Call Center Improvement Strategies that Work

Customer service is now more critical than ever, with consumers prioritizing trusted brands and businesses after the Coronavirus pandemic's financial impacts. 

Call centers present a prime opportunity for improving customer touchpoints and enhancing sales experience. Here are some key call center improvement strategies that work.

Focus on Employee Morale and Engagement

While many businesses get fixated on how to improve analytics and processes, they miss seeing the forest for the trees. One of the most effective ways to improve call center interactions and productivity is to focus on building employee morale and engagement.

Creating a culture that focuses on growth and satisfaction is the key to improving customer service. Give employees the resources and opportunities they need to feel valued. Adding incentives and opening the platform for feedback are effective ways to empower employees and boost engagement. 

Your employees are the best form of marketing for your business. When someone feels content and cared for, they'll do their job more effectively. As call center employees are at the front lines with customers, this is crucial for success.

Use Call Center Specific Software

Businesses that aren’t using call center software are missing a number of valuable opportunities for improvement. Using cloud contact center software can help improve access to valuable data, streamline processes, and create efficiency, and facilitate a centralized omnichannel approach to communication.

Using this software is even more important in 2020, as the traditional office set-up is falling by the wayside. Having cloud-based call center software in place allows your business to operate from anywhere, giving employees the flexibility to work safely from home.

Set Efficiency Goals

Humans thrive on structure and direction. In a call center environment, this means working toward something. Some standard metrics businesses use when determining their success include:

• Abandonment Rate
• Average Call Time
• Average Hold Time
• Callback Rate

Businesses have an opportunity to use these metrics to set improvement goals for employees to strive toward. For this strategy to work, there will need to be buy-in from the top down; it's up to the business to give employees the tools and support they need to reach these goals.

Collect Customer Feedback

When in doubt, ask the customer. Follow up on all calls with a quick email survey request. It doesn't have to be an in-depth questionnaire, but rather a brief scaled survey asking about the experience. Some common survey topics include:

• Overall experience
• Agent knowledge
• Agent tone
• Issue resolution

Add quick, visually-driven buttons to streamline the feedback process for customers. Then, add a comment field where they can share concerns. Feedback surveys also create an opportunity for businesses to get ahead of online reviews and maintain a positive reputation.

Use Tone and Speech Monitoring Analytics

Machine learning and artificial intelligence have revolutionized businesses in every industry. One of the most exciting innovations for call centers is tone and speech monitoring technology. This AI-driven technology provides live insights into the overall tone of a conversation, whether spoken or typed. It's an invaluable tool for omnichannel call centers that facilitate both live chats and phone calls.

Speech monitoring detects whether a customer sounds frustrated or satisfied. It can also trigger an alert when an agent sounds frustrated, reminding them to take a breath and reset. Even the most skilled agents sometimes struggle when dealing with an incredibly difficult customer. Having a simple reminder of when they need to step back can be incredibly beneficial for overall customer satisfaction.

Create Self-Service Opportunities

Finally, businesses can take a proactive approach to customer service by creating self-service opportunities. These opportunities could include anything from a package tracking field on a website's homepage to a robust FAQ page. By empowering customers to take the reigns, businesses can dramatically reduce call center traffic and wait times. 

Use these strategies to improve your business's call center interactions and facilitate a better relationship with both employees and customers.