There are many people who have a dim view of call centres - even in their own organisations. Traditionally, it's been a grudge purchase for businesses; a means to field customer calls for information, support and on occasion, complaints. But the reality is that call centres can be powerful catalysts for change in a company, if used correctly. That's the word from Bruce von Maltitz, director of 1Stream.
If you had to ask the average call centre manager what metrics they report on, it will likely be concerned with operational issues - handle time, abandonment rates, call resolution - but the reality for any organisation is that agency efficiency is not nearly as important as customer satisfaction. It's easier to look at figures than determining whether a customer's experience was positive or not. Tracking data that doesn't reflect the focus and goals of your business isn't going to influence the decisions that will ultimately impact your company's bottom line.
As the primary touchpoint of any business, the call centre is a wealth of information. It can uncover trends that may influence the profitability of the business, provide ideas for new products and service offerings, and mitigate problems before they start impacting the bottom line. After all, if your customers are unhappy, your call centre will be the first know the reasons why.
However, a recent survey has shown that 48% of contact centres collect and use data on the average satisfaction of a contact, but 15% collect the information and don't actually implement or use it in any way, shape or form. (Of course, 36% say they don't collect it at all).
The other question to ask is whether the companies that are collecting the data and using it are using it in the right way. Consistently throwing new technology at the problems often does more harm than good: agents need to be retrained, learn new processes and suffer through glitches only to have the new technology replaced by the next "big thing".
If a call centre is to become a catalyst for positive change and a rich source of customer data, two things need to happen. Firstly, companies will have to gather the information in an efficient, automated manner - not just through post-call surveys, but by collecting qualitative customer information and allowing clients to provide feedback that isn't steered by a survey. By using agnostic technology that measures and analyses relevant customer experience data, businesses can address the nuts and bolts customer satisfaction issues that arise.
Secondly, the call centre has to work with the right technology provider. The right provider is easy to spot. They aren't throwing convoluted requests for proposals and increasingly complex technology "solutions" at clients. They are simply asking and answering the question: What problem are you trying to solve? Once the issue has been established, they should work backwards to find out which solutions can actually practically and efficiently solve the problems the business is experiencing.
It can be as complex as wanting to establish, via the call centre, the reasons customers are cancelling their contracts after three months or perhaps just finding out why customers struggle to resolve a query with the operator and have to be transferred. The information has the potential to assist your marketing, product development or sales teams in a significant way.
But even if the goal isn't to determine wide-reaching customer trends, technology should, at the very least, save us from repetitive or redundant experiences within the call center by providing agents with "big picture information".
A recent survey showed that more than 69% of agents still have to navigate around multiple screens and interfaces to locate information they need, and many call centres struggle with the integration of their various multimedia channels. The result is that customer interactions via e-mail, social media, chat and voice are buried in silos, rather than forming a cohesive big picture of historical data. Changing from that legacy system to a single portal, with a single login, can not only improve the agent's efficiency but also the customer experience in a dramatic way.
It takes a service provider with both the technical knowledge and the experience to drill down to the core issue the company is facing, and to develop solutions accordingly. Data is constantly flowing in and out of call centres, but it has to be harnessed effectively. Partnering with the right provider can be the difference between either drowning in data or using it to your advantage.
Share