Spotlight on Our Game-Changing Partners
At CallShaper, we are proud to collaborate with innovative businesses that are transforming the call center industry. Our partners share our commitment to helping call centers operate more efficiently while ensuring exceptional customer experiences. Here, we’re spotlighting a few of our partners and how they enhance your call center operations. ActiveProspect ActiveProspect is a SaaS platform designed to streamline customer acquisition through consent-based marketing. Their tools enable businesses to take actionable steps with leads, collect valuable data, and save money—all while documenting proof of consent. This safeguards companies from litigation and fraud while offering insights to refine marketing strategies. For [...]
Inside the World of Dispatch Call Centers
Not all inbound call centers are focused on traditional customer service. Some, like dispatch call centers, play a more specialized role in transferring information and coordinating actions. Let’s explore the various types of dispatch services and the vital functions they serve. What is a Dispatch Call Center? Dispatch call centers operate as intermediaries, sending information or coordinating services with speed and efficiency. Depending on the industry, their responsibilities can vary: Customer-to-Business Dispatch These centers handle calls from customers, collect key information, and transfer the caller to the appropriate department or team. Often outsourced, these centers act as a bridge between [...]
How to Set Effective Goals with the SMART Framework
Setting goals is essential for keeping your inbound call center agents motivated and focused. But it’s not just about having goals; it’s about setting the right goals. Using the SMART framework ensures your goals are clear, actionable, and effective. Let’s break it down: Specific Goals must be clear and precise. Vague goals can leave agents confused and unmotivated. Example of a vague goal: "Customers should be satisfied at the end of a call." SMART version: "Agents should strive for first call resolution." Measurable Goals need to have quantifiable benchmarks to track progress and success. Refined goal: "Agents should aim to [...]
Why the Right Technology is Crucial for Attracting New Clients
Gaining new clients requires a combination of strategies: using marketing and advertising that resonate with your target audience, placing those ads in the right channels, offering unique products or services, and ensuring your pricing is both competitive and justified. While these front-facing factors are essential, the behind-the-scenes aspects are just as critical. Seamless processes, accessible customer support, and the right technology can significantly impact your ability to attract and retain clients. In today’s world, nearly every business relies on technology to streamline operations. Whether it's processing sales, managing customer information, or facilitating communication, the right tools can make or break [...]
4 Effective Ways to Minimize Customer Complaints
Customer complaints are an inevitable part of the inbound call center business. Even with exceptional service, external factors like a customer’s mood or an inability to fully resolve their issue can lead to dissatisfaction. While eliminating complaints entirely isn’t realistic, there are proven strategies to significantly reduce their frequency and impact. Here are four key approaches to achieve that goal: 1. Enhance Agent Training A long wait time is frustrating enough, but it’s even worse when a customer finally connects with an agent only to be transferred due to a lack of knowledge or authority. Empowering your agents through [...]
5 Most Important Call Center Agent Skills
Whether you are running an inbound or an outbound call center, your agents need to learn and cultivate certain skills to ensure successful interactions with customers. It doesn’t matter if you are trying to sell a product, troubleshoot a problem or update a client account—without the right skills, customers will be left feeling uncertain, frustrated, or unhappy with their experience. Here are five of the most important skills call center agents need. Active Listening Everybody knows that call center agents are working from a script. By now, customers can tell if an agent is reading a pre-written message and/or following [...]
Why CallShaper is the Key to Maximizing Your Ad Spend
While there are certainly times when we wish it wasn’t the case, budgets rule all in business. The money you spend on something needs to directly translate into returns and profits or it may be deemed not worth the same investment in the future. This is truer when it comes to advertising budgets than almost anywhere else. If you can’t draw a direct line from the money you are spending on advertisements to the sales that are being made as a result, you run the risk of a shrinking ad budget. When we talk about call centers and ad [...]
4 Strategies to Enhance Virtual Training for Call Centers
With more call center agents working from home—whether part-time or full-time—virtual training needs to be as thorough, engaging, and effective as traditional, in-person sessions. Quality virtual training not only ensures top-notch customer service but also significantly reduces agent turnover. Here are four strategies to improve your virtual training and set your agents up for success. 1. Start with Technology Training Not everyone is fully comfortable with videoconferencing tools like Zoom or Microsoft Teams, even though remote work has become more common. Before diving into your core training, consider offering a brief tutorial on the specific platforms and tools agents [...]
Why Contact Center Metrics Have Changed to Center the Customer
Metrics have always been an incredibly important part of every contact center. Without them, there is no way to conduct quality assurance or evaluate the performance of your agents. But in recent years, the key metrics used to measure and judge the success and effectiveness of a call center have changed. Here, we’re outlining how and why. In the past, efficiency was the name of the game for call centers. The faster they could answer calls and the faster they could wrap them up, the better. The metrics used to measure efficiency included things like Average Handle Time, Hold [...]
Strengthening Customer Relationships for Long-Term Success
Every thriving business experiences periods of rapid growth where keeping up with customer demand becomes a challenge. During these busy times, the primary focus is often on perfecting the product and delivering it to customers as efficiently as possible. However, these phases are usually followed by slower periods where new customer sales may decline. It's during these quieter times that it's essential to nurture relationships with your existing customers. Retaining the customers you already have is crucial for maintaining steady revenue and weathering slower sales periods. Here are a few key strategies to help your customer service and success [...]
Understanding the Differences: Call Centers vs. Answering Services
While most people have interacted with call centers in a variety of industries, the term is often associated primarily with telemarketing. On the other hand, answering services are more widely recognized and experienced by the general public. But are they the same thing? Let’s take a closer look at how these two services differ. At their core, answering services can be considered a type of call center, but not every call center is an answering service. The primary distinction lies in the scope of responsibilities. Answering services focus on a more limited range of tasks compared to traditional call [...]
Hot Topics in Compliance: Marketing vs. Informational Messaging
The TCPA and the rules and regulations within are, essentially, all designed to protect people from receiving calls and text messages from companies to whom they have not given consent to contact them. There are nuances, of course, about the different ways that consent can be given and the different types of messages that can be received, as well as some stipulations that we won’t get into here. But one of the key components of the TCPA that governs whether or not litigation can be brought against companies for unlawful calls or messaging is that said calls and messages [...]
3 Effective Strategies for Routing Inbound Calls
An interactive voice responder (IVR) can be a game-changer for your inbound call center, enabling you to guide callers to solutions quickly and efficiently. To maximize this tool's potential, it's essential to fine-tune the IVR options to align with your callers' needs and the outcomes they seek. While ongoing analysis of call data is the best way to optimize your IVR, there are several straightforward call routing strategies that can set you on the right path. Here are three effective approaches. Fixed Order Call Routing When you're unsure about the nature of incoming calls, if all inquiries are likely [...]
Understanding CallShaper’s Three Key Applications
One of CallShaper’s standout features is its ability to support nearly every aspect of your business from within the software. Whether it's running campaigns, evaluating employee performance, monitoring calls, integrating sales, or more, CallShaper has you covered. However, the tools and features each team member needs will vary depending on their role. That’s why CallShaper offers three distinct applications, tailored to different job functions: Agent Application Designed for maximum efficiency, CallShaper’s agent application requires minimal training and is accessible from anywhere with a strong internet connection—whether in the office or working remotely. Agents can access only the essential tools [...]
4 Training Challenges Call Centers Face
The quality of the training you provide for your agents can be the thing that determines the success of your call center. Agents who have not received enough training or have received low-quality training are more likely to grow frustrated in their roles, submit subpar performances, and even quit. But taking the time and putting in the effort to provide the best training possible will directly support your agents’ success. However, providing top-notch training is easier said than done. The reason: Call center managers, supervisors, and trainers are facing many challenges that could hinder their ability to provide that [...]