5 Reasons Startups Should Invest in Excellent Customer Service
W
hen you’re running an early stage startup, sometimes creating an excellent customer service experience is the furthest thing from your mind. You’re probably spending all of your time building your product, courting customers and figuring out the bare bones of a marketing strategy. Maybe you’ve grown to 10 employees and actually rented out an office space.
Surely it’s too soon to start building an excellent customer service strategy. This is a common mistake that can lead to the failure of a business.
Let’s walk through a few of the reasons you should invest in excellent customer service early in the life of your startup:
1. You’ve got bigger fish to fry
Odds are, the current system you have for fielding customer support requests is just doing it yourself. You’re probably responding to emails or talking on the phone to customers from your personal accounts. When your company was just you, that was OK. Nowadays, you need to spend your time doing other things. You can’t be split between a thousand duties.
Delegate customer support to a specific team member or bring someone on whose sole purpose is to field customer support requests. When you choose this person, make sure they’re suited to the job. One small change like this can free you up to tackle other issues while your customers
receive the excellent customer service they crave.
2. Make up for what you lack
There are some problems with your product or service. No big deal. The beauty of startups is that they iterate early and often. One of the best ways to address shortcomings in your product or service is to make sure that there is someone on your support team that your customers can talk to.
When a customer encounters a problem with your product or service, they are not irretrievably lost to your company. A friendly customer service agent who has concrete advice and a kind personality can go a long way to preventing churn.
3. Promote customer loyalty
Modern customers demand real-time, personalized customer support. In our global, digitally-connected world, consumers expect to be able to interact with companies whenever they want. You know what’s a great way to promote brand loyalty? Giving people what they want.
Establishing a call center demonstrates care and respect for your customers. It shows that you not only welcome their questions and concerns, you are also more than happy to help.
Additionally, creating an excellent customer service experience can influence customers to spread the word about your company. “Not only is X a great product; they also gave me individualized attention when I reached out.” There is not much that can beat positive word of mouth advertising.
4. Advice from customers
Founding a startup is extremely difficult. Not only are you building out a product or service, you’re also all of a sudden managing business needs like finding a place to work that isn’t your parents’ basement.
You probably spend a lot of time putting out fires and refining your product. Once everything is stable, you may be unsure of how to proceed.
Your customers, particularly the early adopters, are your best resource for improving your business. If you provide them with a support channel, customers will tell you what they want. This could be anything from bugs that need to be worked out in your product to ideas for what direction you should be headed in. Listen to them. They can be your greatest source of learning.
5. You will need it later
You founded this startup because you expect it to succeed. That means you should be looking ahead to the future. Excellent customer service is absolutely essential to larger, more established, businesses. It’s indispensable.
The sooner you get started developing and implementing a customer support strategy, the better. Create a strong customer service foundation now so you have one less thing to worry about as you scale.
Running a startup is hard. Don’t make it harder by forgetting to establish customer support.

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The Secret to Great Customer Service Is Communication
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Great customer service is not some top-secret formula that only the best business owners can access, nor does it have to cost your company a lot or be difficult to implement. In fact, customer service boils down to one simple concept: keeping your customer informed. Customers who are well-informed feel confident–about making a purchase, about what they can expect from your company, and about remaining loyal to your brand. If you’re not sure if your customer service is at its best, use this list to test whether you’re really telling your customer what he needs to know.
Eliminate the fine print. No one likes to feel like they are being tricked, especially not when money is involved. Engaging in complicated pricing strategies, difficult to understand package deals, or annoying return policies feels to the customer like he risks being swindled. Make everything that matters to your customer clear. Use simple language, easy to understand examples, and knowledgeable staff to help explain anything the customer has questions about. When I opened Metal Mafia 10 years ago, most competitors in my industry were playing pricing games–different sales reps got you different discounts, different quantities meant different prices, and everyone was out to meet and beat. The customer lost in every scenario, either because they paid more than necessary or wasted precious time trying to get a fair price. We set a clear and fair price for every item and eliminated the back and forth of discounts and deals. Customers found our clarity refreshing and made the switch with no hesitation.
When something changes, spell it out. Change is hard for most people, and customers are no different. Hiding change or figuring your customer won’t care is a no-no. The best way to get people to accept change is to be honest about it–even when it might be unpalatable– and to make clear exactly how the change you are instituting will affect them. Just this week, a leading cable company lost $40 of my monthly business because they increased my rates without communicating that to me in advance. When I got the sticker shock on my bill and investigated the cause, I ended up finding a different plan that was less expensive–something I never would have sought had they just told me in advance they were raising the price of my current plan and why.
Be proactive. People like surprises only if they are good ones. If something isn’t going to happen the way the customer expected, your company should be the one to tell her, rather than letting her find out on her own the hard way. Not long ago, I ordered something for my son on a flash sale site, and was looking forward to receiving the notice letting me know it was being shipped. Instead, I got a note from the site letting me know that due to an inventory mistake, they had sold out and I would not be receiving what I ordered. I wasn’t happy, but in the same email, they also told me my account had been credited an extra $10 in addition to the cost of the item. I wasn’t happy about not getting what I ordered, but the way the company handled the situation meant I was still willing to buy from them in the future–and not just because I had a credit to spend.
The bottom line is this: great customer service means never leaving your customers in the dark. Think of how much less angry you are to learn a flight is delayed if you learn of the delay before you have left for the airport instead of after you arrive at the gate, or how much happier you are to subscribe to a cell phone service knowing you can change your plan to suit your needs on a monthly basis. Informed customers are not only willing to make repeat purchases, they tell others about the great experience they had when dealing with your company.”



Our Services
We provide a wide array of customer support and development services.


Call center outsourcing
- Support In / Outbound
- Telesales, lead generation
- On-boarding support
- First tier support
- Acquire partners/members

Live chat service
- Support Line,Facebook,Pantip, Lazada,Shoppee, WebChat
- Automate reports, All in one platform



Language Support : Thai, English, Khmer, Vietnamese, Bahasa, Burmese, Laos, Mandarin

Top 10 Reasons to Outsource Your Call Center
F
ortune 500 enterprises and government agencies need to stay focused on core competencies, so these types of large organizations often outsource call center functions to specialized service providers.
The alternative is to handle multiple costumer communication channels–calls, emails, web chats, and text messages–in-house. But establishing a multichannel contact center is an expensive proposition. It requires a major investment in facilities, equipment and technology–not to mention the cost, time and energy needed for staff training and ongoing operations.
After conducting a cost-benefit analysis organizations typically find costs can be managed better, and customer satisfaction improved by outsourcing call centers. There are many benefits that can be realized through an effective outsourcing engagement. Below we round up the Top 10 Reasons to Outsource Your Call Center:
1. Reduced Costs
As mentioned above, setting up a call center requires major investments in facilities, equipment, operations and staffing. Outsourced call centers allow these costs to be spread across many clients, who benefit by paying only for the services needed on a transactional or per-hour basis. Outsourcers can also “share” agents with multiple clients. The “shared-agent” approach reduces idle time and can deliver a lower cost-per-call rate for clients.
2. Flexibility and Scalability
Call volumes rise and fall, so an in-house call center is at the mercy of periods of low volumes, when agents are idle. Outsourced call centers benefit from multiple clients, which helps reduce the severity of call volume peaks and valleys. Agents can work more efficiently, and managers can schedule staff more effectively, helping reduce costs-per-call. Also, outsourced call centers have the size and staff to ramp up quickly if call volumes spike due to seasonal activity or major marketing campaigns.
3. Specialized Industry Knowledge
Outsourcers may have a specialized understanding of call center services for certain industries. The executives and managers of the outsourced call center will have valuable insights and proven strategies that can only come from years and years of experience. For example, DATAMARK has provided, for many years, contact center services for numerous customer-rewards programs, as well as call services for international customs and other shipping processes in the transportation and logistics industry.
4. Dedicated “Call Managers”
In contrast to in-house agents, who are typically trained to handle a specific product or service, agents at outsourced call centers are trained to handle a variety of clients’ processes. Because of this, agents at outsourced call centers can quickly adapt to different call scenarios and present themselves as expert “call managers.” Take these kinds of skills and add bilingual fluency in Spanish and English, and you truly can truly make effective multicultural, multichannel connections that lead to satisfied, repeat customers.
5. Expert Management and Support Staff
Outsourcers are specialist service providers, and they compete to attract the best managers and support staff with years of experience with call center operations. In-house call centers, because they may be limited to providing customer care for one type of product or service, often find it difficult to develop the type of institutional knowledge and skills necessary for top-tier customer service. Outsourcers attract and retain specialists in call-center workforce planning, quality assurance, technology support and training.
6. Cost Management Tools
Outsourcers’ business models are typically based on costs per transaction. To help assure call center profitability, they have invested in tools and expertise to precisely measure per-call costs. This level of cost detail is typically shared with the client on the monthly bill for services, which helps the client evaluate the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and overall operations. In-house call centers, on the other hand, often have costs that are difficult to tie specifically to every call or customer contact, which makes it challenging to manage costs and measure profitability.
7. “Big Data” Collection and Analysis
Outsourcers understand the importance of capturing and analyzing call information to gain insights that will improve their clients’ processes. Outsourced call centers have experience with multiple clients and the data generated by many marketing and advertising campaigns. Technologies that outsourcers invest in–the costs of which are spread across multiple clients–include analysis platforms that help unlock useful insights from large amounts of raw data.
8. Quality Monitoring and Control
Outsourcing service level agreements (SLAs) require all customers’ calls and messages through other channels (such as email and web chat) to be handled professionally. Answer time and first-time call resolution are the highest priorities and some of the measures of call center quality. Outsourced call centers have monitoring tools and performance assessment and improvement plans in place to ensure SLAs are met. In-house call centers may not have the resources or expertise available for structured, continuous quality monitoring and performance improvement plans.
9. Access to Latest Technology
Outsourcers will research and invest in the best technologies for multichannel customer contact. These are software tools that offer features such as cloud-based platforms, VoIP, email, web chat, SMS text and social media monitoring. The latest in contact center technology may be too cost-prohibitive for some in-house call centers. Because outsourcers have multiple clients, they can spread out the cost of these platforms.
10. Service 24/7, Seven-Days-a-Week
All customers would love to pick up a phone, send an email or jump into a web chat session and reach a live customer service representative at any time of the day, any day of the week. But that kind of around-the-clock availability isn’t a realistic in-house option for most organizations. But outsourcers, with call centers on both sides of the globe, can deliver service that “follows the sun”–and at a much lower cost compared to in-house.



Our Services
We provide a wide array of customer support and development services.


Call center outsourcing
- Support In / Outbound
- Telesales, lead generation
- On-boarding support
- First tier support
- Acquire partners/members

Live chat service
- Support Line,Facebook,Pantip, Lazada,Shoppee, WebChat
- Automate reports, All in one platform



Language Support : Thai, English, Khmer, Vietnamese, Bahasa, Burmese, Laos, Mandarin

Why customers and businesses love live chat
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In today’s fast-paced world, customers expect quick and effective ways to communicate with a business. Because of this, more businesses are incorporating live chat as an additional channel to engage their customers, in order to boost satisfaction and loyalty levels. People prefer to do business with a real person, and enabling live chat on a company’s website is equivalent to staffing a physical store with friendly staff who offer assistance when needed.
In recent years, there has been strong growth in live chat. Zendesk’s research found in 2013, some 52 percent of business used live chat, comparing well with only 30 percent in 2009. And the numbers continue to climb. This is not surprising as live chat is the customer’s preferred engagement channel, with 92 percent being satisfied with it, comparing well to traditional channels such as email (85 percent) or phone (88 percent). But why exactly do customers love live chat?
Benefits of live chat from a customer’s viewpoint
When asked why they prefer live chat, most customers indicate convenience, speed and its user-friendly nature. Let’s explore each in detail:
1. Convenience – Live chat provides real-time response, so customers get the right information at the right time. For example, Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts uses live chat to talk to guests instantaneously, providing them the personalized service they expect. An added advantage is that live chat does not require the customers’ full attention. So he is still free to carry on reading emails, talking to a co-worker or to get up and walk away, without worrying about behaving rudely.
2. Speed – The well-known saying ‘time is money’ is never more true than when it comes to customer service. People hate waiting to connect with a customer service officer over the phone, and the back-and-forth nature of emails is frustrating. Zendesk’s research found that live chat interactions begin on average 23 seconds after the customer first initiates the chat and took about 12 minutes for the problem to be resolved. This is seven times faster than email.
3. User – friendly nature – Most people are familiar with texting and instant messaging, making live chat easy to use. With more people shifting towards mobile computing, live chat becomes seamless. For example, if a question about the product arose after browsing a company’s website on the mobile, the customer would have to leave the web browser if they made their query via phone or email. With live chat, this happens naturally on the same platform.
Benefits of live chat from a business’ viewpoint
When customers love live chat, it helps to boost revenues, making businesses happy too. For example, when a chat agent quickly resolves the problem of an unhappy customer before the issue escalates to complaints on social media, a potential crisis is averted. However, there are several other reasons why businesses love live chat, including its ability to be proactive, efficient and insightful.
1. Proactive – Help channels such as phone or email are passive in nature – they only work when the customers makes the first step. Through live chat, businesses can monitor visitors and set up certain triggers at the right time. For example, a business could trigger live chat to pop up when a new visitor or VIP customer enters the site, allowing chat agents to respond appropriately. Live chat can also engage with customers at crucial moments, such as the checkout stage to prevent shopping cart abandonment. Research has shown that customers are three times more likely to make a purchase, when reached out to via live chat. Businesses can also use live chat as a new channel to offer incentives, such as discount coupons or promotional items. One study showed that live chat increased the average order value by 19 percent.
2. Efficient – Live chat helps to improve employee productivity, as it makes multi-tasking easy for support staff. Chat agents can handle multiple customer conversation simultaneously to resolve issues concurrently, rather than handling one call at a time. Chat agents can also talk to each other via live chat, in order to share knowledge and solve problems faster. Live chat is also less expensive than other channels, at typically half the cost of a call centre.
3. Insightful – Live chat can provide valuable information so businesses better understand customers and new prospects. This information can be used in developing new marketing tactics or adjusting site content with customer needs in mind. Many businesses are using live chat as an easy and cost-effective way to gather customer feedback.
So if your business is looking for a new, effective way to increase productivity, while simultaneously keeping costs low, live chat is a solution. It allows customers to easily find what they need, resolve any problems, and stay on your site for longer.
What are your thoughts on live chat? Have you used it before as a customer or a business?”



Our Services
We provide a wide array of customer support and development services.


Call center outsourcing
- Support In / Outbound
- Telesales, lead generation
- On-boarding support
- First tier support
- Acquire partners/members

Live chat service
- Support Line,Facebook,Pantip, Lazada,Shoppee, WebChat
- Automate reports, All in one platform



Language Support : Thai, English, Khmer, Vietnamese, Bahasa, Burmese, Laos, Mandarin
