Efficient order taking to benefit small scale businesses

Efficient order taking to benefit small scale businesses

For a large scale business or a huge enterprise it is easy to shell out money to have dedicated departments to take care of various aspects of the business. But upcoming, small and medium scale businesses like to outsource some aspects of their trade to third party vendors. This way there are able to concentrate on their core competencies and at the same time make profit. People have started to realize the importance of call centre operations. Owners are able to easily handle the business as they are aware of the fact that they have got experts taking care of their customer oriented services. It is imperative for businesses to take care of every incoming customer and to never lose on any opportunity. Manufacturing and production firms require distributers to make their services and/or products available to the masses. These distributors need to adopt effective methods in order to meet the distribution requirements. Order taking service is one such services that includes customers calling the company to place orders. If a company is short on in-house employees or lacks expertise, acumen and infrastructure in having a efficient order taking department, it can outsource these services to an order taking call centre. This way their customers will be managed more efficiently and in a professional manner. It is a proven way to increase the number of incoming buyers. Greater the number of customers, higher are the chances of generating huge revenues.

Order taking call centres ensure than the company looks service-oriented and not a single opportunity is missed. It does not matter what the business is. Order taking services can be employed by businesses as diverse as food ordering, online shopping, flowers selling, cosmetics and grooming supplies, groceries, booking of rooms, restaurant table reservations etc. The best thing about order taking services is that they are available round the clock, giving the customers freedom to purchase from them anytime they feel like. This is the primary reason why e commerce is more popular than its offline counterparts. They are open 24/7 and orders can be placed at any time, unlike in shops made of bricks and mortar that conduct business only during their working business hours. Seeing how important taking orders from their customers is, company needs to invest in the right order taking call centre. There are a lot of options in the market to choose from, and all of them provide different benefits. But their objective remains the same, that is, to handle the incoming call politely and guide the customer through the process of placing order.

Almost all the e commerce provide the online option of payment and order placement but a lot of people are skeptic of availing this option. They need human interaction as it is more comforting and a good way for people to indulge in online shopping that are not so tech savvy. The duty of order taking agent is provide the caller ample information regarding the query he is making and educate him about everything he might need to know to help him have better options. This surely helps the company to fetch new customers and retain the already existing ones.

Calls for order placement are inbound by nature. While many firms provide toll free numbers, but some charge their customers for calling. This is one way earning money and the same time helping the customers fulfill their specific needs. To manage huge volumes of incoming calls, order taking call centres use advanced technology such as IVRS to enable automated placement of orders using keypad of the telephone. This is considered a smart move as no incoming order is missed, and customer is entertained without the need of the agent attending the call. There is one more advantage order taking services provide that no technical advancement can provide. It is Up-Selling, Back-Selling, and Cross-Selling the customers. This is where sales meets the services. Upselling is the technique of trying to make the customer shell out more money on a better thing than the one he is ordering. Cross selling is the technique of trying to convince the customer to make additional purchases than the one he is already buying. These are the techniques every order taking agent is taught because there is no guarantee when the customer will next purchase from you. So it is tried to milk the opportunity by telling the caller about other related services as well and convincing him to purchase them without sounding rude or forceful.

To sum it up, it is imperative for businesses these to have a good and customer oriented order taking services as actual interactions are known to provide the highest degree of success. It also gives the agent an opportunity gain instant feedback and to up and cross sell.