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Communication has been an imperative part of any business. Even if a business faces some ups and downs, the demand for reliable and steady communication remains constant. From internal teams to external customers, vendors, and other associates require a reliable means of communication. To meet different types of business communication needs, innovators invent different modes and channels of communication. Digitization and automation have further influenced the communication channels used in businesses.

Call centers being one of the businesses that rely heavily on communication and communication tools need to be updated with technology to keep serving clients with the right experience. An omnichannel contact center is the latest trend in this industry.

In this blog post, we have covered the following points:

1.       Some important statistics that you must know if you are in this industry
2.       What is an omnichannel contact center?
3.       What is an omnichannel contact center solution?
4.       What are the major benefits of omnichannel contact centers?
5.       What are the best practices to run a successful omnichannel contact center?
6.       Which are the top omnichannel call center providers?
7.       Major FAQs related to omnichannel call centers
8.       Conclusion

The omnichannel contact center has become a buzzword and it becomes necessary for all businesses associated with the communication industry or using call center software to have insightful knowledge about it. To give all the required insight on this subject matter, we have compiled all the details: from omnichannel contact center definition to FAQs. Let’s take an insider look at this captivating topic.

1. Some important statistics that you must know if you are in this industry

• According to Google Research statistics, 98% of American users use multiple devices within a single day and one of the uses of these devices is to communicate with friends, brands, family, etc. 
• According to Omnisend data, marketers registered a 287% high purchase rate by using more than three communication channels in
• According to the statistical result shared by Omnisend, companies achieved up to 90% of customer retention rate by using omnichannel communication tools over a single channel.

There are so many statistics results available in the market, which define the benefits of omnichannel contact centers.

2. What is an omnichannel contact center?

When we talk about the omnichannel contact center definition, there are different versions available. Each version defines one common definition, which is as below:

When a contact center adopts the power of all popular communication channels and provides customer support or runs sales campaigns through all popular communication channels, it is called an omnichannel contact center. The omnichannel contact center definition also covers the top communication channels that have to be part of an omnichannel call center. These communication channels are listed below:

• Voice calls
• Video calls
• SMS
• Email
• Chat
• Facebook/  Twitter/ Other social media platforms
• Instant messaging
• WhatsApp

3. What is an omnichannel contact center solution?

A contact center solution, which can be either an on-premise or cloud call center software that provides all unified communication channels within a single platform is an omnichannel contact center solution. It eliminates the need of managing independent communication channels across multiple platforms. Instead of that, a single solution is used to manage communication across channels.

All conversations will be logged regardless of the communication channel used, which makes it the best tool for call centers and customer care centers. It will also make it easier to switch to another communication channel or use more than one communication channel in parallel. The omnichannel solution supports all communication channels that are preferred by your customers to keep them delighted in terms of the selection of the communication mode. As it contributes heavily to handling customer support, it is also referred to as an omnichannel customer support solution.

4. What are the major benefits of omnichannel contact centers?

There are several advantages of using an omnichannel customer support solution. Let’s explore the top three of them.

A) Improve customer experience

One of the major advantages covered even in the omnichannel contact center definition is improved customer experience by using this software. Everyone likes to make a choice instead of falling short of choices. The selection of a communication channel is often considered a small thing, but it can be comforting to your customers. Some customers willingly use Twitter for communication and some love having a telephone conversation. It is necessary to give this freedom to your clients to choose which mode of communication they are more comfortable using.

Even if you don’t accommodate all communication channels within your software, your customers are still likely to use these channels to reach out to your customer care team. No response and the delayed response would cause major concerns and brand damaging impact, which would get difficult to cover. By incorporating omnichannel communication into your strategy, you will be able to deliver an excellent customer experience. Your agents will get notified for all messages, not considering the use of communication channels, so they can respond quickly. They will also have context as all conversations across channels would be logged into the system. This helps them serve your clients better and improve customer service standards.

Prompt responses and personalized responses will keep your customers happy and excited about your customer service. This way you can improve customer experience with omnichannel call center adoption.

B) Improve agent productivity

The productivity of agents is as important as the happiness of customers. A productive agent can deliver better and faster services and help improve the values of many more KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to increase the ultimate goal conversation. As mentioned earlier, despite the fact that you use an omnichannel solution or not, your clients will use their favorite mode of communication to reach out to your support team. Thus, at a certain point, your agents or other team members will need to check individual platforms such as Facebook messenger or Facebook page wall and respond to these clients. This will be an exhaustive and error prone job. Likewise, there are so many communication channels to manage, and handling each of them independently can cause several challenges and affect the productivity of agents negatively.

Unlike that, using an omnichannel system will give a notification for each message. The software can also put clients into queues like chat queues, WhatsApp queues, etc. to make it easy to manage the process. When you avoid the need for switching across communication channels, your agents can save time and energy to synergize them on improving customer experience. Moreover, some communication channels let agents handle more than one customer at a time with templates and other features available in the software. This further contributes to boosted productivity. As we all know, improved productivity reflects improved performance because the same headcount can deliver much better output.

C) Improve ROI (Returns over Investment)

Managing different communication channels within a single platform is cheaper than handling different communication platforms. Saving time for agents also saves a lot of resources, including expenses. A majority of providers help in saving time by adding added features such as a message scheduler, message templates, auto replies, chatbots, and more. That means using an omnichannel system, a call center can reduce expenses and otherwise get invested in infrastructure, manpower, communication platforms, and more.

The high productivity of agents directly contributes to better performance of all campaigns and call centers. Call centers can elevate their revenue generation with the same manpower. Even if they hire more agents, they can then spike up revenue by taking more work and handling more campaigns. Customer retention, on the other hand, contributes to the stable stream of generating revenue. Reference business and referral leads are a few more contributors to increase revenue.

In a nutshell, the benefits of omnichannel contact centers include improving revenue and cutting costs, so call centers can enjoy a high ROI generation rate.

5. What are the best practices to run a successful omnichannel contact center?

When you decide to leverage the advantage of technology and trend, you need to have a proper strategy in place. You cannot just win the game by getting the best omnichannel customer support solution. You also need to have a strategy in place and you must follow the best practices. You can learn with experiments, but using an omnichannel customer support strategy is quite mature. You can learn from the experiences of others. To help you lead the game and maximize the benefits of omnichannel contact centers, we have shared the top best practices for you. You must rigorously follow these best practices to run your support center like a champion:

• Don’t ignore self serving options

All communication solutions, including an omnichannel customer care system offer self serving options to call center users. It is necessary to use all communication channels and let your agents handle customer calls, messages, and other forms of interactions. However, it is equally important to invest in self serving options and encourage their use among customers. Using self serving options can help customers to get responses to their concerns on an immediate basis as they don’t need to wait for agents to join the conversation. On the other hand, it keeps your staff available to handle more complicated cases of customers to deliver excellent support.

Technology tools like chatbots, AI voice analysis, smart WhatsApp web tools, self serving IVR, voice broadcasting, SMS broadcasting, and more can be used to increase effective self serving options.

• Live agent has to be available for customers

Even if you have plenty of self serving options, you need to be sure that you have enough live agents to handle clients and their concerns. You also need to give the option to connect with a live agent at any point. Some customers prefer to have a conversation or interaction with humans even if it is an easy task like retrieving the total due balance. This type of client also needs to get complete attention and respect from your customers to retain a good brand image.

• Identify top performing and in-demand communication channels

Even if an omnichannel customer support solution is used to blend the power of all communication channels in serving your clients, it is worth investing resources to identify popular communication channels. Different customer bases may like different communication channels. In some countries, WhatsApp is the most preferred mode of communication. In some countries, SMS is still one of the top used communication channels. These facts also vary from industry to industry. Even in the same industry, two different customer care centers may have different charts of communication channel usage.

With careful analysis, you can identify the top performing communication channels for your business. Knowing this information can help you define further strategies to serve these clients. You can also put adequate resources based on the preferred modes of communication for your clients. You don’t need to put an equal number of agents for each communication channel. Rather optimize resource allocation based on the volume of queries received for that specific mode of communication.

• Focus on unified customer experience across communication channels

One of the major advantages of using an omnichannel contact center is that it provides a holistic view of all customer interactions across channels. That means agents can view all conversations between a customer and an agent that could have taken place via one or more communication channels. Having this information is very useful as agents will be aware of ongoing updates, common issues faced by customers, preferred solutions or assistance by that particular client, and other aspects. All the information can be used to provide a universal experience to clients across all communication channels. The customers can be served with the same professionalism and experience through any mode of communication he or she chooses. This not only impresses your clients, but it also helps in building an unforgettable experience for clients as a brand.

• Collect feedback and suggestions from customers and agents

Guessing games can be good, but only in gambling. In fact, even there, people use experience and logic. In businesses like customer care or contact center, using metrics, data, suggestions, recommendations, etc. can be really beneficial. One of the vital sources of data is humans correlated to the system. Your customers and agents use your services, software, etc. on a day to day basis. Therefore, there is nobody better than them to give feedback on how your omnichannel customer strategy is performing. Direct interaction can give direct answers.

You can ask your agents in weekly or monthly meetings or you can use a self serving IVR to collect their feedback. You can take their opinion to scrutinize your resource allocation, strategy, and more for improvement.

Your customers are receiving customer service from your team and they can give you brutally honest opinions. You can ask them how they feel about the service they received right after the call or any other form of interaction. This data can show you the mirror and give you much needed and reliable data.  

• Empower your agents

The next important best practice is team empowerment. You need to empower your team of agents that interact with clients. You can give them the required training to be more professional and effective across multiple communication channels. Alternatively, you can hire experts for each communication channel. Depending on your strategy, you can define how you want to train and furnish your team with the right resources.

To empower your agents, along with training, you also need to give them adequate technical support. You must use the integration of third party tools like CRM, communication channels, AI voice analysis, chatbots, etc. All this helps them work more productively. They can also be encouraged to self learning by giving them access to some of the reports or their own call recording files.

Having a rich knowledge base is another important best practice to become a champion of customer care strategy that blends omnichannel communication in it. Agents can use this knowledge base to keep themselves updated with different best practices, procedures, tools, etc.

• Invest time in report analysis and live monitoring

The call center solutions provide an extensive range of reports. You must review these reports on a regular basis. These reports will give more insight into the performance and effectiveness of different communication channels. It will also contribute to identifying strengths and weaknesses. You can also use live monitoring tools to take real time actions for improvement.

• Keep improving

No strategy or trend is permanent. Thus, you must constantly evolve and improve. Keep fine tuning the best practices and omnichannel strategy to stay competitive and impressive for your clients.

6. Which are the top omnichannel call center providers?

There are multiple providers of this type of software. We have listed out the top 3 of them.

     1) Elision Technologies Pvt. Ltd

It is one of the most affordable providers that offer omnichannel communication and has more than 15 years of industry experience. It offers omnichannel communication, speech analytics, and multiple other features at very affordable rates. You can get a licensed solution or opt for the hosted model.

     2) Nice InContact

It quotes 100 USD/agent per month and has a hosted model to use its omnichannel solution. It supports omnichannel communication, but it does not have a video channel. You will need to integrate a third party video calling app and that integration would cost additional for customization.

     3) 8×8

It charges 115 to 175 USD/agent per month with unlimited call support in the USA and Canada. For other regions, you need to check for the cost of calls. It does not have a multilevel IVR as an inbuilt feature. You need to use it as an add-on. It supports omnichannel communication and a hosted model.

7. Major FAQs related to omnichannel call centers

Should I use an omnichannel call center?

It can be used by anyone that wants to implement an omnichannel customer strategy. Still, businesses with bigger clientele or diversified customer bases gain more advantages by using it compared to small scaled call centers.

Can I add omnichannel communication to my existing software?

That depends on the software. If you have access to the code and if the software is compatible with third party integration then you can add more communication channels to the software. However, compatibility still needs to be checked. It is better to get an omnichannel solution than add communication channels into it to avoid compatibility related issues or increasing cost of ownership.

How much does an omnichannel solution cost?

That depends on the provider. There is no standard cost for the software. Thus, you need to contact the provider and get a quotation for the software.

What will be the hardware requirement to use an omnichannel call center?

Usually, the software and hardware work in coordination with multiple other driving factors. You need to define what software you will use for omnichannel operations and based on that, you will learn about the required hardware. Usually, your software provider will guide you about the hardware that you will need to run your call center with an omnichannel communication mechanism.

8. Conclusion

Superior customer experience gives momentum to call centers to reach beyond the competition and stay ahead of them. An omnichannel contact center contributes to achieving exactly this. It lets customers choose their favorite communication channel to reach out to the customer care team and receive the required assistance, whether it is a self-serving option or any other mode of communication like voice, video, WhatsApp, social media, etc. Agents get empowered with a holistic view of all interactions between customers and call centers to deliver a more contextual and personalized customer experience.

The right tools, best practices, trained and skilled team, and strategic approach can help you take maximum advantage of this trend of using omni channel communication. We have been witnessing call centers growing in leaps and bounds with our DialShree: omnichannel contact center solution. This software helps them achieve a better balance between technology and human interaction and ace the game of customer care like a champion. Get in touch with us for a free demo.

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The easy availability of loans on different items has attracted more people to purchase more things based on the EMI structure. This indeed creates a win win situation for both debtor and lender because the debtor can avail anything and everything they want such as a car, electric appliances, luxury items, and even an abroad trip. On the other hand, lenders can use their money to contribute to the economy and also run the cycle of finance and supply chain.

Along with creating a healthy financial cycle for debtors and lenders, it also creates some challenges for both parties. The lenders, whether it is a bank or an NBFC (Non Banking Financial Company), need to work on the recovery part. That means they need to put a whole force of manpower to give reminders to pay EMIs, send collection agents to collect EMI money, and even predict defaulters to take the required actions. As this is a hectic job, banks and non banking financial companies often outsource this job to collection agencies.

The collection agencies usually have a skillful team that is trained for the job of EMI collection from debtors. They also have the required infrastructure such as call center software, NBFC software, CRM system, etc. to increase collection and help banks and NBFCs stay profitable. While running this business, it is often witnessed that along with people paying their EMIs on time, there are also people that do not pay EMIs. Moreover, there can be multiple assets and products on which banks and NBFCs give EMI based loans and lending facilities. Some of the products may work better and some don’t. Thus, collection agencies have the job of identifying and reducing these nonperforming assets (NPAs) along with the increasing collection.

The analytical skills along with financial forecasting adroitness definitely help businesses here to identify Non-performing assets. Moreover, collection agencies can also use a call center solution with a payment utility for collection or an NBFC software solution.

Before we dig deeper to learn how these solutions help in increasing collection and profit ratio by reducing NPAs, let’s first explore what this software does.

What is a call center solution for collection agencies?

You all must know about a standard call center software solution that is used by different industry verticals to run inbound, outbound, and/ or blended campaigns. The software for collection agencies would also have all the features of the standard system. In addition to that to run collection campaigns more effectively, it would also have additional features or modules specifically designed by the provider company. These modules and add-ons can be exclusively available only from that company and not elsewhere or they can work differently if provided by different companies. Some of the popular modules integrated specifically for collection agencies are IVR for collection, payment utility for collection, disposition bucket for collection, Soundboard Avatars for collection, and more. A provider may provide all these or some of these modules to help collection agencies increase collection and reduce NPA.

What is an NBFC software solution?

It is a complete and universal system that is designed not only to run collection campaigns but to manage each stage of the loan management cycle. It will have several intricate algorithm based features and modules that enable a collection agency to handle all aspects of managing loans and lending cycles. Usually, NBFC software is not used by collection agencies. It is used by banks and non banking financial companies. Only features of call center software with collection modules are used by collection agencies.

How does a call center solution for collection agencies reduce NPA?

Now that you understand the different types of software solutions used by collection agencies, let’s explore in detail how these solutions help collection agencies in reducing NPAs and increasing collection.

Efficient recovery

The first and foremost way to reduce NPA and increase collection is to focus on more efficient recovery. The exclusively designed call center solution for collection agencies is a great tool for supporting collection campaigns. It helps in automating several tasks, defining the complete collection cycle, bifurcating on-time payers and defaulters, classifying borrowers based on different groups in buckets, and more. All these features help in running collection campaigns more efficiently. Let’s understand how.

The IVR for collection can run a self serving campaign to give all the required details to the caller related to their next EMI, number of due EMIs, interest rate, notice period, and other details. The NBFC software can also integrate outbound IVR for collection, which will send an outbound voice message to the borrowers and play reminders multiple times. These IVR messages can be interactive and they can play multiple options as well to let customers give their comments on whether they will pay EMI on time or not. If yes, then on which date it will be paid? Whether the customer needs collection service at the doorstep or not and other details can be fetched by this feature. This helps to increase collection so the overall nonperforming assets can be controlled and reduced.

Along with an IVR for collection, this software will also have a payment utility for collection. This is an exclusive feature available to users of Elision’s call center software, DialShree. The first feature of this utility is filtering and removing the number of customers that have already paid EMIs from the calling list. This helps in saving time for agents so it can be used to focus on customers that have not yet paid for assets and can contribute to increasing NPAs. This feature can filter numbers based on different criteria to make collection campaigns more efficient. There are several other features that help in increasing collection and ultimately contribute to reducing NPAs.

This software can also be integrated with an NBFC software solution.

Show tangible data to classify NPAs

An exclusively designed call center solution for collection agencies further provides insightful data information for reports. These reports and data segmented under different criteria in all reports give insightful and actionable information to collection agencies to identify major nonperforming assets and assets that can soon fall under the category of NPAs. Along with this information, it also provides multiple other forms of data and values of KPIs, which collection agencies can use to classify assets, customers, borrowers, and more.

Using this tangible data, collection agencies can project their views and data to the banks and NBFCs for which they operate to let them take legal or other strategic steps to increase collection. Moreover, they can design more effective campaigns to reduce NPAs by increasing collection.

Concluding notes

In a nutshell, the NBFC software, or a system for collection agencies with payment utility for collection, directly and indirectly, contributes to the increasing collection and reduce nonperforming assets. There are several other advantages of these tools for any collection agencies, which is why they have become a must have for banks, NBFCs, and collection agencies.

We offer different solutions to benefit the diversified jobs and campaigns in this industry. We have exclusively developed an omnichannel contact center solution with different features mentioned in this article and more. This tool can help in boosting collection, simplify collection jobs, and reduce the total number of NPAs. If you are interested in knowing more about it, get in touch with us NOW!

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The call center industry is one of the most alluring industry verticals due to the growing trend of outsourcing customer support projects to call centers. The increasing need of retaining clients and delighting them with outstanding customer service has increased the market value of the best call centers that can manage each call center process. The emphasis on on-site call centers is reduced by the business owners because now businesses want to focus all their energy on expanding their own business wings. This gives an open playground to business owners that are interested to start a call center.

When you decide to invest your resources in call center setup, it is recommended to first understand the process, legislation, required tools, and best practices to succeed. Even if this industry is lucrative and there are a plethora of opportunities, the competition is vicious. Setting a call center is not enough, you need to know how to start a call center that can give you a great start and help you keep going on to achieve your business goals.

In this blog post, we will cover all the essential details that can answer all your questions related to how to start a call center and thrive successfully in this highly competitive industry. If you follow the right approach and best practices, you will be able to succeed for sure.

In this blog post, we have covered the following points:

1. Getting started
   1.1 Define the budget and source of funds 
   1.2 Choose the service type
   1.3 Define call center setup requirements 
   1.4 Define the customer Avatar
   1.5 Understand legislation
   1.6 Complete the groundwork
2. Build your team
   2.1 Define work model
   2.2 Define HR policies
   2.3 Define recruitment process
   2.4 Devise onboarding and training program 
3. Acquire the call center infrastructure
   3.1 Internal communication tools
   3.2 Customer communication tools
   3.3 HR management tools
   3.4 Reporting and monitoring tools 
4. Conclusion

Yes, there is so much to understand when you are looking for the right answer for how to start a call center. So without any further adieu, let’s begin this topic, which will help you start your own call center in 2023 and establish a victorious business.

1. Getting started (how to start a call center in 2023)

The thought of setting call center and getting started immediately might be really rousing and you must want to start now. However, you have to hold yourself, complete the groundwork, and then only go ahead with launching a call center. For this, it is worth knowing the requirements to start a call center. This section covers the major things that you need to discover if you don’t know already and prepare yourself for call center setup.  

1.1 Define the budget and source of funds

Setting a call center needs you to bear expenses related to legal costs, infrastructure, manpower, and more. To make sure you make a strategy to start a call center within your budget, you need to first define how much you have in hand to invest in setting up your call center in 2023. You must get the cost estimation for different aspects if you don’t have one already. one Remember, the cost of different software, human resources, etc. change annually and as we have already hit December, you must get an estimation for 2023 to avoid shocks later on.

If you don’t have enough funds, you may also need to look for and decide the source of funds, which can be angel investors, stockholders, investors, partners, etc. You must decide whom you would take on board to meet the needs of funds for setting up a call center.

1.2 Choose the service type

The call center is a basket term. There are multiple branches burgeoning in this industry. Thus, it is necessary to decide which areas you will cover with your call center services. Even if you have the urge to serve all service areas, remember, you have to start slow to keep investment and finances under control. Following are some areas to consider.

1.2.1. Inbound call center 

Some call center service areas need you to set up an inbound call center. For example, customer care and technical customer support. For this, agents usually handle incoming calls from customers related to their issues and concerns. The inbound call center handles these calls and aims to focus on delivering exceptional customer experience. To handle inbound leads as well an inbound call center needs to be set up.

1.2.2. Outbound call center 

If you are thinking about a service area that would make more outbound calls, then you need to start an outbound call center in 2023. The classic examples of this type of call center are centers that run telemarketing and tele sales campaigns. The outbound call center also focuses on generating leads, collecting feedback, and running similar campaigns. 

1.2.3. Blended call center

 If your call center is going to handle the full cycle of the customer journey by handling both inbound and outbound calls, then you will need to set up a blended call center. This will help you handle bidirectional calls/ 

1.2.4. Omnichannel/ Multichannel/ Single Channel call center 

 Along with blended, inbound, and outbound call center setup criteria, you also need to define through which communication channels you will cater to clients. A single channel will cover only voice calls. A multichannel will cover more than one communication channel. An omnichannel will serve clients through unified communication channels, including, voice, video, chat, SMS, email, social media, and WhatsApp. 

1.3 Define call center setup requirements

Once you are clear with the service area, the next aspect to consider is where you will perform call center setup. There are two popular options available.

1.3.1 On-site call centers

To set up an on-site call center, one needs dedicated servers set up and configured on their premises. This will need physical servers, plus, physical space to complete the whole call center setup. This setup is considered to be more secure, but expensive as well.

1.3.2 Virtual call centers

This is one of the trending setup types of call centers. There are plenty of articles that would recommend you set up a virtual call center. This call center setup type uses cloud space to host and set up the call center. Virtual call centers can be set up on either dedicated or shared servers depending on your own business needs. A virtual call center is cheap as it offers a pay as you go model. Moreover, it supports amazing flexibility and really impressive uptime SLA (Service Level Agreement). This is the reason virtual call centers are gaining a lot of popularity among new and existing call centers.

1.4 Define the customer Avatar

This is another important aspect to consider. The customer Avatar depicts your ideal customer. The type of business your customer will have, the type of service he would be offering, his demographics and geography, call handling requirements, industry verticals, and more. This will help you in your marketing campaigns once you complete setting a call center.

1.5 Understand legislation

This is another vital aspect to consider while setting up your call center along with managing other call center setup requirements while setting up the call center. This will also define how you will define each call center process for smooth operations of the business. In different countries, the legislation related to customer care centers, BPOs, call centers, etc. is different. Thus, it is worth hiring an experienced lawyer or professional that can guide you through the legal call center process to set up your business. The legislation may also differ based on the fact that whether you will have an on-site call center or a virtual call center. Thus, discuss all aspects with your lawyer or professional to comply with the compliances. 

1.6 Complete the groundwork

Once you define all the necessary information, you need to start getting your hands dirty by taking practical steps. You must have finished the documentation process to showcase all factors along with a business plan to set up a call center business. The earlier steps will help you make quick choices and go through different processes for setting up your call center. So let’s get started.

1.6.1. Get physical space

This is a must if you want to set up an on-site call center. In that case, the physical space needs to be big to accommodate servers, staff, etc. Even if you will have a virtual call center setup, you may want to have an office to operate from. In some countries, for registration, having a physical office address is necessary. There also you will need this space. So depending on your requirement, get a physical space for your call center.

1.6.2. Complete the paperwork

To register your business, take a legal license, and other aspects, you may need some documents. You can get those ready before you start the process. Take the help of your lawyer to know what documents will be needed to register your business and get the license. 

1.6.3. Register your business

This is the first real step towards call center setup. You will take legal action to register your business and get the license. Depending on various driving factors, this process may take little time or longer. Make sure your paperwork is crystal clear, so you don’t face any major hindrances in this process.

2. Build your team

The next step to start your own call center in 2023 is building the right team. To run your business and build your team, you will need to consider hiring the following resources:

• HR manager
• Accounting expert
• Call center supervisor
• Call center agents

These are the main resources that you will need to start your call center. Depending on the size of your call center and other driving factors, you may need more or fewer resources. Always remember, your team defines the success of your business. Thus, it is necessary to build the right team with the right, experienced, and skilled team members.

2.1 Define work model

The first thing you need to define is whether you want to set up one of the virtual or on-site call centers. This will help you define whether you want to hire a local team or an international team. For virtual call centers, the hiring options are wide open as the international pool of talent is available for hire. Moreover, agents work in any condition, which is why it is a preferred model by several call centers.

2.2 Define HR policies

Often, call centers don’t bother to define human resource management policies prior and this can cause disruption in business later on. It is necessary to define and document detailed human resource related policies.

2.3 Define recruitment process

Once you are ready with the HR policies and operational model, you need to start the recruitment process. The best option is to outsource the recruitment process as it will reduce the workload and manage stress. However, you can also keep this process in-house by hiring an in-house recruiter or HR specialist for recruitment and running this process.

2.4 Devise onboarding and training program

While your recruiter is looking for the best talent for your call center, you can have the required discussions and meetings with your HR head to define the onboarding process. The onboarding process is necessary to start a call center successfully because when your team joins the call center, they need guidance on how the call center process will take place. From the first day vision explanation to giving a welcome kit and all other processes need to be documented to make the onboarding process smooth and quick.

Your hired manpower may also need training programs. Even if agents are experienced and know how to use infrastructure, how to have conversations, etc., you need to give them the training to share about your targeted KPIs, vision, competitive advantage, etc. For defining training programs, you may need to take the help of supervisors or the managing head to define the training program. 

3. Acquire the call center infrastructure

While you are preparing for setting up your call center, on the other hand, you must acquire the required infrastructure. Whether you have a cloud or on-site call center, you will need to get the infrastructure to run your business.

3.1 Internal communication tools

When you are seeking answers for how to start a call center, you need to find the best internal communication tools. Usually, businesses focus on customer communication tools and give no emphasis on internal solutions. However, it is necessary to keep the internal communication system empowered so the team can answer customers better.

•  IP PBX

It is one of the best business phone systems, which can be used for internal and external communication. Many call centers use it to strengthen collaboration with one to one or extension calling and other features it has to support ongoing internal communication.

• IP Phones or SIP Softphones

To make and receive calls, call centers need a telephony solution even if they use a VoIP based communication system. The IP phone and SIP Softphone solutions are two options available to use. Usually, call centers use SIP Softphone to simplify infrastructure management and reduce maintenance expenses, but depending on your infrastructure setup plan, you can use both of these or any of these options to set up an internal communication system. These tools will also be used to communicate with clients.

3.2 Customer communication tools

To run different campaigns and cater to clients, a call center needs different communication tools. There are several options available, but we have listed the top and must have tools here.

• CRM software

To manage the complete customer journey, it is necessary to have a CRM solution in place. It must have a complete array of features and modules that let you store all details about the clients from the very first interaction to till date. Moreover, this software must allow you to introduce automation to make some operations mechanized to save resources.

• Call center solution

The most important tool for launching an running a call center business in 2023 is definitely this software. A software solution like a DialShree: omnichannel contact center solution is a must for your business. It will have different features and modules to automate several processes in a call center and run different campaigns seamlessly. Its omnichannel nature will let you use different communication channels to delight clients and increase the productivity of the team. Thus, for customer care and communication, it is a must have tool.

If you are interested in exploring more about DialShree, don’t wait any further. Book a demo now! 

3.3 HR management tools

To manage your team, you will need human resource management tools like a system to keep attendance, a system for payroll processing, and more. Some CRM solutions have these modules as internal features and in that case, you may not need to have these tools. However, if your CRM system doesn’t support an HR module, then you must get a reliable and feature rich HR management tool. The reason is call centers usually have multiple people on their team and they need to be managed with the right approach.

3.4 Reporting and monitoring tools

One more vital tool to keep call center operations smooth and productive to achieve the defined goal is a monitoring and reporting tool. Live call monitoring has become a trend in the call center industry. Thus, you will need this tool to keep your operations running. You will also need to generate reports to review the overall performance of different KPIs, agents, and more. You may find these features within the software for call centers. However, if it is not available in your software or if the software provides very basic features of reporting and monitoring, then you better choose the option of an external tool to keep reporting and monitoring more effective. 

4. Conclusion

Starting a call center needs a methodical call center setup with different aspects kept in place to ensure the base is clear. If your preparation is correct, then you will not need to worry much about the ongoing processes. Things will go smoothly and as per the plan. You may wonder that the tools might be needed once staff is available or you may think that once the staff is ready, they must have tools in their access to commence work immediately. But, all these go hand in hand. It means you need to keep things ready before you actually commence and launch your call center.

The first step is to complete the groundwork with the required research, key personnel selection, and completing legal aspects. The second step is to hire the right team. At least, team leaders, business managers, and heads need to be hired. In parallel, get the right infrastructure depending on the fact, whether you will have an on-site or virtual business. Setting up your call center and onboarding the team can be done in parallel to save time. When everything is ready, then only launch your call center.

Invest the required time to invest in making the required preparation as mentioned in this article. We have decades of industry experience in assisting call center owners to set up their own call centers. By taking advantage of our years of experience, we have tried to cover all the answers to the vital question of how to start a call center. You must keep in mind all the aspects explained in this blog post to start your call center successfully and thrive. 

You can also take help from one of the top technology experts for successful call center setup if you don’t want to manage everything on your own from preparation to set up. We have been helping businesses by offering the best technology solutions and infrastructure. Moreover, we help them by providing consultation services based on our more than 15 years of experience as technology experts and partners in several call centers. We can help you as well to set up your own call center. To know more and discuss your ideas or call center setup requirements, get in touch with us.

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African countries are growing rapidly in different segments. South Africa is one of the African regions that have shown exponential growth in industries like oil and gas, banking, agriculture, telecom, infrastructure, and more. Along with investment and operations, customer care is one of the aspects that South African businesses need to care about. Setting up the best contact center with the right tools, infrastructure, and team is the demand of the time. As the new year has started, knowing major contact center trends 2023 can help in making more returns from the contact centers in South Africa.

There are several influential factors that have impacted contact center trends. According to one of the reports shared by Harvard, COVID 19 has increased the number of call volumes by up to 50%, which shows the importance of defining the right strategy to handle this increased call volume.

There are multiple trends in this industry and we are sharing the major ones in South Africa that will dominate different industries in 2023.

• AI technology

Artificial Intelligence has been one of the contact center technology trends for many years. During and after the pandemic, it has shown rapid growth in adoption in South Africa and several other countries. From voice analytics to chatbots, there are so many mature applications built by artificial intelligence innovators. One of the reasons AI based applications are gaining popularity is the speed and quality it achieves by adding automation in operations and management. Thus, when you look for contact center automation trends, artificial intelligence dominates the industry there, too. AI and its application will be one of the major contact center trends to look for in 2023. Businesses based in South Africa are more likely to focus on this trend and even likely to adopt the same.

• Cloud technology

When we talk about customer care and support, we cannot ignore major contact center technology trends. Cloud is one of the major technologies in this industry that will take South Africa based businesses by storm. Cloud call center software, in fact, has already started making a huge impact in the market of South Africa with its scalability, flexibility, and similar characteristics.

• Remote work support

Since the COVID 19 pandemic hit the world, businesses have been facing increasing demand for remote work models. In fact, the businesses that had started working from home are still working from home. Customer care businesses are one of those businesses that have adopted remote working models. Thus, it is one of the major contact center trends 2023.

In addition to that, in South Africa, there are several businesses based on investment and funding. Investors from the USA, the UK, and similar countries fund businesses here to run and grow. Investors often have their own teams that work in collaboration with businesses in South Africa. Moreover, there are companies that hire international agents to offer exceptional customer care services. Therefore, focusing on contact center technology trends that can help in enhancing customer care standards and agent satisfaction is necessary.

• Automation

The contact center industry faces a huge workload in more than half of the cases in South Africa. Thus, it becomes necessary to add automation in customer care and other jobs to handle the increased workload more efficiently and swimmingly. In several cases, contact center automation trends define how one can improve customer satisfaction by adding automation features. These automation trends are not limited to customer self serving options or customer care jobs. One can also add automation in supervision, routine operations, etc. It helps in increasing overall performance along with the quality of service and quality of calls. This is going to be a huge market shift as there are already many businesses interested in this one of the major contact center trends in South Africa this year.

• Personalization

As competition grows, businesses need to go above and beyond to meet customer expectations. Receiving special treatment, while giving business to any brand, is one of the fundamental needs of any customer, in any country. As the South African market is making rapid changes and growth in several industry verticals, opportunities are spiking up. This is also increasing competition among businesses, which has increased the demand for personalized customer service delivery by contact centers and customer care centers. This is the reason, it is necessary to invest in contact center technology trends that can improve personalization in customer care and other touch-points that customers go through.

• Omnichannel communication

Similar to other countries, in South Africa as well, omnichannel communication has become a major trend. Customers and businesses use different modes of communication and this is going to be one of the major contact center trends 2023. Each customer might not use all communication channels, but they use multiple communication channels. This increases the demand for the top customer care channels to be integrated into a single communication tool so agents can use it with ease and improve customer satisfaction. Using this trend can also helps in increasing personalization and improving customer satisfaction. Thus, it is one of the top contact center trends in South Africa that will dominate the year 2023.

• Data Analytics

Data is mine in all businesses. Investors love data and often make their bids and bets depending on the data and reliability of the data. Customer care, sales, collection, and similar business operations are handled via contact centers. Thus, contact centers often have data. If leveraged correctly, contact center automation trends can help in mining, managing, and organizing data in well formatted and graspable reports. Technology companies have been working in this industry for many years and have built amazing capabilities in this direction. Data analytics is one of the contact center trends in South Africa that contact centers are already willing to integrate and leverage. This trend is dominating because not only helps in impressing investors, but also aids in improving customer care strategies and other business operations by understanding historical data.

Conclusion

In recent history, South African businesses have seen various changes in different aspects. From the pandemic to increasing investment opportunities, there are so many driving factors that have been uplifting the economy of South Africa. Along with growth opportunities, businesses in South Africa also face various challenges and this makes it necessary to set up the best contact centers. The contact center trends can directly contribute to touch several business aspects and enhance the growth model of business in South Africa.

We have identified and presented the top 7 contact center trends 2023, which can help you leverage the market scenarios in South Africa. Whether you are an investor or a business in this country, knowing these trends can help you lead this year as per your business goals and vision.

We also offer technology tools such as the best omnichannel contact center solution, DialShree that can help you level up your contact center game. We have covered all major contact center automation trends and technology trends in this software to benefit businesses in South Africa and even other African countries.

You can connect with our team to learn about our contact center industry related offerings, including, but not limited to software, consultation, and more. You may get started with a discussion of our software for the contact center. Contact us to book a demo NOW!

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According to a statistical result released by TrustPilot, around 90% of American consumers put customer experience as a major driving factor to choose a company with which they want to do business. There are so many statistical results available that favor customer service as the deciding criteria for consumers. This is the reason businesses heavily dependent on customer service such as an NBFC (Non-Banking Financial Company) invest in the best technology and team. They invest heavily in setting up an NBFC contact center with the best call center software and highly experienced customer service agents and debt collectors.

But, the question arises here is that, is that it?

Does hiring experienced agents and getting the best tools for an NBFC call center meet the need of improving the standard of customer services?

Well, that may handle one part of this crucial job, but it does not handle everything it should to improve customer experience. The job of debt collectors is quite complicated and stressful. Thus, NBFCs have to work on possible aspects to empower customer service agents, so they can work more productively and increase the efficiency of different campaigns like collection, loan management, KYC verification, and more.

According to the statistical result shared by Psycnet, the empowered team can provide better performance, they will be more satisfied with their job to reduce attrition, and they will show a higher level of loyalty to the organization. To leverage all these and several other advantages, follow the below mentioned tips to empower your collection agents and customer service agents in NBFC.

1. Build the right team

Whether you want to improve customer service or you just want to run collection campaigns in your NBFC to increase the recovery of dues, it is necessary to have the right team. Without hiring the best and most skilled debt collectors or customer service agents for your NBFC contact center, you will not be able to yield anything even if you give them all the liberty or use the best call center solution.

Do not hire agents that have worked in different campaigns of customer services, but hire agents that have experience working in banking or non banking financial companies. They can do better justice to the job if the right work culture is provided to them.

2. Share best practices

You cannot expect the best performance from your agents until you have kept them in the loop of expectations. Share and implement the best practices from the upper level of the NBFC call center. Create an open environment in which agents can thrive. They must have the right to share their opinion or ask any confusing questions that can help them improve customer service standards or their own performance. You can also document the best practices, so your agents can refer to them as and when they need.

3. Training and mentoring must be an integral part

Even if you have hired skilled and experienced agents, training and mentoring might be needed to keep your agents upgraded with technology, new standards related to customer services, new regulatory changes imposed on the NBFC contact center, and other aspects. Thus, training and mentoring at regular intervals are necessary. Moreover, demand based training and mentoring can also empower your customer service agents. For example, if there is any new type of debt collection case that has come across one of the debt collectors, then the supervisor or concerned person must mentor the agents during a live call or after the call depending on the situation. This will not only empower agents but also improve the operational model of an NBFC call center.

4. Don’t micromanage the team

Giving training and mentoring to agents is good to empower them and improve customer service scale, but micromanaging them would not. For example, if you have got the best call center solution for your NBFC contact center, then you must give the required training to agents. Moreover, you need to keep the work culture open, so agents can come and ask their questions without any fear of getting judged or marked as underperformers. Along with giving them the required support, give them the liberty to make decisions. They should be allowed to make decisions at a certain level based on their experience. This is the reason you hired experienced agents, right? So use their experience instead of guiding them on everything.

5. Provide the right tools

Experience, empowerment, and liberty will fail without the right tools. Thus, whether you want to empower your agents or increase the performance of your NBFC call center, it is necessary to get the best tools such as an NBFC solution, payment utility, IVR for collection, call center solution, etc. All these tools have to be advanced with value added features and technologies. For example, unified communication channels are necessary for your call center solution for NBFC as customers need omnichannel support. You have to provide the best tools to empower your agents. This can help them meet client expectations and the quality of campaigns related to customer services.

6. Don’t penalize for genuine mistakes

Mistakes are common and agents may make some genuine mistakes. In that case, you may discuss not making such mistakes personally with that agent. However, do not humiliate your team in front of other team members. Also, don’t impose any sort of penalties on your agents to make mistakes. They may feel demoralized and disconnected due to that. 

7. Implement a reliable quality assurance policy

Another vital step an NBFC can take to empower customer service agents in the NBFC is to implement the right QA policies. You can also use technology tools like AI voice analysis, which automates quality assurance of calls and services. This will also give direct clues to your agents to improve subtle areas that they might not notice due to busy work schedules or habits. This tool can be integrated into your call center solution and make quality assurance an integral process. This will empower your agents and improve the performance of the NBFC contact center.

Concluding notes

Debt collection and customer service agents play a very crucial role in the NBFC contact center. Giving them the right work culture, the best tools, the right to act without waiting for permission, and following other tips mentioned in this blog post can empower them. Focus your resources on agent empowerment because they do the tough job of delighting customers and even handling their mood swings. An empowered team of agents will be able to enjoy high job satisfaction and work life balance, which will clearly reflect in their performance and productivity. Thus, putting efforts into improving NBFC agents will definitely yield the best results.  

If you are interested in the right tools that can help you improve the efficiency of collection, empower your agents, automate processes, and benefit in other ways, then we can help. Our team has built exclusive solutions and tools for non banking financial companies like a payment utility, collection module, NBFC software, AI voice analysis, omnichannel call center solution, and more. Our business development team will be happy to demonstrate how you can take advantage of these powerful tools in a personalized demo. To book a demo, contact us NOW! 

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