Customer service necessitates multimedia response

The rapid rise in the availability of cutting-edge communications technologies has allowed companies to respond to consumer complaints in real time like never before. However, while businesses have adapted by investing in high-quality business phone systems and managed IT services, customers have kept up, as Twitter and Facebook now allow them to lodge complaints with alarming speed.

“In the past people would be angry, but they’d be all over the country talking to their neighbors,” Kit Yarrow, consumer psychology professor at Golden Gate University told The Associated Press. “Now they can connect online and they have power.”

For instance, bad publicity can now spread before one of the company’s call center representatives is able to right the problem. The news source cited a recent incident where customers at a JetBlue counter tweeted about the long wait they were experiencing at one of the airline’s gates.

In response, the company’s social media professionals were able to direct extra resources to this location, potentially saving the business’ reputation in the eyes of these individuals and their friends and family.

But, for a true, adaptive approach, business may want to invest in the infrastructure that could one day enable them to respond to concerns with multimedia contact centers capable of handling picture data, text messages, email complaints and traditional phone calls.

To start, a company that implements the best Chicago business phones in its main location can then work with a unified communications provider to implement office phone systems in other cities and towns. In addition, by choosing a VoIP consulting firm that also offers troubleshooting and nationwide support, business owners may be able to improve their services in the short-term while incrementalizing the cost of upgrades that will allow them to keep pace with consumer demand.

For a true, adaptive approach, business may want to invest in the infrastructure that could one day enable them to respond to concerns with multimedia contact centers capable of handling picture data, text messages, email complaints and traditional phone calls.