Call center remains an integral component of any business’s customer service and support strategy. Call centers are centralized departments where phone calls from current and potential customers are directed, handle inbound and outbound calls, and generally specialize in handling calls. Read the article about 9 Things You Should Do to get success in Call Center Business.
Let’s see the 9 things you should do to get success in the call center business.
1.Team members
Team members
Your tea of agents, managers, analysts and other team leaders are what stands between your business and a satisfied or unsatisfied customer. Successful call centers foster a positive workplace environment by properly training, retaining, and rewarding the team members. Unfortunately, due to a variety of factors, call centers are recognized for having high turnover rates.
Why agents leave a call center company is because:
- Disparate systems that make the job more difficult.
- Manual and repeatable tasks that can easily be automated to keep the job from becoming disengaging.
- Poor agent performance visibility and KPIs that focus more on the number of calls instead of quality.
These three problems create a negative agent experience and get in the way of your call center’s success. However, you can solve these issues by bringing your team together through training, engagement program, training team members on the tools they use, inspiring them to go the extra mile for customers, and rewarding them for their hard work.
2.Technology
Technology
Many call centers use ten different tools to communicate with each other and customers, but some tools might not be worth the trouble. Successful call center software optimize and integrate their technology stack and many moves to cloud, which frees them from hardware, installation, and capital cost while improving data sharing, productivity, and security in the process.
Essential tools you can include are:
- Telephony software
- CRM
- Call recording & monitoring
- Internal collaboration & communication tools
- External, customer-facing communication tools (live chat, SMS, social media)
Integrate your call center tools by:
- Creating an omnichannel support experience for your customers.
- Keeping team members happier and reducing turnover.
- Improving critical KPIs.
- Reducing overall costs and increasing ROI.
3.Customer Service
Customer service
Successful call centers care about the customer support they provide because the primary purpose of call centers is to serve customers, address their concerns, answer their questions and provide value when they need it.
Practice the following behavior:
- Empathy. Agents should always talk to customers with empathy and let customers know that you are there for them using an appropriate tone, no matter how rude the customer might sound. Appreciate them for their previous business and support, and speak clearly and succinctly.
- Responsiveness. Customers do not want to feel like they are speaking to an empty void, so increasing the communication frequency is important in preserving your customer’s trust in your business.
Three ways to keep communication frequency high:
- Respond to customer service emails
- Confirm that the customer’s email has been received by acknowledging or informing them.
- In the first reply, answer all questions completely.
4.Establish and Monitor Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
KPIs
Use call center metrics, the cold and hard data to assess the efficiency of your call center. KPIs like First Call Resolution and Customer Satisfaction Score provide insights into customer satisfaction and agent performance, making it easier to identify weak spots within your call center.
5.Provide customers with multiple self-service options
Self-service options
Call centers can provide their customers with alternatives using modern technologies, including self-service portals, chatbots, and IVR systems. Self-service options also reduced call volume, which alleviates some pressure from call center agents.
6.Invest in a system to organize customer inquiries
Organize customer inquiries
A ticketing system automatically records customer information and the nature of the inquiry, which enables agents to prioritize them based on when they were submitted and the severity of the issue while enabling customers to monitor the status of their case in real-time.
7.Scale your team with VoIP phone / IP phone technology
IP phone prices vary from service providers
With VoIP business phone / IP phone systems and cloud phone systems like IP PBX, you can scale your team and save money in the process by hiring call center agents from anywhere in the world based on their skills alone.
8.Integrate systems for a streamlined experience
Integrate systems
Your agents rely on various tools and technology to get the work done, from cloud-based telephony systems and predictive dialers to ticking systems and CRM software. By integrating various systems within your call center and presenting all relevant information, including customer history, via a single, centralized dashboard, you make it easier for agents to resolve customer issues, reducing handle time and increased customer satisfaction.
9.Call Center KPIs to monitor
Operational Metrics
- Cost Per Call. Cost per call is a metric that shows how much it costs to handle a single phone conversation and offers you a clear picture of how much it costs to get work done.
- Call Arrival Rate. The call arrival rate measures the average number of incoming calls a call center received within a given period, like calls per minute or calls per hour. It provides you an estimate of how many calls must be answered and placed on hold during a given period.
- Total Calls HandledThis metric is the total number of calls your call center handles in a day. A call is considered handled if an agent answered the call and has a conversation with the customer.
- Percentage of Calls Blocked. This metric indicates how many customers receive a busy signal when contacting your call center, and you want to keep the percentage as low as possible. Using an IVR system or an auto-attendant will help decrease your percentage of calls blocked.
- First Response Time. FRT measures the amount of time between when a customer first submits an inquiry and when an agent contacts them with a response. For phone-based inquiries, your FRT should be in minutes, while the ticketing system should be 24 hours or less.
Call Time Metrics
- Average Speed of Answer (ASA). This metric indicates how long it takes an agent to answer a call once routed to a call center. The standard average speed of answer is generally 28 seconds, and longer ASA can mean decreased customer satisfaction.
- Average Handle Time (AHT). AHT measures the average time it takes for an agent to complete a call of customer interaction and indicates operational efficiency and its effectiveness.
- Call Abandon Rate. Call abandon rate is the percentage of customers who hang up before being connected to an agent and allows you to measure the rate of customer service and experience.
Customers Satisfaction Metrics
- Customer Effort Score (CES). CES is the number of effort customers must exert to get their issue resolved, question answered, or fulfilled request. CES measure customer service holistically and has a major impact on their overall experience with a brand.
- Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT). Customer satisfaction with your call center service is measured by asking consumers to rate their experience on a scale of “Very Satisfactory” to “Very Unsatisfactory.”
A successful call center prioritizes its team members, technology, and customers they serve. Call center technology is the bridge that connects your team to your customers, so improve that area and reap the benefits.
Contact Aavaz PBX to learn how you can make your technology work together better, and your agents can focus on providing excellent customer service.