In today’s digital world that is becoming increasingly globalized, it is getting ever more difficult to distinguish yourself at product level. The emotions evoked by your brand and company therefore become all the more important. One of the factors that plays a role in this is the accessibility of your customer service. Because let’s face it, how do you feel about a company that is difficult to reach when you need help?
These days customer service is available through multiple channels. Not only by telephone but also digitally. It is important to set up these different communication flows in a compliant, effective, and efficient way. And to make sure that:
If you want your customer service to be accessible by phone, you need telephone numbers. You can choose from different types of numbers: geographic numbers, non-geographic numbers/business numbers, tollfree/freephone numbers and premium numbers. But be aware, in many countries it is not allowed to use a premium number for customer service. The costs may not exceed that of a local call. In more and more countries, you are also obliged to have a representative and a registered address in the country in order to be able to request and use a number.
If you use many different numbers for various brands and countries, having an overview is extremely important. Because overview provides insight:
The more data you have at your disposal, the better you can manage it. Not all data is automatically available in your supplier’s contact center software or portal. While that data does exist. A specialized number supplier can often offer a solution. Also, for customized dashboards and reports.
Incoming calls must be delivered to the right place. Even more so if you are active internationally and have multiple contact centers. And this must go well after a destination number change and during spikes or migrations.
Your customers expect you to be easily accessible during opening hours. That’s why it’s convenient if you:
The amount of customer service channels is increasing. Therefore, it is important that customer service representatives can effectively and efficiently manage the interactions in the different channels. Not in standalone tools, but in an omnichannel platform, preferably linked to your CRM system. This way your employees can see all customer data and history and more easily handle questions in 1 interaction. Many of these platforms are cloud-based, so employees have the same data and integrations at their disposal at every workplace. This enables employees to work the same way and deliver consistent quality regardless of their location.
Optimizing the accessibility of your customer service and making sure it operates effectively and efficiently provides a lot of benefits:
So don’t miss out on those opportunities for improvement but start working on them. That is not only good for you, but also for your employees and your brand.
Download our free checklist with various topics relating to customer service telephony and omnichannel channels. And easily check whether your international customer service is set up in a compliant, effective, and efficient manner.