Managing call answering services is no easy job. Effective management requires hard work, strategic vision, employee motivation, and the ability to make hard decisions and several other factors.
Leaders in the call center industry need to be acquainted with all the aspects of call centers and should be able to work within the budget. However, at times, all this can be quite overwhelming. Hence, to help the call center leaders get out of this situation with ease, a list of 7 best practices that every phone answering services company should implement in 2021 to manage call centers effectively.
1. Always Prioritize Customer Experience
Customer experience was and will always be the most important aspect of any business. Businesses are now focusing on differentiating themselves based on the customer experience they offer. Customers prefer to buy more products/services from businesses providing better customer experience than the competitors. Delivering an exceptional customer experience is the only way to retain your customers and convert customers into a reliable source of revenue year after year.
Inbound call centers play an important role in providing such an experience. Hence, a phone answering services agency should design the whole process keeping the customers in mind. From training the agents to establishing their KPIs, everything should be focused on improving customer experience.
2. Use the Right Technology and Tools
Technological advancements have helped inbound call centers automate the whole process. For example, interactive voice response can automate general processes, eliminating the requirement for customers to communicate with an agent for minute inquiries, such as checking balance, paying bills, checking the order status, and other tasks that IVR systems can handle.
Furthermore, chatbots can help customers with some general questions. If the customer requires the assistance of the customer relationship team, the chatbot can transfer the whole communication to the agent, reducing the time and efforts of the agents. In addition, speech analytics can screen all the calls to recognize issues and queries that require further attention. These self-servicing techniques can be highly beneficial for live phone answering services, as automation can reduce the overall traffic by decreasing labour cost, reducing time, improving accuracy while enhancing customer experience.
3. Establish a Strong Onboarding Process
Hiring is just the first step towards employing an agent in your telephone answering services agency. While it is an important part, companies can eliminate mistakes in hiring by establishing a strong employee onboarding process.
They should emphasize training new employees how to handle complaints and queries of customers. Most inbound calls will be related to various complaints. Hence, new hires must be prepared well to handle these complaints from the beginning. The employees should be motivated to find complaints as an opportunity to deliver exceptional customer service. A strong onboarding process will help your new hires handle all types of calls with ease. The employees who have performed exceptionally well in the past can also help new hires get familiar with the process and policies to provide quality services.
4. Use Customer Feedback to Improve Performance
Customer feedback is important to analyze the performance of your agents. Therefore, companies should encourage the customers to provide their feedback at the end of every call. This will help the outsourced phone answering agents improve their performance by evaluating their mistakes and implementing important suggestions received from the customers.
Most people don't submit their feedback until they aren't asked for it. According to research, only one out of 26 unsatisfied customers provide their feedback. Hence, the phone answering services agency should not consider the absence of feedback as satisfaction. Moreover, these unsatisfied customers will inform around 15 other people about their experience.
5. Provide Omnichannel Support
Companies should make it easy for customers to connect with you through any device. Allow customers to connect with you using their cellphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop. Evolve your inbound call center to help customers connect through multiple channels. Equip the agents with integrated communication tools to deliver exceptional satisfaction. With omnichannel support, callers can avail themselves of the comfort to connect with the call center agents using their preferred device or platform. This will provide them with a better experience and increased chances of satisfaction.
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6. Use VoIP technology to Scale your Agents
Use a cloud phone system to allow your team of agents to work from anywhere they want. These systems include VoIP that lets the agents communicate with the customers using devices connected to the internet. In addition, cloud phone systems allow agents to work from the comfort of their homes, helping companies save on office space and installing expensive infrastructure.
Using VoIP, inbound call centers can avail the services of high-performing agents even when they cannot commute to the office location. In addition, call answering services agencies using VoIP can hire agents from anywhere globally and would not have to depend only on the local population.
7. Use More Interactive Methods to Provide Better Assistance
Inbound phone answering services companies usually handle the problems and complaints of the customers. Use interactive tools that allow screen sharing and screenshots to assist your customers in resolving their problems. Simply speaking, the instructions on call may add to more confusion. Hence, use screenshots and screen sharing wherever possible to help customers navigate complex tools and problems.
When your agents use screen sharing and screenshots to resolve customer's complaints, they have a better chance of providing satisfactory solutions even to the customers who are less familiar with the technology. This allows call centers to enjoy a better experience in less time.
To Conclude -
These are the 7 best practices that every inbound call center should implement in 2021 to enhance customer experience and provide satisfactory assistance to the customers. Moreover, these practices would help you manage your inbound call center effectively.
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