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In many companies, there is much discussion about great customer service, but that discussion rarely translates into action. When it comes to your online customer service, the only way to know if you are actually succeeding in keeping your customers happy is by tracking real metrics and communicating directly with your customers to learn about their experience. DECIDE WHICH METRICS MATTER MOST There are a variety of ways that online customer service can be measured. The speed of your responses and the number of interactions that it takes to resolve a customer question through either chat or email are both quantitative measurements that can be used. The use of CRM software allows you to track longer-term metrics as well, such as the number of inquiries that a customer places over the course of twelve months, indicating that previous resolutions were inadequate. The good news is that once you have decided which metrics you are going to track, you can inform your team members and s

If you haven't taken the time to hear from your team about their needs when it comes to phone technology for business, now is the time. Your customer service agents are down on the ground, interacting with customers, using the phone system day in and day out. They are aware of its strengths and its weaknesses. They know what the customers are asking for specifically, and they can direct you toward making the right investments while you're upgrading. DIRECT LINE ACCESS The whole concept of a central operator that takes all calls and directs them appropriately was designed for efficiency. The automation of this process with numerical menus was designed to save labor. However, the one thing that many customer service agents want is the ability to have their customers contact them directly. If a call gets disconnected unexpectedly, or if they are working on a long-term problem with a customer, they may be waiting on a callback. If the customer has to navigate the entire phon

No investment is ever made without significant thought given to costs. Phone technology for business is no different. In the past, a new phone system upgrade for your business could cost thousands of dollars and required lengthy installation and rollout processes. When assessing phone systems today, you must look at not only the cost of the equipment but also the cost of maintenance and the value of the time you will save with a more efficient workflow. COST OF EQUIPMENT Many companies remember the days of spending $20,000 or more up front to have new phones and land lines brought in. Technology and the phone industry have come a long way since then. It is cheaper than ever to manufacture new phones, and many phone service providers would rather have you sign a two year installment agreement than pay for the phones up front. This translates into a lower monthly payment that you can stretch out over several years rather than making a lump sum payment. The benefit is that this ser

I WILL PUT OTHERS FIRST . I will be a person who will seek unity. I will do nothing from selfish or empty conceit, but will regard others as more important than myself. I will not only look out for my own personal interests, but also look out for the interests of others. WATCH THE VIDEO HERE : The Following is a true story from Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, a Holocaust Survivor: "As you know, during the Holocaust, the people were transported in the worst possible, inhumane way by railcar. After hours and hours in this inhumane corral with no light, no bathroom, cold, they arrived at the camps. The doors were swung wide open, and they were blinded by the light. Men were separated from women, mothers from daughters, fathers from sons. They went off to the bunkers to sleep. As they went into the area to sleep, only one person was given a blanket for every six. The person who received the blanket, when he went to bed, had to decide, 'Am I going to push the blanket to the

For the last few years, "cloud" has been a major buzzword in the IT community. If you're new to cloud-based computing, you may be wondering what it means, and more importantly, how it impacts you and your business. The good news is that the cloud is fairly simple to understand, and it has provided a great way to expand your capabilities at a reasonable price. Here are some of the top questions we get from customers about cloud phone system services: What is the Cloud? More or less, the cloud is simply a data storage medium that exists outside of your site. A few investors got together and set up huge banks of servers to use as versatile storage. Your computers connect to their servers and transmit data back and forth. Your company pays a set rate for access to the servers based on your actual usage, allowing you to scale up or down as needed without waste. Is My Data Secure? Obviously, the thought of transmitting data off site to somebody else's server creat

The Internet plays an integral role in the way people communicate today. In fact, it has become so prevalent that sites that were once meant for entertainment only have become a huge part of the customer service industry. The Internet is a nearly limitless resource that allows you to offer online customer service through a variety of avenues at once. CHAT AND EMAIL SUPPORT Many people these days are fed up with sitting on hold on their phones for customer support. Instead, they prefer to send a quick chat message or email, and then get back to their busy lives. This is an online customer service tool that has revolutionized the way customers get the help they need. It frees up the customer to do their own thing while they wait for a response, which will be waiting for them when they return. It is far less disruptive to the customer's life. Most importantly, today's business phone systems allow chat and email support to be fully integrated with your phone support system

Today, the virtual telephone system is becoming a staple of businesses large and small. The benefits of moving toward a VoIP system are many, and the costs may actually be less than you expect. The virtual telephone system is extremely versatile and can be scaled to any size organization with a wide range of optional features included. VOIP VoIP stands for voice-over-IP, which essentially means that your phones will be connected to your network and place calls using the internet rather than a dedicated phone line. It was designed as part of the process of moving toward a more integrated communications system overall, allowing your phones to interface with your computer and gather more information than traditional systems. VoIP systems can be hosted locally using a virtual access point at your office location, or they can have a dedicated server on-site. Cloud-based VoIP allows more dynamic scaling with less equipment on site. MODERN FEATURES AND FUNCTIONALITY The most importa

I WILL ACT WITH INTEGRITY . I will do the right thing. I will tell the truth. I will admit when I'm wrong, ask forgiveness, and do what I can to make it right. I will do what is right, even when no one is looking. WATCH THE VIDEO HERE : Great story from Bill about Briarwood: Over 25 years ago we had a contract with Briarwood to cable their new building and move them. We had 6 miles of cable to pull and it was a six month contract. The customer said, "Make sure you get us moved before Christmas." We committed to complete the job by Christmas, because it was their busiest time due to the large number of phone calls with end of the year contributions. When we got within a couple of days of the move I realized that we were not going to complete on time. I went to Tom Leopard and told him that I let him down, I had told him I would get him moved and completed on time. We were going to get him moved but it was going to be very messy—not all the phones were going to