One of our very own call center clients - Peanut Butter & Company, published a very nice article about their Peanut Butter making it all the way to the troops in Afghanistan.

Michele C- one of the call center account managers- had sent her fiancee a 6-pack of Peanut Butter and one of their 10th Anniversary T-shirts while he was stationed in Afghanistan. PB&Co was so proud to see it- they published it in their news letter.

See the excerpt below:

Here’s a picture of SSG Mike Alaimo, who was recently stationed at PRT Farah in Afghanistan in PB & Co. regalia. (Mike is Michele Cerski’s significant other — Michele is the account manager of our Call Center at Solid Cactus). Michele relayed the great news that Mike is coming back from duty very soon. Mike received our six pack and our anniversary tee a few months back while on duty. Peanut Butter & Co. sends its warmest “welcome back” to Mike!

SSG Mike Alaimo in Peanut Butter & Co gear!

As an update on this PB lovin’ soldier- he’s on his way home THIS WEEK! Welcome back Mike, and thanks for all you’ve done for us!

Over the last month, the call center has held some incentive contests for all of its representatives.

The first was an Ipod giveaway. CSRs earned raffle tickets for perfect attendance, “kudos” received from a customer or client, perfect scores on quizzes, and no call manager errors. One Ipod will also be given away in November and December. The winner for October was Casey Llewellyn. And it couldn’t have come at a better time; since Casey could not stop talking about how she wanted an Ipod.

The second contest was for lowest call handle time among all the teams in the center. We were divided into five teams to see who had the lowest average handle time (while still providing accurate, friendly service of course). The winners were Steve’s team and the team of Cactus After Dark; supervised by Alison W. The winning teams will receive certificates for additional break time, Ipod raffle tickets, and a pizza party.

Congratulations to all our winners, and a big kudos for everyone who does such a great job everyday in the call center!

When something goes wrong, I am the person’s first contact with the company. Whether they were sent the wrong item, a defective item, or they are outside of the time frame for the company to help…they get upset. When I have to deliver news a customer does not want to hear, I sometimes hear this famous question:

“Don’t you stand behind your product?”

What does this really mean? Do you feel you can stand up for your product and your overall brand? Consider your business practices, your product, everything that defines your business. Anyone can start a business and talk about how much they care for their customers and how they sell the highest quality at the best prices on the market. However, some people neglect to practice what they preach; which leads to unhappy customers.

Standing behind your brand starts with the products you sell. Why is your offering so much different than others who have similar products? Do you offer lower prices, unusual items, or items you designed yourself? Whatever the reason, make sure your site has a strong summary of what you offer, how your business got started, and why people should buy with you.

What do you pride yourself on? Higher customer satisfaction ratings than one of your competitors? Very few claims for damaged products or return requests? Quick response time to customer inquiries? Play it up on your site and use statistics to back it up so people will know you are the real deal (For example: ABC Inc. has a 98% customer satisfaction rating!)

Think about how often you put your practices into…well…practice. If you say you will give a customer a return credit within 10 business days, it should be applied by the end of the 10^th business day. If your orders require a 1-2 business day processing time, have it shipped and notify the customer of tracking by the end of the 2^nd business day. If an item cannot be returned, is it clearly stated on the item page? You should not imply or say one thing on your policies, then tell a customer something completely different. (That’s when another popular question comes in: “Where is that on your website?”)

Finally, it is hard to stand behind your business if you do not offer good service. It is one thing to have a voice mail set up if a customer is calling before or after hours. It is another to not even check the voice mail or check it, but ignore customer calls. If you want to hire staff, make sure they are properly trained on your product and in all areas of customer skills. Does your staff empathize as well as they can give technical specifications on your products?

You put a lot of energy and money into your e-commerce business…why would you not stand behind it and be proud of the work you and your staff do?

In keeping up with the sports theme on the affiliate blog, and my job in building stronger loyalty between customer and company, I had to wonder how being a sports season ticket holder is about being a customer rather than just a rabid fan.

Season ticket holders put anywhere from $200 to $2,000 towards the privilege of getting to go to as many games as they desire. However, something makes them want to buy these packages. Could it be the players who are always making (good) headlines? Or maybe it’s just the 10% merchandise discount. Whatever the reason, teams must market their product to ensure people are interested in buying it.

Once people have signed up for a full or partial season plan, they do not want to be forgotten about until it is time for renewals or payment deadlines. Teams often reward their season ticket holders (customers) by creating exclusive offers just for their use.

Account holders are often assigned a representative who they communicate with throughout the year if they have any concerns or need any additional tickets. The account holder will always have a phone number or e-mail to contact their account manager. By having a main contact person for all or a group of customers, it encourages stronger relationship building and a desire to want to work with them when the time for more business comes around.

However, sports teams are not always perfect. There are losing seasons, weather conditions that keep people from coming out, and players coming and going every season. Customers may choose not to accept these changes. Maybe their favorite player leaves and they lose interest in the whole team. Maybe prices have gone up and their current budget does not allow for such an amenity.

So to get to my analogy lesson for today, how does keeping customers for your e-commerce business compare to retaining loyal sports fans and season ticket holders? In a nuthsell, you should:

-Tell customers what sets your site apart from the others. What highly sought after product do you carry that your main competitors do not? (Sidney Crosby can only play on one team…Pittsburgh got him…means more revenue from Penguins fans to see him play.)

-Pay personal attention to your customers, and not just in terms of what they are buying. What kind of service do they expect? Can you not only give out your contact information, but prove yourself trustworthy of working with them?

-There will always be things you can’t control; such as vendor price changes, that will cause you to lose your customers. However, you can control things such as response time to phone calls and e-mails and improving your site’s design to make it more user friendly.

-Make sure your customers have options to earn rewards by signing up for an account on your site or joining the mailing list for exclusive coupons. You can also attract new business by offering such specials; so make sure at least one discount applies to everyone who visits your site.

Developing your customer base is the same thing as sports teams building up their fan base. Think of your customers as potential fans who will come back if you continue to deliver winning results. GO TEAM!

With a slow economy and people busier than ever, many customers anticipate turning to online shopping for their holiday needs. According to WebPro News, 49% of consumers surveyed plan to do their shopping on the Internet; as opposed to the 44% who will fight the brick and mortar store crowds.

The article looks at why that is:

Reasons for shopping online include saving time (88%), locating hard-to-find products (84%), greater selection (83%) and avoiding crowds at the mall (83%). Saving money was still an important factor for 80 percent.

Don’t give your customers any reason to skip over your site and go to your competitor. Keep your business running smoothly while making sure you’re aware of the reasons people are coming to you:

Saving time: When people send an e-mail or call your company, they expect an answer to a question or concern almost immediately. Answer e-mails promptly and always be ready with responses to anything that may come up. If it is absolutely necessary to call the customer back, take their information and provide a time frame for response right then and there.

Customers cannot save time if they are kept on hold for longer than a few minutes. If you anticipate high hold times due to the holiday, update your greeting to indicate this and include your contact e-mail address for questions. Also state your normal business hours and have a voice mail set up in case a customer cannot wait and may want to call back at a more convenient time.

Locating hard-to-find products: Do you run a specialized business that very few other e-retailers run? For example, there are several jewelry sites out there, but do you specialize in diamond rings? Niche sites will get higher rankings in search engines and set themselves apart by offering products a general site may not. This goes back to saving time because customers do not want to sort through several pages of search results to get what they are looking for.

Greater selection: You should try to stock your business with as many brands and products as possible. You could even play around with the idea of having special orders where customers looking for something not listed on your site can still get it from you. Wouldn’t it be nicer to say “I can try to locate that item for you” than immediately saying “I can’t get you that”?

Avoiding crowds: Sure, an online site saves you the expense and time of setting up cash registers, a security system, and the need to have keys to the doors. However, some times of day will bring higher Internet use than others and you should be ready for that. Have all the proper measures in place to prevent a server crash and keep calls to the minimum time (while still providing great service, of course).

Saving money: Pretty self explanatory, but the holidays are the best time to keep shipping specials and product discounts coming out!

When you think about it, holiday shopping online is not much different than going to a retail store. The only difference is customers do not have to find a parking space and stand in long lines. However, you can offer your customers just as much of a product variety, great discounts, and friendly customer service. Christmas is officially less than two months away…don’t waste any more time gearing up.

Title: Live chat- the here, the now, the future

Author: Melissa Rovinski

Hello all! My name is Melissa R, and I have been working here at Solid Cactus for about 7 months now. Over that time frame I have watched the company grow tremendously. I can honestly say I can not wait to see what happens next!

You may have heard that first impressions cannot be changed. If you dress too casual for a job interview, you may have hurt your chances at getting the job; no matter how qualified you are. If you have company over and your house is not clean, that will be forever etched in your guests’ minds. If you have children and they don’t behave in public, others will make assumptions about your parenting skills.

The same standards, no matter how unfair, apply to your ability to provide outstanding customer service. According to an article on Customer Think:

Every engagement with the customer is an opportunity to either develop or destroy a customer’s faith in the brand. These engagements directly impact loyalty and long term customer value. So who better to represent the company than its customer service people? Who else in the business deals in realities? The buying experience can often be, shall we say, sub-optimal.

Here are some common mistakes companies make when trying to help the customer. Some of them are not intended to form a bad impression, but leave a customer with just that:

Instead of: “We can’t help you with that.” (Shows that you do not fully understand your customer’s needs and you believe they would not consider other options.)

Try this: “At this time we do not offer that particular product or service; would you like me to offer you something similar that we currently have available?” (Shows understanding of what you can provide and how it will benefit the customer just as much, or even more, than what they desire. It also shows that you may grow your business in the future and include that desired product.)

Instead of: “I hate to tell you this” or “I have bad news” (Automatically setting yourself up for an upset customer)

Try this: “Sir/ma’am, I apologize for this, however…” (shows that you attempted to resolve the situation; even if the customer is still upset)

Instead of: “Your order will not get to you in time.” (Customer feels you cannot live up to promises.)

Try this: “We have experienced a delay in production time (or a back order on stock), but can have it to you by (such a date). Would you like us to upgrade your shipping at no extra charge or allow you to select a currently available item that would also fit your needs?” (Shows that you value the customer’s business.)

Instead of: “I don’t know the answer to that.” (Customer automatically loses confidence in you.)

Try this: “Let me take a moment or two to research this with our product specialist. Are you able to hold, or can I get back to you with this information? What is the best way to contact you?” (Shows that you have the resources to get the information the customer is looking for in an efficient manner)

There are a number of ways you can create a good impression for your customers, and as you can see, the way you communicate cam make or break that. If you even hint that you do not understand your customers, they will go back to Google and click on the next available link.

If you would like to read the short, but informative, article I drew upon for this post, check it out at:

http://www.customerthink.com/blog/customer_service_best_brand_ambassador

When it comes to web browsers myself and almost everyone here at Solid Cactus use Mozilla Firefox. Honestly it is just the best browser out there from a technical and usability standpoint. The average user may also be surprised how many issues that sites experience in IE are non-existent in FF.

However you may come across a couple sites that only open up in Internet Explorer.  A good example of that would be OrderMotion which is used constantly by the reps down here in the call center and will not open up in Firefox.  Another would be Outlook Webmail which only works with limited functionality in Firefox. One of the greatest things about Firefox are addons which add additional functionality to Firefox. There is a particular addon called IE Tab which actually allows you to open up Internet Explorer in Firefox. So if you only use Firefox this is definitely the add on for you because now you can do everything in one browser.

You can read more about IE Tab and also install it from here:
http://ietab.mozdev.org/

For more Firefox addons you can also go here:
http://addons.mozilla.org/

Today is Joe D’s 30th birthday. If you’re in the office- stop by and wish him Happy Birthday!

Once upon a time a boy loved super-heros —- many years later, his love for super-heros is still strong enough to make him come to work dressed as one…. Happy Birthday Joe!