The basis of the goals of modern companies are customers and the experience they receive by interacting with various brands. The better the customer experience, the more positive feedback, recommendations, and willingness to order again and again from this particular company. Companies with a good reputation and excellent customer service last longer than those that forget to take care of it. Moreover, regular customers are willing to pay more and stay with their favorite brand almost forever.
Companies spend a lot of money to create special software to analyze customer experience and hire entire departments to improve their products. According to Statista, almost 45% of organizations consider customer experience as a primary competitive differentiator, and the other 45% consider it one of some key factors.
Modern business, especially service business, is impossible without an understanding of consumer behavior patterns, design thinking, and analysis of customer experience. Clients' wishes are to have a unique and personalized experience. In order to be competitive in the market, companies must constantly follow the trends in their industry and related ones and be able to act outside the box.
Why Does Your Business Need Dedicated Customer Service
Customer experience is becoming a new marketing tool. It affects brand perception and business performance as powerfully as traditional marketing, such as media advertising or a discount on a product or service, once did. Hiring a team of customer care may be crucial.
There are a few ways of dealing with that. First of all, if you own a big company and have resources, you can hire an in-house team, but if you don’t have much money and time to recruit and onboard the employees, you may outsource customer services.
There are two ways of doing that: a dedicated support team or a shared. Those are the models of outsourcing customer support teams. The main difference between those two is that by choosing dedicated customer service, you are choosing a team that is fully devoted to you. However, in the second model, the team is going to be engaged in several projects.
Here are a few reasons to choose dedicated customer service:
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1. More Flexible and Cost-effective than Employing an In-house Team
Hiring a dedicated support team is a bit more expensive than working with a shared team, but with it, you can be sure that employees will deal exclusively with your tasks. This model facilitates the hiring process and reduces the use of resources for onboarding employees, paying taxes, and others.
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2. Working with a Team with Extensive Experience
A dedicated team consists of different specialists, depending on your needs. These can be project managers and consultants from various fields, for example, a Microsoft Dynamics consultant who might work with CRM systems, etc. Employees already have experience working in your field with similar clients. They will help build the necessary communication strategies and complement your staff.
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3. Business Consulting and Leading Technologies
A dedicated customer support team is a team of experienced professionals. They are familiar with all of the trends and constantly learning to be on the same page with leading technologies. The dedicated team is familiar with all innovations in the market to make the work more efficient and fast.
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4. Increase Productivity and Configure Database
Databases grow and change over time, so consultants must understand how to work with such tasks. Sometimes you'll need to migrate data from one system to another, and sometimes you'll need to expand it. In this matter, it is better to trust a person with experience.
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5. Prevent Costly Disruptions
Unexpected financial expenses can cause a lot of trouble, which is why the main task of the dedicated team is to prevent these risks.
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6. Customer Support Tailored to Your Needs
A dedicated team, unlike the shared team, will be fully absorbed in the working process and won’t differ much from the in-house team.
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7. Management of Various Operations
The variety of specialists is important cause they bring different perspectives and views to the company.
Roles of Dedicated Customer Service Team
Companies that care about their customers always try to personalize their experience. Teams and their members are working on it. Here are some of the many roles in the customer service team:
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1. Team Leader
Team leaders usually are experienced developers who can find an error in the work of a subordinate in time and fix it. The team leader does not engage in independent development due to the lack of time spent on planning, forecasting, organizing, and optimizing the process. In addition, it is necessary to distribute the workload and time between team members, taking into account the skills and abilities of each.
The Team Leader participates in the selection of employees for his team and is also present during interviews.
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2. Project Manager/Supervisor
PM translates the information received from the client into a sequential list of tasks with set priorities. Therefore, a project manager works equally well with clients - in the language of KPIs, business tasks, and strategies; and with team members - in the language of the technical task, priorities, and professional terms. An important part of the job is managing conflicts and working with various types of customers.
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3. Customer Service Representative
A customer service agent's responsibilities typically involve assisting customers through various communication channels such as online chat, phone, mail, and social media. Agents answer customers' questions and help them solve problems related to the company's product or service.
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4. Trainer/Coach
Сoaching turned into an effective tool for business, a kind of enrichment of a special or career life. The results of the research confirm the improvement of the effectiveness of the work of practitioners and the legacy of the best method of training.
For startups, mentoring and coaching are just as important. Small business owners often lack the experience to manage processes effectively.
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5. Data Analyst
An analyst is a person who collects and analyzes data. He finds patterns and draws logical conclusions based on the analysis. There are various types of analysts. Therefore, it is worth distinguishing an independent "digital" branch in the profession of an analyst. It includes Web analysts and Data scientists (analytical scientists). The list includes several different specialists: Data Analyst, Data Engineer, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and Big Data Engineer.
Responsibilities of Dedicated Customer Service Team
The customer service team is one that stays closer to customers day by day. Therefore, a basic routine is very important. Here are a few main responsibilities customer service representatives should have:
- Processing of incoming requests and communication with the client
- Carry out risk management and solve problems that could not be foreseen
- Handle customer feedback and complaints
- Analysis of interaction with customers based on information stored in the database. Further improving customer service to increase conversions.
- Provide accurate and complete information. A culture of openness.
- Provide customers with different solutions to problems
- Develop and maintain long-term relationships with existing customers
- Expansion of the existing market and development of sales strategies
- Work in synergy with other departments to improve service inside and outside the company
- Feedback processing
This list of responsibilities is endless because it always depends on the current state of the department and sales processes. Sometimes the team will focus on maintaining relationships with existing customers, and sometimes will focus on developing and growing the niche. However, no matter what, outsourcing companies have the experience to support you and recruit the most suitable team.
How to Manage Dedicated Customer Service Team
When you know your main goals and structure, the only thing missing is the people who will work in that system. How to recruit a qualified team? The main thing is careful selection and preparation. If you hire team in Eastern Europe, those responsibilities will be on the partner firm. They will find and onboard a skilled for your various needs.
In today's realities, cooperation with the team takes place both offline and online. The online format has its own advantage - there is no need to rent additional space when the team increases. However, for working in a remote format, some nuances should be taken into account.
Maintain one channel and one terminology for communication within the team and with other teams. After all, there may be difficulties with communication, for example, with the product team or with technical specialists. It should be understood that the support agent will communicate in the language of the customers, not the language of the code or the product.
Therefore, to avoid misunderstandings, standardize terminology that is understandable to all parties for communication and fixing bugs in the system. This way, you will be able to avoid false interpretations.
Effectively setting up processes in the Customer Care team is not really different from managing other teams in the company.
Key Takeaways
- The basis of the goals of modern companies are customers and the experience they receive by interacting with various brands. The better the customer experience, the more positive feedback, recommendations, and willingness to order again and again from this particular company.
- People choose to outsource dedicated customer service due to such reasons: more flexible and cost-effective than employing an in-house team, working with a team with extensive experience, business consulting, and leading technologies, increase productivity and configuring database, preventing costly disruptions, customer support tailored to your needs, management of various operations.
- Companies that care about their customers always try to personalize their experience. Teams and their members are working on it. The team of skilled customer service specialists should consist of: a team leader, supervisor, customer service representatives, data analyst, and coach.
- In today's realities, cooperation with the team takes place both offline and online. The online format has its own advantage - there is no need to rent additional space when the team increases. However, for working in a remote format, some nuances should be taken into account.
