The overall effectiveness of a call center depends on the productivity and efficiency of its agents. That’s why increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of agents can help to dramatically improve the bottom line of your call center.
Becoming more productive and efficient at the call center usually involves reviewing the processes, avoiding unnecessary steps and implementing the latest technologies, etc. Reducing the call time and providing appropriate solutions at the first call are the core purposes of every call center. Many businesses have opted for contact center automation solutions which help handle the basic Tier 1 queries, resulting in saved time and money.
To help call center managers and owners improve their productivity, here we have listed some proven ways they can implement to increase agent efficiency to provide customers with excellent and immediate services.
Set up Clear Processes for Solving Common Problems
Providing call center agents with ample information and guidance regarding processes and subject matter know-how allows you to prevent any unforced errors and reduce call handling time. You should create and implement processes that are simple, not only for agents but for customers too. Guided internal processes enable agents to become subject matter experts and offer the appropriate solutions to common problems. Organizing training sessions to clarify processes is also a great way to let them handle calls more efficiently.
Offer a Call Back Service
Using a call back software is a smart and cost-effective way to increase call centers’ efficiency while delivering an excellent customer experience. It works well when all your agents are busy and the caller is unable to reach you. A call center software with a call back feature usually records the information of each unanswered call and starts ringing to relevant agents as an incoming call labeled as a callback tag. In this way, agents can quickly contact a customer back when free to resolve their queries accordingly. It makes your call center team more efficient and allows them to handle more calls to make sure customer queries are addressed as soon as possible.
Agent Improvement Training
A flexible training schedule allows you to make sure all your agents receive proper training to handle the internal processes at the right time and according to the set standards. Make each agent training session full of advanced customer service expertise, best internal procedures, and processes to tackle common customer problems. It will not only increase the efficiency of your agents but will also boost customer satisfaction by providing them with appropriate solutions immediately.
Inter-agent Chat
Allow all your agents to communicate internally when needed. Inter-agent chat enables your agents to contact each other in real-time to utilize their expertise and experience to offer better customer support and service. A lot of instant messaging solutions are out there that call centers can invest in to provide their agents with an inter-agent chat option. It will help them get complex questions answered by experts even without customer realizing.
Automate What You Can
Automation is one of the best ways to increase the efficiency of your call cater agents. The use of IVR and bots is a great idea to provide better customer support without little to no human interaction. You can use bots to quickly answer FAQs so your agents can handle more calls with complex queries. As a result, your customers can also get their questions answered in real-time without waiting for a lot of minutes. Call center automation helps your agents prepare for each call by predicting how the caller will respond.
Improve your self-service options
Modern customers are impatient and want choice. They want to get their queries resolved in real-time even without spending a lot of minutes talking with agents or bots. This is where an improved self-service option can come in handy. A well-designed IVR system provides your customers with more options to choose from and frees up your agents to handle complex queries.
Allow agents to take regular, short breaks
To offer the best solutions to callers, your call center agents should be fresh and attentive. Continuous call handling and deadlines can cause stress and tension in the office. That’s why provide your agents with a quick break option so they can take some rest and refill their energy with a cup of coffee or some healthy snacks to entertain customers appropriately without feeling overwhelmed. It will make them more efficient in the office and offer better customer support by understanding their queries.
