Tamkeen, Bahrain’s semi-governmental organization that encourages aspiring entrepreneurs to launch their businesses has recently received an award for being the “Best Middle East Government Call Centre.” It’s worth noting that there has been a 27% increase in calls handled between 2016 and 2017, where 73,000+ calls were handled last year, and 57,000+ calls were handled in 2016.
But what makes Tamkeen a pioneer in having the best call center? How are they so great at it, and how can new startups learn from them?
We sat down with Amal Jehad, Customer Service Manager, and asked her for some tips and advice that can help upcoming startups improve their relationship with their customers, thus increasing their customer retention rate.
Here are 6 guaranteed ways that will for sure enrich your customers’ experience:
- Learn from your customer. “Whatever we do, the improvements, the process, and the systems we acquire are all to make it more convenient for the customer,” Amal says. The voice of the customer is always important, and employees need to constantly ask themselves “How will I affect the customer?”. She states that to ensure customer satisfaction, employees need to hear them out, and provide surveys to receive feedback that helps them measure and improve the quality of their services. Amal adds that soon after the call, customers receive a survey to rate the quality of the call. Any feedback is taken into account and raised to the appropriate channel the next working day.
- Invest in your people. For your employees to happily serve customers, they need to have their welfare taken into consideration. They must believe in the organization’s mission and understand its values to be able to strive for its success. Encouraging employee productivity and creativity and recognizing their efforts instantaneously is crucial. Your employees need to feel that someone’s got their back and that their managers will be there to support them, especially during challenging times. In addition, managers should introduce the fun element in the workplace to reduce stress and allow employees to connect with each other.
- Unified values. According to Amal, it is crucial to instill the organization’s values into the employees from the first day of joining and to adopt them, and eventually act upon them. A unified understanding and belief in its values make the achievement of the organization’s goals much easier. Some of the main values are being passionate about what you do, having a positive attitude and mindset, being responsive and empathetic towards others, and at the same time be accessible and reliable.
- Provide training and coaching. Similarly, your employees need to be well trained to handle customers and constantly be updated with the latest product or services to ensure correct and consistent messaging. According to Amal, Tamkeen ensures that their Call Center employees are given ongoing training on products and services, and conduct seminars to enhance their skills. Mistakes will happen every once in a while, and it is the role of the manager to point it out by taking the right approach. Managers should be there to support the employees to build trust between them and the employees.
- ‘Quality is not an act, it is a habit.’ It requires hard work from everyone to achieve quality and be the best in what they do. Amal says “From employees to the technologies used, Tamkeen always strives to acquire the best resources to accomplish its goals. For example, we allow our customer service advisors to evaluate themselves to point out the good areas and those that need improvement in our weekly feedback sessions”. In addition to that, Tamkeen is striving to further invest in the latest modern technologies to help digitize its services for the convenience of its customers.
- No one likes an angry customer, but there’s a way around it. When asked about how do Tamkeen employees deal with difficult situations, Amal tells us that their employees are trained and given intensive sessions on how to deal with angry or upset customers. “It’s always important to listen, don’t interrupt, don’t assume, be empathetic, don’t over promise, check and get back to them in a timely manner,” she explains.
Of course, there are many other ways you could implement to have the best customer service. If you have any other suggestions feel free to voice them out on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
And of course, don’t forget to check out Tamkeen’s awesome services that cater to entrepreneurs, employees, students, and job seekers. You can also follow them on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to stay up to date with their future events.