Contact centers have a reputation for being sources of stress, so much so that there are entire companies dedicated to helping people avoid calling customer service. One of these companies even allows you to hire someone to navigate annoying IVR systems for you.
Thankfully, the days of endless holds and horrible customer experiences appear to be numbered. Technologies like Cisco’s Unified Contact Center aim to decrease wait times, provide multiple channels of communication, and give contact center employees the tools they need to provide better service.
Implementing an omnichannel solution for your contact center is necessary if you want to remain competitive. However, this kind of implementation requires partnering with a technology solutions provider, and can take some time to execute.
You don’t have to wait until your new technology is implemented to start optimizing your contact center. Here are some ways to improve operations while you’re preparing for a larger technology transition.
Revisit Your KPIs
Before you can optimize your contact center, you and your team need to get a firm grip on what “optimization” means. In order to do that, your department needs key performance indicators (KPIs) that are relevant and realistic.
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Typical contact center KPIs include time to answer, abandon rate, cost per call, and first call resolution. Gather your team to review KPIs and select the ones you believe will be most impactful for your organization.
Use Your Survey Data
Many contact centers have technology that gathers customer feedback immediately following phone calls. Unfortunately, not every organization that has this technology ends up using the data it collects.
Customer feedback is crucial to any contact center optimization strategy. Take some time to review the feedback you’ve received and brainstorm ways you can leverage it to improve operations.
Listen to Your Agents
Customers aren’t the only important source of feedback — your contact center agents have likely learned a lot in their time interacting with them. Collecting feedback from agents can serve two incredibly valuable purposes: growing employee engagement and improving customer service.
There are tools designed to help managers measure workforce engagement that allow employees to submit anonymous feedback. Whether you choose to use these tools or another method, the feedback you receive will be invaluable in helping you optimize your contact center.
Save IVR for Lower-Value Customers
IVR systems have saved a lot of contact centers a lot of time and resources, but they are despised by customers. How did this happen? Part of the problem has been the implementation of IVR as a one-size-fits all, universal solution.
The truth is that some customer issues can be solved using IVR, but some issues cannot. In addition, while every customer deserves to be treated with respect, not every customer is of the same value to your business.
Determining ways to reserve IVR solutions for low-value customers or for those with simple issues can increase overall customer satisfaction and help you improve your KPIs.
Diversify Your Workforce
Your contact center isn’t likely to experience a steady amount of traffic all year long. For some industries, like retail and health insurance, seasonal surges in calls can be predicted. However, many businesses will experience periods of increased call volume without prior warning. In these cases, a lack of preparation will result in extremely long holds, overworked employees, and irate customers.
Preparing for extremely busy periods requires building a base of part-time and remote employees that can be called upon in an emergency. In addition, implementing policies and software to allow all of your employees to work remotely can be a huge benefit in the case of a natural disaster.
Scrap Unnecessary Scripts
Scripts have been the central tool in call center agents’ arsenals for a long time, and they definitely have their benefits. Using scripts to respond to common inquiries and issues effectively guarantees a uniform delivery of service, and protects your company against mistakes agents might make if left to make decisions in the moment.
However, some organizations go overboard with scripts. Writing a script for every possible interaction slows down your service and makes your contact center extremely inflexible. Consolidating scripts into their most useful forms and letting your agents have more freedom to answer complex questions can help you rapidly optimize your contact center.
Update Your Software
Here’s a tip that you can start tackling right after you finish reading this post. Make sure all of the software your employees use is up to date, and if it isn’t, schedule an update as soon as possible. It sounds intuitive, but the fact is that most companies still don’t keep up with software updates.
Updating software can help protect your organization from cyberattacks, and will increase the speed and efficiency of your digital operations. Plus, when it comes time to integrate your existing software with your new unified communications system, you’ll be up-to-date and ready to hit the ground running.
Using these tips, you can begin optimizing your contact center immediately. Then, start researching potential partners for a truly comprehensive long-term optimization process.
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