10 Tips On How Not To Upset Customers In Your Call Queue

From long wait times to annoying sales rhymes, from out-of-place tunes to cheesy niceness the ruins — we reveal 10 hints to keep your customers on the line without putting your reputation on the line. Don’t come on too strong; never refuse to acknowledge your customers; don’t take too long to answer; don’t overload callers with lengthy, repetitive messages; and don’t play music that doesn’t reflect your brand image. For these and other tips.

Walt Disney once said “Do what you do so well so that they will want to see it again and bring their friend.” These words ring true, especially if you have a business and support staff who answer queries and solve various problems for customers over the phone.

The majority of businesses invest in call centers and toll free numbers which help customers to contact them in case they have queries about a particular product, service or they are in need of help to use a particular product.

In any particular hour or day, support staff will receive thousands of phone calls and since they can only attend to one customer at a time, they will have to put others on the call queue. Every business owner knows that nurturing relationships with customers is vital to the growth and success of a business. Therefore in this age of technology and automation, caring for your customers has never been more important.

Below are 10 tips on how not to upset the customers in your phone queue.

Don’t come on too strong

A majority of customers who have had a chance of contacting customer care services for a particular reason and have undergone a rude experience will likely tell their friends. For example, if 100 customers have contacted your business within the hour and 70 of them are treated rudely, 60 to 65 of them will likely tell their friends about their poor experience.

When running a business and customers are on the call center queue, it is important not to treat them rudely, but instead respect them and treat them nicely.

Never refuse to acknowledge your customers

Customers may call your toll free number and they may talk rudely to your staff or even call them abusive names. Regardless of this, you should always acknowledge your customers every time they call your toll free number.

Simple tactics you can use that will indicate acknowledgement include answering with a simple courteous statement like “Hi, my name is…How can I help you today?” Even though you are tired or you have received rude treatment from customers, it is wise not to do the same to those on the phone queue.

Taking too long to answer

Customers know that support staff are very busy attending to other customers who are calling with various queries and problems seeking solutions. Automated calling centers have an automatic voice that will answer the customer on the first call and inform them to wait for the next available staff member.

When support staff take too long to answer or respond to customers on the phone queues, customers will register this as rudeness and they will often provide a negative review on your business website. This may keep off other potential customers from conducting business with you.

Switching off the line

Customers are aware that businesses receive many calls each hour of every day, which means they understand when they call and are kept on the call queue for a reasonable duration. At times, whether it’s the fault of the company or the service provider, the line will suddenly become unavailable.

This can register as rudeness or lack of providing support, especially if customers have been kept waiting in the queue for a long time. This means that a business could end up losing many customers simply because of a small mistake.

Overloading callers with lengthy repetitive messages

When you ring a call center in order to have a certain issue resolved, you may find yourself placed in a phone queue. A majority of companies have found this to be a perfect way of directing messages with offers and deals about products and services.

The truth is customers get annoyed when they are constantly bombarded with messages about the latest offers and deals. It is wise for a business not to overdo this, but instead to play soothing music that will help to increase the patience of the customer.

Ignoring past customer interactions

You will find that majority of customers will repeatedly call the support center with questions after question about products and services on offer. Majority of companies have not set up their systems to detect customers who have had previous interactions with the call center.

This can be helpful since the customer can be served with personal messages therefore improving their experience while they are on the phone queue.

Playing music that doesn’t reflect brand image

Every single call made to the call center and it’s directed to the phone queue due to the large volume of calls, will result in the customer listening to certain music which does not reflect the brand image of the company. For example, the company may opt to play a song that is topping the charts or they can opt to play instrumental music that is not reflective of the company’s brand.

To improve customer experience while they are in the queue, it’s important to play value-adding music that reflects well on the business.

Requesting customers to start again

When customers call the support center, they expect to be treated well and provided with fast service that will help to resolve their issues. There are times when customers on the queue may be requested to start the process again. This occurs especially if a customer has been redirected to another adviser and they are finally directed back. It’s important to keep customer’s information at hand.

Overdoing the niceness

Every company with an automated call center usually sets up messages that are nice. When the level of niceness in the messages is too high, customers can find your service unhelpful and they will assume that your business is too full of itself.

The best way to approach a situation like this is to provide average nice messages that are helpful and offer other ways to get in touch.

Overusing the message “We’re too busy at the moment”

When you have customers on the call queue, it is wise not to use the message “We’re too busy at the moment” too often. This will not only annoy the customers, but it will reflect that your company is understaffed, you are always in crisis mode and you don’t like to speak to customers.

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The services include:

• Call forwarding feature to any desired device.
• Availability of voice messages for everyone.
• Allows you to get your local, toll free or vanity number.
• Ability to customize call menus.
• Ability to ring multiple phones at the same time.
• Unlimited users and custom extensions.
• Ability to mask your number and screen calls as well.
• Set-up of a virtual receptionist.