Let’s get straight to the point. Solving problems from the first call is the main task of any remote consulting. Every entrepreneur knows that customer satisfaction always converts into profit for the company, and high-quality service is a tool that helps generate money.
Quality control of call center customer service is one of the ways to manage the performance of operators, but it does not improve it by itself. We have studied various aspects of the call center organization and identified strategic measures that will help improve qualitative and quantitative performance metrics.
The trend of recent years is to automate all processes, because when properly configured, it increases productivity and customer satisfaction, and reduces costs.
Therefore, the first three ways to improve the work of the contact center relate to setting up targeted, automatic, uninterrupted work of the staff, the service process, and work with the customer’s history.
1. Automatic service using an IVR system
Everyone has encountered it, but how does the contact center owner benefit from it, and what are the advantages for the customer? Let’s consider its advantages.
- Reduces the time spent waiting for an operator to answer a question
- Reduces human resource costs, as according to statistics, IVR systems allow to serve from 30 to 60% of customers 24/7 without interruptions.
- Reduces the workload of operators.
- Allows you to implement automatic distribution of clients to company specialists, depending on the issue with which the person has applied.
- Affects the formation of the company’s image.
- Simplifies the organization of information and advertising services: informing about a new product, congratulations on holidays, changes in the work schedule, etc.
- Integrates with CRM.
IVR system and customer loyalty
With all the above advantages, the voice menu can negatively affect the mood of customers. In practice, customers have to listen to the same information several times to resolve their issue. To eliminate this drawback, the voice menu is based on a well-thought-out logical structure, and the customer is given the opportunity to directly contact the operator if he or she has a non-standard question. Listening to unnecessary information in this case is only annoying.
It also reduces customer satisfaction:
- looped music that is annoying;
- the lack of an opportunity to communicate with a live person;
- multi-stage menu structure.
2. Personalized work with clients using a CRM system
You have heard a lot about the existence of various CRMs, but do you want to know how it will help your call center? You must admit that it is the dream of any manager to have quick access to all the affairs of his subordinates; to be sure that all applications are processed; to consolidate the company’s work and customer information in one place; to prevent information leakage – these and not only these tasks can be solved by a CRM system.
In addition to the above, CRM allows you to:
- choose a relevant product for the client based on the history of interaction and available personal information that is recorded in the system;
- implement a call processing schedule, thereby increasing the speed of staff work;
- plan sales and forecast profits;
- automatically distribute the contact database for calls;
- automate routine tasks of the staff.
Popular CRM systems for call center management:
- Bitrix24 CRM
- AmoCRM
- Megaplan CRM
- BPM online Sales
- 1C CRM
- VtigerCRM
- RetailCRM
- TimeDigital CRM
- OneBox
- VoIPTime Contact Center v.2
3. WFM system for working time management
It’s very simple: you set the required level of service quality, number of employees, days off, work schedule, breaks in the program – and it calculates the optimal workload for each employee.
The return on investment and improvement of the quality of work is achieved through:
Reducing unnecessary staff, building an optimal balance between the number of staff and the expected amount of work;
- distribution of employees according to their skills, covering the company’s need for specialists in all areas;
- even and constant distribution of the workload on operators;
- Strict adherence to the work schedule;
- Reducing the costs for paying overtime.
4. Dealing with staff burnout
Often, working in a call center is considered a temporary job. The staff turnover rate in this niche can range from 20 to 40%.
Staff turnover occurs for internal organizational reasons, such as poor business processes, poor training, low pay; and objective reasons, such as high emotional stress, which cannot be avoided but can only be compensated for.
The duration and quality of employees’ work is influenced by their job satisfaction, salary, and
availability of high-quality training and support at the adaptation stage (shortened training periods have a negative impact on the subsequent performance of operators)
- availability of flexible working hours;
- the ability of staff to communicate with each other during breaks;
- availability of a separate recreation area where you can move from your workplace;
- career development opportunities.
According to HR statistics, management personnel experience burnout faster than operators due to a wide range of responsibilities, routine, stress, and constant emotional involvement.
You can reduce the turnover rate, improve the quality of call center customer service, and increase employee satisfaction through the management style and development of corporate culture.
Thanks to the targeted creation of a corporate culture, the Israeli call center Call Yachol was able to reduce staff turnover by up to 20%. The trusting atmosphere and friendly nature of communication between management and employees allows the company to retain experienced and qualified staff.
5. KPIs and understanding of what employees are paid for
Key performance indicators of a call center are divided into a number of groups:
- Performance KPIs;
- KPIs of call center availability for subscribers;
- Customer satisfaction KPIs;
- Service quality KPIs;
- financial KPIs, and others.
In order for the efficiency of the call center to grow, each operator must be interested in personal growth. To do this, he or she needs to know the key metrics by which his or her work is evaluated and salary is calculated. They should be objective and achievable. KPIs can include: the number of problems solved from the first call, the number of failures, the number of connections per hour, the time a call is held on hold, customer satisfaction, etc.
More and more companies are realizing that the main KPI is customer satisfaction. By including a quantitative assessment of this indicator in the performance evaluation of operators, the contact center additionally motivates them to apply the knowledge gained in building communications with the client and to choose the best option for solving their issues.
6. Training and supervision of operators
Everyone understands that professionals are made, not born. Experienced supervisors will help operators develop:
They listen to call recordings and analyze what went wrong with the operator.
They listen to current calls and prompter to the operator during the online dialog.
During a coaching session with the operator, they analyze the mistakes made during the week, study a practical case, and give the operator an individual homework assignment. All the issues that an employee may face are gradually studied, for example, how to work with objections, how to behave in a conflict situation, how to lead the customer to the purchase faster, etc.
Provide specialized knowledge. For example, on banking products and processes, if the operator works in the banking sector.
“Under-training” always negatively affects employee satisfaction and the quality of their work.
7. Motivation system as a tool for managing employee performance
The purpose of any motivation measure is to make the efforts of the staff focused. Motivation methods include:
Monetary incentives. There is a lot of controversy around this method, but it still works in our labor market.
Flexible schedule, which will be convenient for students, mothers with small children and people with such a need.
Opportunity for career growth, providing employees with a real algorithm for increasing their position.
Various bonuses with an equal opportunity for everyone to receive them (for example, an extra day of vacation, movie tickets, a concert).
Gratitude from customers. Real feedback helps to lift your spirits, motivate you to work at a higher level, not to let you down and justify the trust.
The ability to choose a day off, which is convenient due to the floating work schedule.
Involve staff in the change process. Invite employees to take part in discussing innovations, instead of issuing discharges.
And also:
Free breakfasts or lunches.
- Collective development and training programs.
- Competitions among operators.
- Motivational games (not often, so as not to lose their value).
- The opportunity to try yourself in another position in another department.
- Open meetings.
The staff is always motivated by a strong leader, healthy relationships within the team and with the management form loyalty to the company and unite them.
8. High-quality scripts for working with clients
A checklist of a phone call helps to increase the speed of service and, accordingly, the productivity of employees. Assessing the quality of operators’ work becomes much easier, as it is enough to audit phone calls for compliance with the script.
Working with scripts helps operators to:
communicate with customers/subscribers more confidently;
- not to get lost during the conversation and have thoughtful answers to all customer questions at hand
- easily lead the customer to the required targeted action, eliminating the loss of the strategic part of the consultation due to the operator’s low experience;
- minimize mistakes, easily get out of the way if the conversation goes sideways
- keep the bar high in the level of service quality;
it is easier for newcomers to move from training to working directly with clients.
Working with a single script provides all customers with the same quality of service. Scripts are easy to update electronically and all operators will immediately receive up-to-date information. To solve these problems, you can add the Sales Script Builder module to CRM.
In order for the call script to be effective, ask operators for regular feedback on the point at which the client breaks down, what they ask, and why they refuse further dialogue and cooperation.
9. Audit the quality of operators’ work to identify weaknesses
The main method of assessing the quality of service in a contact center is to manually evaluate the conversations of operators. A manager or supervisor has an observation checklist (OCL) to evaluate the quality of customer service. As a rule, the sample is from 3 to 6 calls. The assessment is necessarily included in the payroll system of the employee and team supervisor.
Third-party service quality specialists can also be involved in the analysis to evaluate the consultation and give recommendations on how to eliminate weaknesses.
Mystery shopping is a method of monitoring and evaluating the process of servicing incoming and outgoing calls in a call center. The operator’s work is audited according to a typical scenario (provocative scenarios are possible), and after the call, the performer fills out a questionnaire indicating whether the service standard is met or not, and describes his subjective impressions as a potential client.
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Assessment of customer satisfaction for conscious improvement of service quality
Customer satisfaction assessment is not only a quantitative assessment of staff performance, but also a qualitative one, as it indicates the moments of staff underperformance and places where service standards do not meet customer expectations.
Customer surveys can be used to assess customer satisfaction (CSI) and loyalty (NPS). NPS and CSI indices are metrics for measuring customer experience. Tracking them over time shows how effective certain changes were, what attracts and repels customers. Open-ended questions in the questionnaire provide information on how to improve the quality of the call center.
P.S. Each of the listed points affects the final result. A well-built customer service system allows you to meet customer expectations, maintain customer loyalty, and avoid the spread of negative feedback.
The customer service quality assessment system should include an audit of the process of communication with the client and the study of the client’s impressions after interacting with the operator and the company as a whole.
For an effective customer retention process:
It is important to develop omnichannel service, reducing the client’s efforts in every possible way to resolve his or her issue (the Omni-Channel module is specially developed for CRM).
Do not neglect technical innovations.
- Make personalized offers.
- Study the experience of other call centers.
- Work with people: pay personal attention, train, and motivate.
- Supervise the service process by supervisors and make a third-party assessment by involving mystery shoppers.
Regularly measure customer satisfaction and loyalty, and correct those customer comments that reduce their score.