How to Drive Contact Center Performance

For many companies, great customer service can be a costly and exhausting endeavor. However, if you improve the way your customers interact with your contact center, you can reduce a lot of issues. A primary objective of a contact center should be to build the type of employee engagement that will result in enhanced customer loyalty and satisfaction, as well as improve the impact on the bottom-line of their business.

Optimize agent performance

The best way to enhance customer satisfaction and contact center performance is by optimizing agent performance. Companies should find ways to reduce average handle time and call volumes while increasing first call resolution. Companies must ensure that their agents fully understand the use of various channel options such as chat, calls and email, and that all these channel options are properly optimized for customer interactions.

Encourage creativity in the agent

Many professionals in the contact center are attracted to the nature of their occupation, which is customer interaction. However, companies restrain them from engaging with customers emotionally, and instead force them to follow strict scripts. By allowing contact center agents some creative liberty companies can improve their performance as this will let them create emotional attachment to the task, which will ensure that each interaction with customer will become a personal interaction, rather than a generic corporate experience.
Prepare business cases for change

Companies must prepare business cases that include illustrations of various problems with compelling facts. Also, these cases should clearly state the parameters of ideal performance and how to achieve them. Measures and metrics that align operations to a department, a team, or an executive must be clearly provided as it’s vital to achieving key performance objectives.

Increase awareness among agents

It is vital that contact center agents must always be motivated as it will allow them to accept new day-to-day work challenges. A monotonous work environment can be highly regressive for a contact center agent. Companies should encourage agents to make contributions to their work processes, and continually teach them new skills and abilities. This way, agents will never feel that their skill sets are diminishing, and this will not only reduce employee attrition rate, but will also enhance their performance.

In many organizations, the drive for efficiency is often seen to be at the expense of the customer. However, a knowledgeable employee  who has been with the company for some time and has the ability to deal with multiple queries on one call will offer the customer a one-stop shop approach to their query. Organizations who spend the time and energy to include the above mentioned principles of contact center management find that their employees are better capable at delivering consistent positive, quality, branded customer experiences that build better customer relationships.

What Makes the Telephone the Most Effective Channel?

Some people believe that the traditional telephone is the most effective medium to provide customer support.

These days, the customer can communicate with the contact center through many channels. The telephone is just one among them. So what makes the telephone so special?

Thanks to the easy availability of multiple contact channels, customers now want the freedom to decide how they should communicate with the contact center. They may even switch between channels. For example, they may start the communication with an email and then switch to phone or social media, or web chat to discuss the same issue. No matter what medium they choose to contact the call center, they expect nothing short of excellent customer service. This poses many challenges for the call center. This also calls for a system that allows the call center agents to see the customer's messages across all mediums in one place. They should also be able to see the caller's profile and history for effective handling of the problem.

While such systems are available at the moment, the cost can be prohibitive. And hence the organization should carefully decide how the agent should respond when customers communicate through multiple channels. A telephone call is still the most effective way to respond. More sophisticated systems may be available, but nothing can beat the telephone in terms of efficiency and affordability.

Email communications can be quite time consuming. Tweets are very public. Verifying the identity of someone who contacts you through the web chat can be difficult. Text messages should be linked to a CRM system. A telephone call, on the other hand, is quicker. This is the channel a customer will prefer if they expect an instant reply.

When the customer makes a call, they can get to the point faster. Now this gives rise to another question. Are your agents capable of handling these calls properly?

The call center agent may have access to a sophisticated system that gives complete details of the customer across all channels. However, if the agent is too busy and takes time to respond, the call center fails to win its objectives.

Research reveals that even in inbound contact centers, up to 40% of the calls are outbound. This is because the call center has to return the calls and respond to emails. One way of getting around this problem is to install an outbound dialer to field calls.

This system will ensure that important customer promises, for example the promise to call back, are not forgotten. Call backs can be automatically set up or by the call center agents. If there is an efficient dialer, the customer will not have to call the contact center to follow up.

Thanks to precision dialing technology, tweets, chats and emails can also be fed into the dialer to send a fast response to customers. It is also possible to blend SMS with outbound dialing campaigns.

Once you have the right system in place, the contact center will work more efficiently and seamlessly. This may also encourage the customer to stay around and appreciate the improvement.

LeadXL provides accurate, actionable information and analysis, resulting in increased conversion of leads from ALL sources. Lead XL was built for lenders following a clear path to success: Analyze. Revive. Enhance. Contact Lead XL today!

How Computer Telephony Can Benefit Your Call Center

The main focus of a company is delivering service and making sales. The key is to make it easy for customers to get in touch with a business’ services. Computer telephony—sometimes referred to as computer/telephone integration or CTI—is a technology that was created to enable better contact between companies and customers.

Computer telephony is not one piece of equipment; rather, it involves interlocking technologies and combining two streams of information through open and standards-based systems: data and voice. It’s used in all areas of business today, but it really shines in the call center. Computer telephony has the potential to improve the way your company interacts with customers.

Here are some other benefits that computer telephony can offer your contact center:

Make more sales. You can build customer loyalty when you have more information about the caller. You can appeal to them on their terms with information in the corporate database.

Improve customer service. With more information in the hands of the customer, they can sometimes even serve themselves, costing you less for labor.

Reduce your telecom usage costs. You can also have shorter call times and cut hold time as well.

You’ll have happier customers. More of the customers’ problems will be solved the first time around.

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The Psychology of Customer Anger

Call centers must inevitably deal with angry customers from time to time. Let's face it, these situations can get ugly! Before you fly off the handle right back at the customer (which is a huge no-no), put yourself in the customer's place.

The key is to understand- really understand- the customer's point of view. After all, it's all about psychology! Check out this video on how to understand customer anger:

 

LeadXL provides accurate, actionable information and analysis, resulting in increased conversion of leads from ALL sources. Lead XL was built for lenders following a clear path to success: Analyze. Revive. Enhance. Contact Lead XL today!



How to Deliver Great Customer Service

Organizations that provide great after sales service will have no difficulty retaining customers. This explains why every organization wants to deliver exceptional customer service.

Now the question is: How can an organization provide high quality customer care and keep its customers happy? Here are some tips:

Know how to deal with unsatisfied customers

You may be selling a great product or service; still, problems can occur. And when things go against their expectations, customers can become unhappy. You cannot deliver a great customer experience if you do not know how to deal with an unhappy customer. Make sure that your agents are aware of the happenings.

If there are recurring problems and your company is already taking measures to solve these problems, your agents should be aware of that. This way they can assure callers that your employees are working to resolve the issues.

By fixing recurring issues, companies can prevent future customers from facing the same problems. This will also improve customer satisfaction.

Let your agents know how they are performing

Run a few customer satisfaction surveys and share the outputs with your agents. Let them know that their hard work is being recognized. And if they ever go off the track, you should let them know that as well. When your agents realize that their performance is being rated, they will be motivated to work harder.

Develop your agent's Emotional Quotient (EQ) skills

Your agents are dealing with real people and not bots, and hence developing their EQ skills is important. This will help them deal with frustrated and angry customers better. Your agents should be able to empathize with the customer and see things from their perspective.

Good EQ skills are essential to build better rapport with the customer. You should also train them to ask the right questions that will help them get a complete picture.

Encourage your call center agents to own up

If there are problems, your agents should admit it and take responsibility. This gives callers the impression that they are talking to a person responsible for solving their problems.

If the agent merely passes the problem over to another agent, the customer will get frustrated.

Quality is as important as AHT

While monitoring the performance of your agents, you should definitely consider average handling time. If the agent takes too long to resolve a problem, it is not a positive sign. However, quality is equally important. The agent is not supposed to rush through the calls. They should show enough patience to hear what the customer has to say. This is necessary to ensure that problems are being resolved properly.

Put the customer first

Put the focus on the customer. Your goal must be to ensure their satisfaction. Forget about internal processes and do whatever you can to increase customer satisfaction.

Empower your agents

Appreciate your agents' hard work. Reward them. However, this doesn't mean that you should give them time off their work or the phone. Instead, give them an opportunity to work on individual projects that need not necessarily involve calls. This empowers your agents and gives them a better understanding of your business.

Ask your agents to notify recurring problems

Ask your agents if they notice any patterns or trends in the incoming calls. If there is a problem that affects several customers, your agents are usually the first people to know about it. By keeping in constant touch with them you can detect problems early and address them.

Keep your customers informed

Try to increase the number of one-call resolutions. This is not possible all the time, but that should be your goal. Keep the customer well-informed and up-to-date. They should know what is happening in the background. They should know what steps you are taking to solve their problem.

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Why Small Businesses Should Use a Call Center

Being a small business owner is tough. You have to play multiple roles and still you may not get the kind of results you hoped for.

You may be selling the best product in the world, but if you are a small business owner, you do not stand a chance against your big counterparts. So how can small businesses capture their share of the market? If you run a small business, making the best use of available resources is the key to retain your competitive advantage.

Small businesses have limited resources and hence they need to leverage what they have. One way of doing this is to outsource business activities that do not require special expertise. You can, for example, outsource your customer support.

You can hire a call center to communicate with your customers. Call centers now do much more than forwarding calls. By utilizing these services, you can break into the big league.

Benefits of outsourcing

Call centers provide round the clock customer support. That means there will be someone to interact with your customers 24 hours a day 7 days a week. This ensures that your customers will be greeted by a live agent whenever they contact your customer support. This improves customer confidence in your brand.

In addition, when you outsource your customer support activities to a call center, you get to devote your time to more pressing issues. Small businesses are unlikely to employ a large number of people; therefore, it is imperative that they use their employees' skills in areas where they are required. Though important, customer service is not your core business activity.

Outsourcing leads to higher satisfaction levels and more sales

Consider this situation: Your call center agent easily solved a problem your customer had. Now that the customer is happy, you could perhaps use this opportunity to ask them if they would like to use one of the new products you have launched? Most call centers now provide this service.

Besides interacting with your customers, call center agents can complement your sales team and help you attract more customers. Better still, call centers guarantee 24/7 live customer support. This is far better than having an automated messaging tool because the personal touch will increase your sales and profits.

Professional customer service

Small businesses can also use call centers to manage their logistics. When you hire their service, you will have a team of highly trained and courteous representatives working hard to improve your company's public image and reputation. You just need to teach them how to use your company's ordering software and process sales.

Most importantly, these professionals are trained to respond politely to customers under all circumstances. When you outsource your customer care activities, you do not have to worry about having to turn down a customer request at 2 in the morning. No matter what time the customer calls, a 24/7 call center will ensure that the call is attended.

To conclude, by outsourcing your customer care activities, you are giving your startup a chance to compete with the big players. Customer service has suddenly become big business. Companies can no longer ignore the need to provide great customer support all through the day because an unhappy customer will never return to them.

 

How Customer Contact Centers Are Going to Change Over the Next Few Years

Thanks to the credit crunch, companies have realized the need to adopt a customer centric strategy. However, contact centers are unlikely to undergo major changes over the next few years.

What are the possible changes?

Now that new and innovative products are making their foray into the market, we should definitely see an improvement in customer care. Several organizations have already turned to cloud-based systems to improve the performance of their contact centers. There are also many organizations that have not yet woken up to the challenge.

The problems facing the contact centers

The most important factor that is still preventing many companies from upgrading their contact centers is the lack of budgets. Another reason is that organizations have not yet felt the need to change. Contact centers have been around for decades and have established a certain way of doing business. They just don't feel the need to embrace change anytime soon.

It is true that all organizations now want to be customer centric, but very few have got the right technology and people in place to deal with an empowered customer. Budget constraints are another major problem. Most organizations allocate nearly 90% of their operating budget to run existing systems. They do not have enough money to invest in newer systems.

Furthermore, running a contact center is hard work. Agents can go sick and customer problems can go unresolved. As a result, call center managers do not have enough time to explore the market to see if new technologies or products are available. All of these factors prevent them from adopting change.

The slowly changing face of call centers

The biggest change so far is the adoption of VoIP technologies. Now nearly 50% contact centers use VoIP. However, this change is largely fuelled by a desire to reduce operating costs. What's more, those contact centers that use VoIP do not use all the available features.

Another area that witnessed growth is the deployment of automated tools like IVR. Unfortunately, these tools have not yet been able to significantly improve the customer service.

Contact centers of tomorrow

Things are unlikely to be all that different 3 or 5 years from now. Over the next few years, the most likely changes will be the investments in VoIP technologies. There will also be some workforce optimization.

The two things that give hope to people expecting a sea change in customer care are the rise of cloud solutions and the increasing empowerment of the customer. Most companies now realize the need to improve their customer service. This will definitely encourage companies to invest in technologies that support multiple channels.

Gone are the days when letters and telephone were the only tools customers had at their disposal. Now they can contact the support center via multiple channels including text messaging, chat, and video. Applications that can personalize web-based interactions will also be popular in the future. There will also be an increase in the number of companies using smart desktop and web-based systems.

As we have already seen, the biggest change will be the adoption of cloud-based VoIP solutions. When companies use cloud systems, they do not have to invest in expensive hardware and software. Using a cloud-based solution is as simple as using a traditional web browser. As a result, agents and customers can use them easily.

Social media

Customers are increasingly taking to the internet to voice their complaints. Tools that allow companies to integrate social activity to their customer handling strategies are also likely to be popular.

In short, customer contact centers are unlikely to change much during the next five years or so. However, customers are more likely to receive better service.

How to Deal with an Angry Customer

Check out this helpful video on effectively dealing with irate customers during calls for a positive outcome:

Top Reasons To Embrace Cloud Technology

Modern customer contact centers employ technologies that allow them to talk to a large number of customers from one center. Customer contact centers need to be innovative. In fact, call centers have been adopting innovative technologies for some time. Most centers already support call recording, automatic dialers, and sophisticated routing.

In most cases, the company owns both the software and the hardware and hence they have complete control over the technology they use. While several companies still prefer to own the technology, this approach has several drawbacks. First, purchasing equipment is costly. Second, proper maintenance will be difficult without expert guidance.

Many industry analysts feel that the need to own the technology is actually holding the industry back. But this should change when the cloud technology becomes more popular. Cloud services eliminate the need to own expensive hardware. Moreover, it allows customer centers to improve the quality of their services.

A recent report published by Gartner confirms that when call centers use cloud-based technology, their total operating cost reduces. Furthermore, most cloud solutions permit the integration of several channels.

Customers themselves have already embraced cloud technology. Apple customers enjoy the benefits of the cloud-based service iCloud. It allows them to store their data in the cloud and access it from any device they like. The popularity of cloud services will only increase in the coming years and then firms that do not possess the same capability will look outdated.

If cloud technologies are better why should businesses obsess with the idea of owning technology? This can be attributed to the natural conservatism present in the IT field. That also explains why IT departments are unwilling to adopt wholesale changes without assurance of the benefits.

There are some other reasons as well. IT professionals are responsible for ensuring that the technology will provide the desired results and that it will be constantly available. Consequently, they seek control over the technology they use.

Fortunately, cloud technology advanced so much during the last few years that service availability is no longer a cause for concern. In fact, several providers of cloud services now guarantee 99.99% service availability.

Moving your customer contact centers to the cloud has several benefit:

·         Cloud technology allows the consolidation of contact centers across different sites. This improves overall efficiency and reduces operating costs.

·         Cloud technology also provides the ability to utilize data from various sources. This helps frontline agents to serve their customers more efficiently.

·         Greater flexibility is another advantage. Cloud services allow you to scale your operations up or down. At any given time, you only pay for the services you use. When your requirements increase, you can upgrade to a higher plan. This flexibility helps save money.

·         You get access to expensive software and hardware without having to invest in them. Since the equipment is owned and operated by the service provider you do not have to worry about maintenance either.

 

·         When you use cloud services, you can upgrade to newer technologies as they arrive.

Hopefully, when a heavyweight analyst like Gartner confirms these benefits, and assures companies about the availability of impressive services, we will see many more organizations adopting cloud technology in the coming years.

How to Offer Superior Call Center Service

It always makes smart business sense to give high quality customer service, especially in tough times. We’ve listed some proven principles that you can use for improving your customer service quality.

Understand that customer expectations change

Your customers’ expectations are likely to rise and change over a period of time. What worked last year might not be good enough at present. Use interviews, focus groups, and customer surveys to figure out customer needs accurately. Try to understand their thoughts regarding what they feel they’re not getting from your business.

Use superior customer service quality to get an edge

Even though your products are great and your delivery systems efficient, it’s quite likely that your competitors’ offerings are great too. So how can you get an edge? Make a long lasting difference through personalized and responsive customer service quality. Customers should feel that you’re ready to go an extra mile for them and they’ll appreciate you for it - and not forget about it soon.

Improve customer service quality in a sustained manner

Try to go beyond basic service levels and pleasantly surprise customers with the interactions they wish for but don’t really expect. Generally determine your industry’s customer service quality and figure out how you can offer something better. Offer more options and flexibility than is normal. Try to be above average in terms of delivery speeds and product warranties.

Your customers will appreciate your high standards. Eventually, competitors will also match the steps. So keep up the pace and try to step up service quality in a sustained way.

Strike the right balance

Try to manage customer expectations in the best possible way. You need to strike a balance between their expectations and what you can deliver.

A great way to do so is by creating a good reputation. Make clear promises and deliver accordingly. Once you have your customers’ trust, even when you cannot service requests right away, they will be willing to be patient most of the time.

Make amends effectively

Things may go wrong sometimes. In such cases, try to quickly set things right and demonstrate high quality customer service. Display sincere concern for any inconvenience or frustration. Go a step ahead with something positive like a gift or a discount coupon for future use.

Treat complaining customers as business building aids

It’s a fact that customers having complaints can offer new insights to your business. They point out the faulty areas of your system and weak, problematic procedures. Through them, you know which of your products and services are below par.

They prove to be vital aids to building a strong business by highlighting areas in which your competitors score better or your staff is lacking. You can regard complainers as free consultants who help you raise your customer service quality!

Take responsibility

Blaming other members and departments for shortfalls does not help. No point blaming computers, the budget, or the system either. In fact, this makes things worse. The customer is not interested in your internal problems; he wants a solution to HIS problems. Just focus on ending your customer’s pain as soon as possible and make the required changes.

5 Key Metrics that Customer-Centric Support Centers Need to Measure

Contact centers need to measure what matters rather than what moves. It is a well-known fact that customer influence is now at an all-time high. Contact centers can no longer rely on metrics such as Average Handle Time and Number of Calls Attended per Hour. Of course, such metrics might have been important until a few years ago, but now customer care has changed dramatically.

Today's customers demand quick and stellar service. A quick response is appreciated only when it is delivered in a personalized and professional manner. In addition, you have to carry out what you have promised to do.

That said, straight productivity measures such as AHT are still important. For example, these measurements can be used to identify training and workflow issues.

However, customer contact centers that understand the need to provide top notch customer service have shifted their focus to 5 far more effective metrics.

Service Level

Your contact center needs to be accessible. Accessibility problems will definitely frustrate customers and often determines the tone with which they interact with the customer care agent. The number one accessibility metric has always been and will always be Service Level (SL). It reveals the percentage of calls that were answered in a specific time span usually measured in seconds.

Service Level is a more accurate accessibility metric than the Average Speed of Answer (ASA). Since ASA is an average, managers may wrongly assume that customers have difficulty (or no difficulty) reaching an agent promptly. For example, ASA of 30 seconds doesn't necessarily mean that all callers had to wait 30 seconds to talk to the agent. Many calls were answered in much less time. Several callers had to wait much longer.

First-Call Resolution or FCR

FCR plays a huge role in determining customer satisfaction, costs and agent morale. Studies have revealed that customer satisfaction decreases by 35-45 percent when they have to make a second call for the exact same issue. However, accurately measuring FCR can be difficult. Contact centers ought to strive to measure this important metric as best as they could. They also need to equip agents with all the techniques and tools they need to improve FCR.

Contact quality and customer satisfaction

These two metrics are intrinsically connected and the most successful contact centers measure them properly. You cannot measure contact quality without incorporating the customer's perspective into the equation.

The best customer care organizations measure their agents' quality scores using a combination of customer ratings and internal compliance results gathered from the post-contact customer satisfaction surveys. This comprehensive approach allows the contact center to gain a more realistic view of Contact Quality. This will not be possible if only internal monitoring was used. What's more, this approach allows the contact center gather critical customer satisfaction data.

Employee Satisfaction or E-Sat

Those who ignore the importance of employee satisfaction as a vital metric may find it difficult to achieve customer satisfaction and cost containment. There is an important relation between agent satisfaction and their performance. If customer agents are unhappy with their work, you can’t expect them to make customers happy. Any failure to improve employee satisfaction will lead to bad customer experience and high employee attrition levels. Both factors can increase the costs for a contact center. Smart centers typically survey their staff through a surveying agency at least one or two times a year to find out whether they like their job.

Tech Support Teams – Can’t Live Without Them

You might think that “tech support” involves some lowly and dismal tasks. People in this department have to deal with irate, screaming voices. They’re sometimes aware of how a problem can be resolved, but cannot do so because they don’t have the required authority.

Tech support jobs are for the poor slobs without alternative job prospects, true? If you think so, you’ve got your tech support concepts upside down. You're overlooking important channels for sales, marketing, and product development.

Your company’s unexpected face

Most of us have been jarred by a person’s voice not matching his picture at some time. A similar thing can happen when rosy things depicted on your company website do not hold true. You keep your home page as your company’s public face. But do things stay in tandem when you actually start speaking?

Tech support is possibly the single human interaction most customers will have with you. Can you leave this task to the least paid, least-qualified and worst-treated employees?

Tech support generates sales

One tends to think the reason for having a tech support team is to answer questions and sort out confused people. But we feel that the objective of tech support is making customers do a fantastic job which involves your product.

This implies that you don't simply help them find a menu command–you try to figure out what they’re trying to achieve and assist them with it. You don't simply apologize for a missing feature – you suggest a workaround.

When you enable your customers, you’re not simply adding value to your product – you’re enhancing your entire company’s image. If you help your customer become awesome, he’ll pay you to stay awesome always. Now doesn’t that increase sales?

Good tech support - a pleasant surprise

Most people have negative things to say about tech support. When you want to know how fonts are changed, they ask you to restart the computer. If you want your billing address changed, you’re presented with three products you could buy. And other things like navigating complex menu options, waiting long periods and typing the same serial number multiple times.

A pizza supplier can earn bonus points if he delivers an unexpected free box of garlic bread with your pizza. Similarly, when tech support surprises a customer pleasantly with something additional which benefits him (not you) he’s going to be happy. He might post great tweets about your service, start following you on social platforms and encourage friends and followers to do so too.

Oh gosh! It looks like tech support has better social media outreach than your regular program of hiring interns to post gracious comments on blogs randomly. Does this surprise you?

It has been said that the best way to reach a customer’s heart is to under-promise and over-deliver. Most people don’t expect much from tech support anyway! Agreed super-fabulous tech support is great, but even merely acting like a human being puts you ahead. Answering an email with a support executive’s name at the end works better than sending an automated response.

Why give up such easy opportunities to make customers happy? Pleasant surprises are quite rare in business and if your company gets a reputation of giving them often, don’t you stand to gain?