Need some call center improvement ideas? We’ve got you covered. Today we’ll look at eight ways you can improve both the customer and agent experience in your contact center.
Let’s dive in:
- Measure the right call center metrics
- Add some artificial intelligence (AI) to your call center
- Upgrade your call center software
- Focus on omnichannel efficiency
- Keep agents motivated
- Create buyer personas
- Review your workflows
- Focus on your Net Promoter Score (NPS)
⭐ Take your contact center to a whole new level ⭐
Next-Gen Cloud Contact Centers for Dummies®, RingCentral Special Edition eBook
8 call center improvement ideas for any business
Whether you run a call center for a small business or run one for an enterprise, these 8 improvement tips can help you prioritize your next steps.
1. Measure the right call center metrics
If improvements need to be made in your call center, you won’t know what they are unless you have the appropriate metrics in place first. Luckily, there are several KPIs you can assess that will provide some insight on where improvements can be made.
Things like first contact resolution, customer ratings, and hold wait times may be areas that are negatively impacting customer experience. With the right KPIs at your fingertips, you can quickly identify areas of concern and take proactive steps to make improvements.
You can also use your call center metrics to showcase what’s working well, and share them with all appropriate parties in your call center.
2. Add some artificial intelligence (AI) to your call center
We are increasingly dependent on AI and automation in our daily lives and interactions, including in contact centers. AI is growing rapidly in the world of customer service, as customers increasingly demand some form of AI automation in their interactions with contact centers.
Both conversational AI and conversation intelligence can improve contact center quality in areas where your organization may be short on agents. It can also help balance efficient responses with personalized customer experiences and facilitate more agent-customer interactions in less time.
Contact centers can quickly implement AI elements in their workplaces with innovative cloud-based solutions from RingCentral.
3. Invest in better contact center software
Ultimately, all contact centers should be keeping up-to-date with software to make the jobs of agents easier and provide excellent customer service. Out-of-date platforms can hamstring contact center operations and frustrate customers. Instead, state-of-the-art software can facilitate customer engagement and break down typical system, channel, and department silos.
When was the last time you explored what innovations are available in contact center software today? It’s possible that there are ready-made solutions to problems your contact center is encountering. With better call center software from RingCentral, you can quickly and easily improve your contact center performance.
4. Focus on omnichannel customer service
Customers want a variety of communication channels when they reach out to your contact center. Voice has always been a staple and continues to be a predominant communication channel, particularly when it comes to dealing with more complex issues, but other channels should also be offered.
Live chat, chatbots, email, social media, and SMS are other ways customers can communicate with call centers that have the right communications platform in place. Investing in an omnichannel contact center is crucial if you want to create a positive customer experience. That said, the efficiency of an omnichannel platform also matters.
Customers should always be routed to the right person to help them. If customers are regularly directed to the wrong person or department, they can quickly become frustrated, while caller traffic will build up and cause a slowdown in the contact center.
Instead, an omnichannel contact center should focus on segmenting customers to the right channels to ensure they are always matched with the appropriate agent to improve overall customer satisfaction.
5. Keep agents motivated
Unmotivated agents are less likely to stick around for the long haul. Many contact centers hemorrhage money to constantly recruit and train new hires because of high rates of agent turnover.
Agent turnover rates range between 30% to 45%, and the average cost to replace just one agent can be anywhere from $10,000 to $15,000. So, a 30% turnover rate can cost a call center $300,000 every year!
Keeping agents motivated at work is key to reducing agent churn. There are several ways to motivate agents to improve their level of happiness and satisfaction on the job and boost their performance. For instance, contact centers can provide better training, adopt more innovative collaborative communication tools, implement recognition programs, and offer gifts and incentives to increase agent satisfaction and motivation.
6. Create buyer personas
Developing a customer journey map is an essential part of ensuring a positive customer experience. How people interact with your contact center can help you understand your customers better and identify what can be done to improve their experience so they keep coming back. The results of customer journey mapping are monumental and have been found to boost marketing ROI by 54% and upsell revenue by 56%, so it’s certainly worth the effort.
To create an effective customer journey map, it’s helpful to first create a buyer persona, particularly for new customers. Establish your target customer persona and some important details about who they are. With this info handy throughout the process, agents will be better able to stay focused on the customer and what their specific needs are at every stage of the journey. It’s a cost-effective way to ensure your contact center always performs at its best.
7. Review call center workflows
Agents can be well-trained and highly experienced, but issues can still arise if a contact center’s workflows hit regular snags. Bottlenecks in contact center workflows can create multiple problems, including dissatisfied customers, wasted time, high stress among agents, and lost revenue.
Using cutting-edge software can help alleviate any bottlenecks and improve the flow of work. More specifically, using a set of contact center best practices should be followed, including using the cloud and integration capabilities.
8. Focus on your Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Your Net Promoter Score (NPS) is the standard for measuring the quality of your customer service and how that impacts customer experience and loyalty. Contact centers can use their NPS to uncover any areas of issue, improve customer experience, and grow revenue through upsells. By focusing on improving this metric, call centers can outgrow the competition and boost their bottom line.
Ultimately, contact centers can improve their operations and deliver impeccable customer experience with the right tools in place. RingCentral offers cutting-edge cloud-based software that offers omnichannel flexibility, unique contact center features, detailed analytics, and easy integration.
Get in touch with a representative from RingCentral today to request your free demo.
Originally published May 17, 2022, updated Mar 10, 2023
