How do you know it’s time to outsource IT support for your small business?

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How do you know it's time to outsource IT support for your small business

Outsourcing is a business practice in which the company hires a third party to perform all the tasks and operations for the company. The company arranges for its workers and computer system to perform the services by the IT technical support on the company's site or at any external location. Companies can streamline their production time because the outsourced team does it. 

Technical support outsourcing companies handle an entire division of the company. A company outsourcing responsibilities can help them in focusing on business partnership. It is all about managing relationships more than any service level agreement. The company decided to outsource an entire IT division for major reasons. It also helps in focusing on the resources and core competencies. This ensures that the company has competitive advantages.

IT technical support gives space to innovation centers. According to a survey, 35% of the companies decide on outsourcing providers based on their innovation value. A company outsourcing an entire IT department requires a long-term partnership with clearly stated company requirements, and it helps lower the cost and increase efficiency. Through outsourcing, the companies can free their resources and redirect any existing task or new project.

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Reasons To Outsource IT Support For Your Business

  • An Effective Way To Reduce Labour Cost

The employer always looks for ways to cut costs for a small business. Every penny spent on training the labor could be used to invest in new products, market the company, and cement it deep into the consumers' consciousness. Through outsourcing technical support, your labor cost shall automatically decrease. 

An internal IT team is much more cost-effective than training a newbie, and it adds to the advantage of paid leaves. It also improves the chances of packages to the employee. The labor cost is reduced by 70 to 90% by outsourcing small business tech support services. Too many employees in one division can start to bog things down. By a handful of members of an outsourced IT team, the creation and management of applications can be done. Hiring employees directly based on their skills can be challenging for the company. On the other hand, an outsourced team does not require any training. 

  • The Companies Can Focus On The Core Task 

The key point of outsourcing and technical support outsourcing companies is to allow them to focus only on their core activities without any unnecessary distractions. It is done to enable the market to make the best decisions about the function and development of the company. 

A small business needs to focus on its legal services. If the company manages day-to-day IT problems, they shall not specialize in the other task. IT technical support helps the company to focus on its core competencies. 

Offloading the technical problems on the technical support outsourcing companies has resulted in a boom. They get time to develop their core business. With the rapid rise in the industry, outsourcing has become essential. To maintain this exponential growth, the companies primarily have to focus on their core subjects. 

  • Security Risk

It is estimated that it costs almost 4 million dollars to breach data. When a company hires an employee for the IT department, the security of the customer's and company's details is in the hands of the hired employee of the company. The company puts itself at risk by hiring a technical novice. 

By hiring outsourced technical support, the company outsources its IT task and reduces the liability associated with IT. It helps strengthen the security of the data, which are in the hands of a skilled department rather than a technical novice.

A team of IT technical support does not have any experienced staff, and the risk of an inexperienced staff managing the IT decision can affect the company's credentials. There is no hidden cost of an outsourced IT service, and they do not have an unresponsive support team as well.

  • Rapid Growth Of The Company

IT technical support allows the company to get additional resources whenever required. The outsourcing company adjusts to the team's specialization when things go slow or the requirements change. It helps in maintaining the flexibility of the company. 

The outsourced IT professionals have a high level of education in their niche and are full of experiences. Such professionals provide high quality, ready to scale and future-proof products for the company's remarkable growth. The outsource technical support follows the trend and uses modern technology. The quality of work given by such professionals also helps save costs on maintenance and future development. 

Avoid outsourced IT departments that start a new project instantly. If the project requires major capital investment, training in-house employees could be challenging. Under such a situation, Small Business Tech Support Services starts the project right away. 

  • The Company Stays Competitive

From all the points listed above, the company's main goal is to stay competitive. An impacted marketplace requires constant competition, and the companies which can withstand this competition can only exist in the market. Outsourcing technical support increases competition as it is encouraged by free markets, benefiting the consumer. 

Technical support outsourcing companies increase the company's competitiveness and profitability. As such, the company should seek a proper balance between which part of the business should be outsourced and which part should be managed. The activities that do not come under the core business activities can be delegated to a specialized third party to perform the task and add value to the company. 

Activities like production, operation, administration, human resources, and most importantly, IT are outsourced to external companies. The company is relieved from its IT operations when a dependable source of IT professionals is there.

  • Advancement In Technology That Helps In Speeding Up The Process

The introduction of a new software can decrease the speed of the professionals working in the existing IT department of the company. An internal IT person needs to be trained according to the ethics and working procedures of the company. The person then changes themselves according to the company's requirement when IT technical support is outsourced, and the company is benefited from the perspective of multiple IT professionals. 

The outsourced professionals are well equipped with the latest technologies, which helps the company make correct and productive decisions. When a company chooses to delegate processes and tasks, the cost involved in training new employees for advanced equipment acquisition is cut short. 

Technology innovation has made finding skilled professionals more challenging than ever before. The benefits of having access to a larger talent pool are only through outsourcing to the IT department. 

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Common IT Maintenance Services

  • Removing Of Spyware

Technical support outsourcing companies deal daily with antivirus, virus removal, and spyware removal. The entire tech support deals with stopping the viruses from the computer, and the professionals update the software so that there are minimal viruses in the operating system. 

  • Software Update 

The outsourced professionals are well equipped with the latest technologies. Through outsourcing, the companies can free their resources and redirect any existing task or new project. The professionals update the software technology of the company's computer system from time to time. 

  • Cleaning Up Of Virus

Any best antivirus software is also not 100% effective. If the employees open the website, there could be a virus attack. The IT professionals remove these viruses from the system for better computer functioning. A virus removal tool can help in retrieving data when antivirus software fails. 

  • Optimization Of Software And Hardware Performance

An efficient IT system looks into the optimization of hardware and software performances. Many times high-level software does not run efficiently. In such cases, there is a dire need for IT professionals. These IT professionals look into optimizing the data stored in the data and its effect on the performance of the hardware systems. 

  • Overall Check Up Of The System

The team of IT professionals checks the overall performance of the system. The outsourcing company adjusts to the team's specialization when things go slow or the requirements change. The outsourced IT department helps strengthen the security of the data, which are in the hands of a skilled department rather than a technical novice.

Why choose WOW Customer Support For IT And Security Maintenance Services

Having IT support is crucial for an e-commerce business. Outsourcing technical support can help the company reduce the total cost incurred on IT management, support, and monitoring. It also helps in offloading the pressure on the in-house staff. As an entrepreneur, you should choose WOW customer support for IT security maintenance services for the following reasons:

  • Experienced technical support
  • Detailed reporting
  • Services from beginning to end
  • Prime customer satisfaction
  • Development of own resources
  • 24/7 support available

These are some of the most significant advantages that one can enjoy when they opt for WOW customer support services. So, we promise that once you make the most of it, there is no turning back. It genuinely comes to your rescue for all the right reasons.

Methods to improve your ROI with Customer Support Services!

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Methods to improve your ROI with Customer Support Service

Any flourishing and successful business relies on excellent customer support service. Customer service's aim is to create and maintain relationships with customers by ensuring that they are satisfied with your products/services and listening to their suggestions on how to improve your organization. As a result, providing a positive customer experience can have a substantial influence on your business's ROI by raising conversion rates, increasing market share, developing brand loyalty, increasing the potential for upselling and cross-selling, and attracting talent. Negative experiences, on the other hand, might lead to a loss of money as well as irreversible damage to your company's reputation.

The benefit to an investor from an investment of a resource is known as return on investment (ROI). A high return on investment (ROI) indicates that the benefits of the investment outweigh the costs. 

At Wow Customer Support, about how important it is to provide excellent customer support service in general. However, we stress the need of using concrete numbers to evaluate the success of your efforts. When you combine the two, you'll be able to see exactly how your customer service efforts are benefiting your company's bottom line. 

Let’s discuss the ways a company can improve its return on investment by taking the below-mentioned measures. 

Tips to improve your ROI from your Customer Support Service

More than 88% of businesses now place a premium on customer experience in their daily operations. Yes, it's that crucial. And it's not hard to see why. If a customer chooses to do business with you based on their customer experiences, then that's where you must stand out. Customer experience is now the primary differentiator for more than two-thirds of businesses. Consequently, you're increasing your company's return on investment because more customers mean more sales. 

Improving ROI by improving customer service management

  • Calculate Customer retention - It’s all about the perspective. If you start watching customer support services as customer success operations, the game changes. Customers will stay longer with the company if they’re getting their answers properly addressed. They are going to continue using your products and services because they know the customer support services provided by your company are reliable. Observe how and when customers reach out with an issue, getting the problem addressed by a call or any type of communication results in reducing cancellations and refunds. This way, you can improve the services and keep your customers coming back!

Nonetheless, we know that excellent customer service is linked to company success, and it's apparent that customers want to contribute their money to organizations that care about them.

  • Educate and Train your Staff -  If your employees don’t have a proper understanding of your products and services, it’s going to cost you a lot of company resources. It’s important that employees are easily able to navigate through different processes and systems are able to help your customers with ease. By training your staff you’ll be able to resolve your customer issues effectively and efficiently. Training them regarding the different processes, troubleshooting skills, product/service knowledge, active listening and resolving conflicts will enable your company to perform better in the long run and a small investment will be worth all of it and more. 
  • Identifying the right ROI indicators - It’s easier to sell your product or service to an existing customer rather than a new customer. Hence, the customer support service provided should be exceptional. Identify which ROI indicators seem to be working for your company and are proving the results. You can start executing modest, measurable trials with specific ROI figures once you've figured out which customer service metrics your team can use and how that adds to the company's performance.
  • Implementing Feedback Software - By installing feedback software, you can get complete information on the customer’s experience. This way, you can understand what’s working and what’s not working. The technique and approach used by high performing employees to handle customer queries can be utilised in training the one’s that are struggling to perform. 
  • Reward Employees for practising great Customer Service - Providing great customer support service and customer incentives that braces great customer experience, a company can expect direct investments in marketing and referrals. Keeping incentives for your employees will drive them to provide a high-quality customer experience. Moreover, prospects when going through your customer service reviews are likely to turn into customers after seeing a positive compliment on your company’s efforts to keep their customer’s happy. 
  • Sales - Customer support acts as marketing by offering a fantastic customer service experience that customers want to tell their friends about.

Improving ROI by reducing costs

A company can get a high return on investment by cutting costs on the customer service operations. The two major factors that play a big role in this strategy are Efficiency and Effectiveness. By improving the efficiency of processes and individual activities, time consumption is going to get lower and hence the cost per unit of work will reduce. If your employees are able to resolve customer issues faster, they would not be required to work extra. 

Similarly, if customer queries are solved on the first call, they won’t have to contact customer service agents several times through different means of communication. Less number of calls to attend means you’ll require less staff. 

Keeping these two factors in mind, there are proven strategies you can implement to lower the cost of your customer service, they are listed below:

  • Customer service tools and data - Improve the productivity of your customer support service operations by installing an IT system that’s updated and services like helpdesk management and online support can help along with customer queries and requests. Agent assisted support can be minimalised if there are self-sufficient solutions available for customers. Furthermore, with the quality of the information provided to agents, they’ll be able to handle customer problems effectively.  
  • Process Optimization - By reducing the number of steps in a particular process, eliminating the need of piling up work and unnecessary tasks will not only help your company in saving resources but is also going to improve the customer support service experience. 
  • Restructuring Customer service operations to build better teams - When customer support service operations increase, the possibility of redundancies developing between teams, business processes and organizations increase as well. Restructuring of customer service operations in specific intervals can create greater synergy and it will also help in reducing overhead costs of customer service management. 
  • Outsourcing - Customer support service outsourcing will give you the opportunity to access less costly resources to perform large scale operations. It will also allow you to work along with global workforces that will be of great support to your company’s needs. 

Improving ROI by improving performance

In order to improve your ROI by customer support services, you’ll have to improve the quality of your customer service functions. Here are the top four ways you can implement to improve your services - 

  • Listen to your customers - Sometimes when a customer comes to you with their query, more often than not they’re looking for a customer service representative to hear them out and empathize with their problems. Even if the problem isn’t resolved quickly if you’re customer service representative is able to communicate and build a relationship with the customer, it will improve customer loyalty and satisfaction. 
  • Don’t keep them waiting - A very simple and effective way to increase the value of your customer service operations is by not making them wait. One of the main problems faced by the companies is customers having to wait to get the agent’s attention and get their issues resolved. By the time, the customer service representative attends to the issue, the customer is already upset. Minimizing the customer waiting time will show them that you value their time and business. 
  • Caring and Knowledgeable staff - When customers interact with your company regarding a problem, they expect to interact with a knowledgeable staff that can assist them properly and handle their issues with utmost concern. 

How a Call Center Can Help

Even if you grasp the concepts of high-quality service, putting them into practice successfully is a different story. Despite their greatest efforts, many companies still struggle to provide excellent customer support services.

So, what can you do right now to improve your customer support services? Contact an outsourced call centre. 

With Wow Customer Support, you can improve your customer service results and increase your return on investment.

Why UX Writers and Customer Support Service Should Team Up

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Why UX Writers and Customer Service Should Team Up

Most companies haven't tried it yet but user experience (UX) writers teaming up with customer support service has become a major point of discussion in 2021. As the name suggests, user experience starts from understanding user's (customer) expectations and nobody understands people better than customer rep themselves. They get to attend to customers' inquiries, reviews, and complaints. So they know what to do when improving users' experience. 

According to Tech Jury's UX research, 52% of customers leave websites without intending to return due to poor aesthetics. Users who are dissatisfied with what they learn on one website are more likely to switch to another service and continue their research there. Even your domain name has a significant impact on your brand identification and might detract from the user experience of your leads.

By anticipating and, ideally, preventing customer misunderstanding, good UX writers deliver proactive service. UX writing, like customer support service, leads to interactions that prioritize people. UX writers have been known to refer to their work as "the words on the buttons". However, it's more than that, because the collaboration between customer support teams and UX writers has a lot of benefits. Before delving fully into why they should team up, let's talk about UX writers.

What is UX Writing About?

The practice of designing the words, users see and hear when interacting with software is known as UX writing. It's all about figuring out how to make a product and its customer have a dialogue. 

One of the most difficult aspects of product copy is that it is frequently written by the same individuals who are constructing the product. They may unwittingly turn a blind eye to the difference between what they imagine the user does with the product and what the user actually does with the product since they are involved from the beginning. Consequently, the copy ends up not being effective.

This leads to the question: who should be working on the product copy?

This is when a UX writer comes in handy. A UX writer improves a user's experience with a product by improving the product's communication. A skilled UX writer spends time going through tickets and listening to customer calls to understand the issues that customers encounter, and then works towards resolving them. 

However, sifting through a sea of support tickets for incidents that can be traced back to poor product copy is a time-consuming task. While it isn't hard to complete this task on your own, a little assistance from someone who has worked with the customer support service team before can go a long way.

What UX Writers and Customer Support Service Have in Common

Customer Support Service is a Resource for UX

In an ideal world, all products and services would be simple to use and comprehend, and users would never need to contact customer care. Regrettably, this isn't always the case.

Even with an excellent UX write-up, users may have problems or have queries at any time, and they will contact or call you for assistance. During this time, the team of UX writers may be so preoccupied with crafting perfect write-ups for your company's product or service that they would overlook the fact that the experience is far more essential than the product they are creating.

However, one important source of information on user expectations is often overlooked: customer service. Customer support service refers to any action that involves anticipating and offering professional, helpful, and high-quality service and assistance to customers before, during, and after their needs are addressed. As a result, in addition to user experience research, customer support is another powerful source of knowledge about your users.

You can bet that if something is a hassle for your users, it will be a pain for your customer service personnel as well. Customer service and the UX team both want people who don't have any inquiries or problems when using the product. 

They Both Share Common Goals and Methods

As stated earlier, customer support service and user experience both strive for the same goal: a user who has no queries and encounters no problems when using their product.

When a user has a question, however, customer support's goal is to discover the best method to answer it, using the best language possible, so the user understands and doesn't have to ask again. When writing content for a certain feature or page, a UX writer's role is to anticipate these questions. 

When a user has an issue, customer support's role is to come up with a solution within their means and limits. This entails considering what the product can and cannot achieve, as well as providing a different option to bring the user as close to their desired outcome as feasible. Again, a UX writer's job is to come up with the greatest possible solution to the user's needs while working within the limits that they have. 

They Both Impact One Another

UX writers and customer Support have similar aims and use similar strategies to achieve them, but they also have a direct impact on one another.

Customers will complain less about an easy-to-use product, giving your customer support team more time to handle the concerns that do come in. They will be able to respond more swiftly and with more personalized responses, increasing user satisfaction with your product. As a result, there will be fewer complaints and more time to respond, among other things.

Consider this... Every user who has ever emailed customer support has taken 5 –10 minutes out of their day to tell you how they feel about your product. This shows that customer support and UX writers must pay attention to user complaints because they are a treasure mine of user expectations. Listening should be their strongest suit.

How UX Writers and Customer Support Service Can Collaborate

Design Better Interface

Designers accept input from multiple teams when designing a product's interface and customer service should be one of them. Involving a UX writer and a customer support representative early in the design process benefits all three teams – design, support, and UX. Of course, there's also the user.

Support representatives have hands-on experience talking customers through features and proposing solutions when they run into problems. They are a better judge of the flow of a feature from beginning to end as a result of these experiences. They also get frequent feedback on the product and are familiar with a variety of feature requests, which helps them make design decisions.

Understand Users Pain Points

Apart from understanding the audience, you must also consider their pain points when writing text that improves the user experience. To accomplish this, you must identify and eliminate hitches in the product's use through good copywriting. 

Taking customer calls will allow you to discover situations where the customer is having difficulty completing a task on their own. Speaking with support personnel, in addition to taking calls from consumers, can provide you with a more complete view of the issues users are having with the product. One method to achieve this is to talk about features (particularly those with low uptake) and request a download of various use cases and usability issues from the customer care team.

Know the User Better

To write copy that benefits your users, you must understand:

  • Who the user is 
  • How the user interacts with the product in various situations

As a result, UX writers and designers make use of the user's persona. Contrary to popular opinions, user personas are utilized by designers and customer support teams, and not simply marketing and product teams. 

Designers create user personas to better understand the target audience's needs, goals, and personality traits.

You must go beyond user personas to truly understand the user to develop great copy. To accomplish this, you should collaborate closely with customer service representatives, who spend a lot of time talking to customers and will have a thorough awareness of their viewpoints. Customer Support representatives are well-versed in the optimum workflows, use cases, comprehension, and expectations of various user groups. Working with them can assist you in putting yourself in the shoes of your users.

Use a Language That Customers Understand

A UX writer's major goal is to provide copy that is appealing to the user. Thus, you must ensure that the language you employ is consistent with that of your customers to achieve this.

Customers tend to refer to your product's qualities in a variety of ways. They may borrow vocabulary from previous products they've used, or they may invent new phrases depending on their understanding of the functionality. 

Final Thoughts

Customer support service representatives in any firm can be found attempting to limit the number of how-to queries they receive so that they can focus on assisting clients with more complicated issues. A UX writer aims to improve a product's usability through words, reducing the number of how-to queries in the process. When two teams with the same aim collaborate, the result is twice as satisfying: better UX writing and a significant decrease in how-to queries. 

If you're looking to outsource your customer support service and improve your user experience, look no further than Wow Customer Support. Contact us today to learn more about our services.

In House Vs Outsourcing Lead Generation: The Choice that Improves ROI

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In House Vs Outsourcing Lead Generation

Lead generation is the process of prospecting and converting the target customers into a person who indicates interest in the product or services that your business offers. Some common methods of lead generation include online and offline advertising, online events, inbound call center outsourcing, offering discounts and promotion, inbound calling, and other strategies.

However, the process of generating quality leads can be quite time-consuming for most startups and small businesses. This is why several businesses choose to outsource this process to lead generation companies. On the other hand, some business owners believe in establishing an in-house lead generation team to generate leads for their business. One question that can plague the business owners, entrepreneurs, and marketers is whether they should establish an in-house lead generation team or outsource this process to a professional lead generation company?

Without any doubt, outsourcing is the better option for your business. Here are eight benefits of the outsourcing lead generation process to help you understand how outsourcing can better improve your business ROI:

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1.  Lead generation outsourcing lead to better and swift results

According to a report, an outsourced lead generation agency can bring 43% more results when compared to an in-house team

When you outsource lead generation services, you know the process will be in professional hands. The experts who specialize in lead generation will be laser-focused on their best-fit audience. Not just numbers, but they will be targeting high-quality leads to help you close more deals. The agency can help you set bigger goals for your business and look toward the bigger picture as the business can enjoy a higher conversion rate through quality lead generation.

2. Lead generation outsourcing saves you time

In the business world, time is money. Lead generation requires investing a lot of time into targeting and prospecting your target audience to generate quality leads. Your in-house team will have to invest several hours to create content, research the audience, promote the content, advertise, and analyze and optimize the lead generation strategy. This will consume a lot of time. 

On the other hand, when you assign this whole process to a lead generation agency, they use their years of expertise working in the lead generation industry to target the right audience with the right strategy. You will also not have to invest in training them for lead generation. Hence, you will be saving several hours and money for your business.

3. Outsourcing can result in greater productivity

When business owners and entrepreneurs choose to hire a lead generation and inbound call center outsourcing agency, they don’t need to spend their valuable time managing and handling the in-house lead generation team. Business owners can focus on other aspects of their business that need their immediate attention. 

Additionally, when the sales team doesn’t have to spend their time on telemarketing to produce leads, they will be more effective and productive in converting sales for your business. The quality leads generated by the outsourcing agency will also help your sales team perform better and secure more sales.

4. Outsourcing lead generation doesn’t require staff training

When you choose to set up an in-house team for lead generation, you need to hire, train, and manage telemarketers for better performance. Hiring and training new staff can be a tiring task for your HR team. Moreover, new hires usually need 3 to 6 months to adjust to marketing tools and strategies. 

On the other hand, lead generation agencies have a rigorous hiring process, and they already have a team of professionals skilled at prospecting and generating quality leads for your business. The agents in the agency are trained specifically to perform their duties effectively for the benefit of your business.

5. Lead generation agencies provide a broader skill set and experience

Lack of resources such as staff, funding, and time remains the biggest obstacle to successful lead generation efforts for 61% of B2B marketers

When you choose the right inbound call center outsourcing agency to outsource lead generation, your business can avail of the services of several specialists that manage the day-to-day workings. The complete lead generation process would include different strategies, such as content creation, campaign management, analyzing the results, customer support services, web analytics, market research, and more. 

Outsourcing the lead generation process to the right agency will mean that only specialists will be handling all these tasks. Hence, the leads generated by the agency will most probably have better conversion opportunities, resulting in increased ROI for your business.  

6. They can help your business stay on top of the latest trends

Lead generation outsourcing agencies bring more than their expertise. When you hire these agencies for lead generation, you get the latest marketing trends. To generate quality leads, your business should always stay updated with the latest developments in marketing. 

When you hire these agencies, you can rest assured that your business will always be on top of things. Inbound call center outsourcing agencies work for various clients. They can implement successful lead generation strategies from their previous experiences. They don’t have to start over with every new client. However, businesses need to ensure that the lead generation company is not working with their competitors simultaneously.

7. You can run campaigns on demand

When you invest in an in-house lead generation team, you are under constant pressure to run the campaign continuously. You don’t want your lead generation team to do nothing the whole day. However, when you outsource the lead generation process, you have the freedom to run the campaign only when your business needs it. You may want to run your campaigns to boost sales or to support your marketing efforts. When you run the campaign only when required, you can reduce your marketing spends and improve the ROI for your business.

8. Lead generation agencies can help target multiple channels

42% of organizations believe email is one of their most effective lead generation channels, and 49% of B2B marketers are heavily engaged in mobile marketing for generating leads 

Lead generation outsourcing agencies use multiple channels and mediums to communicate with your target audience. They use various tools and strategies for prospecting your product/services to your potential customers. This will reduce the risk of depending only on one platform to generate leads. 

On the contrary, your in-house lead generation team may not be efficient enough to use multiple channels to connect with potential customers. Hence, outsourcing your lead generation to a professional agency means your business will be getting better results using the right set of tools and channels without investing in them.

Conclusion

To conclude, outsourcing the lead generation process is more effective and efficient, especially for small and mid-sized businesses, as businesses can get access to various skills needed for lead generation in one place. Lead generation will require various services, such as data mining, content creation, market research, advertising, customer support services, evaluating analytics reports, and more. 

Small and mid-sized businesses may not have enough resources to establish a whole team for this. Hence, outsourcing lead generation can help them save some time and money while generating leads effectively and improving the return on investment of their business.

Want to know more about lead generation and inbound lead generation and call center outsourcing? Contact us now!

10 Promising Trends in Content Moderation Services Your Business Shouldn’t Ignore

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10 Promising Trends in Content Moderation Services Your Business Shouldnt Ignore

Building brand recognition involves developing the trust in the minds of your target audience. One of the most effective ways to build that trust over time is through user-generated content. According to recent statistics, customers say that user-generated content is 35% more memorable and 50% more trustworthy than other media types.  

However, publishing appropriate user-generated content can be tricky because you need to figure out how to ensure that your brand portrays a positive image. In addition, simply relying on user-generated content could hurt your business because, without moderation, it's inevitable for some content to be viewed as offensive or harmful. 

To meet all your content publishing requirements, it's essential to leverage the right form of content moderation services. If you're planning to start moderating your content or enhance your existing system, the following content moderation trends can point you in the right direction.

Ten content moderation trends you can't miss

1. Working with multi-skilled content moderators

Content moderation goes beyond understanding the fundamental characteristics of a brand. It involves going through hundreds, if not thousands, of content that may seem unnecessary, pointless, or harmful. For this reason, an increasing number of online platforms have started working with multi-skilled moderators who can -

  • Commit to global standards, have expertise on regional dialects and local culture
  • Have an open mind to accept views and opinions of others
  • Respect the rules for developing content for your brand, and, 
  • Replace ineffective content with more valuable alternatives.

2. Adopting a hybrid approach that includes technology and humans

While AI and machine learning can predict different trends regarding the likes and dislikes of your target audience, you still need human judgment to improve your content. The most reliable and effective content moderation services focus on combining the power of technology and humans to boost the quality of user-generated content. While human judgment is essential in developing innovative content, AI can prove effective in discovering trends that could negatively impact your content.

3. Managing content quality 

Public reviews play a crucial role in content filtering choices. Moderating content requires an all-encompassing action plan to efficiently identify and correct errors in your content that may invite negative remarks from prospective customers. Therefore, it has become a must to hire content moderators who can quickly identify these errors, set up effective control programs, and develop excellent content that upholds your brand's reputation.

4. Following real-world policies

Sometimes, content developers are so engrossed in conveying their personal opinions through their work that the content may adversely affect the brand. However, content moderation services can rectify such errors by adhering to real-world policies to avoid content that may be sensitive towards political viewpoints or hurt religious sentiments. In addition, content moderations need to constantly update themselves with the latest policies and implement the same in their work to avoid controversies that may impair your brand's reputation.

5. Eliminating offensive and objectionable content

Insensitive remarks or cruel statements are a strict no-no as they can provoke a section of your audience to go against your brand. Any responsible content moderator should guide you in understanding the laws and provisions against hate speeches. 

Your content doesn't include the words or phrases that may start a chaotic situation among different communities. They are well aware of defensive languages that can make your content impactful without hurting anyone's sentiments.

6. Prioritizing the safety and privacy of your audience

One of the growing trends in content moderation is forming a special team for monitoring and filtering content that doesn't necessarily follow the norms of content moderation policies against privacy violations. 

Cybersecurity threats such as malware, data breaches, and identity theft are increasing concerns for online users. As a result, it's necessary to ensure that the content you publish doesn't compromise the privacy or safety of your audience. Safeguarding the identity and personal information of your users needs to rank high on your priority list. 

7. Avoiding false information

Companies are now more conscious than ever about cross-checking the information they publish. But, with trolls waiting for the smallest gap to bash your brand online, you can't afford to give them any breathing room. And the best way to shut them down is by checking the authenticity of your content. 

Develop a content moderation system that follows a strict list of policies and prohibits spreading false information, misrepresentation, or fake news. Even the smallest of mistakes can blow up your brand's reputation because of posts made viral by trolls.

8. Increasing transparency

It's high time for your online platform to create and publish a transparency report if you don't have one yet. This report includes the moderation rules you implement on your platform, which helps to inform users about what they can and cannot publish. The biggest social media platforms all provide transparency reports about how they handle private information, copyrights, protection of intellectual property, and data requests.

9. Handling machine-generated and spam content

AI's machine-generated content is now becoming more sophisticated than ever. The primary drawback of this system is that it may lead to the dissemination of malicious information, thus degrading your audience's experience and, in turn, denting your brand's reputation. Individuals or organizations with ill intentions can create multiple accounts on your platform and publish spam content in bulk. Boosting the security of your site and finding unique solutions to the moderation of this kind of content are imperative to provide the best user experience. 

 10. Developing a localized approach

It's important to remember that each country has its own regional, cultural, and socio-political nuances. If your website attracts an international audience, you need to take this into account to cater to their content needs. Simply outsourcing content moderation services to the first company you find online may not yield the best results. It's better to work with a company with multiple regional and local hubs so you can create an effective location-based strategy.

The future of the content moderation industry

There is no denying that AI controls the advertisements and posts that we see on our social media feed every day. A lot of content that we come across are not what we would like to see, but they pop up on our feed anyway. What if your e-commerce brand mistakenly posts something that your target audience doesn't like, even if you have no intention of stirring up controversy? Such a situation can wreak havoc on your brand.

Since it's becoming a challenge to handle machine-generated content, the best way to counter this problem is to rely on content moderation. It can effectively eliminate content that may hurt your viewers' sentiments or create a divide among your audience. It's reasonable to assume the continuous growth of content moderation for as long as the e-commerce industry and social media platforms exist.

Keeping up with the latest trends in content moderation requires a significant time investment. Still, it holds the key to developing the best strategy for monitoring and filtering the content you publish online. If you want to work with the leading content moderation service provider, feel free to get in touch with Wow Customer Support. We have a team of experienced professionals who can offer 24/7 services to help you monitor your social media page, e-commerce website, blog, or forum.

Allow us to review your existing content, analyze future posts, and ensure that every content you publish helps you increase leads and conversions. Also, don't forget to like, share, and comment on our blog.

Your Guide to Omnichannel Customer Service: Connect with Your Customer at Every Touch Point

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Your Guide to Omnichannel Customer Service Connect with Your Customer at Every Touch Point

From texting apps, social media channels to video chats and emails, the way we communicate has become accessible and seamless. Consumers expect the same level of communication efficiency with businesses as well. There are various interactions that companies have to manage throughout the sales and purchase cycle. It includes answering emails, calls, chats, social media messages, etc., promptly. 

To be a successful brand in the market, you have to be available for your customers at all times. It implies going beyond conventional means of communication and choosing the most convenient platform for interaction. Although the multi-channel approach works great for customers, it can be challenging to maintain consistency for brands. It is where omnichannel customer service plays a pivotal role.

multichannel and omnichannel

Mapping The Modern Customer Journey 

The way customers shop has changed significantly, and so are their expectations from the brand. Though their purchase journey isn't predictable, customers expect you to cater to their needs on their preferred channels. They expect connected experiences irrespective of the channels that they use. Slight friction or a broken conversation might stop them from buying your products and services. 

But, How to create this seamless experience? In this detailed article, I will discuss actionable tips to assist you in delivering a seamless customer experience.

Empower customers with self-service options

76% of the customers try to solve issues on their end before contacting customer support. 

One of the best ways to empower your customers with self-service options is through chatbots or automated text messaging. Your company may have an FAQ (frequently asked questions) section on your website, but that's about as far as it goes. 

Customers may be used to getting their answers fast through Google search or Wikipedia, so why not set up a chatbot program with an FAQ feature? Customers can ask questions and get an instant response. Moreover, brands can embed informational articles in email autoresponders. 

Integrate AI 

Approximately 73% of customers consider live chat the most satisfactory communication medium to interact with brands.

The future of customer support service is personalized. Technology has made it possible to deliver a tailored experience across every channel, even if that means engaging with your customers through an automated chatbot or voice-activated assistant rather than an actual human being. 

AI can help you achieve this goal by learning what each customer wants and how they like to communicate. AI integrated chatbots can help your business improve customer satisfaction by delivering a more personalized experience.

what can i help you with?

Provide a smooth transition between AI to agent

69% of global customers prefer brands that offer proactive and seamless services and notifications. 

For example, if your customer wants to hold a conversation with you instead of typing out their issues. This is especially important in retail and banking industries, where customers want to speak face-to-face when dealing with sensitive information. And, this means an agent needs to step in at the right time, on the right platform. 

Make sure the transition is smooth, and they can switch over to phone or video chat without any hassle. Meanwhile, ensure the customer background from the chatbot is transferred on time to the agent with all the information in hand.

Use data intelligence to enhance customer experience

One-third of the consumers say that they are considering switching to another brand after one bad customer experience. 

It is crucial to learn about your customers today. This data will provide insight into what they want, how they want it, and where they are looking for information. It can give you the competitive advantage in delivering a positive experience with your business from start to finish. Your agents and chatbot can utilize this information and provide quick customer support across channels effectively.

Empower agents to focus on what's important!

Let your agents focus on important customer interactions while you can automate the rest. Centralize your customer information to ensure your agent doesn't have to worry about the background work but focuses on what they need to do best - help your customers.

It's also time to automate common service requests to simplify and quicken the response time. This will help your agents focus on areas that require human intervention and deliver a personalized experience to each customer.

Communicate on social media channels

48% of consumers expect to get a reply from brands on social media within 24 hours 

You can quickly respond to customer issues and interact with them while generating new business by monitoring your social media channel. But this doesn't mean that every message is a chance for revenue: You need to set up filters, so you don't get bogged down in the noise of other messages. 

An example of responding to a customer on social media is asking for suggestions or recommendations. You can also use the channel as your way in with these people and create an opportunity for them to interact with your brand and ultimately buy from you.

Offer round-the-clock support

In today's hyperconnected world, customers expect to be able to reach you anytime and anywhere. If they can't contact your business 24/7 via a traditional phone line or chat interface, the chances are good that they'll turn to social media instead. That might seem like a great way to vent their frustration – but it's also one of the worst ways to cultivate a good relationship with your customer. 

When you're ready to go above and beyond what your competitors are offering, it's time to turn on the "24/7" light. Offering round-the-clock customer support service is a great way to prevent your customers from going elsewhere. Customers who need immediate service will be impressed by how fast they can get in touch with your company – and they'll be more likely to return the next time.

Get a 360-degree view of your customers

More than 35% of customers expect to connect with the same customer support service representative on various channels. 

Omnichannel customer service is more than just talking to your customers on social media and over the phone. It's also about knowing where they are online and what they do there so that you can engage with them in a personal way at every touchpoint — whether it's across their preferred channels or not.

For example, if you see many Tweets coming from a specific location, research that area and find out what's going on. Perhaps there was an event recently, or the local economy is doing well — whatever it may be, connect with your customer to let them know they are in the limelight.

Assign the right people for the task

83% of customers believe that they feel more loyal towards a brand that resolves their complaints timely.

When your employees are equipped with the right knowledge, tools, and training to engage customers from different channels, you'll have a 360-degree view of their customer journey. Gather data from all sources so everyone on the desk can be as consistent as possible when delivering amazing service across every channel.

Moreover, if you don't have the budget to set up an internal customer support service, you can consider outsourced customer service. Wow, customer support is an efficient customer support outsourcing agency that will be available for your customer 24x7. 

Wrapping Up

Modern customers are not easy to please, so brands have to go the extra mile to be available at all times. You have to learn everything you can about the customers to provide them with value and impact. Moreover, you should share the information you collect across the channel uniformly to create a panoramic view. Your multiple-point solutions should have a unified approach to provide seamless engagement.

Top 10 Call Center Trends That Will Make an Impact in 2021 and Beyond

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Top 10 Call Center Trends That Will Make an Impact in 2021 and Beyond

With the rise in digitalization and globalization, the call centre industry is changing rapidly. As a result, there are many new trends in customer support that companies should be aware of. This blog post will discuss some of the top trends associated with inbound call center services to help you stay on top of your game.

The Importance of Cloud-Based Call Center Solutions

Cloud-based call support services are increasingly popular with entrepreneurs for their customer support services. Cloud providers offer a more secure and cost-effective solution than traditional onsite or hosted options, resulting in the rise of cloud-based centers worldwide. This means that organizations will be able to continue investing in other aspects of their business without disruption.

The most notable trend in inbound call centers will be expanding AI-powered customer service solutions, which have become increasingly popular with companies. These new technologies allow managers to focus more on providing personalized and high-quality customer service instead of repetitive tasks such as fielding common questions or complaints. 

With these trends continuing through 2020, there will likely be a shift towards increased automation in the space, entrepreneurs using AI and machine learning to power their customer service needs. In 2021, we also expect to see an increasing number of global organizations enter into agreements as they broaden their customer bases.

Increasing Priority of Data Security in Call Centers

Data security is a top priority in the call center service industry. Small businesses and enterprises are increasingly aware of the risks that customer data can face from hackers, malicious software, or human error. These threats have increased demand for secure and reliable solutions like virtualization platforms and cloud-based services, which offer customers greater protection over their data.

Data protection compliance, customer privacy, and the safety of personal information have become a top concern for call centers across all industries as their operations continue to grow globally. It is not just the customers who are demanding these services. The industry itself has adopted new data security requirements to meet growing global demands and comply with government regulations.

Entrepreneurs are also becoming more aware of the importance of protecting business data. Organizations are now beginning to shift from a dependency on third-party providers for solutions like customer relationship management (CRM) and CRM integration, and other application services to taking responsibility themselves to ensure that they can maintain full control over their data.

Data Analytics in Call Center Solutions

Data analytics is a powerful tool that can help companies with customer service. It has the power to track and predict changes in call volume, performance metrics, response times, and more. Data analytics also helps entrepreneurs improve their customer experience by providing better self-service options for customers who want it or need it.

One of the trends we are seeing is that call centers are integrating data analytics with AI, machine learning, and other technologies as part of their customer support services.

One goal is to reduce contact center costs and improve service to customers. This can be done in many different ways. For example, intelligent routing, offers, and ions help managers focus on the right customers or improving decision-making processes by analyzing past decisions to make better ones.

Omnichannel Communication

Omnichannel communication is a new concept that has been on the rise in recent years. The term itself implies cross-channel presence and accessibility, such as chatting with your customer while they are browsing your website or taking advantage of voice recognition technology when making phone calls. 

Omnichannel communication is becoming more popular because it is a great way to stay connected with your customers. This inbound call center is coming from a need for customers to have easy access to all channels of contact at any time and because it provides more opportunities for sales.

Adoption of Recall Technology in Call Centers

The growing adoption of recall technology in call centers will be one of the top ten trends impacting the industry. When a customer has an issue with their order or needs to cancel, these systems help manage those conversations. Having this capability can reduce costs and increase efficiency by not having to go through cumbersome processes that were previously manual.

Social Media Management in Call Center 

Social media management is an important task for call centers to get a leg up on the competition. More than 50% of customers use social media as their primary way to interact with companies, so your customer service team must have at least some talent in this area.

This is an important trend for inbound call centers, as it better serves customers in meaningful and relevant ways. The more time you spend on social media, the quicker you will be able to identify trends in customer sentiment and provide quick responses.

Optimization of Call Center Workforce

It is essential to optimize the call center workforce to deliver a high level of customer service at a low cost while still leveraging technology for efficiency.

Call centers are being forced to change how they operate as digital technologies, such as AI-powered chatbots and social media tools, continue to evolve. The customer experience will be at the forefront of call center design in 2021. For example:

Customers prefer voice interaction over text for routine tasks (e.g., account balance)

Customers expect the same level of service and speed regardless of channel (e.g., email to chatbot, voice, or text).

The call center workforce will increase in 2021 as companies strive for customer satisfaction with a high level of personalization and customization. Entrepreneurs need to leverage call center services that offer: 

  • Immersive virtual reality experiences that mimic face-to-face interactions
  • A customer-centric workforce with personalized approaches and scripts.

A Shift To Remote Working Environment

Customer support managers are no longer confined to their desks. As they work with customers across the globe, a shift in the working environment is taking place now more than ever before. Many of these outsource inbound call center trends, such as remote-working and employees picking up shifts for other callers, fall under the umbrella of flexible staffing models.

Some companies have adopted a 100% distributed model with agents working from anywhere they like. Others still maintain an office but require employees to work remotely only sometimes or as needed during non-peak hours. This shift has been driven by several different factors, including the need to save on office space and better use employees' skills.

Implementation of Self-Service Tools In Call Centers

Call center customers are now more knowledgeable and aware of the available self-service options. As a result, they're spending less time on the phone with customer service representatives to resolve their issues. This has created an opportunity for customer support managers to work smarter by using new tools that increase efficiencies in ways not possible before. 

Customer Satisfaction Measurement

Customer satisfaction measurement is crucial for call centers and contact centers. These days, you can't just measure it on a customer service questionnaire alone because customers are changing what they expect from the business interactions that they have with vendors. Customer satisfaction measurement is also important for a call center because it has an impact on the way that phone calls influence customers.

Conclusion 

Providing excellent customer support services has become more important than ever, with customers becoming more demanding. 54% of global consumers say that they have higher customer support expectations than a year ago. 

But with entrepreneurs, especially small business owners juggling various tasks, it becomes difficult to focus on customer service efficiently. This is why small businesses owners and big conglomerates should consider their customer service. If you are looking for customer support, then get in touch with Wow Customer Support. We can provide a highly-reliable remote workforce at a cost-effective price. Save costs up to 60% with us. Let us know what you think of the new-age call center landscape in the comment section below.

UG Content Moderation: A Guide To Moderating Users’ Content To Make Your Brand’s Social Media Presence Top-Grade

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UG Content Moderation A Guide To Moderating Users Content To Make Your Brands Social Media Presence copy

The online world works with a huge amount of content daily, and content moderation is of utmost importance. As many users have started generating and posting content online in audio, video, image, and text, content moderation has become the need of the hour. Primarily, as brands use the content generated by the users as a part of marketing campaigns, regular inspection helps maintain the brand value.

User-generated content moderation or UG content moderation is the process by which the content uploaded by the users is reviewed to see if they abide by certain internet rules. A license to share posts on social media does not mean that any content is acceptable. A lot of what people share is purely illegal, insulting, and inappropriate. These have to be monitored before they cause disrespect to brands or specific groups.

Is User-Generated Content Important? 

User-generated content can be a great way to speak out loud about your brand without actually doing any real work. Much of the work is done by the users who post reviews or testimonials of the brand, which can be used for marketing campaigns. Implementing UGC can be beneficial in the following ways.

Attract new users: A section of the audience is hard to reach and may not be convinced by the regular ads or banners. But they might get influenced by users on social media who are known for their authentic content. If these influencers support your brand, your job is done. They build content that finds a way to new customers.

just do it

Better rankings in search engines: Unlike normal marketing campaigns, user-generated content can up the brand's search engine rankings. Users may unknowingly use keywords that are unlikely to be used otherwise. This could make up for an array of words close to what the real users are searching for, and will improve rankings in search engines.

4 benefits oof user generated content for seo

Makes the existing customers happy: Retaining the current customers is as important as gaining new ones. UGC has the power to engage the customers in innovative ways. For example, when you share UGC on your brand page, it is like an appreciation to the content creator, building trust. And customers place a lot of trust in the opinions and reviews of other customers, which impacts their purchasing decisions.

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Make Optimum Use Of UGC With Social Media Moderation 

Social media content moderation puts the brand in a place where you are safe enough to be exposed to consumers devoid of any inapt content in your pages. The process includes supervising users' images, text, video, and audio to eliminate toxic terms or comments. Let us see how the statistics of user-generated content looks like. This gives a picture of how many videos, images, etc. are shared on social media in a single day.

  • Twitter: 500 million tweets
  • Facebook: 350 million photos
  • Snapchat: 5 billion snaps
  • Instagram: 95 million photos and videos
  • YouTube: 500 hours of video uploaded every minute

This data stresses the need to monitor user content regularly. Here is how social media content moderation can be of help.

Understand The Customers

Going through the user content can assist in understanding if there is a general pattern that is followed unknowingly. In addition, content with certain attitudes towards the brand can be highlighted and kept for reference in the future. This can aid in taking actions that improve your brand, thus changing the overall opinions of users to work in your favor.

Up The Quality Of Brand Campaigns

Marketing campaigns that include user-generated content are found to penetrate more into the audience. A well-planned moderation by content moderation services can better the quality of movements without any negative impact on your brand's reputation. 

The method you adopt for moderation must be scalable so that there is enough knowledge to review the content irrespective of whether they are images, videos, or anything else.

Better Online Visibility

Research shows that 25% of the search result pages of large brands are from UGC links. This shows the importance of user-generated content. However, you have to make sure that no offensive content could do the opposite of what you expect. 

This means that a content moderation services team must constantly be on their toes to see that only appropriate user content is published on your website. As this  can draw effective traffic to the brand.

Acts As A Shield To Your Brand And Users

Proper moderation ensures that the posts are respectful of the values and vision of the brand. 

Users can post anything in their hearts, but moderators can do the edits to align them with what the brand believes in. This can also protect the users from any bullying they might otherwise face.

Companies built around UGC

Good To Build Better Relations With Users

Your brand can have first-class relations with customers if their content regularly appears on the brand pages. The moderators can make the content incredible so that the brand itself becomes approachable and authentic. This promises an expansion of your brand's followers.

Shape The Purchasing Behavior For Good

Today, the only way to reach a potential buyer is through user-generated content. Learning from experiences, people are searching for customer reviews or referrals before they make the buy. So the content that goes through content moderation can shape the purchasing behavior of users to maximize sales.

Implementing UG Content Moderation

Moderation filters the user-generated content to project those posts that go well with the brand image. Of course, it could be a hassle to find the best content from among the massive user content out there. But keeping the following things in mind can make implementing social media content moderation worth doing it.

Be Clear About The Rules

There must be a set of rules that define what can be accepted by the company and what cannot be. Be strict with disgusting or illegal content in any way, like something that involves bullying or violence. An important tip is to add spam content once in a while. This could be any post that questions the worth of the brand or anything similar. Deleting all such content may not build the best relations with customers. So include them and consider them as feedback upon which your business can improve.

Outline The Process Of Submission

The content moderation services you hire must help create a submission process that answers the how's and what's of user-generated content. First, get an idea about the three approaches to submitting content. In the pre-moderation, you can review all content before it gets published. You can also include a message that says, 'Your post has been successfully submitted for review'

What is my canon story

In the post-moderation, you can post the submitted content in real-time and keep a routine check. In reactive moderation again, you will be posting the content in real-time and review them only if other customers have some issues with the published content. 

Adhere To Certain Restrictions

Having some restrictions is a good way to moderate the user content efficiently. For example, you may ask the users to have an account before posting anything on your website. You can even restrict very new users from posting anything at all. Once they are acquainted with the brand and trust is built, these restrictions can be lifted. 

Keep An Eye On Pages With UGC

With content flocking in regularly, it becomes imperative to check the pages that have UGC. Whether you do the moderation with in-house resources or take help from content moderation services, there are some top-notch moderation methods you can resort to. Regular monitoring safeguards the brand reputation along with giving space for your brand to grow. 

Link The Marketing Goals With Great User Experiences

Linking the marketing goals with content moderation can go a long way in brand promotion. There must be a way to make the best use of user-generated content that creates the best user experiences in the process.

Link The Marketing Goals With Great User Experiences
  • These are some of the best practices.
  • Make the permissions and rights agreement available to the users
  • Be clear about how to use the user content
  • State all the rules, including submission deadlines
  • Associate a strong call to action for submissions

One clear example is an Australian brand that boomed to become an international favorite product with more than 10,000 brand images shared on Instagram. From the start, the brand used the same hashtags #letsbefrank and #thefrankeffect for all their UGC content and made sure that all their UG pictures had the same quality and color theme.

Include contact information

Additionally, you can make the customers aware of what the brand expects from UGC. For this, you can give examples from other submissions and use branded hashtags that are consistent across all online platforms. It is also good to reward the users by featuring on your website, giving gifts and promotional discounts, and any other way you feel appropriate. 

Types of Content Moderation

Human-Based Content Moderation

This method involves people monitoring the user-generated content for data that can threaten the brand image. You can implement this model either through an in-house team monitoring the content or outsourcing the work to content moderation services. 

Though this method is quite reliable, there are a few issues that cause concern. It is not a good thing when moderators are scanning harmful content daily. Other issues include manual social media content moderation being expensive, speed of moderation not being able to keep up with the rate of content generation, privacy issues, etc.

AI Content Moderation

AI content moderation is powered by visual recognition algorithms that promise the most efficient ways of screening content. They can work with massive data in real-time, giving little scope for errors. In addition, they are experts in recognizing harmful visuals in the content, including mass fights, pornography, weapons, horror, and much more that can have undesirable results when published.

The main con associated with AI content moderation services is the lack of contextual understanding in some instances. For example, a video showing how military personnel are trained in various weapons can be interesting for the masses. But when shared by a user, this video can be filtered by the AI-powered moderation citing that the video contains weapons and fighting.

AI Content Moderation

A Hybrid Approach: AI + Human Moderation

Combining human intelligence and AI algorithms can be a great option to screen loads of content being generated every day. The algorithms can monitor most of the content and send just a part of it for manual moderation. This makes way for greater productivity, a lesser workload for moderators, and can be largely cost-saving. 

The algorithms are useful to remove objectionable content in a general sense. The reviewed content can be again moderated manually to see if it adheres to the guidelines of the brand. 

Do You Think Your Brand needs Content Moderation?

As already discussed, the benefits of content moderation are endless. Going with the statistics, the online world will be spammed with posts if a proper monitoring system is not in place. Implementing social media moderation can be done effortlessly if the brand knows what content it supports and what is not acceptable.

Still, confused if UG content moderation is beneficial for you or not? Well, you must know that websites or campaigns with UGC results have a 29% more conversion rate. In addition, a whopping 5.4 hours is spent by users every day with UG content; this shows the importance of having content moderation for your business.

As a business, you can go with any UG content moderation method that suits your interest and budget. Call Wow customer support today to create better customer engagement and build brand credibility with our content moderation services. Get the best content moderation for apps, blogs, forums, and social media to have content that complies with your business policies.

Tips to Improve Customer Service during the Holiday Rush

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18 Tips to Improve Customer Service during the Holiday Rush

The holidays are upon us, and this is the time of year when customer service goes through a huge shift. Though an exciting time for retailers - it can also be stressful. You've got buyers coming in from all over looking for deals on everything from toys to refrigerators. Your team has to be on call 24/7 during Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and New Year's Eve. 

It's not unusual for some retail stores' phone lines, websites, and social media accounts to become overwhelmed and spammed with messages. But that doesn't mean it's impossible to make sure your customers are satisfied with their experience. Businesses need to make sure that they have the right customer service to help their customers during this busy season. 

Luckily, there are many ways to improve your customer support service by managing your seasonal staff effectively, or outsourcing your service! 

Read on for some tips on how you can improve your customer support services during the holiday rush!

1. Draw Insights from Past Holiday Trends

This is a great place to start for any business that has been around the holiday block more than once. It's always worth looking back on your past encounters with customers during this time of year and reflecting on what went well, as well as where there may have been room for improvement - you can use those insights to plan better customer support service for this year's holiday rush. Start with asking questions like:

What were the biggest problems that your customer service reps encountered during past holiday rushes?

Were there any particular events or issues with customers that seemed to surface more than others (such as returns, shipping errors, etc.)?

Did you notice any patterns regarding what types of questions certain demographics asked most often about your products?

This is also a great time to have an all-hands meeting with your staff and brainstorm some creative ways that you can make the holiday season more enjoyable for both customers and employees. The goal should be to keep everyone on their toes so that they're always engaged in the process of trying new things - but it's important not to overdo it!

2. Pick your Communication Channels and Assign Ownership to Seasonal Customer Support Staff

It's important to make sure that you're prepared with the right customer communication channels for this time of year. You want to have a plan in place so your customers know who they can contact during the holiday rush, and there should also be someone designated as "the owner" for each channel - like Email, Live Chat, Phone Support, or Social Media handle. This way, you'll be able to monitor each channel and make sure that customer needs are being addressed as quickly as possible.

For example, if someone tweets at your company's Twitter account - it would be best for the social media team to handle their inquiry by responding with a message on Twitter, letting them know who they can contact, or directing them back to an FAQ page on your website.

Once you've assigned channels and reps to each of them, the staff needs to be trained in what they need to do during this time of year! Ensure that these employees know about all the available resources - like FAQs, troubleshooting tips, and other helpful information.

Finally, make sure that you're monitoring your channels, so every staff member has a positive experience during the holidays. Make it clear to employees - especially your seasonal assistants - what their goal should be when responding to customers: If they can solve someone's problem on the spot, then do it! But if not, then they should direct the customer to someone who can help them, like a supervisor or 24/hr support line.

3. Consider Hiring Remote Seasonal Workers

Hiring seasonal employees is a great way to handle the holiday rush. Investing in temporary workers for this time of year will help you alleviate some of that financial burden, as well as making sure your customer service team has enough people on their side when things start getting hectic!

There are many benefits to hiring remote seasonal employees. One is that it's much easier to train them - especially if you have a more sophisticated customer support system and want people who already understand how your product works!

Another benefit of Customer Support Outsourcing is the flexibility they provide for holiday schedules - these are agencies that work dedicatedly in customer support, helping businesses handle the holiday rush with ease. One of the biggest benefits of outsourcing is that you don't have to spend your time and resources to train employees.

The agents you hire are already trained and have worked with a range of businesses. This can give you a competitive edge because you'll have a well-trained, knowledgeable team to rely on when the holidays start. So, you can start from day one.

4. Approach each Conversation with Empathetic Calm and Focus on Fast Solutions

During the holiday season, it can be difficult to stay calm in the face of all that's going on. You need to assign a customer support team leader who can take an empathetic approach with your customers and understand where they're coming from - after all, we've been there before!

One thing is for certain: don't let anything undo your best efforts. Your customers will appreciate it if you're calm, and they'll feel more comfortable talking to you about concerns or problems!

infographic

The most important thing for customer support team leaders is making sure that every customer has a fast solution as quickly as possible. If you can solve someone's issue on the spot - do it!

Pro Tip: Every customer should have access to a "first contact" person to handle their needs. If this is not possible, the customer support team leader should designate someone in charge of each channel - like Email, Live Chat, Phone Support, or Social Media Handle. This way, customers will be listened to and addressed quickly with a response they want to hear.

5. Focus on Revenue Based Customer Support Service

In the next few weeks, you'll want to focus on revenue-based customer service. This means that your goal will be to do whatever is necessary for customers to feel satisfied with their purchase and often return - not just this year but in years down the line!

This holiday season can bring a lot of challenges when it comes to satisfying customers and increasing revenue. Therefore, you need to keep track of important customer metrics to know what you are dealing with.

For this, you'll want to leverage tools like Google Analytics, find customer service tools, identify revenue opportunities (Google CPC, Instagram Ads, Facebook Ads, and conversion rate optimization), and start conversing. In addition, it will help you track necessary metrics and evaluate the success of your efforts.

Moreover, you'll want to make sure you're staying on top of negative reviews, responding quickly and efficiently. This ensures that your revenue isn't impacted, and you keep your reputation up.

Conclusion

So, what do you think would be the best way to help make customer support service more positive? One pro tip would be to spend time planning a customer service strategy for the holidays before they start. And have an empathetic approach to conversations and focus on solutions, not just problems! But, most importantly, track important metrics, so you know what is going on with your customers.

Key Ecommerce Customer Service Metrics to Help Boost Customer Engagement and Retention

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Key Ecommerce Customer Service Metrics to Help Boost Customer Engagement and Retention

Customer service is the key to success for every business, and when you are running an eCommerce store, it's even more crucial. It helps reduce customer uncertainties, answer their questions, establish trust, and convince them to purchase your product. Here are some of the thought-provoking statistics that can prove our point -

67% OF CUSTOMERS

These are just a few stats that represent a bigger picture. However, how do you know if your business is offering excellent customer support? How to know your customers are satisfied with your service?

Luckily, there are some primary vital metrics that you can utilize to measure your customer service performance and customer satisfaction. By tracking these key parameters, you can see how your business is performing. In fact, successful eCommerce businesses make many critical decisions based on these metrics. 

Ecommerce Customer Service Metrics that Matters

There are some key metrics you must track to ensure that your customer service performance is up to par. Working on these metrics is crucial to gain and retain high-value customers. Whether you have an in-house team or choose an outsourced customer service, tracking customer care metrics is essential to convert leads into loyal customers and advocates. 

Key eCommerce Customer Service Metrics

1. Average Issue Count (AIC)

Your customer support team must ensure that every customer complaint is addressed and adequately resolved. Keeping a clear track of the average issue count will help understand the quality of performance over time. This data will also help understand your product or service quality and make efforts to reduce the number of common issues that pop up.

2. Overall Resolution Rate (ORR)

Alternative to the average issue count, the overall resolution rate is a percentage at which your company resolves a customer complaint or a request. This metric can be calculated by subtracting the number of unresolved cases from the number of customer inquiries, then dividing this by the total number of inquiries. The fewer left unresolved, the more efficient is your customer support team.

3. First Response Time (FRT)

First response time is the time taken by your support team to reach out to your customers. The longer the duration of the time elapsed, the higher your customer's chances of leaving your website. Hence, bridging this gap and ensuring rapid communication is essential. Ideally, it should be less than 1-2 hours. Take a look at the response time and if you find that it is long, then plan on allocating more resources and implementing a live chat feature to your website to bring down your FRT.

4. First Contact Resolution Rate (FCR)

Unlike the first resolution rate, first contact resolution is the percentage of customer complaints or issues resolved on the first interaction with your customer. This metric shows the effectiveness of your customer support service department. You can either use the below formula to calculate FCR. Alternatively you can also choose to measure the first contact resolution through direct customer surveys.

FCR

5. Average Ticket Handling Time

Ticket handling time is the average time that an agent spends working on every unique ticket. It is also an indirect measure of ticket complexity and team productivity. Moreover, the time taken to close the ticket is proportional to the cost spent on it. The more the time, the more you are spending on the ticket.

Average Handling Time

6. Ticket Backlogs

This refers to the tickets that have been unresolved and have accumulated over time by your customer support service team. Simply relying on response time and the number of resolutions won't be sufficient. The percentage of complaints or requests backlog is a significant indicator of the performance of your support team. Thus, looking into the backlog every month is imperative to track productivity. If these numbers are high, it might be an indication that your team needs more training.

7. Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Potential buyers read reviews and seek peers' suggestions before making a buying decision. Therefore, any positive or negative review will help them make a better purchase decision. Net Promoter Score of your online brand is the percentage of shoppers likely to recommend you to others. To gather this data, ask consumers, on a 0-10 scale, "How likely is it that you would recommend [Company Name] to others?" Though it doesn't directly relate to customer experience, NPS indicates whether customers have a positive attitude towards your brand.

8. Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

How satisfied your customers are with your eCommerce customer support service is another strong performance indicator. This score proves to be helpful in conjunction with other ratings you obtain in your support service. Moreover, since it is subjective, it allows you to look closely at the mentioned areas and work accordingly. Thus, a customer satisfaction score directly gives you a great measure of your customer service performance. 

Conclusion

By tracking these customer support services metrics, you get a clear picture of the performance of your customer care team. Use all of these metrics to improve the overall business performance and boost your revenue.

Most of the time, in improving customer services, it's easy to lose focus on core business activities. In this case, it makes sense to work with the best customer service outsourcing company.

Outsourcing customer support is a cost-effective way to increase the efficiency of your customer support service while expanding available resources. By choosing the right company, you can amp up your business potential and yield excellent results. Contact us today for customer support outsourcing to experts.