Call Center Management: Time to Raise the Bar

Call centers today have a very unique task in front of them when it comes to delivering optimal customer care. Not only must they meet customers via the communications channels they choose, but they must be consistent, readily available and offer the level of care customers demand – or face the consequences.

It wasn’t always this way. Believe it or not, there was a time when customers had only a 1-800 number or in-person kiosk to get help when they needed it. Now, they can have a quick IM chat or send a note via social media in the middle of their daily happenings and expect an immediate reply or resolution.

We can thank those companies doing their best to please customers for continuing to raise the bar on what excellent customer service should be.

That’s the basis of a recent Forbes article, which notes that customers have even gone as far now as comparing companies to others even outside their respective industries, i.e. a manufacturer will get compared to an experience had at a hotel.

So what do companies do? They must raise the bar to keep up. It’s no longer okay to do just the bare minimum. You absolutely must offer customer care across all possible channels that customers will be using.

Since people are still calling on the phone, you can’t get rid of that channel, and yet so many people are now using social media channels too – so you’re already late to the party if your company isn’t offering care there.

Think about the people you’re employing too. Customers want agents who can actually solve problems and do so in a pleasurable way.  

Edited by Alicia Young