The importance of customer service: Insights from a BPO firm CEO

Running a business successfully is more than about selling products and services to customers. Your clients play a crucial role in growing your company. This is why you need to build a stronger relationship with them, even after their purchase is made. 

As a starting company, you tend to allocate more resources to functions you think are more important, especially marketing. In return, customer service comes last in your priorities, which could affect your business performance.

Customer service is as vital as the rest of your functions. Armando Muca, co-founder and CEO of Sara Call Center, explains this in episode 372 of the Outsource Accelerator podcast.

The importance of customer service in your business

Customer service aims to make your customers feel they are taken care of by helping them solve their concerns and provide excellent services.

Your customer service determines how you interact with your customers. It serves as your company’s front line since your support team is the one clients reach out to first. 

Armando believes that companies realize the importance of customer service “when [they have] thousands of clients.” The more your business grows, the more possible it is to lose your customers with every bad service they get.

Apart from this, here are other reasons that explain the importance of customer service in your company:

Excellent customer service retains customers

Armando implied that customer service is not just “how quickly you’ll answer calls.” Rather, it mostly deals with how you handle their concerns.”

Satisfied customers stay on a brand they trust and rely on. By having a reliable customer service team, you get to show your clients that you prioritize their needs and are always ready to talk to them when needed.

Great customer service attracts new clients

Per Armando, “every single client [a team is] talking to is an opportunity to the client [the team is] working for.”

Indeed, one of the best ways to attract customers is by taking care of your existing ones. While customer acquisition is not always five times more expensive, it still costs more than retention expenses.

Statistics show that 72% of customers are more likely to share their experience with your brand. This, in return, gives you the chance to attract more people to your brand effortlessly.

Impressive customer service increases your profit

Your existing customers already know the quality and reputation of your brand. Giving them a good experience brings you better loyalty and even increases their customer lifetime value (CLV).

Loyal customers tend to buy more frequently and spend bigger compared to new ones. It is even said that companies increasing their retention rate by 5% can increase their profits by up to 95%.

All of this is possible when you get your customer service done right.

Customer service improves customer experience

You should know how your customers perceive your brand more than how you see it. With your customer service team, you’ll know how your clients see your products and services.

This makes it easier for you to align your strategies and improve customer experience for them.

For instance, you might see your brand as a music store offering digital albums and music equipment. However, your customers see you as a store offering music instruments. You can then align your offers from this expectation.

Customer service helps in upselling and cross-selling

Since you already know your customers, you get to strengthen your relationship better by upselling or cross-selling to them.

Upselling and cross-selling work best with existing customers. Along with this, you can use CRM software that records and integrates customer data so your team can easily pull up client data in no time.

The best way to handle your customer service

Investing in your customer service can “cost [a lot of] time and money” if you’re doing it yourself. Aside from the employees, you should prepare for the systems, desktops, phones, and other resources needed to start operating.

Shelling these requirements out on your own budget can be costly, especially when you’re a small business.

The best way to hire and manage your customer service is by outsourcing it to a call center or BPO company. Per Armando, outsourcing this function “is the smartest choice CEOs are making” on their companies.

With outsourcing, you get to save as much as 70% on labor costs and resources in setting up your team. You also get a team of expert agents handling and taking care of your customers daily.

How Sara Call Center helps clients manage customer service

Being in the industry for ten years, Sara Call Center highlights the importance of customer service in every inbound and outbound call they handle.

The company tailors their solutions according to the challenges their clients and customers face. For instance, they get to know their customers even through cold calls by talking to them personally and catching their interest in the products they offer.

They also make sure that their teams are trained properly in customer interaction and support. To Armando, providing excellent service is “about [the] results we can give [to our clients].”

Get in touch with Armando and Sara Call Center through their website and listen to episode 372 of the OA podcast here.