4 Clever Ways to Drive Call Center Performance

Improving performance has always been an area of importance for contact centers. However, as the service industry grows to new heights, it’s important for professionals to see beyond the horizon.

Aside from some of the traditional ways of driving performance, which often involves rigorously tracking call center metrics, what other smart and simple methods can you use?

Let’s have a look at 4 easy ways you can drive call center performance today. Even if you just adopt one new approach, it can make a world of difference to your overall results.

Buddy-Up Agents

This is such a simple approach that not only creates camaraderie, but it also educates agents and builds confidence. Have agents listen to each other’s calls in group sessions and discuss good aspects of the call along with areas of improvement.

We all deal with conversation differently, but that doesn’t mean that one way is better than the next. Encourage learning and growing in a group setting so that agents can form relationships, learn from each other, and improve their overall interactions with customers.

This methodology also produces consistency, from the consumer’s perspective. A proper buddy-up system creates one voice throughout the organization, regardless of the agent.

Focus on the Experience

The customer experience provided through contact centers is seen as a competitive differentiator by many organizations.  In fact, this year it will reign as the primary investment, with 68% of businesses planning to increase their customer management spend.

It’s critical to relay the importance of this to front-line staff. One way of doing so is by assessing the performance of your call center agents based on specific customer experience outcomes. Learn from the interactions that were not successful, and praise those that achieved great results.

Coach Your Agents – Then Coach Them Some More

Effective coaching ensures that the skills, techniques and methods taught during training are practiced and applied during actual customer interactions. Ongoing coaching might be the most frequently missed opportunity to improve call center performance.

Call center agents hold the key to your company’s brand image. Educate each agent on the big picture and how they can contribute to the success or failure of the contact center. Monitor their calls and ensure that best practices are being followed on an on-going basis.

Stay Calm, Turn Call-Backs On

Each facet of a customer’s lifecycle has its frustrations, from having to phone a call center multiple times for the same problem, to speaking with reps who simply don’t know how to fix their issue.

Not surprisingly, the biggest frustration, by a whopping 43%, is being left on hold. Long hold times are also a frustration for business, as it costs them $130 Billion in productivity loses.

More and more contact centers are realizing the negative effect this is having on their customer satisfaction scores, abandonment rate and the overall customer experience. Luckily, there are easy ways of correcting this issue. 50% of customers say providing an exact wait time would appease them, however according to Forrester 75% prefer the option of a call-back.