3rd Party Remote Call Monitoring Feature

They’re as predictable as Thanksgiving turkeys and New Year’s champagne: the flood of calls into contact centers as the holidays get ever closer. Those who run such centers also have an annual ritual: Making sure they’re ready.

As such, a recent blog from industry insider Sangoma (News - Alert) listed some caveats that connected managers need to stay aware of.

“With customer expectations at an all time high, it’s more important than ever to make sure that call centers are ready and equipped to handle the need and volume,” the blog noted. “For example, according to a Customers 2020 report, “By 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator.”

The piece goes on to note that three of the largest issues that call centers need to face this year have to do with volume and result in reduced service levels. They include the rapid resolution of customer service issues; a reduction in customer defections; and the fact that many call center systems these days are legacy systems, and could stand an upgrade.

But there are some issues that call centers can address now to forestall problems down the road. They include:

Call Center Analytics: “Improving accuracy of call processing up to 15 percent, a call-progress analysis engine should be built on statistical models as opposed to traditional and simple rule-based algorithms,” the blog notes.

Integration of Multiple Call Centers: Rapid growth and acquisitions have resulted in some redundancy, and as such, businesses should look for ways to tie them all together.

Omni Channel and UC: Customers have come expect various methods of contact. You can be sure that if you don’t offer everything they want, your competition will.

Scale What You Have: “With easy provisioning and deployment, adding a gateway to your traditional or VoIP telephone network can be one of the fastest ways to scale technology,” Sangoma says.

As the days tick down, the call volume will go up. The time to prepare is now, and not when Christmas is just a week away.