Call Center Solutions: The Truth About Call Center Software

The internet contains vast information about call center solutions. Almost certainly, websites of developers will come up on the first page of your searches, each showcasing how their software for call center can increase the productivity of your customer service operations. While it is true that a call center software can automate a lot of your customer service operations such as: recording conversations between agents and customers, track the call handling time, and present options to your caller so that they are directed to the right person who can best help them resolve their issue, call center solutions also present some challenges you may have to consider before purchasing one.

How Do Call Center Solutions Help You?

Better Efficiency

Different call center software offers automated menu to help customers get into the right department. This is commonly called Automated Call Distribution or call routing software. Such call center solutions intelligently route calls based on the caller’s identification, dialed number, time of day, and custom defined parameters established in an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) program script, to the best agent who can best answer his or her concern. These IVR solutions cut your operation cost by reducing the number of employees you will need to answer the phones. You will have more agents spending more time resolving customer issues or processing orders.

Effective Call Center Agent Training

Through Call Recording Software, each received calls are recorded and stored for references including the amount of time an agent spends to handle a call. By being able to retrieve and review calls, management and trainers can easily evaluate and formulate some kind of solution or formula to improve the performance of their agents.

Efficient Employee Scheduling

Call center scheduling software or workforce management software produces forecasted call volumes by analyzing historical data and real time ACD gathered. Therefore, it makes it easy for the management to decide how many agents should be available at certain time of the day, thus, maximizing the time of every employee and helps to decide whether there’s a need to hire new employees.

Better Customer Service

One call center solution can also tell callers the estimated time they may have to wait until the next agent becomes available. This program feature provides better experience with customers by reducing their frustration from having to waste their time. Being advised about the wait time, they can decide if they would rather call at any other time or wait on queue. Other contact center software also provides data about the average amount of time a caller hangs up while waiting on hold. This information helps to decide of more agents will be needed to address more customer concerns.

By integrating call data and customer service allows businesses to improve customer satisfaction. A particular research found that 69% of large businesses consider customer service to be critical for generating revenue.

Pitfalls That May Come With Call Center Solutions

Compatibility Issues

As with any other programs, call center software has to be compatible with your operating system. Otherwise, it may not function properly as expected, or may not work at all. Be sure to always check the system requirements.

Customer Dissatisfaction

You will encounter customers who will complain about everything being automated and they may not appreciate such impersonal treatment. This may lead to an increase on your abandoned call rate. But considering how almost all businesses are adopting into this technology for obvious reasons, more and more consumers are beginning to adapt to this system as well.

Budget Consideration

Call center software is purchased on a per license basis that ranges from $800 to $1,500 per agent. But if you have a lot agents, you may opt to go for group or volume purchase to avail a good discount. And then add the following costs:

The probability of additional technical support costs

While you consider your budget and the cost of the software, don’t forget to add technical support cost. While most software developer companies offer free technical support, you could be in for a frustrating situation looking for assistance to help you with your issue. Your customers can’t wait to have your system up and running or you lose them. Some developers offer their technical support for a cost, and therefore, they are easier to access. Another option is for you to get a third party to help you with the program, and of course, it comes with a cost.

Training and Implementation Costs

Your production will be affected as you have your agents trained for your new software. Therefore, you will have to consider the cost of training and implementation.

Call Center Outsourcing – How to Find the Best BPO

Outsourcing your call center could be the best decision you can make to free up your time and allow you to focus on your core business. Due to its vast experience, call centers have gained expertise in specific industries such as telecommunications, technical support, financial, and retail, which made them industry experts and provided added value. Modern call centers are using innovative technology such as cloud-based solution that enhances their ability to provide speedy and high level customer service.

Outsourced call centers also provide access to multitude of experienced people and resources and capable of ramping up quickly to handle immediate needs if ever a large volume of calls will come unexpectedly to meet the market demands.

A lot could be said about the benefits of call center outsourcing, and once you decide to outsource, the next important decision you need to make is to find the best BPO who knows how to avoid common pitfalls and has enough experience to entrust your customers.

To get an informed decision, prepare some questions ahead before meeting your prospective partner. And to guide you, following are the questions you can refer to as you prepare your own.

• How would you manage the transition of my business?
• What specialized service do you have that sets you apart from your competitors?
• I have invested a lot of time and effort building my brand and reputation, if I hand over my customers to you, how will you demonstrate your commitment to my brand and company?
• How would you adhere to my company’s values, maintaining high level of quality and customer service?
• How do you train your agents for specific products? And do you have accent training if you use offshore agents?
• What specific metrics do you commonly use to gauge success and how do I get updates with regard to your performance?
• How do you keep confidential data secured?
• Do you have any emergency plans to ensure business continuity? What is your disaster recovery plan? Do you have a workable system in place to ensure minimal, if not uninterrupted business operation in cases of disruptive events?
• How do you comply with certain regulations and laws?
• If I decide to end our contract because I am not satisfied with the service, what exit strategies or plans do you have in place?

The success of most outsourced call center relationships are based on good communication. Both parties should work together to ensure that your goals are met. Communicating each of your expectations will not only benefit both your companies, but will lead to better customer service and satisfied customers. And as you move forward, it’s a good practice to recognize that your BPO provider, together with their agents deserve the same level of attention or recognition that you would provide your employees if they perform the same.

Call Center Terminology from H-Z

Note: Please refer to call center terminology from A-G if you are looking for a term that begins with those letters.

Hunt Group is a call center terminology which is basically a directory of destination numbers.

Inbound campaign is devoted to answering calls coming in

Interactive Voice Response or IVR is a sound recording to let the caller to verbally give out some information to the system. This is usually used to gather what service or support the caller is calling about.

Location- based routing are the rules programmed to route the call to different destinations depending on the location of the caller

Monitoring is also called service observation that refers to the practice of listening to telephone calls received by an agent to evaluate the quality of how the call was handled. This may be done in silent, announced, remote, side-by-side, or recorded for later review.

Outbound campaign is composed of representatives making an outside calls. Call centers usually bring inbound and outbound activities to maximize the use of available agents.

Private Exchange Branch or PBX is a general term which refers to manually operated switching equipment as against computer operated switching that provides telephone communications between internal stations and external networks.

Quality Assurance or QA is a call center language that refers to the internal assessment of the quality of calls received and delivered by agents. Assessment is based on scoring forms.

Queue is the implementation of an inbound campaign. The queue receives calls and route them to available representatives according to first in first out order. In call center terminology, this process is often called ACD or Automated Call Distribution.

Recorded Announcement or RAN is an option that plays a recorded announcement for callers waiting on queue. An example will be “Your call is important to us. Please remain on the line and your call will be answered by the next available agent”

Screen pop is a function of CTI that automatically display the caller’s account to the agent’s computer screen. This function of CTI also permits the transfer of data screen to another agent when a call is transferred

Skills Based Routing or SBR is a method of routing calls wherein the call is routed to the best agent who will be able to meet the caller’s needs as defined by competency, rather than simply routing the call to the next available agent.

Switch is another term for PBX. See PBX for definition.

Talk Time is the elapsed time from the moment an agent answers a call until it was disconnected from the agent.

Time and Date-based routing are also rules programmed to route the call to different destinations depending on the time or date of the call

Translation is the automatic routing of inbound calls from one telephone number to another

Turnover is call center dictionary that refers to staff leaving the company to work somewhere else.

VRU stands for Voice Response Unit. See IVR for definition.

Workforce Management or WFM is the science of having the right number of agents at the right time to answer the forecasted volume of incoming calls cognizant to the service level set by the call center.

Wrap Time Work or After Call Work (ACW) refers to the task involve following an inbound call. If work must be completed before an agent handles the next call, then it is factored into average handle time or AHT. The work may involve keying activity codes, updating database, filling out forms, or placing an outbound call.