The effectiveness of a call center operation depends on one very important factor: the performance of its agents. When teams are satisfied with their work and feel motivated, they are able to provide excellent customer service. And when they are tired, overworked and unhappy, this is reflected in the results of their work. After making a few changes to the way you manage your call center, you can develop interaction with agents and increase motivation.
Solving problems from the first call is the main task of any remote consultancy. Every entrepreneur knows that customer satisfaction is always converted into profit for the company, and a quality service is a tool that helps generate money.
Monitoring the quality of customer service is one of the ways to manage the results of call center agents, however, it does not improve them by itself. There are some strategic activities that will help to improve the qualitative and quantitative performance metrics. With the right call center solutions, you can easily promote your business and give appropriate actions to the queries of your customers. https://www.aceyus.com/ provides customer call center software and analytics to track call performance and improve customer experience.
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The trend of recent years is the automation of all business processes, because with the right settings, it increases team productivity and customer satisfaction, reduces costs and so on. With inbound call center solutions from Voiptime, it is easy to improve customer experience, promote customer success, boost agent productivity, and increase the adaptability of your business.
Let’s look through the most efficient ways that will help to improve the quality of the customer service in a call center.
1. Self-Service with the Use of IVR System
Everyone came across it. Let’s consider the advantages of the IVR system for the inbound contact center that both its owner and customer receive.
IVR system:
● allows to implement automatic call distribution among company specialists according to the topic of the requests or the type of customer (VIP, etc.);
● reduces the waiting time for operator response to the question of interest;
● allows to automate standard requests when the customer can receive the required information with the help of self-service IVR system;
● reduces operator workload (only the most difficult requests are connected with the operator);
● creates a positive brand image;
● simplifies the organization of gathering information about the caller.
With all these advantages, the poorly configured voice menu can negatively affect the mood of customers. In practice, you have to listen to the same information several times to resolve your issue. To eliminate this drawback, the interactive voice menu should be built on a well-thought-out logical structure and, of course, tested multiple times, and the clients are given the opportunity to directly access the operator if they have a non-standard question. Listening to useless information, in this case, is only annoying.
2. Personalized Work with the Customers with the Use of a CRM System
You have heard a lot about the existence of various CRMs, but want to know how this will help your call center?
With a CRM system, you can:
● select the relevant product for the client based on the history of interaction and explicit personal information that is recorded in the system;
● introduce call processing regulations, thereby increasing the speed of staff;
● plan and monitor sales and forecast profits;
● automatically distribute the contact base for dialing;
● automate the routine tasks of staff.
3. Workforce Management Scheduling
Everything is very simple here: you set the required level of service quality, number of employees, days off, work schedule, breaks – and the workforce management (WFM) system considers the optimal load for each employee.
Return on investment and improving the quality of work due to:
● reduction of undue staff, building an optimal balance between the number of employees on the shift and the expected amount of work;
● staff distribution according to available skills, closing the company’s needs for specialists in all areas;
● uniform and constant distribution of workload on operators;
● strict adherence to the work schedule;
● reducing costs that went into paying overtime hours.
4. Personnel Burnout Prevention
Often, work in a call center is considered as temporary employment. The employee turnover rate in this niche can vary from 20 to 40%.
Staff turnover occurs for internal organizational reasons, for example, lack of debugging of business processes, poor organization of training, low wages; and objective – a high emotional load, which cannot be avoided but can only be compensated.
The duration and quality of work of employees are affected by satisfaction with their workplace, salary, as well as:
● the availability of quality training and support at the stage of adaptation (shortened training periods negatively affect the further performance of operators);
● flexible working hours;
● the ability of staff to communicate with each other during breaks;
● the presence of a separate recreation area in which you can move from your workplace;
● constant feedback and opportunity for career growth.
It is possible to reduce the turnover rate, improve the quality of customer service of the call center and increase employee satisfaction due to the management style and development of corporate culture.
The trusting atmosphere and the friendly nature of the communication between management and subordinates allow you to retain experienced qualified personnel.
5. KPI Management
In order for the efficiency of the call center, each operator must be interested in personal growth. To do this, they need to know the key metrics by which their work is evaluated. Metrics must be objective and achievable. KPI may include: FCR (the number of problems solved from the first call), the agent idle time, the number of connections per hour, sales per hour, average talking time, call hold time, customer satisfaction, etc.
More and more companies come to the point that customer satisfaction is the main KPI. Having put a quantitative assessment of this indicator in the evaluation of the operators’ work, the contact center additionally motivates to apply the acquired knowledge on building communications with clients, to select the best option for solving their issues.
6. Operator Training
Everyone understands that they become professionals, not born. Experienced supervisors will help operators to develop: listen to the call recordings, fill in agent scorecards with comments; listen to current calls and whisper to the agent during the active dialogue, etc.
Provide training on sales techniques, active listening, objections working out, deal closing, as well as give them all the information you need on your products and services. Lack of training always negatively affects employee satisfaction and quality of work.
7. Motivation System as a Tool for Managing the Quality of Agents Performance
The goal of any motivation event is to make the staff’s efforts focused. Motivation methods include:
● A flexible schedule that will be convenient for students, mothers with young children and people with such a need;
● Opportunity for career growth, providing the employees with a real algorithm for increasing their position;
● Various bonuses with the equal opportunity for everyone to receive them (for example, an extra day for vacation, movie tickets, going to a concert);
● Thanks from the customers. A real response helps to raise the spirit, motivate to work at a higher level, so as not to let down and justify the trust placed.
The staff is always motivated by a strong leader, healthy relationships within the team and with the leadership form loyalty to the company.
8. High-Quality Customer Service Scripts
The checklist of a telephone conversation helps to increase the speed of service and, accordingly, the employee productivity. Assessing the quality of operators’ work becomes much simpler, it is enough to conduct an audit of phone calls for compliance with the call script.
Call scripting helps operators:
● to communicate more confidently with the customers;
● not to get lost during a conversation, and have at hand thought-out answers to all the questions;
● minimize mistakes.
9. Call Center Quality Monitoring
Nowadays customer experience drives many business initiatives as the clients have so many choices available for the products and solutions they acquire. That’s why the call center is the most direct link for customers and must provide the highest level of service and support. Interaction with a live agent is an emotional touchpoint in the client journey.
Monitoring the quality of agent interactions is a rich source of data and insight, particularly when combined with post-transaction customer sentiment data. It stands to reason, then, that call center QA should closely monitor its activities and employ the insights collected to make improvements. Gathering customer experience data, analyzing it, training call center reps and employing new methodologies – all add up to a consistent quality experience.
10. Customer Satisfaction Assessment for Deliberate Service Quality Improvement
Assessment of customer satisfaction is not only a quantitative evaluation of the work of the staff but also a qualitative one, as it indicates the moments of staff deficiencies and the places where the service standards do not meet customer expectations.
Using a customer survey, you can evaluate their level of satisfaction from interaction with the company (CSI) and the level of loyalty (NPS). NPS and CSI are metrics for measuring customer experience. Their tracking in dynamics shows how effective these or those changes were, what attracted and what repelled buyers. Open-ended questionnaire questions provide information on how to improve the quality of the call center.
Each of these items affects the final result. A well-built system of working with consumers allows you to meet customer expectations, maintain their loyalty, and avoid the spread of negative reviews.
The system for assessing the quality of customer service should include an audit of the process of communication with the client, as well as a study of the client’s impressions after interacting with the operator and the company as a whole.
In summary, to provide effective customer retention process, it is important:
● to develop omnichannel service, in every possible way reducing the client’s efforts that they spend on solving their problem;
● not to neglect technical innovations;
● make personalized offers;
● learn the experience of other call centers;
● work with people: give personal attention, train, motivate;
● regularly measure customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Call center sales are a constant endeavor. You must constantly evaluate the KPI goals and metrics used for your company to ensure that this will lead to the most effective and collaborative action plan. In addition, you should periodically review the scorecard to ensure that it reflects your client’s expectations and business goals. Only through the combination of excellent customer service and responsive sales will you see the desired revenue increase.
