Chicomm Blog

Think about the last great customer service experiences you’ve had and what made them so remarkable: Was it the responsiveness of the staff? Their attention to detail? Their ability to resolve your issue on the first try? 

Now think about your own operation and whether customers – either internal or external – can say the same about their dealings with you. If the answer isn’t a resounding yes!, that’s a sure sign that your customer service needs some more attention.

If you’re wondering whether the investment in upgrading your customer service operation is worth it, consider this: 85 percent of U.S. respondents in a 2010 customer service report said they would pay more to ensure a superior customer experience. And 82 percent of consumers stopped doing business with a company because of a bad customer experience.

The real question, then, may be: Can you afford not to invest in better customer service?  Backed by both research and anecdotes, here are three key reasons why you should spend more time thinking about customer service: 

It’s been almost a year since a coalition of national 911 organizations formed with what they called an “aggressive but achievable” goal of transitioning all emergency call systems and call centers to next generation 911 by 2020. In the months since the coalition announced its intentions, progress has been made, but the question still remains: Will next generation 911 meet its 2020 goals?

We don’t have a crystal ball handy to answer that question, but we can offer some insight about what progress has been made recently and how far the experts say there is to go.

The beginning of another year – and the midway point in most schools’ academic year – is a great time to review your current school communications system and decide how to make it even better.

Too often, school districts and campuses wait for an emergency or disaster to strike either elsewhere or close to home before making communications system improvements. As 2017 begins, now is your chance to get better prepared in case of an emergency and improve the efficiency of your day-to-day operations.   

Here are 5 new year’s resolutions for a better school communications system:

As we’re starting a new year, it’s a good time to ask yourself – and your agency: Is our command center stuck in the past? Your center has countless moving parts, all of which need to be properly maintained, serviced and upgraded. But budget concerns, higher-profile priorities and a shortage of resources may mean your upgrades keep getting put on the back burner.

The beginning of a new year offers the opportunity to put your command center front and center. Here are 5 new year’s resolutions to strengthen your command center:

Two-way radios are continuing to evolve in exciting ways as more industries and agencies discover their superiority over cell phones – yes, even smartphones – for both everyday use and emergencies. When it comes to durability, reliability and clarity, two-way radios are better than cell phones on all counts.

We’ve had our eye on a few trends for two-way radios over the last year, particularly expanded offerings in terms of size, use cases and even color. So here are some predictions for two-way radios to watch in 2017:

Your legacy workforce management system probably isn’t just one system – it’s a series of disparate solutions that don’t talk to each other, don’t offer real-time updates and, worse yet, actually make it more difficult for staff across your office, plant or warehouse to communicate.

If you’ve just been putting up with your workforce management system’s shortcomings or haven’t shopped around for a while, you may not realize how stuck in the past your plant or office operations have become or what new, economic options are available.

To help decide whether you could use an update, here are 5 signs of an outdated workforce management system.

The best mobile apps for customer service will take you even farther toward putting your entire business or operation in the palm of your hand, allowing you and your team to remotely track, answer and resolve customer service issues in real time. As you’re well aware, exceptional customer service can be that special something that puts you ahead of the competition, so being responsive and available is key.

Luckily, the best cloud and on-premise customer service platforms offer mobile versions for handling on the go. Most offer similar suites of capabilities for responding to customer calls, emails, social media inquiries and other contacts, so it’s worth giving several solutions a test drive for a free trial month to see which of them is the best fit for your team.

Once you get your mobile app up and running, you’ll wonder how you ran your business or operations without it. Here’s a sampling of the six best mobile apps for customer service:

To make the case for a BDA, or bi-directional amplifier, for your agency, start by painting a picture of life without dead zones. Imagine a world with no more spotty reception, no more half-heard or misheard conversations and no more standing by the windows yelling, “Can you hear me now?” There's no doubt that agencies wasted resources paying staff for down-time when they simply can't do their work because they can't connect.

The BDA solutions for cell phones and two-way radios are different, but the big benefits of both are the same: better, crystal-clear communications. As you’re working through your wireless communications wish list, here are some suggestions for how to make the case for a BDA at your agency. 

The health care industry has some of the most complex communications needs imaginable: in addition to the safety, security and privacy of patients and staff, the industry has mountains of patient data to handle and technology trends to track. 

There is no shortage of innovation in health care when it comes to communications, and things are getting more high-tech all the time for patients, health care professionals and staff.

Here’s a look at 6 things the health care industry is doing to improve communications.

As the end of the year approaches, how you spend your technology budget can impact not only your current communications operations, it can affect how much money is allocated to you next year. If you don’t use all of that money wisely this year, you likely won’t get an increase – or even as much – next year.

To preserve your technology budget and your ability to serve your organization, you need to make investments that show you’ve improved communications and overall efficiency. Fortunately, there are some great solutions available that serve a variety of wireless communications needs. 

Here are three savvy ways to spend your end-of-year technology budget.