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Tag: improving customer service

Customer Support vs. Customer Success: What is the Difference?

Posted on by Meryl D'Sa-Wilson

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Often used interchangeably, customer support and customer success are actually two separate business functions. And because they are different, they require different skill sets and strategies. Here we will look at the difference between these two customer-centric services.

Customer Support vs Customer Success

It is no secret that both customer support and customer success are essential to the successful running of a business. These services are aimed towards providing support and care to customers so that your product can help them achieve their target or goals. However, how do you decide which one is more important for the purposes of your brand and product?

Customer Support

Customer support is when your support team assists a customer in solving a problem they face while interacting with your product or service. For example, they are having trouble logging into their control panel or a piece is missing or they cannot renew their service, and so on. The transaction is begun and ended by the customer and is meant to solve immediate problems.

Speed and expertise are important factors in providing good customer support. Customers, usually panicking about their issue, want it resolved quickly and by someone who knows what they are doing. The main goal should be solving the problem during the first call itself.

It is, therefore, a reactive service. In other words, the customer has a question or issue with your product and the rep reacts to it with the attempt to resolve it. This means that customer support reps have to be on it as soon as a problem arises and follow-through until it is resolved. Because of this, this service by itself can get you and your customers only so far.

Customer support teams use toll free business numbers to handle large incoming call volumes making use of features like call forwarding and call recording. These features help with call tracking efforts by providing necessary information about call activity. Customer support metrics measure the speed and quality of the service received. Call recording, on the other hand, also offers a chance to review past calls and interactions.

Customer Success

Customer success, on the other hand, is initiated not by the customer but by the business. It attempts to provide the customer with the necessary tools and information that they may not even know they need. Some tactics include upselling and cross-selling, suggesting other products and services, upgrades, etc. The point of offering these tools is to bring the customer closer to their goal and to make the journey easier.

Customer success, therefore, takes a more proactive approach. It involves helping customers during the process; not after the fact. Offering strong customer success includes:

  • Developing and building strong relationships with customers
  • Understanding customers’ needs and their goals
  • Taking important metrics into account
  • Assisting customers in achieving their goals
  • Enabling the implementation of your products

One way to think about it is that with customer success the business and the customers are working together as partners trying to achieve long-term goals.

Customer success teams also can make use of toll free numbers or local business numbers to stay in contact with customers in different states and countries. Subscribing to a virtual phone service offering such numbers can also provide teams with metrics used to measure customer success through such aspects as customer retention rates and through call tracking strategies.

Which is Right for You?

Depending on what services you offer, you can choose to have either a customer support team or a customer success team. However, the recommendation is to have both. With both customer success and support, you can provide all of your customers with the assistance they need. Customer success can often build on customer support to ensure the problems and issues don’t occur again.

Choosing the Right Provider for Your Customer Care Team

United World Telecom offers cloud-based communication tools and features that can support and enhance your customer relations. Find out how we can help by talking to an expert.

What is Telemarketing? Everything You Need To Know

Posted on by Becki Meerbeek

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If you’re looking for ways to better market your business, you may be wondering, “what is telemarketing?” While there are plenty of ways to reach a target audience, teleselling has been one of the best and most affordable ways to reach potential clientele. And, most businesses who choose to telemarket to potential clientele benefit from a low risk way to continue to develop successfully.

What is Telemarketing? The Ins and Outs

Basically, telemarketing is the use of phones to reach potential clientele. Because teleselling is a broad term that involves any method a business can use to reach other businesses or potential customers, it can be used in a number of ways. Some of the ways telemarketing is utilized includes:

  • Basic outreach to create lead interest
  • Providing information
  • Offering opportunities
  • Gaining feedback from past clientele
  • Procuring leads
  • Managing business appointments
  • Improving customer services

What is Inbound Telemarketing?

Inbound telemarketing is a type of telemarketing which involves reaching out to customers a company has already accrued. It works to engage with current customers to introduce new products and gain a lasting customer-business relationship. Some examples of inbound marketing include offering a 24/7 customer line in which customers can reach a customer service agent all hours of the day. Or, a hotline for customers to reach to ask questions about products and/or services.

What is Outbound Telemarketing?

Contrary to inbound telemarketing, outbound telemarketing involves calling people who are not already customers. Typically, the goal of outbound telemarketing is to convert a phone lead into a business sale. This is done in three stages:

Lead Generation: Before outbound tmarketing can take place, one needs to establish a lead source. Typically, businesses will use lead generation tools like business websites, email blasts, and surveys to establish client needs before making cold calls. This will help to identify leads which have a greater potential for conversion.

Sales: Once leads are generating, the next step is to cold call leads to inform the customer about the product or service. However, this can get tricky as many people won’t answer phone calls from numbers they don’t recognize. One way to get around this is by using a calling prefix that matches your lead’s current area code. Once the client gains information about your product or services, you can ask for and finalize the sale.

Follow Up: Finally, the last step of outbound marketing is to follow up with a client to address any questions or concerns. This helps to keep the business relationship on healthy terms and can keep you from having to outsource customer service.

Everything about telemarketing
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Some Benefits of Telemarketing

Choosing telemarketing as a way to reach target audiences, whether they are other businesses or personal phone lines, is a great way to grow business. Furthermore, teleselling offers a number of benefits including:

  • Cutting time and the cost of lead generation by creating product/service interest right over the phone.
  • Improving customer services by offering clientele direct access to telemarketer phone lines.
  • Increasing the effectiveness of appointment setting for business.
  • Offering better customer satisfaction by specifying client needs.
  • Revealing a client base ready to purchase a product or service.
  • Reaching out to current clients to improve customer relationships and upsell products or services.

Closing: Investing in Telemarketing for Your Business

 Now that you have the answer to the question, “what is telemarketing?,” you may now realize that marketing is what your business needs to convert more leads into customers. United World Telecom can help to make implementing a telemarketing infrastructure as easy as can be by offering virtual phone numbers and 1-800 toll free numbers that can reach phone lines in any part of the world. Plus, we provide access to a number of other marketing services like SMS forwarding, call recording, and more. To create your custom telemarketing phone number and begin your telemarketing journey to reach more potential clientele, contact us today.