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"Maintaining a high standard wouldn't be possible without the help of our customers", according to Anke Westerveld of global office. Find out below how this customer contact service provider uses customer reviews to power their business.
Berlin, August 7, 2019. When companies pass the phone receiver to a service provider, the most important issue is trust. Outsourcing customer contact is a growing trend, because making customers happy can take up a lot of time. And that's what global office offers companies: valuable time. The contact service takes over a number of telephone-based processes – from appointment setting to consultancy, and booking transactions to report creation. For Anke Westerveld, manager for PR & Communications at global office GmbH, there's a major difference between standard call centres and the services her firm offers – and showing this is extremely important. "We stay with all sales-relevant processes right through to the end, with maximum attention to detail". To make their unique selling point really visible, the service provider relies on customer reviews. That's something they've been doing for quite a while now.
Communication with customers is a sensitive topic, so for global office, having a personal project contact person on-site in a company is a matter of fact. Thanks to a wide range of franchise partners in Germany and Austria, this is possible. Working with customer feedback has always been a focus. For the last 10 years, partners of global office have been collecting consumer opinion specific to their branch of industry. One of their main target groups is car dealerships – here, customer service over the phone is mainly for for servicing appointments and changing tyres (approximately 40%). Receiving telephone calls for the hotel industry is another standard task, according to Anke. Continuous monitoring using in-house developed reporting tools is also part and parcel of project support.
The starting point: The press department processes all customer reviews and then provides them to the distributor for all franchise partners in print or online as a PDF document. "Maintaining a high standard wouldn't be possible without the help of our customers", says Anke.
Why not use existing customer feedback in a more effective way? Many testimonials are full of praise and help create a positive basis, but it's clear that, in the digital age, companies need to bring things to another level. That level is digital referral marketing. Studies have shown that 9 out of 10 consumers check personal recommendations again online. The need for a move to the digital world is clear – the challenge is the rollout to the franchise partners. "We don't charge our franchise partners advertising contribution fees for cross-location, national marketing", says Anke. This way, they're not bound to the use of digital referral marketing. global office therefore works with a compromise and currently covers the costs of digital expansion for 12 pilot locations. "We decided on this model to keep our costs down for our partners and to increase the profitability of digital expansion for 12 pilot locations. "We decided on this model to keep our costs down for our partners and to increase the profitability of their business structure", explains the communications expert.
Set new goals: Boost your visibility by using customer reviews in a clever way online.
Every franchise partner works in a different way, and their engagement and projects are characterized by a high level of freedom, self-determination and individuality. Decisive factors are awareness, and the realisation that the concept can have an active, positive impact on a business. "We regularly receive very good reviews and it's a powerful way to strengthen our own brand", explains communications expert Anke Westerveld. The big plus of using ProvenExpert is that reviews that were provided offline, or through other channels, can now be displayed in a single location online together with all other reviews – in a bundled score that's also specific to the sector. "This gives both us and our customers a clear overview", she adds.
This direct strategy creates trust: evaluations are no longer released by a press department, but published directly online by customers. "We like to use our ratings seal on all our flyers, brochures and in publications, press releases and other publications", says Anke.
It's all in the mix – the mix of digitization/automation and of service provided by real people simplifies the workflow with customer feedback and makes it more successful. Using this intuitive tool is a way of maintaining quality standard in the network. "ProvenExpert plays a decisive role in creating a positive corporate image that builds consumer trust", according to the PR manager. The resulting growth in revenue and expansion for global office is something that they're very happy about. Their concept of personalized distribution approach combined with digital consumer feedback is truly bearing fruit. These phone service experts have an average rating of 4.65 out of 5 stars (VERY GOOD).
They've also earned two additional seals of trust: as "Top Service Provider" and "Top Recommendation" . Like the ratings seal, these awards are being used by the firm as part of their PR strategy. For instance, they have integrated the ProvenExpert awards into certificates for conferences, which provides a professional appearance in initial discussions with customers and franchises. "It's all there in black and white: the trust of our customers in our integrity and performance as a firm", says Anke. There's no form of advertising more authentic.