5 Questions to help choose the right Call Center Software
There are tons of options out there for companies looking for call center software for their business—so many that it can be difficult to choose the correct one. For starters, many businesses are choosing cloud-based software, thanks to the way it gives agents and employees the ability to work remotely from anywhere with an internet connection. But even once you’ve decided to go with cloud-based software, there are additional questions to ask to determine the best one for you. Here are five of the biggest ones. Can I connect it to my existing tools? You want the call [...]
When Call Center Agents Should Stick to the Script…And When to Go Off-Book
Scripts are incredibly important to the agents working in any type of call center. At the moment when an agent connects with a customer, the agent has no idea where or how the call is going to go. But what they do have is the script to serve as a framework or at least a jumping off point that will get the call moving in the right direction. Indeed, for agents of all levels of experience, the script provides a safety net that they can rely on to make sure the call moves forward in a productive manner. That said, [...]
4 Ways to Improve Customer Retention
In order to be successful, businesses must grow. While seeking out new business and new customers does play a role in this, retaining existing customers and fostering those relationships so that they become returning customers is equally as crucial. The people working in your inbound call center are on the front lines when it comes to interacting with existing customers and nurturing those relationships, so they also hold the keys to ensuring you turn first-time customers into recurring ones. Here are four ways you can work with the folks in your inbound call center to help improve customer retention. [...]
Should You Outsource Your Call Center?
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the volume of calls made to call centers surged dramatically, often overwhelming the existing agents. Around the same time, many teams of call center agents were forced to go from working in an office to working from home, which also drastically changed their day-to-day work experience. These changes and others, many of which persist to this day, forced companies to stop and evaluate how they were running their call centers and if there was a more efficient and cost-effective way to do so—namely, whether or not they should outsource their [...]
3 Ways to Prevent Call Center Attrition
Everyone in the call center industry is aware of the high attrition rates in agents. Indeed, many agents view the role more as a short-term way to pay the bills and less as the first step on a successful career path—though agents who fall into the second category certainly exist. If your call center is struggling to hold onto agents, here are three ways to reduce attrition and help the agents in your call center thrive. Treat Agents as Permanent Employees When companies are hiring new employees, regardless of the level of the position or the department, [...]
How Customer Service Goals Make Your Call Center More Successful
Every business has goals that they aim to meet every quarter or every year. A lot of the time, those goals are financial: Hitting a certain number of sales, locking down a certain number of new clients, putting out a certain number of new products. But in order to run a successful business that earns new customers, grows at a steady pace and keeps current customers coming back, setting goals around the customer service you offer and the service experience and satisfaction of customers is absolutely crucial. First off, specific goals will help keep the agents working in your call [...]
5 Types of Call Routing for Inbound Call Centers
In a perfect world, every call made by a customer to a call center would be answered on the second ring by a knowledgeable and qualified representative with the skills to handle any inquiry the customer may have. But as we know, that’s rarely the case—and the more your business grows and expands, the less likely it becomes. That’s why you need to set up call routing systems for your inbound call center, which determine how and to whom incoming calls are sent. Here, we are breaking down five of the most common call routing systems to help you [...]
Common Features of Inbound Call Center Solutions
If you’re running an inbound call center, you have many options for the software solution you choose to help keep things going. That said, there are a few key features that the best call center solutions should offer. Here, we outline the most common ones to help you determine what tools you need in your ideal inbound call center software. Interactive Voice Responder (IVR): A high-quality, easily edited IVR should be the first thing you look for in an inbound call center solution. It will allow you to offer information and support 24/7, even if agents aren’t available when [...]
4 Most Common Customer Support Mistakes
For people working in an inbound call center, the customer always comes first. But no matter how much this adage is drilled into reps, there are still traps they can fall into that lead to frustrated and unhappy customers. Here, four of the most common mistakes customer support agents make that may require additional training or monitoring to improve the quality of support your call center is delivering. Not Actively Listening At the start of a customer service call, customers typically give a broad overview of their problem or the reason they are calling. While there’s a good [...]
How CallShaper Supports Sales-Focused Businesses
When we were founded in 2009, CallShaper was all about creating a cloud-based call center platform that optimized sales efficiency to increase your bottom line. Over the years, our platform has become more robust and the tools offered have expanded to support more types of businesses but our core offerings remain the same. Whether your company is focused in B2B or B2C sales, we have the tools and features that will help you rise above the competition. One of the most important parts of sales is connecting with as many potential customers as possible in the most efficient way [...]
Three Roles of Inbound Call Centers Besides Customer Service
When most people think of an inbound call center they think of customer service, or a number that a customer calls to resolve an issue they are dealing with related to a product or service the company offers. However, this is not the only role that an inbound call center can play for a business. Here, three other reasons you might need an inbound call center besides fielding customer service inquiries. Order and Claim Processing While it’s true that you can buy just about everything online these days, there are still exceptions to this rule. And in those [...]
How COVID-19 Has Impacted Call Center Agents
When the COVID-19 pandemic began over two years ago, no one really knew the extent to which it was going to impact the economy. Now that we’ve had time to see the impacts and begin to parse them, we have a better picture of what has changed and which of those changes are going to hold going forward—especially in the call center industry, where perhaps the largest effect has been on the call center agents themselves. At the start of the pandemic, almost all agents began working from home. This presented a massive challenge, even for those that [...]
3 Ways to Measure Your Call Center’s Success
There are numerous ways to determine how well the agents in your inbound call center are performing. Depending on the nature of your business, you may be able to measure how they are doing simply by looking at sales numbers. But if not, there are other metrics to consider that will illustrate whether or not you are meeting the needs of your customers. Here are three and what they can tell you about the performance of your call center. First Call Resolution First Call Resolution essentially means whether or not a caller is able to resolve their issue [...]
The Importance of Offering the Right Touch-points
When you’re setting up and structuring an inbound call center, it’s no longer enough to plug in the phones and wait for the customer calls to come in. These days, customers expect to have options when it comes to getting in touch with a company, such as the ability to reach out via email, online chat or social media in addition to over the phone. And while you may be quick to assume that the more touchpoints you offer the better, that’s not always the case. Instead of simply offering more touchpoints for customers, you should be focused on offering [...]
4 Surprising Factors That Could be Ruining Your Customer Experience
When you’re running an inbound call center, customer experience is the most important thing. By the time a customer makes the effort to place a call to your company they are either already a customer or have decided to become a customer, so you don’t want anything that happens over the course of the call to dissuade them or make them question their decision. That said, there are some factors apart from the actual conversation that happens between the agent and customer that could be detracting from or even ruining your customer’s experience. Here are four and how to [...]