I was meeting with a new customer the other day and I asked them to share with me the reasons that they chose our service and why they decided to leave their previous provider. Their answer is one that I (surprisingly) hear often.  The previous provider would frequently take days to return their calls, sometimes not returning their calls at all!  This is amazing to me!

I have also had clients tell me that our “competitors” would make them feel like a nuisance when they called.  A customer calls and they act like its an interruption in their day!  You have to be kidding me.

Their are so many problems with this cavalier attitude that I can’t possibly mention them all here.  I will list a couple of them, though.  The first, and most obvious, is that it violates the simple principal that it’s much harder to win a new customer than to keep a current one.  What really bothers me about this kind of attitude though is that it violates the trust that these businesses have put in the provider.  Every provider of every service sells their program by claiming to be passionate about customer care.  Unfortunately, only a small few deliver on this promise.

To me good business is really simple.  It comes down to doing the right things for your customers, all the time.  And realizing that they are the ones who pay your salary and that they have put their trust in your company.  This is especially true in technical fields like the one that I have the privilege to work in (Information Technology).  Our customers don’t have the background, knowledge or inclination to understand the nuances of technology.  And they shouldn’t have to.  They count on us to “take the hassle out of technology so they can run their business”.  That’s more than just our tag line at ASK, its how we view our relationship to every customer.

To provide this higher level of service, it is critical that you build processes and systems so that you are available, reachable and can respond quickly to clients needs.  One way that we have been able to achieve this at ASK is through our partnership with Ambs Call Center.  We count on Ambs Call Center to integrate into our systems and understand our delivery model and processes.  Knowing that they are there, gives us the peace of mind to know that our customers will always reach us, regardless of the time of day.

Companies that act like their customers are a nuisance, eventually have their problem solved.  They lose their customers to companies that will appreciate them and provide them with the professional level of service that they are paying for.

Mike Maddox, President of ASK  a full service Managed IT firm serving Michigan Businesses since 1993, is a guest contributor to Ambs Call Center’s blog.

Networking is a word business people throw around all the time, but I often wonder how many people really understand how to successfully network. I’ve witnessed too many scenarios where people misunderstand, misuse or even abuse a networking opportunity. The stories below are true and the tips that follow have been learned from personal experience. I hope you find them enjoyable and helpful.

A few years ago, I was about to get into the elevator at the end of an event when a business woman rushed out of the elevator, exclaiming “Did I miss it?” She had missed the entire event. About six people got onto the elevator, leaving her standing in the now almost empty room. As the doors were closing, she threw a handful of business cards at me, saying “Hand these out to the people with you in the elevator.” Did I mention I was carrying a box? There was no way I could catch the dozen or so cards flying at me even without the box. So, they all tumbled to the floor for people to step on.

Networking 101:
Arrive on time, if not early. Arriving early allows you to scope out the room, increasing your comfort level, and pick out which of the arriving guests you want to meet first.

As I was walking into a networking event, a friend asked me to help carry his boxes of posters into the event. I asked him if he was hanging them up at the venue and he replied that he was going to hand them out to people….people who had a drink and/or food in their hand, were shaking hands with everyone and reaching into their pockets for their business cards. In other words, people who did not have a spare hand to cart around a poster.

Networking 102: Hand out appropriate promotional material at the appropriate time. Large brochures and oversized material is not appropriate. People are there to network. They need your contact information and a reminder as to what you do (aka Business Card) and nothing else. Save the expensive materials for your follow-up.

There is a guy in every community that others referred to as “the hunter” because his only purpose in life seemed to be finding people to buy his product. He would abruptly enter and exit conversations, force his business card into your hand and tell you why you *had* to do business with him. He never asked questions about anyone else’s business or even what their business needs might be. People ran from him.

Networking 103: Be a farmer, not a hunter. Farm and cultivate leads by helping people, learning about their business, referring business their way and solving their needs. Hunters go in for the immediate kill and feed for a day whereas farmers cultivate and feed for a lifetime.

Mindy Bradish-Orta, President/CEO of Jackson County Chamber of Commerce,  is guest contributor to Ambs Call Center’s blog. 

I often get asked by friends and colleagues about how much the proliferation of smart phones has hurt our business. Perhaps that is their more polite phrasing of the “Why would someone pay you to take calls if they can do it themselves?” question. I understand why they ask the question since the ubiquitous smart phone has freed up small businesses and entrepreneurs to take their calls and business applications with them wherever they roam.

The truth is that smart phones and tablet have helped our call center business. For all the mobility options that are out there today, there is no substitute for a warm, professional human voice on the other end of the line providing assistance (sorry Siri) and doing so without ambient noise, dropped calls and shoddy voice quality.  That being said, we love new technology and are always leveraging it to the benefit of our clients. Smart phones and tablets have been a blessing for our clients and for us. They are now the most popular conduit by which we feed real time business intelligence data to our clients. Whether it’s sales leads, messages, reports or mission critical data, it all can be delivered faster and more reliably to these devices. As a matter of fact we have  just released new versions of our smart phone and web based apps that further enhance our clients’ experience.

Thankfully, our clients also recognize that while it is technically possible to receive phone calls directly to their smart phones 24/7, the professional image and behind the scenes call processing that we provide simply makes good business sense. Not to mention the improved quality of life and increased sales that result from our call center services. After all, how sharp can one be at 3am handling important client phone calls? That’s certainly where we spring into action to help them by providing a friendly and professional voice on the other end of the phone 24/7, 365. Whether it is taking and routing information and messages to the correct staff, dispatching emergencies, processing orders, scheduling appointments among a host of other services that we offer.