Call Center Management Tools and Tricks

Customer-centric communications should be no-brainers, particularly with the tools and best practices available today. And yet, customers still complain about poor customer service, long hold times, and cumbersome technology. All they want to do is make a monthly payment on their phone bill or car lease. But they can’t. They get caught in a never-ending call tree and can’t escape it to speak with a call center representative.

Luckily, businesses with leading call center management technology like TCN’s can do better. The secret doesn’t lie in the technology alone; rather, businesses enhance the technology with customer experience best practices. In doing so, they reduce wait times and customer dissatisfaction, resulting in higher customer satisfaction scores and on-time payments. Here are some ways businesses use TCN’s call center management platform to achieve those kinds of outcomes.

Cloud-Based Technology

It might sound like hyperbole, but the cloud unleashes all sorts of possibilities. Cloud-based call center technology typically offers benefits like nearly unlimited scalability. It often offers strong, secure, and managed infrastructure, too.

The first piece describes adaptive technology. Cloud-based call center platforms like TCN’s grow with a business, helping it meet needs as they arise. The technology can also fluctuate with demand during peak and off-peak seasons. In practical terms, the capability translates to seamless switching between inbound and outbound efforts, keeping agents occupied and productive throughout their workdays.

The second part, infrastructure, becomes important as businesses analyze data. Without a secure, cloud-based framework, a call center solution could struggle to parse information. With it, solutions and technologies, including call center management, collect and categorize data so that businesses can make informed decisions in the moment. TCN’s own solution builds upon that idea, enabling businesses to study and respond to not only individual agents’ performance data but also company performance data.

The cloud offers other perks, too. For instance, businesses using TCN’s platform can provide flexible hours, as well as remote work options. The two items can be hugely impactful since employees want improved work-life balance. Flexible hours are one way to ensure they have it. And with that balance typically comes other benefits, namely, higher productivity, efficiency, and happiness.

Those advantages extend beyond agents; they affect call center managers, too. The cloud allows managers to perform call center management remotely and in real time. That is, they can monitor agent-customer conversations and barge in when appropriate—as in the case of an escalating situation in which the agent and customer are no longer speaking but yelling. Managers can also examine performance metrics at their leisure, allowing them to develop strategic plans for improvement.

Call Center Best Practices

Call center management tools like analytics and blended call environments only take businesses so far. Leading ones amplify their success with leading customer experience practices. Some of those, like customer service, are long-held standards. Others are the result of new technologies, regulations, and communication channels.

In regard to the first, agents still need to learn how to interact with customers. Most individuals understand how to relate with a satisfied customer. But they likely struggle, no matter how patient they are, to converse with an angry one. Because of that, agents should study strategies and practice keywords that reduce tension and move the interaction toward resolution.

Customer communications, though, don’t always happen over the phone. Agents should learn the new tools, ranging from social media to AI-enabled chat bots, to use them effectively. That knowledge can diminish fears about “being replaced by a robot.” However, it can also reveal ways humans and machines can work together for the good of the customer and the company.

Next, agents should be aware of current regulations, including the TCPA and GDPR. Their livelihood more-or-less depends on adherence to those laws, so it’s in their best interest to stay abreast of them. The details can be a lot to keep track of, which is why TCN offers webinars on the subjects, as well as a Compliance Suite.

Finally, businesses should focus on consistent customer experiences. Customers shouldn’t be surprised every time they contact the same company. Instead, they should feel valued and respected. Those feelings arise through some of the practices mentioned earlier, such as customer service and communication tools. But they also occur through documented processes. Such processes shouldn’t be ignored; they’re key to identifying what’s working and what’s not. They also streamline efforts, getting rid of bottlenecks and freeing agents, managers, and executives to get things done.

Businesses that want to succeed with call center management technology need to do only two things. First, they should learn the technology. Second, they should train their agents. If they complete those two tasks, they will see happier agents, more satisfied customers, and increased profits.

For more reasons about why businesses are investing in cloud-based call center platforms and management technology, check out TCN’s e-book.