Are you looking to overhaul your call center in 2019? Perhaps you’re just getting started in the industry, or you’re looking to start a second, third, or further number of centers to add onto an already-profitable venture – but you want to know which strategies you can use to ensure the biggest possible gains from that investment.

Here are a few ways that experts in the industry recommend to maximize the return on both your investment of time and the financial investment in your facility and to create the successful contact center you’re hoping for. (Hint: it starts from the ground up!)

Determine What Success Means for Your Call Center

How do you go about setting up a call center for success when you don’t know what success means to you? The truth is you can’t. You must start with a goal in mind – and that goal may require some brainstorming on the part of you and your team!

It’s easy to say that your goal is maximizing productivity or efficiency and creating top-notch customer experiences, but what does that really mean? Some questions to consider when creating your vision of success for your company include:

• What is your target audience demographic?
• What kind of tone will you set for your agents to interact with consumers?
• What are the ethical guidelines you must abide by for success in your field?
• What are the legal guidelines you must abide by for success in your field?
• How can you exceed the expectations of consumers for service within your industry while also meeting their needs?

These guidelines will help you build your idea of excellence in customer service in your field.

Create an Action Plan

There is a saying that failing to plan is equal to planning to fail. This is never more accurate than in the world of creating a successful business. Even if you have experience in the field of running a call center, it’s important to start with a sensible, workable action plan to create a profitable center – otherwise, you have nothing to work from to achieve your goals.

What does an action plan for your ideal call center entail? You should first determine which communication channels your center will rely on, then how you will secure these channels. Talk to your management staff about which companies to partner with. Discuss which methods to use for addressing consumer concerns and meeting needs. Make all of this part of your action plan and create a detailed, step-by-step blueprint for setting up a call center that works for both agents and the people who call the facility.

Staff Your Center the Right Way

When people think of what it takes to build a great business, most people would eventually suggest that a great staff is important. This is certainly true in the customer service industry. When your entire business is built on dealing with consumer concerns, complaints, questions, and comments, your staff must be great at interacting with customers and handling even the most difficult conversations.

What does setting up a call center staff that can handle almost anything require? It’s all about attention to detail. Anyone can give a great interview or turn in a great resume, but look for the following qualities during the hiring process and role-playing activities to find the very best candidates for your positions:

• Great communication skills
• Empathy and understanding
• Ability to adapt to new situations easily
• Time management skills
• Ease of learning new skills
• Talent for persuasion, especially if you are a sales-based call center
• Problem-solving skills and ability to “think on the feet” when surprises arise

Measure Your Performance in a Meaningful Way

Which metrics does your management team focus on? Not every number carries equal weight when it comes to the way you analyze your company’s success, nor should it. Determining which metrics carry the most weight and how you’re going to measure success in a way that means something to your company does back to creating an action plan that works for your company and defining success – things you should have already taken care of by this point in the process!

Perhaps the most important metric you can measure your success by is that of customer service and satisfaction. Using an intuitive customer feedback interface allows consumers to offer their opinions on your service seamlessly and helps you gather and analyze this information without slowing down or reducing productivity. Use this technology to create a facility that keeps consumers happy and enjoys ongoing success with continual growth and improvement.

Gear Up with the Right Tools and Technology

All these steps so far have required a lot of mental effort on the part of your staff and management team, but this last phase is the one that many modern call centers really look forward to. To put all your hopes, dreams, and hard work into motion, it is important to employ the right technology.

ChaseData has everything you need to equip your entire call center with the best of today’s technology and solutions to make your consumer satisfaction and productivity goals easier to meet – and your agents’ workdays a little less stressful, too!

Using These Tips for Setting Up a Call Center for Ongoing Success

These tips will help you create the bones of a successful structure for your contact center business in 2019 and beyond, but only through implementing them properly and maintaining them effectively can you hope to keep that success going in the long-run. Setting up a call center the right way is not enough – you must focus on the long haul, too.

Partner with the industry leaders at ChaseData to ensure that through every step of the process, you have exactly what you need. From expert advice and experience-driven guidance to cutting-edge technology and the tools you need to stay out in front of your competition and become a leader among them, you can find it all with ChaseData. Talk to us today to learn more!