If you are committed to running a reputable and professional call center operation there are several best practices that you need to adhere to. These practices will help you maintain a good standard of survival and professionalism that will help grow your business and increase your sales performance.
One aspect of call center protocols that you need to be laser focused on is doing what is required to get as many calls answered and completed as possible. What you don’t want to happen is for your number to show up as a potential spam caller so that the recipient refuses the call.
With the help of someone like quality voice and data you can maintain your reputation by stop showing up as spam likely. This is just one of the best practices to follow.
Here is a look at what needs to be done to optimize the efficiency and reputation of your call center reputation.
Stop showing up as a spam
One of your top priorities is to take steps to ensure that a high percentage of calls get answered. If your number is showing up as a potential spam caller that is going to seriously harm your call rate.
If you use a technology service that is designed to achieve a high level of compliance and has built-in tryst features this will allow a high percentage of outbound calls to avoid being accidentally blocked or incorrectly labeled as spam.
Using a Non-Automated Telephone Dialing System you can make calls that align with Telephone Consumer Protection Act compliance requirements.
Make sure every call center operative is on the same page
One of the best ways of achieving a strong level of consistency and compliance is to establish some clear and concise operating procedures. Once you have standard operating procedures in place it will help every person who works in the call center to achieve the right level of consistency and approach.
Every new recruit can be trained using a manual that outlines and describes how calls should be handled and what approach is to be used for each call.
Measure performance regularly
As well as having all of your call center procedures documented it is important to have analytics capabilities to monitor performance levels.
Knowing what the average wait time is and how many dropped calls you are getting are just two of several call metrics that you should be monitoring. Having all this data available gives you the ability to see where changes need to be made to deliver improvements.
Also Read: Will AI Dominate Call Centers
Define clear etiquette standards
It is amazing how much difference basic etiquette can make to how well your call center performs. Levels of politeness tend to heavily influence the tone of a call and helps customers to keep their frustration levels lower.
Monitor and analyze calls to see how many basic please and thank you’s are being used in each call. Aim to define a certain standard of politeness that is used consistently.
Implement a strict hiring policy
Once you have established a clear set of guidelines and call-handling procedures the best way of maintaining the high standards you aspire to is to hire the right people to handle the inbound and outbound calls.
It is vital to appreciate the fact that each call center operative is the face and voice of your business. Look at existing employees and build a profile that allows you to hire people with the same standards and attributes.
Take responsibility
It is the nature of the beast that things can and do wrong on a regular basis in a call center environment.
If you get a complaint or negative feedback from a customer it is always best practice to discuss how you can fix the issue and avoid the same thing happening again.
Playing the blame game is never productive. Take responsibility for errors without resorting to finger pointing. That positive attitude will often be reflected in lower levels of complaints and more positive customer feedback.
Training is not a one-time deal
Once you have trained each call center operative to a specific required standard that should be viewed as the start of their learning journey.
Ongoing training will always deliver further improvements and help each call handler to continue their personal development journey. It is no coincidence that the call centers who enjoy the best reputation and consistent levels of success have an extensive and ongoing training program in place,
Learning how to contend with all sorts of different call scenarios and obstacles will improve performance. When each operative feels empowered by such a strong training process it will improve their confidence. That confidence will translate into better outcomes from each call.
Incentivize staff the right way
Incentive schemes can be counter-productive if they are not used correctly. The basic concept is simple enough. If agents are performing well and getting results it makes sense to reward them.
When you recognize and reward great results and consistent performance it helps boos morale throughout the team. Create a culture that incentivizes workers in the right way and see how it inspires others to achieve the same heights.
Seek out customer feedback
If you make surveys quick and easy to use you are more likely to get informative customer feedback.
Every call center needs to know what it is doing right and where it is going wrong. Make it simple for customers to leave feedback. It provides highly informative real-time insights.
Embrace change
Last but not least, it is wise to appreciate that industry standards and technologies will change over time. The challenge is always to embrace those changes so that your call center can evolve.
If you have an open mind and a willingness to embrace changes that are reshaping the industry it will help you to stay ahead of the curve and keep performance levels as high as possible.
Following these suggested best practices will help your call center to scale new heights and deliver the best levels of professionalism each time you talk to a customer.
