Call management is an essential aspect of running an effective contact center. You can improve your dialing experience by ensuring your agents are properly trained and equipped with the necessary tools. These tools include call monitoring, customer relationship management (CRM) software, ongoing training, and more.
Call Management Tools
The breadth and quality of call management tools are crucial. Using the right tools can set your customer engagement and call management strategies apart from other contact centers. These tools can help equip your agents for success:
Call tracking and monitoring
When customers or clients call your team, a call tracking tool captures information like the caller’s name, phone number, address, and how long the call remains connected. In addition, these tools record the call itself.
Managers can review call records immediately upon completion. Using this type of call center tool allows you to track your agents’ effectiveness and the overall satisfaction of callers. Although necessary, call tracking and monitoring are baby steps toward improving your entire call center.
Call coaching or whispering
Call coaching, or “call whispering,” offers a layer of support for brand-new agents during actual, in-progress calls. This “listening in” method isn’t meant to spy on your agents but rather to provide additional training for individual agents. In addition to creating call recordings, this is an excellent way to supervise live calls and hop on when an agent needs assistance.
CRM integrations
This solution is one of the most crucial for any call center — it’s how your agents can provide tailored service for each caller. There’s nothing quite as frustrating for a customer as having to repeat themself. Even more frustrating is having to do so in between transfers. Customer relationship management solutions allow agents to track every time a person calls, the reason for the call, and any actions taken during the call.
Any time a customer calls, any agent who answers knows exactly who’s calling and where the customer’s issue stands in the resolution process. Overall, CRM is an indispensable call center software that helps agents offer personable care.
AI
Artificial intelligence applications are still in their infancy. Still, it’s already known how well AI solutions can help agents in a call center. An AI call center solution can answer basic inquiries, escalate calls that require human intervention, and route those calls to the right agent.
Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
Similar to AI tools, an IVR program is an automated voice system customers speak to before a handoff to an actual support agent. Customers may prefer using something other than automated systems. However, these help retain agent time for serious issues that common solutions can not address.
Depending on the nature of the phone call, the IVR can route the call according to inquiry, department, and specific agent to get callers efficient and timely responses to their concerns. And like the CRM solution, IVRs can eliminate the need for customers to repeat themselves. The IVR records the customer’s concern for an agent to listen to.
Ominichannel Solutions
The best call centers use a mix of the above. The flexibility of omnichannel lets callers request assistance in the most comfortable manner. This can help drastically reduce the time callers spend in-queue by offering online chatbots, live agent chats, email, text messaging, and even social channels to solve common issues.
When coordinating your omnichannel strategy, ensure the tools you choose can integrate to keep the call center experience seamless for agents and callers alike.
Call Management for Agents
As important as managing your call center’s calls is, it’s just as essential to provide your agents with all the tools they need to be successful in your call center. The greatest tool you can provide your agents is the requisite training. Proper training boosts agent confidence which in turn improves the experience for customers.
Experience
Whether you’ve just hired new recruits or have agents needing a refresher, ongoing training is possible. Partnering your veteran support agents with your new agents maintains a positive rapport among agents and helps keep training in-house. Veteran agents can even coach or whisper for your new support agents.
Customer service
Service goes hand in hand with customer experience. All it takes is one bad phone call with your call center for a customer to seek a different company to provide what they once obtained from you. When genuine, empathy and compassion is a natural buoy for the customer experience.
Call empathy begins with training agents to listen for understanding rather than listening to respond. New agents are keyed in on certain words or phrases they may have been taught to listen for as cues to switch screens, offer a rebuttal, or otherwise escalate a call that may not have needed escalation.
Industry knowledge
When putting together your call center strategy and deciding on the solutions you need, your call center solutions partner must specialize in your industry. If you operate a customer support call center for a children’s toy company and the call tools vendor you’re considering specializes in medical equipment and hospital calling software, there may be a better fit. Make sure the solution you choose can prove they understand your industry.
Impactful scripts
Although empathy is warranted when the situation calls for it, other calls, messages, or contacts may not be quite so pressing and can be rectified with a scripting feature. Using keywords or phrases you program, a scripting tool can offer answers and suggestions for a customer’s inquiry without needing an in-call solution.
No matter what, though, responses should always be personalized and tailored to each customer. If the customer needs to speak to an agent, they’ll have a consistent experience no matter which agent they reach.
Does your call center have the call tools necessary for success? Reach out to us to learn how we can help your agents deliver personalized experiences.
