How to be efficient while servicing your customers
By the end of this post you will be more efficient, produce better results, obtain customer satisfaction, and gain extra gratitude from your customers.
As service technicians we face the inevitable, from repairing minor physical issues, to complex configuration challenges.
This past week, I was out working helping a customer configure their incoming call routing Call Flows. While onsite, I noticed that the customer lacked training, and didn’t understand how calls were ringing into their system; resulting in losing calls, and frustrated customers.
Their calls started ringing a group of phones, then overflowed to a single phone, located in the front desk. Then calls were ringing back to the previous group again. This person was running back and fourth trying to answer the phones. This went on for months before we got called in to fix it.
I arrived to the site, and saw what was happening. I then thought of coming up with these 5 steps to help you fix this type of issue: Be efficient, maximize your time, and produce better results.
- 1.- Listen first, then have them show you
- 2.- Understand the existing solution
- 3.- Offer the best alternatives to the problem
- 4.- Put to practice each variable explained
- 5.- Go the extra mile
1.- Listen first, then have them show you
Listen first – We love to hear maybe 20% of the problem, then jump into a conclusion and decide to fix the problem. Here, I will suggest, that you let the customer vent it all out, let them express their frustration, then at the end, you will have a better understanding of the root cause of the problem.
Have them show you – Once the customer is done explaining, you really need to see what is happening, and what is so frustrating to them. Have them demonstrate to you what happens. Meanwhile, you should be taking notes. This is a good time to ask more questions. Remember not to suggest any solutions yet. Here’s why – you don’t know the system capabilities yet.
2.- Understand the existing solution
After having taken your notes, and having tested the existing environment, it is time for you to take a look at their existing solution. These are some of the things to look out for:
What kind of system they have installed?
Find out the model, make, and all the adjuncts associated with it. e.g. Call Accounting, Call Center, Wall Boards, Messaging, MOH, Paging Amps, etc. By knowing every each adjuncts you can optimize its configuration.
For this particular customer, they had an IP Office IP500V2 with POTs lines, Automated Attendants were configured, but not working as designed. The system did not have any rack mounts, even though it was racked using the old IP400 brackets.
System Capacity and Capabilities
System Capacity – If you decide to improve by adding MOH, and Loudspeaker-paging, or maybe adding Queuing messages to an existing Call Center, you will need to configure new ports, which can result in license requirements.
In my case, I saw that calls were not showing Caller ID information, while receiving them. So, I thought immediately that Caller ID on the POTs lines were turned off in the PBX, but that was not the case. The customer was not paying to have Caller ID service in their lines, and I could have given the wrong resolution to this CID problem, had I not inspect the system first.
System Capabilities – It is all about the licensing (RTUs) and hardware availability. Go through your notes and compare all the case scenarios. See which ones make more sense
3.- Offer the best alternatives to the problem
Now that you understand what was delivered to this customer, and which licenses/RTUs they purchased, you can come and provide the best solutions to the customer. I will suggest to come out with at least two solutions (4 max). Provide the pros and cons of each one of them.
I offered three different solutions to the customer.
- Solution 1 – Have the phones answered by an Automated Attendant with a menu options.
- Solution 2 – Two Hunt Groups – Hunt Group 1 to have 3 members, Group 2 to have the rest of the members configured, as an overflow.
- Solution 3 – One Hunt Group configured, allowing every member to ring whenever a call came in.
They liked option 3 the best.
4.- Put to practice each variable explained
Once you finished programming the offered solution, it is time to put it to test. If possible, you want to demo it before going live. Ask the customer to participate, and test every single aspect of the solution. If an Automated Attendant was configured, make sure to test all the menu options, queue announcements, general mailbox, etc.
In my case, I had to test the incoming call handling by dialing the main number, and had the customer verify that calls were ringing as desired.
5.- Go the extra mile
After testing and having the customer happy with the solution, you have offered them, I will suggest that you go the extra mile by either doing some system maintenance, while onsite. It could be something simple as rearranging the patch cords.
At this site, I found a couple of mailboxes with 45 messages each. I configured short codes for them to access the messages. I also reconfigured their Automated Attendants, giving them instructions on how to record the messages, and show them how to operate the night service.
For the POTs lines, I turned off CLID on them. This kept the system error free, and calls were ringing in quicker.
At the end, the customer didn’t know they had the option of an Automated Attendant. You can just imagine how thrilled they were to have the ability of having something new implemented for their business.
Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic.