The Five-Star Priority Caller Treatment
How to use smart contact centre technology to ensure that your high-value customers get the VIP treatment so you never lose a valued customer or a big-time sale.
Just as frequent fliers get priority boarding and hotel regulars get swanky room upgrades, your business’ most valued customers – whether they’re big spenders or just long-time clients – should get the five-star treatment when they have to engage with your contact centre agents. It’s important to take extra steps to treat your high-value customers like true contact centre VIPs.
There is nothing worse than feeling abandoned or unappreciated by a business for whom you’ve been a dedicated customer. One bad experience can turn years of good service and the feeling of being a “regular” into a feeling of personal betrayal. Somehow the sting is much worse when you’ve been a long-time client. A report from Harris Interactive, a market research firm, found that 89 percent of consumers have started doing business with a firm’s competitor after receiving poor service at their old service provider.
To avoid joining the long line of businesses spurned by irate loyal customers, consider these five ways to show your high-value customers that they’ve number one in your business’ book.
1. Establish a unique phone number for VIP customers
A dedicated line can send your business’ MVPs straight to the front of the calling queue or even avoid having them wait at all. It’s relatively inexpensive to establish a VIP number. Keep it private by sharing it only with your most cherished customers; don’t publish it on your website or public marketing materials. Staff this line with your top-tier agents to ensure quick, top-notch service for your most valued customers.
2. Send urgent calls to the express lane
Sometimes even an average customer becomes a high-value customer when he or she has urgent needs. It’s in times of crisis that your firm runs the greatest risk of losing a client if you fail to deliver swift, spot-on service. Be sure your contact centre technology has a way to reroute urgent callers to experienced agents with little to no wait time. Urgent situations are your chance to prove your worth both as a business and as a client service centre; don’t risk losing a customer especially when good service in an emergency situation can convert a casual contact into a loyal customer.
3. Add a repeat customer option to your IVR menu
You’ve likely heard these types of options on hotel or airline reservations lines. Be sure that your client service centre’s interactive voice response menu includes a special option for repeat customers. By pressing 2, for instance, your regulars can be routed to your most seasoned agents and have their inquiries accelerated. This is an extra touch that makes loyal customers feel like VIPs and goes a long way to meeting and exceeding their client service expectations.
4. Use valuable client service centre analytics to identify and fast-track the big spenders
Be sure your client service centre software gives you the tools you need to identify your high-value customers so that you can put them on the fast track to top service agents. If you don’t know who your most valuable customers are, how can you possibly upgrade their service or expedite their calls? Make sure you’re getting the data you need from your client service centre software so that you can turn important customers into VIPs.
5. Use smart caller identification systems to redirect your best customers to your best agents
Make sure you have access to calling line identity (CLI) programs that can instantly detect high-value callers by their phone numbers and direct their calls to your best and brightest. By instantly intervening when a big-league caller contacts your client service centre, CLI can shorten their wait times and rush service. This way, your big spenders and loyal customers feel that their business is valued from the top of the business all the way to the client service centre agents taking their service calls.
When working to gain and retain high-value customers, the little things really matter. If holding on to your VIPs is the goal, make sure you take the few extra steps, as they go a long way. Make sure that you can first identify and then upgrade the service levels of your most valued clients. These few steps really feel like the extra mile to your company’s most important customers. For more ways to be sure your contact centre is providing the ultimate in customer service, check out our free whitepaper.
