How to Stay Sharp While Working from Home
As thousands of people have learned over the last few months, working from home is a vastly different experience from working in an office. There are new distractions, new routines and new schedules that can disrupt productivity, limit efficiency and sap brainpower. Here are four tips to help you stay on top of your game while working from home: Request A Demo
Three Ways to Use Old Commute Time
One perk of working from home: You suddenly have one, two, or even more hours suddenly free that would previously have been dedicated to your commute. There are many ways you could use this time: You could sleep in a little later or spend extra time with family, both of which would be perfectly acceptable and enjoyable uses. But your commute time has always been a very personal and individual time, so why not use it for something personal? Perhaps even something new? Here are three ways you could use your old commute time. 1. Learn a New Skill Have [...]
Explaining the 3% Abandonment Rate Rule and Why It’s Important
The goal of any company that utilizes a sales-focused call center is to establish direct, person-to-person connections with potential customers. For this reason, and especially when using an automated dialer, it is critical that there are no missed opportunities to establish these connections. One of the ways that CallShaper’s software is ensuring that none of these opportunities are missed is by employing the 3% abandonment rate rule. The 3% abandonment rate rule says that in a 30-day period, only 3% of outbound calls can be abandoned. CallShaper’s cutting edge dialing software is constantly at work sorting phone numbers and dialing, [...]
Breaking Down the Four Types of Dialers
For companies that rely on outbound call centers, maximizing the number of calls placed and the quality of those calls is crucial to the success of the campaign. Having different dialing options available can help agents dramatically increase the number of live connections they make on a daily basis, which can make or break a campaign. What are some of these dialing methods? Manual: Manual dialing is used when a company wants the call center agents to physically dial phone numbers. This method also helps campaigns comply with TCPA guidelines for dialing wireless numbers for which express written consent has [...]
How to Make Lead Management Easy and Painless
Leads are the lifeblood of any telemarketing campaign—without them, the campaign stalls and the client suffers. And almost as crucial as possession of quality leads is an efficient system through which to organize, process and rate them. Here are some of the lead management strategies that can help call center clients easily and effectively manage leads: Bulk File Uploading: Depending on the size of a campaign, manually inputting leads into a dialer can be a literally never-ending task. What’s more, uploading files that are not in the proper format and need to be adjusted can cost agents valuable time. Importing [...]
Coronavirus in the Office: FAQs Answered
If your team or some members of your team are still working from the office, we rounded up some of the most frequently asked questions pertaining to COVID-19 and office workers. Read on to find out how to maximize your safety in the workplace. How is COVID-19 spread? COVID-19 is spread from person to person through respiratory droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes. These droplets either land directly in the noses or mouths of people nearby, or may be inhaled from the air by people who are within about six feet of the infected person. This [...]
Call Center Return to Office Checklist
As state governments begin to talk about businesses returning to work, you need to start planning on what changes will have to take place in your workplace to ensure the safety of your employees in their work environment. Plan to supply your employees with masks and gloves. Plan to allow the recommended six feet between employees or look at increasing barriers or partitions between employees. Plan for intense nightly cleaning and intermittent cleaning of common areas throughout the day. Set things up so there is not shared equipment, or if there is sharing required, make sure equipment is cleaned thoroughly [...]
Cloud-Based Dialer Checklist
If you are moving from a premise-based system to a cloud-based system, you may not know all of the features to look for. Premise based systems tend to be more antiquated and less flexible. Cloud based systems open a whole new world of features. Make sure you know what to ask for when you are evaluating a new dialing system. Online scripting Is there online scripting? Is that included in the price or does it cost extra? Can it do complex branching with built in logic? Does it allow for the reps to do data capture? Can the data capture [...]
How to Choose the Right Call Center Software for Your Growing Business
Congratulations! You’ve started a business and determined that you need to utilize a call center. Perhaps you’re going to use lead lists to conduct outbound sales calls, use print, TV, or radio advertisements to drive inbound calls, or set up an inbound call center to field customer service calls. Regardless, there are two key factors to consider when selecting the right software for your growing business. Ease of Use Especially if this is your first experience utilizing a call center, it is critical that the software you choose has an intuitive, easy-to-use interface. Your start-up likely doesn’t have a large [...]
Explaining STIR/SHAKEN and the TRACED Act
Since 2014, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been encouraging the telecommunications industry to find a way to stop robocalls—calls that use a digital autodialer to deliver a pre-recorded message—and call number spoofing, in which robocalls change the number that the call is coming from so it appears that a neighbor, friend, or official agency is calling. And the industry has responded with a technology protocol called STIR (Secure Telephony Identity Revisited) and SHAKEN (Secure Handling of Asserted information using toKENs). Here’s how it works. The key to STIR/SHAKEN is digital certificates. Every telephone service provider must obtain a digital [...]
Inbound Call Centers: All Hands on Deck!
With the majority of people spending more time at home and many with more free time on their hands, inbound call centers are likely dealing with an increase in the amount of people responding to multimedia ads and/or taking the time to make customer service calls they may have been putting off. Here are some tips on how to manage the increased call volume efficiently and in a way that will meet the needs of both your agents and customers: Update Your IVR: One of the great things about CallShaper’s cloud-based call center platform is the Interactive Voice Responder, which [...]
Three Tips for Call Center Agents Working from Home
Being a call center agent is an independent job, so it may seem easy to do from home. But the differences between working from home and working from an office alongside your colleagues and team members go far beyond just the physical location—they also include your mindset, hours, motivation, and likely your productivity. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to help improve your ability to work from home efficiently and successfully. 1) Define Your Workspace It’s true that all you need as a call center agent—especially with CallShaper’s cloud-based platform—is a computer, a reliable internet connection and a [...]
Drive Business with Call Queue Software
We are seemingly always waiting. In line. In traffic. In life. And with high tech feeding our rumbling bellies of instant gratification, waiting on hold to speak with a customer service agent can seem like an endless wait. Although call center queues are a necessary part of over the phone customer service, we have things to do, calls to make and business to close. It is no surprise that 61% of consumers say that they have stopped transacting with a business after a poor service experience- everyone values their time and in today’s world, we really do not like to [...]
Adjustments To Make During Coronavirus
You may have noticed that your reps are talking to more people now, because more people are home calling in or answering their phones. Give your reps more frequent breaks to prevent them from getting fatigued from talking so much. The customers may be more demanding or emotional during this time since they are scared and worried. Give your reps more emotional support and positive reinforcement during this time. Remind them that they are helping to take care of these customers during this difficult time and therefore providing a service. Some of your offers may not be appropriate right now. [...]
Small Businesses Benefit from Call Center Software
Small businesses all have the same goals- to gain new customers, retain current clients and be successful. And as in all businesses, the step towards reaching any of these goals starts with the first phone call. Regardless of what service or product you are buying or selling, there is only one place to start building your business- from the beginning. While that may seem like a daunting task, it does not have to be. One of the best ways to build and/or retain your business success is to mix together your desire to succeed, your business sense and of course, [...]
