Content Description:
Inbound call centers are all about offering the best customer service experience. Explore 8 tips that can help you build and improve on the customer service experience you currently offer.
Inbound call centers place a lot of focus on the outcome of each incoming call. How good your conversion rate depends a lot on how good a customer experience you offer. Accessibility is the name of the game. When customers have queries or issues, your call center should have channels in place for them to contact you. A customer can easily search for Spectrum Cable prices online. However, if the same customer calls you for the same information, it may mean a more qualified prospect for a sale. Why? Phone lines are still an important medium for conversions. If you can offer a good customer service experience over the phone you’re more likely to get more conversions.
Tips for Inbound Call Centers
There are a surprisingly large number of ways to improve the performance of your inbound call center. But at the heart of all of them lies the same thing. A better customer service experience. This is what is going to make a lasting impression on callers. A better experience means a positive perception which means a better reputation. A better reputation means more conversions, which is what the game is all about. Here are 8 tips to help your call center win your customers’ hearts:
- Include a Call-Back Option
- Create Agent Teams
- Assess Agent Performance
- Regular Reinforcement Sessions
- Empower Your Agents
- Dedicate Resources to Monitoring Calls
- Share Examples of Best Practices
- Ongoing Training
Here’s a more detailed look at how these tips can help you succeed and make a good rapport with incoming customers.
Include a Call-Back Option
The biggest frustration customers have with inbound call centers is being on hold. Over 40% of customers agree with this claim. But they aren’t the only ones getting frustrated. Hold times annually cost businesses over $130 billion in lost revenue! That is one big piece of the pie that everybody is dropping and nobody is eating. No matter what the size and nature of your business, you can’t afford to lose revenue. There is one simple solution to both sides of this particular coin. How do you deal with long holding times? The answer is to include a call-back system. Over 75% of customers prefer a call back than to hold. 50% of customers prefer being told an exact wait time instead of holding. A simple call-back option can help your agents get back customers you would otherwise lose. Customers also appreciate prompt call-backs and view your representative more favorably.
Create Agent Teams
One good way to get better output and customer satisfaction is to team up your agents. Agent teams are a win-win situation for everybody involved. For the agents, it helps build confidence, educates and encourages comradeship. It also makes for information sharing which can help agents learn from each other and perform better. Teams make for healthy competition between agents. Teaming up agents also creates a consistent voice across your call center. Consumers get the same information and assistance from all members of a team.
Assess Agent Performance
One good way to improve customer experience is to assess how your agents perform. This is not as easy as it may sound. But if you want to really offer an exceptional customer service experience, this is crucial. Your agents can only focus on customer service if you point them in the right direction. Gathering and analyzing data on your agents’ performance can help you do just that. Learn from unsuccessful calls as well as successful ones. Use that knowledge to improve the experience you offer.
Regular Reinforcement Sessions
Make room for coaching sessions on an ongoing basis. These sessions should reinforce all the techniques, methods and skills agents learn in training. These coaching sessions should also emphasize why the agents are so important to the company’s brand. It should guide them on how to boost that image and how to improve their skills.
Empower Your Agents
An empowered agent is a confident, successful agent. Many times, internal policies and bureaucratic red tape tend to hold back your agents. Complex policies make it more difficult for your agents to address customer needs effectively. However, empowering your agents to go off script when needed can do wonders. It empowers them to better assist callers.
Dedicate Resources to Monitoring Calls
Recording and monitoring call for quality assurance is essential if you want your agents to give their best. It helps you review calls, and help agents improve on specific issues. So it is important to dedicate a person or a team to this task. This team takes up the job of monitoring calls for errors, mistakes, and areas for improvement. That leaves you free to manage other aspects of the call center.
Share Examples of Best Practices
If you’re monitoring calls, you’re bound to accumulate transcripts of some exemplary ones. This gives you something concrete for your agents to build on. Sharing examples of such calls help highlight specific areas for your agents to improve the experience they offer to customers.
Ongoing Training
Ongoing training sessions are very important. The only way expert agents can remain experts is if they are constantly up to date. Arrange training sessions on an ongoing basis for your teams of agents. Any updates, policy changes, new products, or scripts should be part of these sessions. You can’t expect call Spectrum Support to be any good if they don’t know the latest about their own services. An uninformed agent can be disastrous for your reputation. Training helps to keep that from happening.