Call Center Management Featured Article
The Keys to Achieving Maximum Call Center Efficiencies
Efficiency in the call center is directly tied to management practices and tools. A call center can boast the greatest, most skilled agents in the world, but without proper management, performance levels will ultimately miss the mark. Thankfully, there are some basic practices managers can follow to ensure the best rates of efficiency, while also fulfilling customer demands and keeping agents motivated and happy.
The power of technology tools in the call center cannot be underestimated. And in today’s era of omnichannel communications and customer service, that means employing a unified solution that empowers agents with the information they need to quickly and efficiently handle customer service interactions through the customer’s preferred communications channel.
Beyond that, technology solutions for performance management and workforce optimization are essential for efficient call center operations. Whether employed on site or in the cloud, these types of solutions handle the heavy lifting of scheduling, forecasting and deploying call center resources where needed, when needed, based on anticipated traffic and call flows and volumes.
A call center will only be as efficient as its actual agents, and keeping agents happy and motivated doesn’t have to be a challenge. A good call center manager will recognize agents who can benefit from additional training to broaden their skillsets, and will reward them accordingly for hitting customer service benchmarks. Technology can be a huge help in this area as well, enabling managers to set up incentive and rewards programs to keep agents engaged and motivated, lowering churn and turnover rates.
Training must be an ongoing endeavor for call centers to remain lean and efficient. Customers have an increasingly broad and dynamic range of demands and agents must be prepared to meet them in a variety of innovative ways. Continuous training and coaching programs can ensure agents don’t lag behind when it comes to meeting customers’ needs, and will also achieve the goal of keeping staff engaged and motivated.
Encouraging communication and collaboration among agents and other areas of contact center operations is also an important factor in achieving maximum efficiency. The days of disparate, siloed departments within organizations are long past, and smart managers understand that having a holistic approach to meeting goals achieves the best results. By facilitating meetings and other opportunities for cross-department collaboration, managers can foster innovation and creativity, which will only boost efficiencies.
Of course, the efficiency of a call center comes down to the people working there at the end of the day. By making smart, informed choices about the agents they are hiring, managers can ensure they will have a well rounded staff able to keep up with the dynamic demands of their customer base. Investing in the right people is ultimately the key to ensuring positive customer interactions and outcomes, as well as ensuring call centers are operating at maximum efficiency.
Edited by Maurice Nagle