Posted by on December, 24 2019 8:29 pm
2020 is a year that many people are looking forward to as a clean slate for renewal. After all, what’s better than the start of a new year - and a new decade! - to make a fresh start?
The same can be true for your contact center. The coming of the new year is as good an excuse as any to come up with some great strategies for call center success and begin a new era of agent and customer satisfaction alike.
Here are a handful of strategies for call center success that you and your team might not have thought about previously that can help you ring in the new year with the assurance of improvement and growth.
Call management is a critically important aspect of running a successful contact center. Among the most important strategies for call center success is the implementation of software that directs the flow of call traffic appropriately. That way, no agent is left bored or overwhelmed.
Are you getting the most out of your call distribution technology? If not, consider upgrading or overhauling your technology this year. You’ll be surprised at how much more your team can make happen when they can handle the number of calls coming in.
It may sound trivial, but decorated, personalized office space can make a big difference in employee morale - and in productivity! Studies have shown that agents who are allowed to personalize their office spaces with decor are more comfortable, more encouraged, and happier at work. These same agents are also more likely to meet their agent goals. Let your staff decorate their space to realize these same benefits!
There are three, easy-to-remember keys to call center success, each of which is critical to growth and improvement. Recall the 3 M’s - metrics, measurement, and monitoring - to ensure better performance at every level of your center’s staff.
Metrics are statistics that you can track to view your overall delivery on promises to consumers and assess how you’re doing at meeting your goals. Measurement can relate to metrics or in more abstract concepts, but either way, it is the process of keeping an eye on the outcomes of your efforts. Once you know what you want to keep an eye on, you can monitor it. This ensures ongoing success or adjustments as they are needed. Taken together, these three facets create a perfect approach to improving your customer service strategy and growing your business in the new year and beyond.
When you want to give encouragement and support to your team of agents, you would do well to take an individual approach. Every member of your staff has the potential to be a super performer if only given the training and resources necessary to lift them up into that position. If every person on your team is a top-notch performer, think of what your whole team could accomplish!
In many of today’s multichannel contact centers, there are so many things going on at once that agents can easily become confused or overwhelmed. This isn’t to say that a multichannel approach isn’t a good one. Instead, the problem is the mismanagement of these multiple channels.
If your agents routinely have numerous portals open on the screens that they are constantly moving between, they can be sidetracked and distracted easily. Prevent this by offering a simpler, more streamlined interface - or simply less for each of your agents to do. Even if you don’t have sufficient staff to have agents attending specifically to each of your channels, you can still allow for more focus and less confusion by trimming down the bouncing back and forth each agent has to do.
How often does your team train? If you want continual growth and development, the answer should be frequently. The more often your agents train, the more likely they are to be able to call to mind the information that you share with them during these training sessions. What’s more, agents who regularly train enjoy both a better sense of camaraderie with their coworkers and a desire to continually learn and grow. Those childlike qualities are something that can only be created through regular training - something you can easily integrate into your everyday operations.
Turnover is the enemy of call center productivity. Agents can’t do a great job fielding calls and serving customers if they quit and leave the company to struggle with hiring a replacement. Likewise, agencies that are continually hiring incur unnecessary expenses in doing so.
If you want to avoid all of this, work toward a better company culture. This will keep your agents in their seats and on your team - and loving their job.
Perhaps one of the best ways to offer a better level of customer service - and a higher level of success for your staff - is to ensure that you have the best available technology. If your competitors are far outpacing you with their technology, your consumers will notice - and end up as loyal customers of your competition. A simple refresh of your software and other tech can mean the difference in booming growth and mediocrity in the coming year.
Looking to upgrade your contact center technology? Getting in touch with the industry experts at ChaseData may be one of your best strategies for call center success. Offering the best in software and solutions to help you meet consumers’ needs and continually improve your performance, we have the answers for your biggest technological questions. Give us a call today to learn more!