The digital age is upon us, and one of the benefits it brings is that customers are attached to companies more than ever before. With a quick click of a button, customers can text, leave a direct message, and find social media profiles of any company they want, whereas before their only option was calling.
With this increase in accessibility comes an increase in customer expectations. Even though customers are turning to new methods of communication, the phone still reigns supreme. This makes call centers more important, because they are often considered the nucleus of an entire company’s customer service efforts.
To stay at the top of their game, call centers should practice the following best practices.
Use call monitoring to your advantage
It is a common practice to use call monitoring when your agents are on the phone, but most companies simply use them for training purposes. You can do so much more with the call monitoring software you have, such as using it as a method to identify recurring issues within your business. Chances are, when one client calls in with a problem, multiple other customers are dealing with the same issue.
So use call monitoring to track problems as they happen. When they happen, you can fix the problem and ensure your clients keep returning to you. Think of the web based call center software as an investment in your business.
Don’t drown in too many metrics
It is easy to go overboard when following your metrics, but tracking too many can make you feel like you’re swimming in data. So take a step back and take a look at what kind of metrics you really need to track and focus on those.
For instance, are all of your calls pretty long? Then you don’t necessarily have to closely monitor call abandonment and average handle time. But if your clients are on the phone for a while and still leave negative customer satisfaction scores, then you should be looking into the metrics such as hold time, average handle time, and how many times the same customer calls back.
Track your churn rate
We all know that customer retention can be powerful. An increase in retention rate by just 5 percent has the potential to boost your profits by as little as 25 percent to up to 95 percent, according to the Harvard Business School. A company’s churn rate is the number of clients who end their relationship with a company after a specific period. So this could be something like the majority of customers do not return after spending 30 days with a company.
Keeping track of your churn rate and how it correlates with changes in your products and services can give you insight into your company’s performance as a whole.
Avoid negative language
Most call centers operate on a script, but some of these scripts contain unnecessary negative language that can turn a customer away in a split second. Certain phrases such as, “I’m going to put you on hold,” can create a negative interaction and the feeling that a customer isn’t valuable. So instead of saying that, you can include something in your script that says, “I’m sorry but I may not be the best person to answer this question for you. I am going to transfer you to our expert on this matter, so please give me two minutes to connect the call.”
Conclusion
Following these call center best practices can really work wonders in improving your customer interaction, increasing your customer retention, and boosting your business as a whole.
