The threat of a recession has forced many Canadian small businesses to reassess their organizational needs, chief among them – availability. Supply chain issues continue to plague businesses, while an ongoing labour shortage has caused managers to spend more time retraining than ever before. Providing a high level of consistent customer service has never been more challenging.
One solution businesses are turning to is the help of local call centres. They’re appealing to small businesses because they enable them to be open 24/7 with a consistent, live voice for customers to interact with while being cheaper than a full-time employee. Below we’ve compiled a list of the most popular call centre service for Canadian small businesses.
Evening and weekend coverage
A shift in customer expectations is causing more and more organizations to be available 24/7. It is far less acceptable today to send a customer to voicemail than it was 20 or 25 years ago. Customers in 2023 are not waiting around to be called back, they are simply moving to the next result (your competitor) on their google search and calling them.
Evening and weekend coverage will help you book more appointments, offer better customer service, and protect your customer base from competitors.
Appointment booking
Speaking of booking more appointments, you can skip the admin work on those extra appointments, too. While some call centres won’t perform complex tasks or work within your CRM software, many can and are happy to do so. At Telelink, we love jumping into your CRM and helping you keep your customer data up to date.
If you don’t use a cloud-based CRM, your call centre can also work in excel or google sheets, leave notes and messages for your team or most other custom solutions.
Technician dispatch
This is a huge draw for trade service businesses. Let’s use an HVAC company as an example. In the summer, HVAC companies receive floods of calls to repair broken air conditioners and some calls are more urgent than others.
If a customer calls for repair during the day the call centre agent can dispatch a technician right away making for a quicker response to customers and better overall service. If a customer calls after hours the agent can dispatch a technician at an after-hours rate, or if the call is not urgent, the call centre agent can schedule an appointment for the following day during business hours.
Full 24/7/365 coverage – securing your front line during labour shortage
Finally, the last trend in call centre services is more organizations outsourcing 100% of their calls to 24/7/356. Many companies struggling to fill receptionist roles or customer service roles adequately are turning the expertise of Canadian call centres.
For a fraction of the cost, organizations can provide a professional and consistent customer service experience.
About Telelink
There you have it, The four most popular call centre services for small businesses to consider in 2023. If you want to learn more about Telelink and the industries we specialize in, please visit our website.