Experience: What It Takes to Close a Sale
 
TFS knows what it takes to have a successful Customer Service program, and the first, critical step is in talking to the customer and taking their order. Then, we let the technology of our systems do the work so our reps can focus on your customers and their calls.
  • AT TFS, we develop systems for the most efficient telephone order-taking, on-line screen verification, and appropriate up-selling. This allows our reps to access all the information they need at their fingertips.
  • We customize procedures for the receipt and order entry of all mail, phone, and e-mail orders, including credit card processing.
  • For e-commerce, we'll create a web-site for you (or your own web-site developer), optimizing the functionality of your site. This means we determine the technical steps necessary to ensure your customer has the easiest time making a purchase.
  • And we'll provide daily reports and monthly summaries of the orders taken, so that your marketing and management teams can make the most well-informed decisions.
 
How to Provide E-Customer Service
 
Selling on-line is NOT like selling anywhere else. Here's what we at TFS recommend to all our e-commerce clients…

You need to provide "live" customer-service.
That means a real person, at a toll-free number, answering questions. A customer service rep who can also take orders. Someone who can talk to your customers who worry about privacy issues and credit cards. Someone who can answer questions about products that are complex (i.e. retail sizes) or more expensive. It's critical that there are people ready to service customers on a daily basis. And this "live" service should be displayed prominently in all your advertising, so customers will take advantage of it and so your business will be differentiated from all the other e-commerce sites that don't have it. Yet.

You need to have the best customer-service available. The best.
You're competing with the best customer service companies in the world on the internet. If you haven't thought of yourself as a competitor to Amazon.com and others like it, you should. Because once someone experiences the best in customer service, they're spoiled. They want the best from everyone. Add to that the fact that your competitor is just a click away. So your web customer will either be the most loyal buyer, if you treat them right, or the quickest to leave you, because there's another site somewhere else. Don't tempt them. Provide them with the best, so they'll keep coming back.

You must answer your e-mail as fast as you answer the phone.
Every on-line inquiry should be answered by e-mail almost as promptly as a phone call, and certainly not later than an hour or two after the original e-mail is received. If a customer is ready to buy and only has a question or two, shouldn't someone be responding to them as quickly as possible? Surveys suggest that almost half the e-mails sent to Customer Service centers for web-sites don't get answered. And, of the ones that are, virtually all responses take more than a day. If customers wanted to wait that long, they wouldn't be sending you e-mail. Get back to them immediately, before they have time to go to one of your competitors.

This is just some of the expertise we share with our TFS clients. And we don't just recommend these services… we provide them. So if you'd like to hear more, or to talk about how TFS can help you launch your business on the web, call us. Or send us an e-mail. We'll get back to you right away.
 
Personal Approach: The Rep Makes the Difference
 
At TFS, we know that a phone rep can make or break a sale. That's why our reps are so well-trained that they can sell with or without a computer. That's right. Unlike most low-budget call centers, where reps read from a script, our reps know it all by heart. So they can answer questions easily and provide a "personal approach" to customer service. That's because TFS reps don't handle calls for 20 different clients at a time. Instead, they "specialize" in no more than three (3) clients and, often times, only one. As a result, they know your company. They know your product. Just like an in-house rep. And the results are amazing!

Customers buy more product.
We're proud that our phone reps are not your everyday, low-budget "order takers." And because of their skills, TFS can actually increase sales significantly. We create a selling story and up-sell customers to additional product, where appropriate. So coming to TFS can change the bottom line for sales significantly. And in the end, we end up being even less expensive than the "lowest cost" vendors based on the extra sales we close.

We never lose a sale because questions can't be answered.
Losing a sale or, worse, a customer, is the risk you take when reps can only read from a script. Or when they're covering lots of companies and products. At TFS, this can't happen because each rep is "tested" on key questions and products. They have intensive training on new products and newly updated catalogs. By the time they're allowed to answer calls, they make each customer think they've called the company itself. Imagine that: an outside call-center sounding in-house.

If you have any doubts about outside call-centers, call the TFS Sales Department at 888-454-9552. We'll show you how to achieve the best in quality service, at an affordable price.