What is Point of Contact- Importance, Examples & How to Improve
Businesses are never a one-man nation. They need teamwork, collaborative efforts, and efficient reward sharing to keep the drive intact and leave your passion asking for more! Amidst these, you can easily realize the substantial value of contacts and networks that turn into potential clients or effective investors for your business models.
But what is the significance of Point of Contact (POCs) or Single Point of Contact (SPOCs)? And what does it mean in business lingo? Let’s clarify some of your queries, such as an “Informative point of contact”!
What is the Point of Contact?
Does it mean touching someone to build a mark of contact? Definitely NOT! A Point of contact (POC), or a single point of contact, is usually an individual or a department that manages all the conversations between an organization & its customers.
The POC acts as a representative for the organization or brand.
The major role of POCs is to help organizations or brands maintain good relations with their potential and existing customers. POC also aids in manifesting brand awareness and product visibility in the market.
Basically, POCs are behind-the-curtain ambassadors who spread awareness & solve customer queries to enhance the brand’s positive image amongst its customers or peer organizations.
Examples of Point of Contact
A single point of contact (SPOC) can be an individual or a department that handles all the requests related to an organization, service, location, project, business event, or function. For better understanding, some of the illustrative examples of points of contact are:
Customer Service Department:
The customer service department is an eCommerce department that offers diverse query-solving channels, such as telephone, website, email, or video calls.
Nowadays, you can reach almost all kinds of solutions through customer service. They handle all the complaints and inquiries for the organizations or brands with the utmost expertise.
Salespeople:
Despite their little annoying character, salespeople are one of the first points of contact who deal with new leads every day on behalf of their brands or organizations.
IT Service Desk:
This is one of the most typical examples of POCs, where IT companies offer service desk facilities to other firms. This allows the firms to easily interact with their active customers. The IT Service Desk also aids in resolving the problems or queries customers face while using the service or product.
Project Manager:
Any project manager is responsible for all the representation required as a POC to respond to project queries or issues without any time lag.
Business Functions:
The auditor or other managing individuals/departments of any business provide their contact channels to hear out questionable practices related to the business and ensure the smooth functioning of the work.
Events:
All the registration or event-related queries that are part of the event management process are handled by the single point of contact (SPOC) who makes sure you enlist at the event without any hurdle or technical problems.
Public Services:
Major public services provided by the state completely cater to the care & support of the customers. They handle any emergency health-related issues, usually through a telephone channel as a point of contact on behalf of the state providers.
Importance of Single Point of Contact for Businesses
Point of contact (POC) is the main element for managing a positive image of any company or brand. Obviously, any large firm can’t interact with its sole customers directly.
Yet, they require a channel through which they can deliver all kinds of information or handle any infringements with a wiser approach. At this moment our heroes arrive- who provide us the point of contact information with utmost care & creativity. Their significance can be categorized as follows:
1. Eliminate the risk of miscommunication
Large firms indicate mass customers. But who would handle such a large number of agitated customers? The point of contact department makes sure all customer inquiries are solved efficiently with a lot of patience.
It also grants centralized management of all queries, which avoids miscommunication between the brand and its customer/clientele.
It is no surprise that language skills might prove indispensable in this line of work, and no effort should be spared to train employees to communicate with customers, no matter where they come from.
For example, in the United States, it might be crucial for each member in the POC department to know at least a little bit of Spanish. Of course, the training doesn’t have to be monotonous, and it might be beneficial to introduce some facts about the Spanish language first to awaken employees’ curiosity.
2. Time-Consumption
Obviously, if you have to hover over phone chains just to solve a simple query, you might not consider such a product or brand a helpful entity. It has been seen that around 67% of customer churn is preventable if companies resolve issues at their firm point of contact.
Hence, SPOCs are the best way to deal with the issues in a time-efficient manner and reduce your customer’s churning.
3. Enhancing Brand Image
As already discussed, you’d enjoy a brand that solves your issues in the least amount of time or acquires approachable customer support. However, the customer executive’s reaction & conversation also have a strong impact on the customer’s mind.
According to surveys, 68% of clients believe a polite customer service representative is the best way to leave an impressive brand image. Therefore, a POC always maintains friendly and professional behavior with their clients, to keep your brand image consistently impressive.
5 Ways to Improve Your Single POCs
There is an endless list of POC marketing tips on the internet that can traffic your mind in a flick, but there are some basic hacks with which anyone can improve their Single Point Of Contact as follows:
1. Application of Correct Tools
Once you know your brand, the correct automated tools required to gather data regarding the organization with fast accessibility while engaging with the customer can definitely nail your SPOCs. Such tools can also help you manage incoming customer requests and segregate work/queries more efficiently.
2. Personalised Communication Channels
These days, even too much formal or robotic tone can push the customer away, hence a personalized approach to contact your customers where the first point of contact might involve addressing the client through their initial name or signing off the emails with a personal name can immensely intimidate the customers.
3. Positive Language
Whether the communication is handled in person or via other mediums, a positive tone always wins your customer’s heart. Such tone first indicates a confident approach to resolving your client’s problems. Whereas even a greater issue is prevented from being escalated through positive language.
4. Clear Solution Support
- A crisp & clear response to your client’s inquiries seals the entire conversation on a happy & successful note. In fact, closing the POCs with a euphoric touch is always a ‘Pro’ Remark that showcases:
- You care about the customer’s issues.
- You’re willing to stay until the query is resolved.
- You are nailing at the Point of Contact!
5. Time-Efficient Answering
Customer support must always keep in mind that there are tonnes of other customers waiting with an irritating issue they can’t solve. So don’t waste your time on irrelevant queries or chit-chats with your customers.
Avoid answering aimless questions and keep the conversation always on point. Remember to ask your customers directly if they need more assistance even after you think the problem is resolved.
Benefits of Point of Contact for Businesses
1. No More Boring Explanations. Phew!
Just imagine Ambani explaining to every Reliance customer what they do & provide. How funny & boring it will be! Hence, seeking out the right person to solve your issues & receiving the POC marketing for your businesses churns out a lot of redundant, frustrating activities.
2. No More Wastage of Time
We have all been there, waiting at the customer service’s long chains of phone calls and getting different answers from different people. This is a representation of bad SPOCs.
Hence, an efficient point of contact (POC) will not only spread a positive image of your brand but also save a lot of time, excluding all those long chains of phone calls.
3. Increased Trust and Dependability
Successful POC marketing will build a strong relationship with your customers based on reliable customer support and efficient response. Hence, always remember that a single point of contact makes your experience with a PEO(professional employer organization) a positive and happy one.
Hope you received all the insights related to the importance of point of contact (POCs) for businesses. And the related lingos which seemed a little too much for you, now possess an easy exemplar graph to keep your point of contact information intact & efficient.
Point Of Contact FAQ’s:
1. What is the point of contact example?
Some of the easiest examples of points of contact (POCs) are:
-Customer service department
-IT Service Desk
-Public service supports
-Business events
2. What is a business point of contact?
Point of contact is the major sector of business that deals with issues related to other forms of business. Basically, POC’s work revolves around resolving and catering support to other brands or firms that require efficient customer support assistance and aspire to build a positive brand image amongst their customers or clientele.
3. Why is it important to have a single point of contact?
Single points of contact are crucial when handling a large number of customers or a firm with heavy direct customer engagement. The following features of POCs vividly display their importance:
1. POCs eliminate the risk of miscommunication between a brand & its customers
2. SPOCs remove time consumption & long waiting hours for the customers to solve any brand-related query.
3. POCs are the main factors that build a positive brand image regarding direct customer interactions.
4. What is a point of contact in email and why is it important?
A good copy or script of an email is the first point of contact when it comes to email marketing. It is supremely essential when you are directly dealing with the customer through a single, engaging email conversation.
Point of contact through email is essential in the following ways:
-It builds a formal yet hard-hitting impact on customers’ minds.
-It delivers a copy of written stats & reliable data.
-It can be sent to a large audience in a short time.
5. What is the first point of contact?
The first point of contact is the first impression of your business, which instigates a positive customer experience and boosts customers’ confidence in your service and product offerings.
6. What is the role of a point person?
The major roles of point of contact (POCs) are:
-To build a positive brand image.
-To sustain & enhance a potential customer lead.
-To spread awareness & solve customer queries regarding the brand/organization in a limited amount of time.
7. What role does the primary contact for a company play?
The primary contact for a company plays a major role in building a positive impression on the customer and building a reliable customer relationship for longer transactions if the first POCs proceed efficiently.
