The pervasive nature of smartphones and social media allows the connection. Both potential and existing customers can reach businesses and brands – and vice versa – with ease. A business can no longer thrive solely based on high-quality products and services. Multi-platform customer service is the big key to great success. Your car dealership is not immune to the need for elevated customer service.

You are not just selling cars, you are presenting a lifestyle choice. A component of that process is providing great customer service, resulting in repeat business and good reviews. Whether those reviews are online or through word-of-mouth, they are important.

Rather than handling these duties in-house, outsource your car dealership’s customer service to a reputable multi-channel contact center. You will notice a real difference in your bottom line in many ways.

Reduce Operating Costs

Most call centers serve multiple clients in a range of industries. So, the operating costs of the facility, equipment, maintenance, and training are spread out and you don’t foot the bill alone.

These agents are wise, experienced, handle customers well, and can deal with any rising situation.

With everything already in place, you only pay for services as needed. Whether you need the call center often, during peak periods, or find yourself shorthanded for any reason,  Whether it’s regularly, during peak periods or holidays, or if you find yourself shorthanded for any reason, the bounds depend upon the unique needs of your business.

Increase Customer Satisfaction

Strict quality control is the name of the game. The agents that represent your car dealership will uphold the same high standards of professionalism and dedication to your customers that your in-house team exhibits.

Also, entrusting your inbound and outbound customer service needs to a call center means reduced hold times. Customers can contact you outside of business hours. Firms such as KPI Connect allow customers to contact your dealership at a time convenient for them.

Free Up Staff

Instead of tasking your skilled in-house team with answering common questions via phone, email, webchat, or social media, outsourcing these duties. Experienced customer service specialists will free up your staff to do what they do best and focus their valuable time and effort on core business activities. Not only will outsourcing allow your staff to be more productive, but potential walk-in customers will appreciate receiving prompt attention rather than waiting for someone to finish up a phone call or email.

Even if your product or service is great, customers remember their interaction with your company the most. For this reason, a good customer service team and fast responses improve the image of your company and your customer service department.

If your customers experience long hold times, they will hang up. Every lost call is a potential customer lost. However, there are ways to improve the efficiency of your customer service department. Also, you can ensure that your customers have a good experience with your company.

Service Level and Occupancy Rate

There are two important measurements used in call centers to determine their efficiency: Service Level and Occupancy Rate.

There are two different parameters of measurement to determine what the “Service Level” is:

1. Whether the agents at the call center are able to answer the calls
2. The quickness of the agent’s ability is to help customers and resolve queries or concerns

Occupancy Rate refers to the total call handling time and total after call work time and subtracts agents’ idle time. High occupancy rates indicate low agent availability and long hold times, which can lead to call drops and low service levels.

If your call volume exceeds the number of customer service agents you have, you are going to have a high occupancy rate. This is very stressful for customer service agents, because they are over-worked. This causes them to be stressed out and can lead to high turnover rates. You may have customer service agents who are well-trained and possess all of the skills and qualities needed to provide good customer service, but if they are over-worked and feeling stressed, they will not be able to empathize as efficiently with customers in order to provide good customer service.

One of the best solutions to this problem is to outsource your customer service calls to a call center. This eases the workload of your employees, so their jobs are easier.

Contrary to popular belief, it does not take jobs away from your employees. Rather, their jobs are easier and they are happier. There are also many other benefits to outsourcing, as well.

Benefits Of Outsourcing Your Customer Service Department

Answer more calls

During peak call times, it is difficult for a handful of in-house employees to answer all of the calls. They may not have the experience needed to get through the calls quickly enough and then answer the next call before the customer hangs up. Also, whenever your office closes, there is no one there to answer calls after-hours.

A call center solves all of these problems. Their customer service agents are trained to handle calls quickly and efficiently. Less calls get dropped due to long hold times because all of the hired agents are very well-trained. Some call centers, like KPI Connect, even offer after-hours operations, answering calls after you have gone home.

Customer Satisfaction

It does not matter why your customers call, they expect someone to answer when they call. If their calls are not answered, or if the hold times are too long, it leads to a very unhappy customer base. However, with outsourcing, none of these problems are present. Not only are the agents trained to portray your company’s image and make your customers happy, they are trained to do it quickly, as well.

Increased Sales and Profits

You might be thinking that outsourcing is going to cost more money than it is worth. However, it can actually increase your profits. Simply by answering all of the calls, your profits will grow. Happy customers are likely to buy more, meaning there is potential for even more growth.

Outsourcing is not a decision you should make without some consideration. Lots of people have reservations about it but, consider the amount of benefits that outweigh the drawbacks and the potential to make your employees and customers happier. It is a great idea to at least consider outsourcing your customer service calls. It would most likely increase the efficiency of your customer service department and increase your profits, which is a good enough perk that most businesses would not pass up on.

Regardless of what kind of business you are running, you need a prompt and efficient customer service department. You can foster stronger customer relations, boost your retention rates, and increase your loyalty to your brand with solid customer service.

However, as your business expands, you experience growing pains. For example, there are more questions and feedback from your customer base. If your customer service department is not quite prepared to deal with these demands, your company’s image is at stake.

Sometimes, in-house call enters work. But, the shortcomings of in-house show when a business is growing. Before getting to that point, examine all the potential drawbacks of maintaining a call center in-house.

Time Requirements

Time is a crucial resource in all aspects of business, especially customer service.

Running a call center in-house requires a considerable amount of time from your employees. They answer every call and every question, and hear all the feedback.

With an in-house call center, your employees get tied to the phones. Employees do not have as much time to attend to other vital duties that they have.

A simple solution to this problem is outsourcing the call center duties. Then, your in-house staff can return their attention to more vital tasks to keep the company running in top form. What’s more, when you outsource, all your call center duties get handled by trained professionals. Their primary focus is dealing with everything that customer service entails.

Hiring Call Center Exclusive Staff

Often, businesses are not able to afford to assign current employees to call center duties. In that case, the next step is hiring and training staff for the call center. You require IT experts and HR agents in order to make everything run well. Unfortunately, the choice to hire staff to handle the in-house call center is not easy. It has a big price tag attached, especially if extensive training is needed.

Rather than going through the entire recruitment, hiring, and training process, outsourcing your call center can actually cost you less in the long run. You get access to agents that are already trained in customer service and call center technology. You can save money without paying for training, IT, and HR requirements.

The Cost of Call-Center Infrastructure

Incorporating call center infrastructure into your current business is quite expensive. Consider everything required for essential call center operations: good office space, agent workstations, and all needed technology and hardware. Costs like that are are an intense drain of resources. What is more, the costs will increase over the years due to upgrade necessity and maintenance requirements.

When you outsource your call center, you can spare those costs. In addition, outsourcing is more affordable in the years to come. Your outsourcing company handles all upgrades and maintenance. Yet another thing to remove from your to-do list!

Outsourcing is the Solution

Dealing with customer service in-house is not a small task. Customer service requires real commitment, funding and time that you may not be able to spare.

An argument in favour of in-house call centers is the aspect of control. But, if you choose to partner with a good, trusted company like KPI Connect, that is not an issue. Instead, the company will work together with you in order to ensure that all call center operations are how want them. Call KPI Connect to find out how we can help you.

Call volume for any business fluctuates from day to day. Some days you may have little to no calls, however, other days you may have very high call volume. If you are not prepared to deal with the number of calls you are receiving, you may end up missing calls, which is bad for business. Every missed call is potentially money lost, whether they are customer service calls or sales calls. So, it is extremely important to take call volume into account for your business.

Here are some of the benefits when you outsource your overflow to a call center like KPI Connect.

Customer Satisfaction

When a customer calls to make a complaint, ask a question or to make a purchase, they expect someone to answer that call. If your in-house staff gets swamped and does not get to the phone in time to answer, it understandably leads to unhappy customers. Satisfied customers and good customer service lead to returning customers and can even generate new customers due to customers recommending your company to other people.

Peak Hours and Extended Hour/After Hours Operation

Sometimes peak hours are affected by things like seasonal sales, customers having questions or problems with new products, or your business hours. During peak call hours, it can be extremely hard to answer every call. A call center is better adapted to handle them such times as these. They can also handle your calls after your business is closed for the day because they can have extended hours. This means that even more of your calls will be answered.

Lower Training and Equipment Costs for Your Company

Training your employees to handle customers’ calls in a polite, professional manner while also solving customers’ problems and complaints can become a large business expense. The equipment and supplies add up, as well. This is entirely avoided by outsourcing your overflow to a call center. They are already established, meaning their staff is already trained and they already have the facility, complete with the necessary equipment.

Call Center Employees will be Trained on Your Brand

Your company’s values and brand do not have to be compromised if you make the decision to outsource. By telling the outsourcing company what your values are and what you do and do not want, they will have the ability to represent your company fully. Together you can write a script for your company that the representatives will stick to while on the phone with your customers, which also gives them the opportunity to advertise more of your services and products while ensuring no call goes unanswered.

Sales and Profits

You may assume that outsourcing will cost more money than it will make for your company. On the contrary, it can actually make you more in profits. By simply answering the calls during peak hours and after hours, there is understandably more money to be made on sales because more customers are attended to and fewer calls are missed. The less calls that are missed, the more money there is to be made.

Employee Happiness

An over-worked employee is often not a productive employee. Managing phone calls can be time consuming and can be hard to manage along with all of the other business operations on a day to day basis, leaving your employees stressed out. You do not have to let the quality of your customer service slide, or other business operations become less effective. Outsourcing your overflow calls will free up workload and cause your in-house staff to be happier and more productive.

Making the decision to outsource your overflow calls is nothing to take lightly. Lots of people have reservations about outsourcing, but it can be a very agreeable arrangement for both you and the company you outsource to. By expressing your values and concerns to the company you are considering outsourcing to, you can rest assured that they will be heard and adhered to.

Outsourcing can maximize your profits, create a happier and more productive workplace for your employees, and save you money. When you outsource to KPI Connect, you will also be provided with the results of the calls that can tell you what is working and what is not. So, for all these reasons and more, you should consider outsourcing if you are concerned about your call volume, overflow, and your customers.