Customer service scripts help ensure callers get accurate, professional advice or recommendations from your virtual secretary or call center service. These scripted exchanges can be monotonous, and they may be deadly dull to callers, however. To give customers a more enjoyable experience, companies using answering services need to jazz up their scripts and insist on trained call center operators who can interact with customers while still providing important content from scripts.
Companies use static scripting – a word-for-word reading of scripted material – to provide important information to their clients. This helps ensure the message clients get doesn’t deviate far from what the company wishes to provide. This is particularly important when third party answering services are handling a company’s calls, as service representatives may not have an intimate knowledge of the company they’re handling calls for.
Unfortunately, customers do not like the impersonal and stiff nature of static scripting. In fact, a recent survey by Software Advice found that 69 percent of respondents said that they preferred customer service experiences where it doesn’t sound like their reps are reading from a script. Good over-the-phone customer service experiences can create greater customer loyalty and satisfaction, making it well worth it for companies to provide these experiences. Here are a few tips for companies seeking to improve their answering or call center’s service:
- Use dynamic scripting – Dynamic scripting gives customer service reps a few basics that they must say to customers, but also gives them latitude to initiate conversations with customers. Important content still gets covered, but the service representative can still engage with callers on a more personal level. A well-trained customer service rep can quickly get customers happily bantering away while also ensuring that they get the information they need.
- Work with companies that invest in technology – The best dynamic scripting uses computer prompts and discussion trees to guide customer service reps through the conversation. Make sure the answering service you use has adequately invested in software for dynamic scripting.
- Training – Insist that the call center you use provides training concerning your company, its products and services, and its practices to customer service reps handling your calls. The more these professionals know about your company, the better they’ll be able to converse
- More training – There’s more to call center work than just picking up a phone and reading from a script. Call center employees should be trained to be energetic and enthusiastic about their work, and know how to best interact with different personality types.
In some situations, you just can’t get away from static scripting for legal and compliance issues, particularly in finance. In these situations, you’ll need to have your call center representative stick with the script for the call, but they still can personalize greetings and farewells to provide a more personalized service.
Signius provides answering service and call center services for a wide variety of businesses. Signius ensures that your clients can interact with a live representative, 24/7, who can provide helpful support and information. To learn more, contact us today!
