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Customer Service available to Businesses

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As businesses look to strengthen their brands, they need to recognise the importance of offering great service levels and meeting the expectations of their customers.

Enterprise mobility is something most businesses are striving for - the ability for their people to work effectively across multiple locations using practically any device. New developments in mobile broadband in recent years, plus the launch of more sophisticated handsets, has made productive working a viable possibility for most companies as of 2013. They can use a variety of IT tools to empower their people while working away from the office, and ensure each paid individual makes the most of the working day.

If terms of managing customers, and attempting to capitalise on sales leads, this has numerous advantages. Business leaders and employees are almost always contactable, enabling them to deliver a
superior customer service to their clients. The greater availability afforded by the ability to work on the move ensures their organisation appears professional, up-to-speed and entirely customer-focused. It helps create the right impression with paying customers, and as such, enterprise mobility can help strengthen organisations' brands.

Real-time communications can strengthen reputations

The ability to communicate and collaborate with customers in real-time is a major asset for organisations, particularly when they are dealing with demanding clients. If a particular customer is high maintenance or has a high-value account, the individuals responsible for meeting their needs should be contactable throughout the day. Their unavailability could reflect poorly on the company, and its ability to meet the specific needs of the customer. The client may be unhappy at having to deal with somebody else who is not as well-versed with the specifics of their relationship.

But at times it will be essential for people to be away from the office, or caught up working on different tasks or accounts. If an employee is responsible for a portfolio of customers, they need to give the impression of being a dedicated resource available to each of these - responding to their needs quickly and efficiently. But in order for this to be possible, employees need the right technology solutions at their disposal.

Creating the right impression with customers

When they are travelling on a train or plane, waiting for a meeting to start, away on a business trip, or even arriving back home for the evening, businesspeople may need to be contactable in order to meet the needs of their clients. The use of connected smartphones, tablets and laptops can certainly assist in this respect. Wider coverage and faster mobile broadband speeds means people have access to a variety of online tools in the majority of locations - and as such, they can continue to service their clients' support needs wherever they are.

Doing so is not only likely to improve the relationship between the customer and the organisation, but it can have a positive knock-on effect. In the social media age, businesses can build great reputations as soon as they can lose them. Firms which go beyond the call of duty in terms of ensuring customer support may receive new referrals and recommendations, and see an upturn in trade.

By investing in great service, and doing their best to meet client needs, they can potentially attract new customers and boost revenues. Conversely, those which fail to do so may be criticised across social media and online forums. So in this respect, there may be indirect marketing benefits as a result of real-time availability and the willingness to communicate as and when required.

Taking advantage of mobility solutions

More employees have the ability to work, or be contactable, on the move as a result of mobile device adoption. But what they need are the software tools and applications to ensure mobile working is as effective and productive as possible. They need to be able to access a whole range of resources hosted on the company network, ensuring customer-relevant information is readily available to them. They also need to have access to a range of different communication tools, allowing them to converse with clients using the platform or channel of their choice.

Office 365 gives businesses a host of options as they seek to add enterprise mobility and better meet the needs of their customers. The suite is designed to support secure and effective work from any location, existing as a productivity, collaboration and communication solution. It gives users the ability to view and edit documents, and use audio, video, email and instant messaging from almost anywhere. And as a result of its simplicity, employees are able to focus on their business aims rather than ensuring the functionality of the technology.

Conclusion

In terms of marketing a company effectively and building its brand, delivering great customer service is often the starting point. Businesses invest large sums of money on advertising in a bid to promote their goods and services, but if the customer service fails to live up to expectations, this investment is likely to be wasted in the long term.

Organisations should be looking to empower their people with mobility solutions, ensuring they can get online and work effectively from any location. Customers are likely to notice the difference, when all their calls reach the right person straight away, and their emails receive a speedy response. And in terms of building stronger brands and boosting the bottom line, this can only offer positives.

Posted by Jenny Arthur

 

We, at Microsoft, are happy to announce ‘Talking Business’ to help entrepreneurs and business owners’ succeed. We believe in your ability to innovate and in the ability of technology to help, so to support ‘Talking Business’ we have many resources available for businesses like you. We have an informative newsletterblog posts by people in the industry, and a community looking to help small business succeed.

 

Follow us on twitter - @MicrosoftSB, or use the hashtag #TalkingBusiness to find out more information.

 


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