Customer Retention Call Center
In 2018, Forbes published an article entitled “Businesses Lose $75 Billion Due To Poor Customer Service.” This should concern shareholders and individuals who either own or manage a company. That 2018 figure was a $13 billion increase from 2016. Citing an annual report published by UK-based NewVoiceMedia, a cloud service company, enterprises fail to establish and maintain positive, emotional experiences for consumers. As a result, 67% of consumers continually switch between brands. Astonishingly, that was a 37% increase from NewVoiceMedia’s 2016 report covering the same issue. From this historical information, two primary lessons can be garnered from it:
- Customer loyalty is quite hard to come by these days.
- Many organizations failed to read the writing on the wall.
The primary causes leading consumers to stop doing business with a brand have remained unchanged since the dawn of modern-day customer service:
- They don’t feel as if their patronage is appreciated.
- They find it difficult to find someone knowledgeable enough to fully answer their questions or solve their issues.
- They’re greeted by uninterested, rude, or unhelpful employees.
- They’re passed from one agent or representative to another in what seems to be an endless loop.
- They’re put on hold for long periods of time when calling customer service.
Is Your Company Struggling With Customer Retention?
If you answered “Yes” to that question, you’re far from alone. The positive news is, your company can improve customer satisfaction. But in a highly competitive market, achieving continued customer satisfaction requires a highly trained staff committed to a customer-centric culture. With costs associated with attracting and retaining a single customer, not to mention the value of their return business, having such staff is crucial. If managing customer retention on your own is something your team struggles with, a customer-retention call center partner may be the solution you need. As your partner, we offer the following:
- Our staff has a consistent 15-20% retention rate across the board of all customers looking to cancel subscription based or repeat services.
- Many of our successful partners in business have embedded the call center retention center into their purchasing model.
- This service is turn-key for our clients.
- For media or finance industry products, an 8-week retention rate of over 25% is considered nonpareil.
Understanding the Meaning of Customer Retention
Customer retention is generally defined as a company’s ability to preserve its customer base over a specific period. Enterprises should seek high customer retention, which means their customers faithfully return, continue to purchase a product or service, refrain from patronizing competitors, or from total non-use over time. While selling, enterprises routinely endeavor to diminish customer defection. Most marketing experts agree that customer retention begins as soon as a consumer contacts an enterprise or uses a product or service. The most successful customer retention campaigns include the following lifecycle:
- Awareness
- Engagement
- Evaluation
- Purchase
- Bonding
- Advocacy
- Customer diplomacy
- As well as product and support experience
An enterprise’s ability to attract and engage new customers is associated not only with its products or services but with the value customers actually receive, its reputation within and across marketplaces, and especially how well it maintains its relationship with current customers. Successful customer retention also entails exceeding the customers’ initial or preconceived expectations.
Enterprises traditionally dedicate a lot more spending on customer acquisition instead of customer retention. The general belief is that customer acquisition is a faster and more advantageous way of boosting revenue. However, statistics have shown time and time again that customer retention is most often the fastest and simplest approach; on average, it is between 5 to 7 times cheaper because the effort needed to keep loyal customers relies more on maintenance rather than building.
Most companies spend more money on customer acquisition because they think of it as a quick and effective way of increasing cash flow. But, the thing is, customer retention is often faster and costs up to 7x less than customer acquisition. Selling to customers with whom you already have a relationship is often a more effective way of growing revenue because companies don’t need to attract, educate, and convert new ones.
The First Line of Defense: Handling Cancellations and Returns Graciously
One of the most significant pain points for companies struggling to retain customers is mishandling or even completely blowing off product returns and service cancellations.
Since disastrous instances of total and utter incompetence tend to pique most people’s interest, Norwegian Cruise Line exemplifies perfectly how not to handle cancellations and refunds. CBS-affiliate Orlando channel 6 reported in August 2020 that the Miami-based cruise line canceled cruise departures due to the looming COVID-19 pandemic. It proceeded to reschedule and re-cancel multiple times until finally, customers began requesting refunds.
Norwegian stated it would not issue cash refunds but give them future cruise credits.
In an interview with the media, one woman stated that Norwegian stiffed her and her family for $12,000, never issued future cruise points, and failed to update their account. “So I have no credits and no refund. And it was nearly $12,000,” she told Orlando’s channel 6. According to the article, Norwegian now has more than 1,100 people claiming they had cruises canceled and haven’t yet been reimbursed.
Trip Advisor’s website has since been inundated with extremely negative reviews such as this:
“Alert – Norwegian cruise line – SCAM Cruise Company! It was not enough that ‘Norwegian Scam cruise line took money from us, they lied to us too … We called the company for a refund, and after 62 minutes of waiting, we received a full refusal from a representative named Taylor. We asked to speak with his manager for further clarification, and we came to talk to Arlyn, who refused to give us our money. We said that she would be able to pay us the travel fees, WHICH WAS NOT PROVIDED US AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CONVERSATION with Taylor and at only 35% of the total cruise cost.”
While this admittedly is an extreme example—Norwegian didn’t even try—it should drive home this point: Companies have a moral responsibility to treat consumers well. The story of how Norwegian, the third largest cruise line company in the world, treated its customers should give every decent business leader nightmares. It should also cause them to do the polar opposite.
Not only is this the total opposite of customer retention but it’s poised to become a PR nightmare for the Norwegian Cruise Line, not to mention possible legal troubles in the future. It’s these kinds of stunts that not only hurt business but can potentially lead to a company closing.
Face Cancellations and Returns Head-On With Grace
The best way to earn customers’ loyalty is by handling cancellations and returns in a satisfactory manner, even if it means your company has to swallow a loss. For example, if you own or manage a Software for a Service (SaaS) business with a 30-day guarantee, but some clients express dissatisfaction 10 days past the 30-day limit, try solving the issue. If they’re dead set on canceling and receiving a refund, simply honor their wish.
Even though the client is already unsatisfied with your service for some reason (or even if they merely couldn’t afford to pay and wanted their money back), it doesn’t necessarily mean they have a problem with your firm. Nonetheless, by displaying a lack of empathy, the chances of them ending up disliking your firm just increased. On top of that, you’ve provided someone with a good reason to promote your competitors and post a negative review on Angie’s List, the BBB, or Yelp.
Depending on an individual’s vengefulness, they might decide to go on a long Internet smear campaign targeting your firm. Either way, facing the issue gracefully may have left the door open for redemption; not doing so not only closes that door but potentially leads to a future headache.
Lastly, even if a company has the best intention in mind, a poorly managed customer service call center can make it seem as if that isn’t the case. Since a call center is a customer’s primary contact with a company, how call takers handle calls speaks volumes of the company.
An Analogy of Severe Consequences
Imagine showing up to your office each day, taking your cash, and putting it through the paper shredder. It wouldn’t take long before others began questioning your actions. Failure to do everything in your power to establish and retain a loyal customer base equates to the same behavior. Every dollar spent on marketing without customer retention is similar to merely taking that money and shredding it. One-time customers or customer switching is a lost revenue opportunity and a loss of investment.
You’re not gaining loyal customers who spend their money and advertise your business through word-of-mouth. Rather, customers may buy your product or service once and, if you’re lucky, they take their money elsewhere. At the very worst, they’ll dissuade people they know from doing business with your company as well.
Then there is the risk of your marketing and sales teams eventually feeling dejected because their hard work and dedication never seems sufficient. Their time is wasted, and your company is hemorrhaging cash. Before you and your management team know it, a vicious cycle of negativity has taken root throughout your organization, eroding its culture.
For many enterprises, learning the hard way means a complete reboot, which bleeds additional time, money, and resources. It’s not unheard of for organizations to never recover from such situations.
What to Look for in a Call Center Customer Retention Partner
A call center customer-retention partner should intensely focus on ongoing training. After all, the whole point behind partnering with a customer service call center is to augment your team. That’s why our leadership methodology is firmly rooted in a concise set of core values and principles. We’re not a company that leads our people from the top, but rather we apply an inverted leadership pyramid. In this way, we assure you that our staff remains genuinely motivated and committed to your goals.
Through a tried and tested leadership philosophy framework, each staff member is allowed to take responsibility.
How a Call Center Partner Will Impact Your Business
As a leader of your space, you should understand the importance of your customers’ journey more than anyone; you also know how their journey can impact your brand’s potential success, awareness, and overall sales. When we consider their journey, we shouldn’t forget to consider how vital call centers are to the customer experience.
It doesn’t matter what your brand’s goals are if all the gaps aren’t filled and your offerings aren’t enhanced—every aspect of your customers’ experience must be thought out, and that includes call centers. Call centers are so important. They impact and influence all customers, whether they be potential or returning.
Why Our Call Center Is a Crucial Part of Your Customers' Journey
Your call center is your brand’s chance to make that first impression when customers reach out looking for a solution to their problem, a service, or a product. It should not just meet expectations, but it should exceed them. Every interaction—every call, message, or chat—with a customer is an opportunity to connect with them, as well as to grow and achieve your company’s goals. A well-run and efficient call center can grow brand loyalty, boost customer satisfaction, and better a company’s reputation. On the flip side, a poorly run call center hinders potential business growth and negatively impacts a customer’s experience.
Operating and maintaining a call center isn’t a small task, not by a long shot. The success or lack thereof can make or break the reputations of many organizations. If you feel that your company lacks the resources or expertise to operate a successful call center, a Millennial Services call center partner can provide you with numerous benefits—helping you improve customer service by becoming more efficient and thus becoming more competitive.
The Benefits of Having a Millennial Call Center as Your Partner
Your customers expect high-quality customer support when they engage with your organization. Only the right Millennial call center ensures that each customer has their needs met, and much more. Below are a few reasons to consider making us your customer-retention call center partner.
Increase Productivity: By outsourcing your customer retention call center, your team is free of the worry involved with customer complaints. Rather, they’re able to direct their concentration towards moving your company forward. It also allows your staff more time to undertake crucial tasks that support long-term growth.
Access to the Latest Tech: Many in-house call centers don’t have the budget to keep up with the most modern platforms and tech trends. Your Millennial has access to these resources. Not only that, but we can quickly implement them into your customer service experience.
You Save a Lot of Money: Much that goes into a state-of-the-art call center is quite expensive. By making Millennial your customer-retention call center partner, you can forgo those costs.
Offer Exceptional Customer Service: While the above-listed things may be important to your company, the ultimate goal is to offer exceptional customer service—something that is a fine art. If your team is not suitably trained or doesn’t have enough time to devote to each customer’s experience, it will show. Millennial Services will take that weight off your shoulders and give your customers the experience they expect and deserve.
Getting Started
Getting started is very easy. If you’re ready to provide your customers with grade A customer service, please contact us now. Why continue putting your customers’ satisfaction on hold any longer? Allow Millennial Services to be your customer-retention call center partner.