Most companies only operate during the “business hours” and that is from 8-9 in the morning to 5-6 in the evening. No matter where you are in the world, most businesses function that way simply because most of them do not have an extra employee that would man the business during the off hours.
This is why BPO companies offer after hours customer support. What is it? It is the type of customer support wherein customer service representatives will take over the business’ support after the regular business hours. They will answer customers’ inquiries after the in-house employees leave. This way, business owners are sure that they can accommodate every customer who calls and contacts them.
But why is it needed? Is it really necessary? You could say that customers can just call again the next day when in-house employees are present. But that is not how business works. You cannot always tell customers that they should just call the next day. What if the customer cannot do that as they can be busy with work or other things too?
You would lose them. You need to know the importance of customer service. A non-stop operation is better than having missed a call from a potential customer.
Customer Service Facts That Would Want You To Operate 24/7
1st Financial Training Services has stated that 96 percent of consumers don’t really complain even if they encounter a bad customer service. In fact, 91 percent of those will just leave. That will surely affect your sales and revenue as you will not acquire potential customers.
If you think you can get by with your existing ones, then you are correct. According to Marketing Metrics, “the probability of selling to an existing happy customer is up to 14x higher than the probability of selling to a new customer.” However, you still need to make them happy and give them great customer satisfaction for them to stay.
After Hours Customer Support through The Internet
Now, if you don’t use the phone for customer service anymore, other ways like social media would still make you need an after hours customer support. Actually, you will need it more as Social Habit explained that 42 percent of social media users want a response within an hour while 32 percent wants it even faster, in just 30 minutes. Imagine if you did not respond overnight just because no one is present in your office.
Not only that but you will not have a high customer retention rate if you are not 24/7 active on your social media channels. Gartner found out that “failure to respond to customer complaints and questions on social media can lead to a 15% increase in churn.”
Moreover, live chat also needs a 24/7 customer support as people would just contact you anytime they want. And if you still don’t have that medium you should think twice. It is garnering audience as people do want immediate answers to their queries.
Another statistics also revealed that “63 percent of customers said they were more likely to return to a website that offers live chat as opposed to one that doesn’t.” Additionally, 73 percent customer satisfaction comes from the live chat.
If these facts and numbers do not faze you or change your mind about operating 24/7, then your sales and revenue should. Imagine it increasing because you can accommodate more consumers.
Contact us if you change your mind!
