Optimizing customer service: 6 quick wins

Customer service quick-wins, we help you with 6 tips you can get started on right away. Optimizing your customer service is always a good idea. Of course, there is always room for improvement. But where do you start? What can you easily improve without the need for very difficult, complex and expensive change projects? We list 6 quick wins for you that will benefit you immediately!

1. Watching
It can be enlightening to take a look at customer service. Just observe how the work is done. Often customer service representatives have had training and do things a certain way. Sometimes things are done because that's the way they are done or because someone said that's the way it should be done. Just by watching along, you often get valuable information that you can't get from listening back to conversations. When you watch objectively and without prejudice, you often notice things quickly. Things that could possibly be done better or faster, or things that are being done when they really aren't needed. Customer service quick-wins can be fun too!

2. Reports
This ties in with the first point. Reports are often created, sent and viewed. However, analyzing what is reported, to whom and why is often not done enough. Moreover, most systems can often do much more reporting. Go back to the drawing board when it comes to reporting. See who wants to know what, so you can do something with that. Reporting for the sake of reporting is pointless. Reports should provide insight into performance against certain standards and should also show improvements or deteriorations as a result of certain interventions or changes. Customer service quick-wins can sometimes also reduce work.

3. Offerings - Day/week/month profiles
Most of the customer service organizations we encounter have little insight into the actual supply of contacts. Let alone on the distribution of these contacts over a given period. The reports from point 2 should give you a good picture of that. Only then can you make schedules that are attuned to the actual supply. Over time, you will be able to recognize patterns and gain a better understanding of the internal and/or external factors that influence the number of interactions.

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What our customers say about our services

As a start-up, we were looking for a scalable solution for our international customer service. We then started a partnership with SpangenbergGroep. In the years that followed, we grew rapidly and SpangenbergGroep ensured that our customer service grew nicely along with us. From a few hundred interactions per month to a few hundred interactions per day across all possible channels. In particular, its flexibility and ability to completely unburden us have enabled us to grow from start-up to multinational.

"Our collaboration has now been running for almost 2 years and I must say it has exceeded my expectations. It is always difficult to convey product content knowledge remotely and this has also forced us to look at our own documentation and training courses. Working together has taught us, at least me, that it is unnecessary and actually undesirable to transfer all knowledge in this way. For instance, we now have comprehensive lists and work instructions, where before we built on the individual knowledge of our own team. Why go it alone when we know more together? In other words, why do it the hard way when it can be done together."

In our peak season, we had to deal with a large increase in customer inquiries. Since we operate in almost all European countries, this was a challenge. We started looking for a partner who could support us in Dutch, Spanish, Italian, German, French and English. In addition, we wanted support on telephony, e-mail, chat and ticketing. In the end, we chose SpangenbergGroep. We have now been working with them for 5 years. In high season we need a lot of staff there and in low season a lot less.

We have our own internal call center where we handle much of our customer service inquiries ourselves. SpangenbergGroup is a flexible shell for us. We have a permanent staff and SpangenbergGroup's team supports us when it's busy. In this way, we avoid a queue for our customers. The employees of SpangenbergGroep carry out almost all tasks, which means that they fully participate as the first line. This gives us the flexibility to be easily accessible even when we are busy.

With our webshop, we wanted to expand into Germany. We ourselves did not have any German-speaking employees who could answer customer service questions. SpangenbergGroup is now helping us with German customer service so that we can simply provide good accessibility for our German customers as well.

4. Dynamic FAQ
Frequently asked questions should not be static! When customers call too often about the same topics, something goes wrong. Make sure you avoid those frequently asked questions. For some web shops, 50% of the questions are about the delivery time of the order. It then seems desirable to adjust that process so that customers no longer have questions about that. That way, your FAQ becomes dynamic because you are constantly working to avoid the most frequently asked questions.

5. Get input from your employees
They work with your customers and with most other departments within the company. They know where things go wrong and where customers are dissatisfied. They are the best source of input on how things are going internally. They can pinpoint what they need to do their jobs better. Take your time and talk regularly with customer service representatives about their work and what they encounter on a daily basis.

6. Ask your customers for feedback
In addition to your employees, your customers are also a valuable source of information. Ask your customers what they think of customer service. Maybe they like being able to chat with your customer service, but you don't offer that channel at all. Maybe they find your hold music cracklingly irritating and it's a small effort to change that. If you don't ask your customers anything, you don't know anything and can't serve them better.

Hopefully you can get started with our Customer Service quick-wins!

About SpangenbergGroup

Just good customer service? We can help you with that! By giving you outsource customer service we provide very good customer service! Worry-free provided with the best customer serive.

With us team of customer service specialists we create customized solutions. Customized solutions with which we can fully take care of almost any organization in the field of customer contact!

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