The Buzz

How small can small business be? Technology has made it easier than ever for small businesses to operate on a really small scale – in the case of freelancers or e-bay entrepreneurs, this can sometimes mean just a single person team. This person is literally a one-man (or woman) army!

How do Small Businesses Differ? Certain basic rules of engagement apply to all businesses. All businesses operate in a competitive environment where they aim to acquire and retain customers. This is against a backdrop of rising costs, tighter regulations and a globalizing environment. Yet, small businesses often find the challenge tougher due to the smaller […]

Acquiring and Retaining Customers The 2009 Microsoft Small and Mid-sized Business (SMB) Insight Report reveals that 43% of the 620 small business owners surveyed listed customer acquisition and retention as the key challenge they faced, irrespective of the current economic climate.

Small Business, the heart of the economy The U.S Small Business Administration (SBA) Advocacy office calls small businesses the “heart of the American economy”. Small businesses in the U.S provide employment to a large number of people and in many sectors where services would not otherwise be available.

Delight Customers Efficiently Smart Query Technology helps business with three key objectives: Delight customers with the quality and immediacy of responses Eliminate redundancy and save time for the business team Make the process cost competitive and prevent cost escalation

The CSR team that keeps growing Mostly, businesses find that as they grow, the number of queries increases exponentially. This means that they have to keep adding customer service representatives. That obviously costs money! Soon enough, the business realizes that there is no end to this. Or, is there?

  Small business is everywhere!   Did you know that small businesses employing a few people start up at the rate of over 500,000 a year? That’s a half million new businesses coming up every year. Half a Million! That is approximately 1369 new businesses being started up every day!

An Inverse Proportion Research has shown that customer satisfaction is inversely proportional to the waiting time for them to be served. In simple terms, the longer the waiting time, lower the satisfaction levels.

Monotonous and High Cost: The Worst Combination Businesses often find that the majority of questions from customers revolve around the same issues. Some estimates say this may be as high as 60 to 70% of questions. Companies spend time answering these questions again and again, while employees get tired of fielding the same issues. This […]

The Outcome that Everyone wants At an overall level, what smart query technology has going for it is simply that customers are delighted at the end of the process. Lower waiting times and effective answers ensure that customers don’t find the process tedious.

Faster Deadlines, Shorter Fuses Corporate buyers are even more discerning when it comes to customer service. The buyer faces tremendous pressure internally to get the right product, at the right time and price and to get all issues with the buying process resolved smoothly. Getting this right is key to their reputation. A vendor with […]

When a Standard Customer Support System doesn’t work Let’s look at the shortcomings of standard customer support systems with an example. On a Thursday, Ms. Williams send in a query using the company website to the manufacturers of the new kitchen tiles that she has purchased. She is planning to install them over the weekend […]