Customer satisfaction is the ultimate goal of every company that offers some sort of service. It is an invaluable barometer of how a company’s immediate future will look, so boosting the performance in this field is always a good time and resource investment.
Of course, a healthy environment in a call center dictates that clear communication between employees, as well as employees and customers, stays fluid and open in spite of the circumstances. Difficulties and curveballs will come no matter what. However, if you want to steer clear of unnecessary obstacles, here’s how to boost your call center’s performance for increased customer satisfaction.
Encourage operators to be more assertive
There is a sort of foundation, the groundwork and a laid-out blueprint of communication between agents and customers, and each operator is ‘trained’ to use it. In other words, they are taught to stick to the script. Unfortunately, this can often produce the complete opposite effect if your operators are not quick on their feet. They need to be encouraged to be more assertive and to take charge if an ‘unpredictable’ problem arises. By doing this, they will not only instill confidence in customers, but they will also get more ‘breathing space’ to find the right solution.
Enhance channel infrastructure
On the technical side, you need to make sure that the communication between customers and agents is as clear and impeccable as possible. You are after all a call center, so you need to ensure, through a range of technicalities, that the channels are always open, strong and seamless. A lack of a technological infrastructure can lead to customers jumping the ship en masse in spite of the quality of the agents themselves.
This quality-of-life aspect which improves customer satisfaction immensely can be improved by implementing a 3G cellular modem, installing computers with fast operating systems and embracing top-notch software for both office desktops and mobile devices. The ideal solution is to use the same OS and apps on all systems in order to keep them in sync. The rest is smooth sailing.
Reduce wait times to an absolute minimum
Bureaucracy is the death of customer service. If you run a call center, you need to leave the wait times on the cutting room floor or minimize them to the best of your ability. Eliminate them completely if it is within the realm of possibility. We live in a fast-moving, highly digitized world where people lack the patience for overlong administrative processes, so if you have a hard time finding a way to provide bolt-fast service on call, you can rest assured that the customer will find someone who can do it better.
If there is some unavoidable process that needs to take place between the operator and the customer, ensure that the feel of it is minimized by turning the bureaucratic Q&A into a customer-friendly process. The trick is just to have operators that are easygoing and easy to talk to, while sprinkling the necessary questions with seamless conversational material and questions that show interest in the customer’s grievances and desires. Note that it is a particularly tight rope to walk on as you still need to avoid delving into the areas that are just plainly off topic.
Provide Break Areas for Employees
A call centers can often be a stressful place to work, so employees will sometimes need a break from the pressures that come with the job. Having an area close to the main call center space that employees can quickly access for a couple of minutes can be helpful in allowing them to relieve stress, take their minds off works for a while and then get back to their duties reinvigorated. This space should be equipped with some comfortable furniture (as lazy bags and shaggy rugs, for instance), a refrigerator and even a TV set.
Keep the community alive
Customer communities on forums, Reddit threads and social media can give you an invaluable insight into their feelings towards your call center service. The trick is to help develop these services and keep them alive. Following the reviews, testimonials and opinions is like having your finger on the pulse of the customer mentality, which is one of the most precious assets in your toolbox.
Introduce weekly checkups for the teams
Your operators are the beating heart and soul of the call center, so you need to make sure that they are properly taken care of and educated. Keeping them up to date with the latest doctrines, tips and practices in the realm of customer service will reinvigorate their motivation and keep their minds fresh. This means that you will have to organize weekly checkups that may or may not include advising, psychological assistance, educative workshops, team building exercises and other activities that can legitimately veer into the realm of fun.
Put yourself in clients’ shoes
One of the ultimate tips for improving any kind of customer service and trading practice is to simply treat your customers exactly how you would have liked to be treated if you were in their position. Putting yourself in someone’s shoes gives you valuable insight into human desires and behaviors and it develops empathy. While developing this ‘sixth sense’ may sound counterintuitive – it is meant to be, after all, result-based communication with strict rapport limitations – it can actually help you get those coveted results faster and in a more intuitive manner.
The ideal and often unattainable atmosphere within the call center is flexible dynamics between the operators and managers which have joined efforts to diagnose and fix problems on the fly. These problems can either be client conundrums or the company’s own immediate issues.
The best tools any representative of the call center can apply to their daily practice in order to increase customer satisfaction is to follow a range of tips and tricks, such as the ones mentioned above, in order to improve their daily performance. Only by investing in self-improvement do we get better services in this field.
