Little improvements often are what separate the average call center from the amazing call center. True innovations are few within the call center, and those that do emerge from technology or new business practices are quickly copied. So what separates the average from the awesome are the little things.
That in mind, here are five top ways that call centers can improve performance through small adjustments.
1. Separate prime lead fact from fiction. Face the fact that prime leads don’t come from the dialer. Some call centers think that dialers will generate prime leads. They don’t.
2. Don’t allow team leads on the phones. When call queues are backed up, it is tempting to have team leaders jump on the phones to fix the problem and make them feel like they are doing something. But in reality, this only addresses one or two calls—and it comes at the expense of having them as leaders who are managing the overall call center.
3. Recognized which calls actually are abandoned. There’s a difference between a short call and an abandoned call, and often one gets categorized as the other. A call that is answered but ended quickly is not an abandoned call—that is just a short call. Don’t let call center statistics get muddied, because this can affect decision-making quality.
4. Use IVR to service customers. Good interactive voice response helps the caller reach the appropriate agent. Bad IVR wastes customer time by dumping the caller into the same pool regardless of the option they pressed. Focus on meaningful IVR that actually is routing calls intelligently instead of wasting caller time.
5. Mind the cultural differences. It is easy to say that we live in a global world, and anyone who has traveled abroad recently can attest that different countries are starting to act similar to each other. But cultural differences remain, and a good call center will make sure agents are mindful of the differences and are being appropriately mindful of cultural expectations.
These five tips can help a call center improve operations in the little ways that matter. And this can make all the difference.
Edited by Alisen Downey