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In a nutshell, a call centre can be seen as a continuous link between a business and its customers. It is also a high visibility platform for meeting and exceeding customer expectations. The modern call centre is no longer only a facility for answering calls, it has more importantly become a powerful tool to engage with customers, resolve queries and boost sales.
To gain a broader understanding of what value customer service in a call centre means to business, it is vital to grasp how managing each communication channel is currently the focus of call centre agents as far as customers are concerned. Hence, more call centres these days not only focus on customer service but also fulfil a customer relationship management function. Over and above regular phone calls, to enhance the customer experience, they also engage in other customer touchpoints such as social media, email and web chat systems.
What does customer service in a call centre entail?
Customer service should be a key driver of every business. The purpose of a call centre is to be consistently available to serve and guide customers through the various stages of the purchasing cycle and ensure a seamless brand experience.
Businesses that make use of call centres navigate an easier path towards improving customer communication and this is usually demonstrated by a positive impact on the company’s bottom line. Yet, the ultimate goal of customer service within a call centre is to enhance customer relationships and instantly solve customer issues and queries. And for a number of businesses the call centre is the perfect tool to reinforce customer retention, present loyalty programs, generate leads and drive sales. The call centre is also the ideal platform for gathering market research and leveraging customer data for better customer engagement.
How call centres positively impact customer service
Here are some of the numerous ways by which call centres positively impact service.
- Call centres can remain open 24×7
Most call centres have the capacity to remain open around the clock. This enables customers to reach the business any time of the day or night and provides customers with a reliable and easily accessible instant port of call.
- A fully-operational call centre provides a platform for quality customer communication
Due to increasing call volumes most businesses are simply not able to deliver quality customer service without the aid of a call centre. Hence, a fully-operational call centre not only enables a consistent customer communication flow but also adds more value to the business by providing a dedicated customer engagement platform.
- A company with a dedicated call centre is perceived as more reliable
A company that has a dedicated call centre in place is often perceived as more reliable since customers can engage with the business at any time whether it be to resolve queries, make sales enquires or for any other particular reason.
- A call centre is an ideal platform for lead generation
A call centre provides the ideal platform for lead generation and driving sales as it is an effective tool for engaging customers.
Tips on how to achieve customer service excellence when operating a call centre
Customer service improves tremendously when call centre representatives are knowledgeable and experienced. Hence, ensure that your call centre is equipped with highly-trained and experienced call centre agents who can handle difficult customers queries as well as difficult customers themselves. Here are a few tips on how to achieve customer service excellence when operating a call centre.
Know your target audience and understand their needs
Customer service excellence can only be achieved with an in-depth understanding of the target audience and an accurate interpretation of customer needs.
Actively listen to your customers
When customers make the effort to contact the call centre they expect to be heard and understood. They count on the fact that the call centre representative will listen to what they have to say and take appropriate measures to resolve the issue at hand. The art of active listening will go a long way towards keeping customers engaged with emphasis placed on showing genuine interest in the problem and concern towards customer needs.
Keep call hold time to a minimum
For most people, when contacting a call centre, there is nothing more frustrating than being kept on hold for long periods of time. The more hold time a customer has to endure the more irritated they will become. One of the main areas of focus for every call centre agent should be to keep customer hold time to an absolute minimum.
Make efficient call routing a top priority
In customer service, the role of efficient call routing should be a top priority. Call centre agents that understand this often deliver a better quality service since customer service representatives that are good at routing calls to the right departments improve overall response times and enhance the customer’s experience with your brand.
Track metrics and collect relevant data
Delivering a high level of customer service is never achieved by accident. It relies on detailed planning as well as the effective use of analytics. Call centre representatives should track metrics and collect relevant customer data on a daily basis so as to become more aware of trending customer expectations.
Request feedback from customers
Requesting feedback from customers helps to measure satisfaction levels as well as identify how customers feel towards the ways in which their problems are solved. Requesting customer feedback is also vitally important for the following reasons:
- 91% of dissatisfied customers will not readily do business with you in the future.
- 70% of purchasing experiences are based on how customers feel they are treated.
- 70% of customers will return if their problems are resolved.
Reference sources: revechat.com