customer service Archive

3 Ways to Not Suck at Chat Support

chat-support

I don’t think online chat is the best way to communicate. In fact, it’s probably the worst. So it may surprise you to hear that we’ve been considering adding chat support to our lineup of support options at Grasshopper.

Why do I think chat sucks?

For one thing, you never really know if the other person is still there, if they’re AFK (that’s chatspeak for away from keyboard) or if they’ve fallen off the face of the planet (that’d be FOTFOTP).

Still, I’m convinced that there are great uses for it. For example, asking quick pre-sales questions when you’ve got laryngitis. That’s why I go out of my way to try other company’s chat support. I’m looking for the company that’s finally found a way to make it work.

I’m told that chat is great because it’s instantaneous and convenient. Well, if that’s true, why do I always feel like I’m waiting for the service rep on the other end to finish their 15 other chats before they finally get back to me? Read more »

Unlimited Extensions Create Personal Touch with Customers

light-bulb

It recently came to my attention that one of our customers, The KARS Consulting Group, is using our Unlimited Extensions feature in a brilliant way.

As a small consulting company or freelancer with a handful of clients, your relationship with each client is imperative to the success of you and your business. Any extra effort or personal touch goes a long way. So what is this entrepreneur doing that is so great?

Creating personalized extensions for each client.

Each client has their own extension with a personalized name greeting and voicemail. When the client calls in, they’re addressed with a greeting specifically for their company, the business knows who is calling so the call can be routed to the right person, and even when no one can take the call, there is a personalized voicemail message. What a great concept!

By creating these personal extensions, your business is able to accurately track call time through online call reports, save time by automatically directing calls to the right people and eliminate miscommunication issues. All without any extra costs.

Read more »

An Unlikely Entrepreneur

Laura Legendary, the founder and owner of of Eloquent Insights, is our featured entrepreneur and guest author this week. She gives us a look into her life and accessibility issues on the web.

You spend your days as maestro of carefully controlled chaos. Conducting conference calls, contacting clients, closing contracts. You email, tweet, blog, post profiles, and tap out text messages. eloquent-insightsYou rehearse your elevator pitch, tune up your marketing plan and attend industry conferences. For relaxation, you consume every classic business book and must-read relevant weblog just to keep current.

Now, do it all with your eyes closed.

What makes me an unlikely entrepreneur is that I am a business owner who is blind. My success as an entrepreneur with a disability has less to do with how I feel about it, and more to do with how well I manage it.

Read more »

Grasshopper Sponsored Dinner for Customers & Friends

Hi Customers & Friends,

I wanted to share with you a new initiative we are trying here at Grasshopper. It is called “Grasshopper Customers & Friends Dinner” (pretty straight forward right?). If you haven’t realized it yet we here at Grasshopper love interacting with our customers. Not only do we enjoy meeting new entrepreneurs, but some of our best business ideas have come directly from our customers.

If you have seen our “Friday Flix” you also know Grasshopper employees love good food (see Grilled Cheese Wednesday) and the occasional beer (coming soon – view of the office from Beer-Scooter Cam). So we thought, “What could we do to combine all of these things?” Hence, we arrived at “Grasshopper Sponsored Dinner”…because oh ya, everyone loves free things!

As we travel across America going to various conferences/business meetings, we are going to make an effort to have “Grasshopper Customers & Friends Dinners” along the way. Having said that, I leave you with 2 action items:

  1. If you live in the Greater Boston Area we have our first dinner this Thursday (Nov. 12th), 7:30 pm at Skipjacks Seafood in Newton, MA (on 55 Needham St.)

  2. RSVP here: http://ghdinner.eventbrite.com

  3. If you are not in the Boston Area but are interested in this sort of thing please note in the comments section what city you are near and we will try and reach out next time we are there!

Thanks so much, and hope to see you as SkipJack’s on Thursday.

Jonathan

** jkay@grasshopper.com with any questions comments, or concerns **

Hate Traffic? Try Talking to Customers.

traffic

In an effort to engage our customers and help them get the most use of our service, we at Grasshopper make sure that every new customer gets a personal phone call within the first week or so, asking them if they need any help, have any questions, etc.

As a manager, I make a handful of these calls each week and I always end up learning something new from talking to customers – seeing how they use our service to run their business and the types of questions that they have.

I really enjoy making these calls but one of the challenges I face each week is finding the time to make them. Read more »