Contact Center Quality Management Featured Article

For many companies the holiday season is by far the busiest time of the year, necessitating a substantial seasonal workforce for expanding capacity in retail, customer service and many other areas. A study performed by CareerBuilder found that 43 percent of retail companies hire additional employees for the holidays, and of those jobs 40 percent are customer service positions.

According to a recent article in Business 2 Community, companies can handle the immense increase in customer service traffic with a virtual call center solution. Virtual call centers are a direct product of the bring your own device (BYOD) movement, allowing employees to assist customers in the most efficient and helpful manner possible.

One of the main advantages of virtual call centers is that they are fully scalable. Employees can be added and subtracted at will without the need for additional infrastructure such as hardware, software, implementation services or maintenance crews. Furthermore, agents can work wherever they (or the company) want, since they are using their own device. Location flexibility is a huge bonus especially for smaller companies hoping to avoid renting or purchasing extra workspace. Agents can perform all job-related duties and management can still effectively monitor employee activities, often with the help of Web-based reporting tools, while costs are minimized and customer service is optimal.

Virtual call centers are even more efficient when combined with Integrated Voice Response (IVR) technology to collect data and route calls better. IVRs greet incoming calls with an automated menu that gathers basic information about the customer and directs them to the proper department without impacting agents’ limited time. This ensures that customers are given the most streamlined experience possible by sending them directly to someone who can help, ideally without being put on hold.

Integration with a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is the last piece of the puzzle for optimizing virtual call center operations. A CRM system generates a support ticket for each incoming call and provides agents with relevant information for the associated customer. Call routing is improved even further by taking into account factors such as time of the call, caller’s location, the marketing source driving the call, and agent skill set.

A virtual call center -- when implemented correctly and integrated with other essential technologies -- enables businesses to handle the massive increase in call volume during the holiday season efficiently and professionally, with little or no negative impact on the customer. These solutions are indispensible for companies lacking the physical space, hardware or budget to support large call centers.