When customers call your contact center, there’s a decent chance they’re doing so because they couldn’t get what they needed from your Web site or other online avenues. So the way the call is handled may well be your last chance to make or save a sale – and a customer.
If your contact center is using decades-old technology, the chances that you’ll satisfy that customer are severely diminished. And if you still call your contact center a “call center,” that’s a good clue that your technology could use some refreshing.
Modern contact centers deal not only with phone calls but emails, Web chat, faxes and potentially social media, all in a prioritized queue. The idea is to provide more contact options for your customers while efficiently managing the stream of traffic for your contact center agents.
Plan for contact center success
These contact centers are far more sophisticated than the call centers of old, so it takes strategic planning to make the best use of them. Such a plan entails determining not only what you need from your contact center today but planning for growth and change down the road.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Video Case Study: Carousel helps Rollins, a $1.1B pest control company, reinvent their contact center
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Accomplishing that will require input from virtually all the major lines of business within your organization, to determine their specific requirements and growth projections. This is no mean feat. Making sure all key stakeholder have a say in defining their requirements for this vital “brand-management” solution is key to coming up with a strategic plan; it doesn’t happen overnight.
Contact centers require a solid foundation
With a plan in place, now you can begin filling in the technology requirements. It begins with a flexible PBX platform, one that is modular enough so that it can grow as your needs change. But the technology options from there are many and varied, including:
- Predictive dialers that enable agents to handle far more calls per hour. Systems today are far more accurate than in the past, when dropping 2% or 3% of calls was deemed acceptable.
- Self-service options that enable callers to get answers to simple questions themselves.
- Unified communications solutions that incorporate presence technology, instant messaging, chat, voicemail and more.
- Automated routing capabilities that enable contact centers to be staffed by employees located anywhere in the world, even their own homes.
- Reporting tools that evaluate statistics such as how long an agent is on the phone, to help manage costs.
Benefits of a well-designed contact center
When a contact center is designed and built according to a sound strategic plan, it can reduce total cost of ownership and increase return on investment. Modern systems are far easier to manage from a central location, for example. Automated surveys and customer satisfaction measurement tools help you identify which agent interactions are most successful, and which need improvement. Automatic lead selection or lead steering applications can direct leads to particular agents based on their skills, increasing the likelihood of closing the sale.
To learn more about how Carousel can help design and implement your contact center, check out this short video about the work we did for Rollins, a $1.1 billion pest control company whose brands include Orkin. Then feel free to contact us for more information.
