What happens when this virus hits those who work in densely populated facilities like your call center? Not only is it a public health hazard to continue operations as normal during these times, but it can also spell disaster if your company doesn’t have a workable disaster recovery strategy in place.

This year, your call center disaster recovery strategy may be more important than ever. In early 2020, a prolific virus known as the novel coronavirus - or COVID-19 - began spreading from its origin site in the Wuhan Province of China to other nearby areas. Travelers to China began carrying the virus elsewhere, and within two months’ time, it has come into the worldwide news as a pandemic threat.

Here, we’ll give you a few pointers for ensuring your center is prepared for any kind of disaster - including a worldwide viral outbreak - and how to keep it from impacting operations in your facility.

What is the formula for a good call center service level? Many experts would argue that there isn’t one standard equation that fits every scenario, and they’re right; your facility is as unique as the agents who comprise your team and the consumers you serve. However, there is a formula that many successful centers use to create a successful plan for rendering service at their best possible level - and your center could likely make great use of it, too.

The 80/20 rule - breaking down to 80% of call or more being answered within 20 seconds or less - is a great start for building a successful call center. Why? Because consumers today want their concerns addressed quickly. If you’re shooting for a solid service level, there’s no better start than with the golden rule of 80/20. Here’s more about why:

What do your top executives see when they bring up their dashboard in your facility? If they’re like the heads of many contact centers, the answer might be disappointing. Too many companies suffer from too much data and an ineffective executive dashboard to present it in.

Don’t let your facility be among them. Check out this list of key metrics to include in your executive dashboard, along with some important hints on how to do so. Remember - your dashboard is only as effective as it is user-friendly, so style can make just as big a difference as the information it is used to present!

It’s never easy to completely overhaul the way your company presents itself. Whether you’ve been in business only a few months or for many years, you have all of that time and the memories of your previous iterations working against you. Even when rebranding is for the best, it can be a difficult task, prompting many companies to wait until it’s simply unavoidable.

Your contact center doesn’t have to be one of those businesses. Call center rebranding doesn’t have to be something you put off and avoid until you can’t avoid it any longer - but it will be, if you don’t give it the kind of attention it needs now. Here’s your guide to a seamless transition this year - and to making call center rebranding a simple task in 2020:

For as long as there have been contact centers, these facilities have used traditional telephony as a way to communicate with customers. This only makes sense - everyone has a telephone of some kind in their possession or close enough to access easily. But what happens to the old standby telephone as the primary means of communicating when your customers are increasingly using digital devices?

In the digital age, more and more call centers are relying on a digital voice solution to ensure the best sound quality, greatest reliability, and best possible service to consumers. Does your contact center need a digital voice solution? Is the one you have outdated and ready for a tune up with today’s latest technology? Here’s what you really need to know about this modern call center standby:

Data is bigger than it has ever been. In your contact center, that data can include all manner of sensitive and critically important consumer information - as well as a lot of useless data that you cannot use. Sorting the two apart and making use of what you need while also protecting consumer privacy is a delicate balancing act that can easily overwhelm centers that are not prepared for the task.

This is why call center data management is so important. Without the tools and technology to collect, organize, and analyze the massive amounts of data your center is likely to process in an average month, you may be doomed to repeat the same mistakes of many others - compromising data, losing consumer trust, and eventually losing your business to better-prepared competitors.

No one ever truly plans for disaster. Sure, you can prepare for the worst, but foreseeing the future and the potential for things to go wrong? That’s just not something we can do at this point in history.

That doesn’t mean you can’t ensure that your contact center will be strong in the face of one of these tragedies. No matter what happens, building an effective disaster recovery plan - which takes all possibilities into account - will help you create a resilient call center that can withstand just about anything fate throws at it.

Here is your guide to fortifying your disaster recovery approach so that it will carry you through anything you may face:

Debt collection is a challenging profession to work in. Your agents speak to people every day who would probably rather not hear from them. They are seen as an aggressor or a “bad guy”, despite their training in managing exchanges politely and professionally. It can be very frustrating - and that’s just a typical day at the office!

To make work easier and less stressful for your agents, your job as a manager is to provide them with the tools they need to make accounts receivable management less complicated. The right software and other technology can make it less of a hassle to manage multiple accounts each day and goes hand-in-hand with the proper training your agents need to thrive in their positions.

Here is your guide to better accounts receivable management in the new year and beyond:

‘Metrics’ is a hot word in the world of contact centers. These data sets are a major part of what companies use to better understand their clients and consumers, as well as to examine the work of their own agents. Call center analytics and reporting is a key element of success for any center hoping to continually improve and grow.

How involved are your management staff in call center analytics and reporting? How are important metrics used in your center to improve performance and enhance customer experience? If you’re not sure where you stand or what improvements could be made to your current approach, check out these guidelines for call center analytics and reporting success in 2020 and beyond:

Does your inbound call center software need an overhaul?

It can be easy to get into a rut with your software. If something has been working for you for the past few years, why change it? The truth is, a new decade is upon us and with it will come advances in technology that your center should be at the forefront of.

If you don’t want your competitors to leave you behind in 2019, it’s time to take a fresh look at today’s best inbound call center software. You won’t know what you’re missing until you see what’s available - and today’s call center software providers are creating amazing new technology!