Customer experience
Anna Gorina
27 March 2024
Share this article
Share this article
A call center depends on many different people to function correctly. Each call center agent must balance performance targets with customer satisfaction. Team leaders have a unique role in ensuring agent productivity and a conducive work environment. On top of that, software is critical to the functioning of a call center. With all of these components playing a role in the organization, managing a call center effectively can seem like a daunting task. In this article, we will explore different methods to help you understand how to manage a call center efficiently.
The easiest way to improve your call center performance is by using key performance indicators like Average Handle Time. These metrics are helpful to set goals for your employees and improve your call volume. But the need to meet performance metrics must be balanced with the need to provide an excellent customer experience. For the occasional customer who requires more time to finalize a call, the priority should be achieving customer satisfaction.
A well-designed training program is essential to ensuring your employees are as effective at their job as possible. New employees should undergo extensive training as part of the onboarding process. Existing employees should receive regular retraining when procedures are significantly updated. Finally, a centralized knowledge base will fill in the gaps of your employees’ knowledge by allowing them to access an up-to-date database of procedural information at any time.
Employee retention can be a challenge for call centers, especially if you are managing a hybrid team that is part remote and part on-site. To retain your employees, you need to move past the traditional manager/employee roles and think of your employees as team members. Everyone at your call center is on the same team, constantly problem-solving to satisfy your customers. Call centers should offer clear career paths to reward high-performing call center staff with advancement in rank and salary. Finally, invest in your employees. Motivated and engaged employees will reduce your employee turnover rates and increase your bottom line in the long term by lowering hiring expenses.
Beyond your employees, software is a crucial component of successful call center management. ViiBE’s suite of solutions makes it easy to improve your call center performance. ViiBE’s knowledge management system distributes employee knowledge evenly so that your company’s expertise is less affected by employee turnover. You can draw examples for your training from past customer interactions thanks to ViiBE’s ticketing solution, which organizes multiple calls from one customer under a single ticket.
There are several elements to consider in your call center strategy to help the teams run as effectively as possible. Some actions to put in place include the following:
• Recruit the best employees
• Engage in employee training and upskilling
• Focus on clear internal communication
• Track real-time call center data and KPIs
• Value feedback to reduce customer churn
• Invest in new technology to empower agents and improve CX
• Use knowledge management tools to support agent self-service
The foundations of a successful call center are simple but essential. You need a cohesive, empathetic team, technology that supports the team, and a strategy that emphasizes providing a positive customer experience. By implementing these three call center best practices, your team will be well-positioned to achieve great success.
The three most common challenges call centers face, according to Call Center Helper, are lack of budget, technology-related problems, and conflicting business priorities.
Call centers facing a lack of budget focus excessively on performance metrics since they lack the resources to invest in other solutions to improve customer service. This obsession with performance at all costs adversely affects call quality and harms customer satisfaction.
Technology’s importance to your call center can’t be overstated. But it can seem daunting to make such a significant investment when there are so many different options. Introducing omnichannel communication options like video assistance can facilitate resolution of complex customer issues. ViiBE makes upgrading your call center easy and affordable. ViiBE integrates into your existing systems seamlessly and will save you money and time from day one.
Finally, conflicting business priorities are naturally a challenge for call centers. It can seem tricky to balance the competing needs for efficiency and customer satisfaction. ViiBE comes to the rescue again with its call routing system. Expertise call routing ensures customers are put in touch with the most qualified agents for their issues, reducing waiting times and improving call volume.
There are several different ways to improve your call center management. Here are five of the best practices.
When recruiting for your call center team, hire those with previous experience in a similar position and the skills and character for a call center job. If they know what to expect from the beginning, they are less likely to become demotivated and quit. This hiring approach will reduce employee turnover in the long term.
While your customers should always be your priority, your employees are one of your most important assets. Employees interact with your customers on a day to day basis, so they have a significant influence on the customer experience. Empowered service agents will give your customers a better impression of your company and a better overall experience. Reward employees for their performance and provide them with a sense of career advancement. By offering these incentives, your call agents will go the extra mile for the customer.
When certain customer service strategies aren’t working, procedures may need to change in order to boost service recovery. When this happens, hold mini-trainings to reinforce agents’ knowledge and skills. Listen to your employees’ feedback about new procedures. Use a centralized knowledge base to update agents about the latest changes in real time. Allow employees to submit their feedback and customer feedback to the knowledge base.
Customer experience is seriously important. According to Zendesk, 75% of customers are willing to spend more for a good customer experience. Prepare for customer service recovery ahead of time so that you can turn any negative experience into a positive one. Create a system to flag issues and integrate customer feedback into training and procedures.
Technology is the backbone of an effective call center. By using outdated technology, you miss out on the benefits that new technology can offer. Traditional phone calls don’t allow for visual engagement with customers. New technology like co-browsing saves you time and increases customer engagement. ViiBE’s video chat creates a face-to-face interaction between agent and customer without requiring any installation. Video chat helps your agent understand the customer’s mood and communicate empathy through body language.
Support agents can improve their call center performance by targeting specific metrics. One important measurement in call centers is average handling time (AHT). There are several ways that agents can improve AHT.
Improving call center performance seems complicated at first, but it’s simpler than you think. By integrating best practices, prioritizing customer experience, and harnessing your employees’ potential, you can boost your call center’s performance. Tools like ViiBE have made it easier than ever to increase your center’s performance while improving the customer experience. Put them together, and you’ll be amazed at what your center can accomplish.
Join our newsletter to keep up to date with the latest news in the visual support industry.
Free E-book available now!
