers prefer text messaging answering services?
People are in love with their smartphones, and it is important for business owners to think about how you reach them on the device. Statistics show that many people, particularly millennials, prefer to communicate via text message rather than email or phone. In fact, 90 percent of people open a text message within three minutes compared with the 20 percent who even open an email.
A text messaging answering service can improve customer service and take some tasks off your plate, which will free you up for bigger picture tasks. A live agent will promptly assist your customers with a variety of tasks via text message, including:
- Scheduling appointments
- Answering general questions
- Qualifying leads
- Taking messages
In addition to making your customers happy, communicating via text messaging is convenient, non-intrusive, and a great way to free up your phone lines for other callers with more complex issues.