When it comes to Customer Experience (CX), there are two things you should never skimp on: quality and efficiency. The call center optimization process can help you improve both aspects of your CX.
In addition, every interaction with a customer is a new opportunity. Close contact with a customer per call enables cross-selling, up-selling, and, in general, the retention and strengthening of the relationship.
For this reason, Call Centers in companies are a crucial point of contact with the customer in competitive strategies to gain differential value and achieve:
- An improved customer experience
- Reduced agent burnout
- Reduced operating costs
- Automated and more efficient operations
- Sustained service levels
So let’s see how to achieve successful optimization!
How to optimize your Call Center effectively?
Below, we have compiled 5 of the best tactics or strategies that you can apply in your business to improve your Contact Center.
1. Give your agents access to customer data
Today, the key to the successful work of teams such as sales and marketing is the use of big data. Customer data is the key to understanding their needs and offering tailored solutions.
This is the age of information and data: analyzing it and making decisions based on it can make the difference between success and failure.
Data should be centralized on one platform for greater visibility. Many times, companies have customer data but are fragmented between email, invoices, point of sale, and customer service. The idea is to centralize them to have a 360° profile of each person who has had contact with the company.
You need to rely on good technology such as customer or call management software to do this. With tools like this, your agents will be able to draw better-defined and personalized strategies.
With more complete information, your agents will make customers happy by providing faster and more accurate responses.
2. Use intelligent call routing
If you want to achieve successful call center optimization, you can’t miss the implementation of call routing.
And no, the efficient way to do it is no longer hiring an agent to do it manually.
New technologies allow you to do it in an intelligent and automated way with call management software.
Intelligent call routing with this software allows you to receive and redirect incoming calls in an automated way. This procedure is performed according to a set of preset rules or parameters, which can be:
- Time of day.
- Availability of agents.
- Priority.
- Ability.
Implementing intelligent routing allows for reducing waiting times, as well as providing better customer service by assigning calls to the right agents at the right time.
3. Invest in continuous agent training
A successful team is achieved by providing continuous training and coaching. Especially for newer agents.
If you want to achieve optimal call center optimization, training should include:
- Training in customer service skills: communication, interpersonal skills, and understanding of your company’s product or service.
- Training in the support channels the agent would use.
- Competency testing.
- Constant feedback and supervision.
- Training in the use of tools and technology.
Recruiting the right people is the first step to a successful business. But, you must also improve your onboarding, training, and ongoing coaching processes.
Keep your employees satisfied and productive for better service delivery.
Your company will see the benefits converted into new business opportunities and higher customer retention and loyalty.
4. Provide team-friendly tools
Today’s customers are constantly connected and need immediate answers. But immediacy is only possible if your agents have the right tools.
And what do we mean by “right”? Platforms that are easy to set up and use.
Yes, there is a lot of ready-to-use software out there, but not all of it has user-friendly interfaces and designs. It doesn’t matter how much functionality it has: if it’s not agent-friendly, your customer service will be equally uncomfortable.
Good software must comply with the following:
- Usability: software must have a smooth learning curve. It must be easy to learn to use.
- Flexibility: it should be adaptable to the company’s needs and to customer changes.
- Security: in the support area, for example, a lot of customer information is handled. Therefore, the software must be resistant to external attacks.
- Efficiency: Good software should not waste system resources, such as memory or processing cycles. Therefore, the best ones are cloud-based software.
If you acquire a tool for your Call Center that meets these parameters, then you will see improvements in the internal processes of the team in a very short time.
5. Analyze call and agent-derived data
Proper and thorough call and agent management can tell you a lot about the performance of your team and how to improve it. To do this, it is necessary to use data and apply metrics, the so-called Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
For a contact center, two are particularly important:
First Call Resolution (FCR):
This is the best way to identify your team’s success and achieve call center optimization. There is nothing that makes a customer happier than having their problem solved with just one call. To obtain the percentage, you must:
For example:
Let’s suppose that one of your agents answered in one day 20 calls, of which 12 had a resolution on the first contact.
First: 12/20= 0.6
And then: 0.6 X 100% = 60%
In total, 60% of your agents’ calls end with RPL.
Therefore, you should ask yourself the following questions: What do these calls have in common? What can your agent do to increase the percentage?
Contact Quality:
To evaluate your agent’s performance, it is necessary to identify how that customer contact is occurring. To do this, it is necessary to monitor and record agent interactions.
The quality criteria commonly taken into account are:
- Use of appropriate greetings and script tracking on each call.
- Professionalism and courtesy.
- The capture of key customer data.
- Providing correct and relevant information.
- Accuracy in data entry and call coding.
This comprehensive assessment can help you identify improvement points for each agent to increase their performance.
Conclusion
If you want to streamline your team’s operations, then don’t hesitate to use the five tactics we’ve outlined in this blog post to achieve call center optimization. By giving your agents cutting-edge technology that helps them do their jobs better with automation and data generation, you’ll have significant improvements that will benefit both your customers and your team.
Contact us today if you would like more information on how we can help you achieve operational excellence in your call center with tools like Freshdesk Contact Center.
