Whether you have an entire call center or a few secretaries manning the phones, telephone customer service is one of the most important functions a modern company can provide. For social connections, diplomacy, and problems that are too complicated to solve over chat, the only thing better than a phone call is an in-person consultation which is usually much more impractical. This means that your phones need to be not only high quality at transmitting sound but your team needs integration with the best software support possible. This means that no matter how big your team is, VOIP is your ideal telephone customer service solution.

If you already have VOIP or are thinking about upgrading your office in the near future, we've figured out more than a few tips to optimize efficiency for your employees and the quality of service for your customers. Here are five of our favorite VOIP customer service tips.

1) Have Enough Bandwidth

The most important thing to understand about VOIP is that it runs on your high-speed internet network, not the phone network. The vast majority of modern businesses have a robust internet package but if you have a very high demand network, you'll want to make sure there is enough bandwidth available for the number of simultaneous VOIP that can occur in your office. This will ensure that your call quality is always clear and crisp.

2) Use Your CRM

One of the best things about VOIP is that it's software, just like the other aspects of your business software suite, meaning that it can often be easily integrated with other tools like your EMS or, more importantly, your CRM. The CRM isn't just a digital address book of customers, it's every customer's files, their history interacting with customer service, notes that have been made by previous employees who have dealt with them, and maybe even their buying and product browsing histories. The more you fill out and learn to make use of your CRM, the better. VOIP only plays further into this as you can call directly out of a CRM, get information on which customer has called you, which leads us to our next point.

3) Keep Call Transcripts

The next fantastic thing about VOIP for customer service purposes is that it can be hooked up to software that will programmatically translate the call into a transcript, which can then be saved in the CRM. This fulfills two very useful purposes. First, it the hard text-evidence that a customer is scamming, lying, or abusive protects your employees from mistreatment and wrongful reporting. Second, when your customer service representatives are looking up a customer, they can quickly review the content of previous calls to get an idea of who they're dealing with and how to handle the situation. As a bonus, managers can also use transcripts as a great way to absorb the events of a call center floor without trying to listen to dozens of actual calls.

4) Provide a Variety of Beverages

Even for people who think they're pretty chatty, nothing wears your throat out like being on the phone all day. It may sound cheesy but the health of your employees is as important as the efficiency of your equipment when it comes to pleasing customers. Put out a table with coffee, water, lemonade, and hot water for tea or cocoa for those who want a hot beverage but don't drink coffee. This will keep your team hydrated and able to continue soothing customers for the rest of the day.

5) Learn from Analytics

Finally, don't forget to hook your VOIP into an analytics system that will keep track of who calls you for how long and possibly even analyzes the content of transcripts, the category of each issue, and the final ratings left by the customer. The more you analyze your data, the clearer it will become how you should improve in the future.

Gone are the days of hilariously bad customer service on broken phones with weak connections. Today, it's all about providing the highest quality customer service possible in every possible medium. VOIP allows your team to work seamlessly with the CRM, the customer's phones, and your high-speed internet connection. For more information about how to get the best possible VOIP configuration for your business, contact us today!