Some people tend to go through life without making changes to their appearance. Others frequently change their look to reflect current trends or change with the seasons; women sometimes go from long hair to short, men often grow a beard. Regardless of the change, even minor improvements can have a dramatic impact. Let’s apply the same concept to the contact center.
Some contact centers operate the same way, year after year, offering their services via the same channels, with no interest in making changes or improvements. Others undergo makeovers, both big and small, and enjoy all the accompanying compliments. The industry praises them, their customers are happy, and agents are proud of their place of work.
Follow these 5 simple steps to give your call center the makeover it deserves.
There are a few things to keep in mind when building an A+ team of call center agents. First and foremost, make sure that you’re hiring the right people (that’s of course more difficult than it sounds). Once the right candidates are in place, the training becomes critical. We already know how monotonous a call center agent’s role can be but, by making the training process exciting and fun, you’re creating a better environment for everyone. Remember, it’s not just the initial training that’s important; creating a culture of continuous learning is also essential to the success of your contact center.
As a customer service leader, you know that not every interaction is going to go smoothly. It comes with the territory – having thick skin is essential for a CSR. Sometimes it’s easy to maintain your composure while dealing with a customer complaint, other times it’s more difficult. Whether the customer is entitled to their anger is not worth debating, the only thing you can do is try not to escalate the situation any further. We’ve all been there, we put our ego before the situation and things get out of control. A lot of people talk about HOW to handle customer rage properly, but are we doing things to enable this behavior?
Last week, Fonolo hosted an insightful live discussion on how to handle customer service in a crisis. This expert panel discussed what brands can do to ensure that customer service is not compromised during times of stress in the contact center. They touched on social media for crisis management, reducing customer frustration, and so much more! To save you some time, we’ve extracted video snippets showcasing highlights from the discussion.
Picture this: By dinner time tomorrow you’ll be sitting around the table enjoying a festive Thanksgiving meal and preparing yourself for the lethargic feeling you’ll have after consuming an unimaginable amount of food (nom-nom). You’ll sit back on your favourite spot on the sofa, put your feet up and have thoughts of gratitude. How thankful you are to be surrounded by great family, caring friends, and all the gifts of life we’re lucky to have. Now let’s take that scenario and think about how to show the same amount of gratitude to call center agents.
You’re ready to outsource your call center, but not sure where to start. It’s a tale as old as time. Developing a concise strategy for exporting your customer service center can be a daunting challenge, but not impossible. It’s important to be thorough in your planning and not to be disheartened if you’ve started and stopped the process one too many times already. The truth is: No two call centers are the same, but when deciding on a BPO, they can follow the same essential steps. Here we uncover the key steps towards building a strong BPO strategy so that you can get your call center up and running in no time.
