Managing a call center is tough! Uncooperative customers, demanding bosses, and extremely high expectations drown call center employees in a pool of difficulties. Additionally, good staff is sparse and difficult to find. Managing increased client expectations amidst limited resources proves to be a call center manager’s biggest challenge. Also, exaggerated bad reviews gain a lot of attention on social media and shoo away potential customers.
Only strong-hearted managers can take up these responsibilities.
We understand your struggles, and that’s why we have collected the best practices to help you run a successful call center.
“Take care of your employees. They will take care of your business.” – Richard Branson
Great workers are the backbone of your business. They work hard, take their job seriously, bring good results, and also improve your organization through valuable criticism. Good managers value these criticisms and work on them to progress your organization. So, nurture your staff and ensure that they are happy, and in turn, they will satisfy your customers well.
“A satisfied customer is the best source of advertisement.“ – G.S. Alag
A loyal customer base is the foundation of good business because they consume your products and advertise them as well. Customer satisfaction, the main focus area of all call centers, should make tracking customer experience an extremely important process. This simple step helps you curb any potential bad reviews. CSAT, NPS, and customer effort will ensure you have good foresight.
“To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed. Execution is worth millions.” – Steve Jobs
Monitoring experiences will give you great insights. However, taking action on the insights will give you tangible results. Including customer feedback in your staff’s performance indicators ensures your team is on the right path.
“A hammer cuts a tree in 30 days. While an ax can cut the same tree in 30 minutes. That’s the difference skills can make.” – Jim Rohn
Businesses value skilled employees very highly in the marketplace, and they deserve this special treatment! Most people are unskilled when they enter the workforce. Good training programs help put them on the right track. So, this is the one segment where cost-cutting or compromising is simply not acceptable! Top-notch training programs are amongst the most treasured best practices in call center workforce management.
“A persistent strong desire pushes your goal into action.” – Anonymous
Most people want to feel like they are adding value. Hawkincentives.com states that 39 percent of employees feel unrecognized in their work sphere. Additionally, 77 percent of them claimed that they would work harder if they were appreciated and motivated.
We hope you understand how small motivational gestures motivate your employees to do better.
“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, even you.” – Anne Lamott
Rest and productivity seem to be opposites as working smart and not resting make you productive. However, this conception couldn’t have been farther from the truth. Research backs rest breaks as a means to improve productivity and has also shown that frequent breaks have positive effects on productivity, mental well-being, and creativity.
So, plan breaks for your employees to guarantee positive effects for the business.
“When you use gut to make your decisions, you are either lucky or wrong.“ – Suhail Doshi
The 21st-century world runs on data. It has truly emerged to be as essential as oil. While experiences and instincts are sometimes on-point, they are highly unreliable for making big decisions. Every customer is unique and demands a high level of attention in today’s world. While customization is desirable, common issues can be resolved through the big picture view of data. Similarly, data extracted from your employees help you recognize common operational issues and improve your processes easily.
Employees and customer data can be collected through efficient surveys and reviews.
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is equivalent to magic.“ – Sir Arthur Clarke
The technological revolution is real! So, embrace technology and produce efficient systems that drive results.
Technologies like IVR, blended call flows, text message outreach services, and business intelligence will help in getting more positive responses from your customers.
“Market segmentation is a natural result of vast differences among people.” – Donald Norman
Segmentation helps address customer requirements, increase profits, and advance customer retention.[caption id="attachment_12345" align="alignnone" width="300"]
Source: Gartner.com[/caption]According to gartner.com, customers can be segregated based on loyalty, profitability, and churn rate as: –
Handling a call center is a difficult task. However, your job has two main focus groups to satisfy: your staff and customers.
We sincerely hope these best practices for call center management will progress your business journey.