inbound contact center

Although businesses go to great lengths to provide customers with self-service options that make it easy for them to find solutions to common questions and problems, there will always be a need for a quality inbound customer service department. In fact, data published by Forrester reveals that voice is still the most commonly-used customer service channel and has an impressive 73% utilization rate. The way your team handles calls will largely determine whether you retain or lose customers. The quality of your audio and the ability of your team to problem-solve efficiently will help determine how your customers feel about your company after calling in to resolve an issue. Remember, customers typically don’t call contact centers unless they feel like they have exhausted all other avenues. It is up to you to ensure that the experience is a positive one by providing adequate training and by holding your call center representatives to high standards. If your contact center customer service department could use a little boost, here are 10 simple steps you can take today to improve it. Improve Self-Service Your call center can easily become overwhelmed if too many calls come in on a regular basis. Too many calls can also lead to increased wait time and can cause your customers to become frustrated. To help make things more manageable for both your team and your customers, improve your self-service options and make them as user-friendly and versatile as possible. You can do this by utilizing the following: Call-back options Interactive voice response Online chat services Email communication Other self-service options It is not necessary to make all of these services available, but try to choose at least two. Make sure all self-service options are easy to find and equally easy to use. By making it possible for customers to find answers without calling in, you can help keep call center staff from becoming overwhelmed and make it easier for them to improve their productivity. Additionally, you will likely see customer satisfaction soar as customers are able to find answers to their questions without waiting on the phone for extended periods of time. As convenient as self-service options are, it is imperative to maintain high-quality voice channels in contact centers. Don’t forget that voice is still the most frequently used contact channel, so don’t make the mistake of neglecting it as you focus on self-service selections. Focus on the Customer Experience The whole point of a contact center is to take care of customer concerns and improve rapport between businesses and their clients. This can be easy to forget if call center agents get caught up in the everyday challenges they face while doing their jobs. Whether they’re working on outbound sales or handling incoming calls, call center agents should be constantly reminded that their primary responsibility is to provide a positive experience to their customers. This can be especially challenging when angry customers call in and demand answers to particularly difficult or unique problems. To help equip agents to remain focused on an improved customer experience, consider incorporating the following suggestions: Rewarding agents based on the outcome of a customer call Providing ongoing training so agents are better equipped to deal with complicated issues Encouraging agents to go “off the script” as needed to ensure customer satisfaction When agents are rewarded for providing a positive customer service outcome and are given the training and empowerment they need to resolve challenging situations, your employee and customer satisfaction rates will inevitably go up. Make Training an On-Going Process Can you imagine trying to create a complicated dish without first being given a recipe? What if someone gave you the recipe and instructed you to make the dish, but didn’t provide you with all of the ingredients? When you provide your call center agents with only one training session when they are newly-hired, you are essentially asking them to do the same thing – achieve perfection without having the necessary tools to do so. On-going training can not only help cement core customer service principles in your agents’ minds, but it also gives you the opportunity to address and correct specific questions or issues plaguing your contact center. Additionally, establishing a pattern of ongoing training will give you the opportunity to keep your contact center agents up-to-date on recent trends and technology. Whether you utilize a lecture-only structure or you allow for more interaction, do what works best for your team. The important thing is to put proper emphasis on ongoing learning so that your agents are better prepared to deal with a variety of situations and uphold your brand image. Utilize Call Quality Monitoring Systems It can be difficult or even impossible to measure the success of your call center without utilizing a call quality monitoring system. Depending on the size of your department, one or two qualified supervisors should be responsible for monitoring call quality at all times. Their goal should be to assess both incoming and outgoing calls to ensure that minimum customer service standards are being met or exceeded. One important component of every call quality monitoring system should be the ability for qualified agents/supervisors to promptly correct errors. When supervisors are empowered to rectify mistakes and improve the customer interaction process right away, it will free up more time for the managers by minimizing the need for them to monitor their employees. Exemplify Good Performance Exemplifying good performance from your agents is one of the best ways to encourage adherence to high customer service standards. When agents are publicly recognized for consistently meeting or exceeding expectations, it can inspire their coworkers to perform in a similar manner. Additionally, with the help of call monitoring, supervisors have the ability to break down and analyze every component of an exemplary call so that the call center team can learn from it and jot down ideas for improvement. Exemplifying good performance will have the added benefit of improving employee morale and inspiring a greater sense of ownership among