Most businesses will have a call center to help solve common customer problems. It is essential that your call center effectively keeps your customers satisfied and generates more business as they will keep coming back. There are some improvements you can make to boost your call center efficiency. These will include improving the tasks carried out and areas that will yield the most results.
1. Improve Technology Used
In every call center, there are technologies used to carry out different tasks. These include bot technology to respond to simple queries, email and calls to increase engagement, and data to respond to customers efficiently. Some technology that you can improve includes using automatic call distribution, which distributes calls to skilled agents, increasing the efficiency of the call center.
Some agents are knowledgeable of specific products or services within the business, and they are best placed to answer or guide customers with questions about those products. The call distribution system is programmed to direct those queries to those agents.
Having a central knowledge management system that is current and accessible to all call center agents will help save on the time it takes to access information and the time an agent spends on a call. The less time an agent spends on a call where the customer is satisfied with the help, the more efficient the call center is.
2. Train Call Center Agents Regularly
Regular training will help agents understand the services and products they are speaking of and correct misinformation. It is important to understand the policies and procedures that govern those products and services to give the right information to the customers. When customers contact a call center, they have most likely tried other ways to get information or resolve their issue, and it is important that they get the correct information.
Research has shown that people who interact with knowledgeable and personable call center agents are likely to have brand loyalty. Training also helps call center agents to have the requisite communication skills. Call center agents also interact with customers and are likely to know of any recurring problems among the customers.
This feedback can lead to the improvement of business products or services, leading to increased business. The agents will be motivated when they feel they are contributing to the progress of the business, which will increase their morale.
3. Use Downtime
Downtime is when the agents are not engaging with a customer. There are certain times when there is little activity in a call center, such as very early in the morning. These chunks of downtime, which are different from their breaks, can be used to engage with customers, such as sending thank you notes, surveys, or any marketing information on new products and services.
You can also engage in short activities to boost their morale or short coaching sessions that remind them of something learned in the past. You can also use this time to get feedback from the agents on what the customers are saying and recurrent issues and use that to improve the business.
Also, ensure that the call center agents have all the information that they need such as the call center script and materials they will use. Ensure that agents are comfortable enough and one call does not interrupt another by having a call center workstation that gives privacy.
4. Use A Good Script
A call center script is a guiding document rather than what must be followed word for word. A good script will have an opening that will sound personal and identifies the business uniformly. It is crucial because one customer will talk to many different agents while using the products and services, and uniformity is key.
However, the call center agents should be personable and listen to the customer to feel heard and responded to. A good script will guide the call center agent to answer the questions with facts without sounding like it is rehearsed. You can keep improving your script.
Conclusion
As you improve your call center, learn to balance the areas where the agents will need to give facts and concise information and when they will be personable to the customers who will engage with them. These combinations of using technology and human resource will increase the efficiency of your call center.
Stephanie Caroline Snyder graduated from The University of Florida in 2018; she majored in Communications with a minor in mass media. Currently, she is an Author and a Freelance Internet Writer, and a Blogger.
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