Call centers are certainly a boon to organizations that want to create, develop and maintain good relationships with their clients. It helps them add a personal touch to their sales and after-sales services.
Customers feel comfortable reaching out to companies and speaking to an agent directly than referring to a page which answers FAQs. It makes them feel more valued and better assisted. What happens if the call center fails to deliver the efficiency and the effectiveness it was supposed to deliver? It soon turns out to be loss-making venture for company instead of being a revenue-generating unit.
A call center might turn toxic due to a number of reasons, the biggest one of them being the employees at the call center. Demotivated employees, who do not connect to the objectives of the company, are bored and irritated to answer the queries of your customers. They can create bad publicity for your company in no time. On the other hand, a motivated workforce can bring in great numbers, better profits, and higher efficiency. So when you are pondering about the factors you should look into to create a successful call center, employees are the first ones you should look into.
Here is a quick checklist that will give you a good idea of the steps that need to be taken to create and maintain a successful call center.
1. Set Clear Business Goals and Objectives
More often than not, a call center is a big investment and a cost unit which you would soon like to earn big bucks for you. However, this is not the only reason why you should set up a call center. Find out the actual reason as to why you have set it up and what you would like it to achieve for your company. Once you are clear about the objectives, align them with that of your company’s so you can connect the effects of its functions directly to that of the company. It is also important that your employees are on the same page as you are. Educate them on the objectives you are hoping to achieve and help them align their goals to those of the call center. Having shared goals and objectives goes a long way to create loyalty and motivation within the employees.
2. Mode of Call Center
After looking at the needs of the call center and how much it will cost the company, decide on the kind of call center you would like to go for. You can either choose a physical call center or a virtual one. A physical call center is at a particular location with in-house agents attending to the daily activities. A virtual call center on the other hand, is cheaper, and has agents working remotely from various locations. Since you do not need to invest in real estate and technology, and can operate through cloud systems, the second mode turns out to be more economical.
3. Technological Needs
Be wit PBX or the kind of software you are using in your call center, every single aspect has a major effect on the efficiency level of your call center and the employees. In order to run a successful call center it is imperative that you examine your existing software and phone system and decide on whether an upgrade is necessary or not.
4. Hiring the Right People
As stated earlier, employees are the main resources of any company. A call center is all about human communication. You need to find the right people who can engage with customers in a polite manner, will handle their queries intelligently, and are knowledgeable about the company’s processes. Even though training them is always an option, finding the right candidate at the very start makes your work way easier. Try to look for motivated and keen candidates who look confident and know how to comfortably handle a conversation.
5. Training Employees
The importance of training your employees cannot be undermined. You will have to provide your employees a particular script to follow, software to input the data in, and technology they have been trained well to handle. However, there is much more that goes into the job. Call center employees have to deal with various kinds of customers on a daily basis. They need to be prepared to handle all kinds of queries and behavior. You can do so by conducting continuous trainings and refresher courses to keep them updated and prepared to handle any given situation.
By following the above mentioned points in the checklist, you can be assured to have a smoothly-functioning call center and create your success story. In order to find out whether your call center is indeed successful or not, you will need to set up some KPIs or key performance indicators. It will help you further in ascertaining the success of your call center initiative.
