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Effective communication with your clients is crucial. By using the right tools and methods to communicate with your clients, you have a better chance of bringing new customers on board while also retaining existing ones. Because communication is the backbone of any successful company, you’ll want to know the ins and outs of streamlining client calls.
Keep reading to learn about 5 easy ways that you can streamline client calls to make them as effective and efficient as possible.
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1. Have a Purpose
Before you pick up the phone to contact a client, the first thing you’ll want to do is to ensure you have a clear purpose on mind. One of the worst things you can do when communicating with a client is to overwhelm them with information or have no solid reason as to why you’re contacting them. Make communication worthwhile and meaningful.
For example, if you’re contacting a client to get feedback about interactions with your company in the past, ask pointed questions such as:
- How was your experience?
- Did you get the information/service you require?
- Is there anything we could do differently to improve the experience?
By asking the right questions and having an underlying purpose for contacting a client, you’re much more likely to get the information that you need.
2. Use Conference Calls
Sometimes meeting with a client in person is impossible. Thankfully you can use conference call service in order to keep communication as personal and direct as possible. What’s nice about conference calling is that distance is no longer a factor. Conference calling allows you to communicate through audio and video, creating the feeling that you’re having a true face-to-face conversation.
By using this form of personal communication, you can develop deeper relationships with your clients. This is especially important when you’re looking to bring a new client on board. Being able to see and hear each other builds a sense of trust and confidence in the relationship.
Another great perk of conference calls is that some services allow you to share documents, present a slide deck, and even use a virtual whiteboard. These features can be quite beneficial in streamlining calls and ensuring that pertinent information is shared with the right people.
3. Automate Where Possible
Your call center and sales agents have a lot to do during their work day. In order to make their job duties a little less cumbersome, automate tasks where possible. As a rule of thumb, it’s ideal to automate tasks that are repetitive. For example, when a representative misses a call, you can use software to create a missed call case. Or when a phone call ends, you can have a tool that records the call log to a database.
By using automation in a smart way, you can alleviate repetitive manual tasks that often take up a lot of time. Instead, your customer representatives can focus more of their time talking to clients and focusing on other more important tasks.
Adding automation to the client calls process not only enhances team performance and individual productivity, but it also reduces human error.
4. Use a Knowledge Base
When clients contact your company, they should be given the same answers to the same questions. Agents shouldn’t have to search through notes, ask a coworker, or sift through various tools in order to find the answer for a client’s question. Not having an immediate answer can leave clients confused and unhappy with their interaction with your company.
This is where the importance of knowledge management really comes into play. By using a centralized knowledge base, representatives can find all of the answers that a caller may need in one place. This makes giving the right answers much easier and quicker, which means that clients will be much happier with their overall experience.
To keep your knowledge base as useful as possible, update it often and regularly review it for changes and updated answers.
5. Follow Up
Once a client call is over, you’re not done just yet! To ensure that you and the client are on the same page, be sure to send a follow-up email that summarizes what was discussed along with any new topics that need to be discussed on the next call.
You can also use this email as a way to note any tasks or lingering questions that need to be addressed before the next client call occurs. By taking the time to send a follow-up email, you can take the conversation full circle and minimize the risk of any confusion.
Conclusion
With streamlined and effective calls, you can maintain a solid relationship with your clients for years to come. Be sure to use these 5 tips before your next client call to make it as meaningful and beneficial as possible.
