Are you currently in the market for a customer support hotline? There are many different types of customer support services out there.
You just need to know how to properly choose and set up your support hotline so you can have the best possible response time to any issues your customers may run into.
Learn how to set up a reliable customer support hotline for your business by reading below.
5 Steps To Properly Setup Customer Support Hotline
Step One: Choose a Business Phone Number
The first thing you need to do is to figure out what type of phone numbers you’re going to use. This will help you ensure a good response time for customer queries, as well as make sure that all your customers feel comfortable when they decide to call in.
There are plenty of service providers you can tap for this. Kall8, for instance, offers easy-to-access business phone numbers with a range of features like conferencing or online call management.
Providing a free business phone number or toll-free phone number to your customers can help improve your communications and encourage more people to avail your products and services because of the excellent customer service you provide.
Here are some tips when choosing a business phone number:
- Make sure to choose multiple phone numbers if you have different departments and manage them under the one account.
- Choose a business phone number combination that is easy to remember or gives your target audience a clue that it’s your business they’re calling, such as 1-800-ALL-CARES for a rehabilitation facility.
- Choose a business phone provider that enables you to browse local, toll-free, and international business phone numbers right on their website and immediately register them.
Step Two: Consider Important Communication Factors
According to a 2017 survey, 27 percent of the respondents said that the lack of efficiency is the major cause of customer service frustration in the United States. That’s why every business owner should prioritize improving customer support to keep their customers happy and prevent sales from declining.
There are important factors to consider when setting up a customer support hotline, including the following:
- Availability Of Customer Support Representatives: Another thing that you should always keep in mind about how to properly setup your customer support hotline is the number and availability of customer support representatives.
- Expected Call Volume: Expected call volume refers to the number of calls you’re anticipating in a period of time. It’s vital to know exactly how often your customer support representatives are going to be available to speak with your customers. It’ll also help you keep track of the people who are on the front lines.
- Expected Type Of Calls: The last thing that you need to consider is what types of calls your customer service agents will be handling. Are they sales, technical, complaints, or purely product questions? It is going to give you an idea of what questions are acceptable as well as to how you are going to be able to address calls that are brought your way.
Step Three: Design a Call Flow For Your Business
Business call flow refers to the route of incoming calls, depending on the features and benefits you choose.
For instance, you can choose a simple call flow, wherein calls are sent directly to a phone. If you want personalized services for your callers, you can add customized filters or “directions” to properly route callers to a specific customer service representative.
Check the following call flow elements:
- IVR Menu: You might want to send your callers into a prerecorded greeting or IVR with keypad options provided for the caller, such as setting up 1 for customer complaints, 2 for sales, and 3 for technical support.
- Call Forwarding: This feature can help create custom user groups. It is also used in routing calls to customer support agents. It is possible to set calls to ring all customer support representatives simultaneously, or in sequence.
- Call Recording: You can activate call recording for all incoming calls for quality and training purposes, and so you can quickly access call logs on the dashboard.
Step Four: Decide On Business Hours
Set the time your customers can call your business phone number. For instance, the start of your business call operation may follow your physical store’s business hours.
It means that if your store opens at 9 AM and closes at 6 PM from Mondays to Fridays, your callers can contact your business phone number from 9 AM to 6 PM too on the same days.
Step Five: Set Up Phones
With so many options for business phone systems available today, it can be difficult to know where to start when choosing a new system. Here are some important questions to ask yourself:
- How Much Space is Needed? Most companies need less than a square foot of space in order to accommodate a business phone system that includes all the basic features. However, if you have more employees, a larger system may be necessary.
- What Features Do You Need? You’ll want to determine what additional features you’ll need to enhance your business communications before purchasing the system. For example, if you need to route calls to multiple departments, you may want to purchase a system that has additional features such as call screening, voicemail, and call forwarding.
- What is the Cost of the Business Phone System? The initial cost of the system may be offset by the savings in long-term costs over time through reduced employee call handling time and reduced operating expenses over time due to lower phone bill costs.
- Will Additional Features Be Necessary? If the majority of your staff consists of employees who use the same phone systems in their daily communications with customers and coworkers, you’ll likely only require a basic business phone system. To ensure the best customer service, you might want to add extra features, making calls more personalized and more convenient, such as the features already discussed above.
Conclusion
When setting up a customer support hotline for your business, the first thing you have to do is to choose the best business phone number that’ll represent your company.
Next, you have to consider important communications factors, design a good call flow, decide on your business hours, and set up the suitable phones and other telecommunications devices for your customer service team.
By following this guide, you’ll create the best customer support hotline that can help boost customer engagement. In return, you will get more leads, customers, and sales, so you can attain your short-term and long-term business goals.
Read Also:
- 6 Actionable Tips to Improve Your Customer Retention Percentage
- How to Effectively Manage Your Customer Data
- 5 Best Ways to Deal with Difficult Customers
