Customer Care Call Centers

Most Americans believe that so-called “customer care” call centers are anything but caring. Indeed, they expect that when they dial a call center, they will be placed on hold for at least 10 minutes, shuffled between various ineffectual low level representatives, and finally given the runaround by bristling managers. The fact is that most customer call centers tend not to be very caring at all.

You can use this general disenchantment to your advantage, however. By providing top-notch customer care service, you can generate buzz and momentum about your business. You'd be surprised at how even subtle changes to your call center strategy--playing better hold music, for instance--can impact how your brand is perceived by customers as a class.

Putting the “Care” Back in Customer Care

The reason why telemarketing CRM matters is that customers like to talk among themselves whenever they have extremely negative or positive experiences with a call center. For instance, I remember several years ago getting slapped with a $500 telephone bill for switching calling plans in the middle of a month. I was livid, and I was further enraged by the treatment my phone company gave me.

In the subsequent months and years, I have turned off over a dozen longtime users from that phone company. I've calculated that I've cost the phone company several thousands of dollars in lost assets--which will accrue to over tens of thousands of dollars during the course of my lifetime. The lesson here is obvious. One angry customer can bring down the house, so treat every response as if it were critical.