Tag: French

Things to do in quiet periods

Virtuelle (Solutions)

As a business owner selling a service or product, you’ll probably have busy periods and times when things are quiet.
And those quieter times are the perfect opportunity to work on your customer service.

Here are a few suggestions for things to do…

PLAN YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT
Use your downtime to plan a series of posts for the next six months.
Get a batch of them written, too. It’ll save you time doing a few in one go rather than dipping in and out.

REVIEW YOUR PROCESSES
Set a reminder to do this at least once a year during quiet periods.

CHECK IN WITH CUSTOMERS
When you’re busy dealing with queries, getting customer feedback can often be forgotten.
So now you’ve got a quieter patch send out customer satisfaction questionnaires to find out how you’re doing.

Once you’ve analysed the results, you can start planning ways to improve or make your customer service even more memorable.

  • Need help setting those things up? Get in touch at

info@virtuellesolutions.com

Time-Saving Tips

Virtuelle (Solutions)

3 time-saving customer service tips for small businesses…

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OFFER SELF-SERVICE

This isn’t a lazy way for you to support your customers.

Self-service options like how-to guides, video explainers and FAQ help your customers get quick answers.

They don’t have to hang around in a phone queue or beat their head against a brick wall trying to communicate with a bot.

Self-service saves you AND your customers time and effort – so win-win!

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AUTOMATE PAYMENT

You love getting paid by customers. But it can be time consuming bringing the money in.

You’ve got to send an invoice, email a payment reminder… then another one when it’s overdue… and finally a thank-you acknowledgement when it’s paid up.

Honestly, why put yourself through that when you can automate the whole shebang?

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USE HELP DESK TICKETING SOFTWARE

Customer queries can soon stack up.

Before you know it, you’ve lost track of what stage they’re at and which ones to prioritise.

Suddenly you’re spending all your time trying to get on top of it all.

Help desk ticketing software really does help.

It can do clever stuff like…

  • keeping track of customer queries
  • re-routing queries to a specific customer service agent
  • flagging up an ongoing query
  • closing a query when it’s been resolved.
  • sharing information between all members of the team

Another win to save you time and give fast and efficient customer support.

  • Need help choosing and setting up time-saving systems? Get in touch at

info@virtuellesolutions.com

Tech Help

Virtuelle (Solutions)

Did you know I offer multilingual tech support?

Yes, I do.

As if being a customer service hero isn’t enough, I’ve also got over 15 years IT experience.

Which means when you hire me to help with customer service you get a tech expert into the bargain!

Let’s take an example.

You’re a product-based business and the items you sell on your website are made by a third-party manufacturer.

Suddenly, one of their items is out of stock.

Oh no! Now you’ve got customers trying to buy a product that isn’t available.

Well, that won’t happen on my watch!

I’ll have reviewed your systems and processes and worked my techie magic to link the manufacturer’s system to yours. So when a product is out of stock it will INSTANTLY show as unavailable on your website.

Ta-dah! Customer confusion and frustration avoided!

And did I mention my tech support comes in three different languages?

Customer Service Workflow

Virtuelle (Solutions)

How’s your customer service workflow looking?

If your answer is ‘Eh? What customer service workflow?’ then we need to talk!

As a small business owner you might get excited about using automated processes to improve customer service – but you can’t automate until you figure out your customer service workflow.

And to do that you need to ask yourself questions like these…

  • how do my customers hear about me?
  • how do they contact me?
  • how do I respond to them – and how quickly?
  • what do I do when a customer doesn’t complete an online order?
  • do I give return customers a discount?
  • do I contact customers for feedback? when and how?

When you’re clued-up on your customer service workflow you’ll have a clear picture of your customers’ touch points. And that means you’ll be ready and prepared when they need support.

You can also use your workflow to decide what automation you need to prevent bottlenecks and make your customer service more efficient.

Remember to regularly review your workflow and processes so you can adapt them to what’s happening in your business.

Helpdesk ticketing system

Virtuelle (Solutions)

Is your business battling to keep on top of customer emails?

A help desk ticketing system can help you out.

With this handy piece of software every email is turned into a ticket, which is then tagged, categorised and routed to the relevant customer service agent.

One ticket might be assigned to an agent dealing with a stock query, while another goes to someone handling sales.

Each agent can view their queue of tickets, see what stage the customer enquiry is at and take action. That could be sending an email, setting a date to review it or re-routing the ticket to a different agent. Once a query has been resolved the ticket is flagged up as closed.

A help desk ticketing system has a shared inbox – so if more than one agent is involved with a customer enquiry everyone can keep track of the ticket status.

From basic to all bells and whistles, there are lots of ticketing systems out there.

Whichever one you pick, make sure you set it up to take advantage of its full range of capabilities.

Just one thing you should know – it can’t make the tea!

  • Want help integrating a help desk ticketing system into your business? Pop me a message and let’s talk: info@virtuellesolutions.com

4 simple tips for great customer service communication… PART 2

Virtuelle (Solutions)

# STAY ON BRAND

As a customer service rep, you’re an extension of the business owner.

So it’s important to stick to their brand vocabulary, language and tone of voice.

Even small things count. Like whether you start an email with ‘Hello’, ‘Hi’ or ‘How you doing?’. Or use emojis on Messenger.

When you go off-brand, customers get confused. They’re suddenly in unfamiliar territory. Everything they loved about your company has suddenly gone.

And that means the customer could be gone, too.

# KEEP SMILING

Smile? When you’re on the phone?

Daft as it might sound, research shows that people can actually ‘hear’ a smile.

To really get your smile heard, you need to go for it – so pull back those lips and lift your cheeks.

Go on, give it a try!

  • What’s your favourite way of communicating with your customers?

Need help with your customer service? That’s what I’m here for! Get in touch at info@virtuellesolutions.com

4 simple tips for great customer service communication… PART 1

Virtuelle (Solutions)

# GET PERSONAL

You’re not a robot – so don’t come across like one.

Speaking with a natural, friendly voice puts customers at ease. They won’t feel like they’re just a number and it’ll give them confidence that you’re genuinely interested in helping them.

A nice touch is to introduce yourself and ask for their name. It doesn’t suddenly make you best buddies – but it does get things off to a pleasant start.

# USE HUMOUR

Something you’ve got that a chatbot hasn’t – a sense of humour.

Obviously it’s best not to launch into a gag-a-thon when the customer is angry or you’re dealing with a sensitive situation. But a bit of warm wit can do wonders for the customer experience.

Who doesn’t want a laugh to brighten their day? If you can resolve their issue AND give them a giggle you’ll have one very happy customer.

Go on, give it a try!

  • What’s your favourite way of communicating with your customers?
  • What do you think about using humour for customer service communication? A hilariously good idea – or you’ve got to be joking?

Need help with your customer service? That’s what I’m here for! Get in touch at info@virtuellesolutions.com

Would you rather lose customers than chase money?

Virtuelle (Solutions)

Um, actually, yes, say over 70% of SMEs.

Sounds crazy – but money is such an emotive topic that many small business owners are loathe to follow up on late payments.

Obviously, hanging around for payment doesn’t do your cashflow any good.

Automation is the answer. Set yourself up with the right automated processes and you can:

  • send invoices automatically
  • email automatic reminders ahead of the due date
  • automatically send an overdue payment reminder
  • email acknowledgement of payment automatically

You can also use automation to send reminder emails to customers who pay in instalments, with a quick and easy payment link included.

All this without having to get personally involved.

And don’t worry. One study found that the majority of consumers prefer getting automated chasers rather than being hounded by a human for money.

  • Need help choosing the right automation tools and getting set up? That’s what I’m here for! Get in touch at info@virtuellesolutions.com

Personalised Customer Service

Virtuelle (Solutions)

It’s the moment you dread.

The product your customer ordered is out of stock. Or stuck at the factory. Or gone AWOL.

All is not lost, though. You know that you deliver consistently good customer service. So one little blip just this once won’t matter. You won’t lose your customer, right?

Wrong.

Buying is emotional.

You don’t have the cute floppy bunny your customer wants for her nephew’s birthday? Upsetting.

You don’t have that blue dress your customer is desperate to wear at her friend’s wedding? She could cry.

Never mind that your customer service is usually brilliant. This is the moment your customer could be lost to you forever.

It’s at times like these you need personalised customer service – to empathise, apologise and get straight to a solution.

Can’t wait six weeks for delivery of the blue bunny? How about we fast-track you the yellow one? The dress you want is out of stock – can we send you this similar one from our new collection?

You can use automated messages, of course, but they need to reflect your brand’s Tone of Voice and show you understand the customer’s pain.

Don’t wait until there’s a problem. Pre-empt things that could go wrong – then get your systems and responses in place so you’re ready to act.

Stop checking out your competitor’s customer service

Virtuelle (Solutions)

Why you should stop checking out your competitor’s customer service.

Here’s the thing. Your customers don’t live in a vacuum. They’re out there buying products and services from all sorts of companies all the time.

It’s not your competitors you need to be watching. It’s every single company. Everywhere.

Someone buys a bouquet of flowers online. They’re impressed with how easy it is to search for what they need. They love the speed of the payment process. And they couldn’t have been happier when a delivery issue was quickly sorted.

That experience is going to stay with that customer. So when they come to you to buy your online product – maybe not flowers but children’s toys – they’ll be expecting the same level of customer service. And when they don’t get it? They’re going to be mightily disappointed.

So don’t just focus on what your competitors are doing. Look at how totally different companies do their customer service. Ask friends and family about their best – and worst – customer experience. Think about yours.

Use what you learn to apply outstanding customer service to your business.

  • I help online businesses with customer service support. Get in touch at

info@virtuellesolutions.com