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Call Center Software Trends 2020 That You Must Know

Call Center Trends 2020 That You Must Know

In the last few years, new trends have kept on emerging quite frequently in customer service. The call centers across the globe have undergone a paradigm shift, to now being experienced centers for customers. As we are rapidly approaching 2020, it is time to check out what changes are lined up for contact centers that will prove to be a revolution for this industry.

Moving forward to the new year 2020, it is important to evaluate the future of contact centers with regards to the upcoming trends and how they will help to improve and enhance CX or for that matter improve the productivity of agents.

Given below are the top 5 contact center trends to look out in 2020:

1) Escalation of queries and complaints through social media

Social media is an effective platform to connect with customers. Social media channels are not only for marketing and advertising, but also for providing customer care to customers. In 2020, more and more customers will be raising their queries through social media networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Let us take a look at some facts mentioned below:

  • 29% of customers of all age groups have used social media to complain about a brand’s customer service.
  • Social media channels like Facebook and Twitter help in delivering 46 percent more accurate responses and 44 percent quicker responses than emails.
  • 80 percent of the total social media customer service requests come from Twitter alone.

As we approach 2020, these numbers are likely to increase at a faster rate with the proliferation of social media. Considering all these, it is high time for contact centers to integrate the option of social media customer support in their call center solution.

2) Omnichannel communication strategy for providing effective context-specific support

The omnichannel communication is an effective customer centric tool that provides a seamless and uniform customer experience across all platforms, be it through smartphones, desktops or for that matter even in-person. The omnichannel consists of strategic customer touchpoints across many channels so that customers don’t have to repeat the same information again to different call center agents.

The integration of omnichannel communication with the call center software enables the executive to know the history of customers and provide effective responses within the shortest possible time interval. The omnichannel approach helps to save valuable time of both customers as well as agents, leading to quicker and more efficient resolutions of queries and complaints.

3)  Live engagement tools for better customer experience

Live engagement tools such as live chat, video chat, and co-browsing enable contact centers to provide proactive responses and faster resolutions to customers. It helps in identifying the customers’ issues which most of the time might be difficult due to lack of real-time communication.

Having various live engagement tools as a part of the call center solution enables enterprises to guide the customers better across their entire journey. It also helps to boost team productivity and customer satisfaction. It increases conversion rates and reduces the response time.

4) Automation using artificial intelligence (AI)

In addition to handling calls and responding to customers, call center executives perform a lot of other tasks such as categorization of the queries or complaints and tagging them. These basic tasks can be entirely delegated to AI-enabled chatbots. These chatbots would serve as the first point of contact for customers.

Moreover, chatbots enable businesses to provide 24 x 7 customer engagement. By making use of chatbots, the right queries can be assigned to the aptest agents which are best equipped to solve them. Blending AI into the call center software helps to reduce the workload of agents and provides effective real-time customer support.

5)  Hiring more remote call center agents

Most call centers have already started giving preference to freelance agents in comparison to having a high number of on-premises contact center agents. These freelancers can work from anywhere across the globe just by merely using the call center software over the internet. The advantages of hiring remote agents in comparison to in-house employees are:

  • Saves valuable time and money.
  • No added expenditure on IT tools and equipment.
  • Lower maintenance cost.
  • Saving money on currency value.
  • A large pool of agents across the globe.
  • Operations are made seamless and productive.
  • Doing away with staffing issues.

In order to stay in the competition considering the current market scenario and cut-throat competition, call centers, and their agents need to be aware about the upcoming trends and be ready to integrate and use them as a part of their call center solution.

Looking for advanced call center software solution? Contact us.

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Key Points to Keep in Mind to Run a Successful Call Center Business

Key Points to Keep in Mind to Run a Successful Call Centre Business

Call center owners strive to get the most out of their resources, be it the employees or the call center software. Call centers handle a huge load of calls on a day-to-day basis and it is necessary to record the performance of individual agents in order to track their efficiency. A good call center software is the best tool for this purpose.

However, many a times call center owners struggle to achieve their objective even when equipped with an efficient call center solution, mostly as they are not aware of the right approach to handle the insights. Below are a few key points that will help call center owners enhance their call center’s performance and analyze the performance of their employees.

1. Efficiency in addressing calls

It is possible that some agents, who are not diligent towards their work, can overlook addressing a few calls after a hectic day. This practice will definitely reflect poorly on the call center’s performance and hence has to be curbed. The efficiency of individual agents can be determined using the performance recording system of the call center software.

Understanding how many calls individual agents answer from the pool of calls directed to them can speak volumes about their performance. This metric will help call center owners to take appropriate action against agents that slack off during their shift and at the same time acknowledge the effort of committed employees.

2. Shorter Call Wait Duration

Get an insight on the call wait duration at your call center with the help of the call center solution. Find out what is the average time a call has to wait before it is addressed. It is necessary for the call queue time to be short.

A long call wait time may result in increased client frustration with your service and will eventually affect your business’s reputation. The shorter the call wait time, the better it is. A call center solution is a great tool to track this parameter that will help the business owners to take appropriate decisions to improve their service.

3. Faster Call Wrap up

The amount of time an agent takes to conclude the client’s question determines the performance of the service. It is of utmost importance for the agent to be skillful to tackle the client’s queries and answer them in the shortest duration possible.

The performance of an individual agent and each agent’s wrap-up time is recorded in the call center solution. The call center software enables call center owners to check each agent’s performance and whether they are meeting the needed performance requirements. The faster an agent winds up a call while ensuring customer satisfaction, the better is the ROI on the agent.

These factors may be few, but are extremely vital for the success of your call center. A better understanding of these will help call center owners to tackle the hurdles they might be faced with the venture. Getting a call center solution will definitely help you go a long way with your business.

Looking for one of the best call center software? Contact us.

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How to Handle Rush during Holidays in Your Call Center?

Tips to Handle Rush during Holidays in Your Call Center

Christmas bells have already started ringing. There are some businesses in which the holidays will get started. On the other hand, in some industries, the workload will be increased. The call center is one of the industry verticals which face increased workload during the holiday season.

Christmas and holiday season actually increase work and stress levels on agents and managers, both. If you are leading a call center, here are some easy to follow tips to handle the holiday rush without increasing stress:

1. Know insights about the holiday rush

If you are using a call center solution, dig deeper to see the reports of last year’s holiday season. You need to see which products were in demand, what services were making differences, what types of queries appeared repetitively? Your reports and filters in the call center software will provide all these details.

These details will help you define the areas to be improved. You can design IVR to answer frequently asked questions. You can train your team to take care of the concerns that come up repetitively.

2. Add more agents in the call center

You care to hire remote agents or on-premises agents based on your employment model and labor laws. It is necessary to add more agents during the holiday season as it is the peak season and you need to handle the holiday rush.

Make sure to hire experienced agents instead of recruiting fresher who may not have the required experience of dealing with customers within the minimum time to maintain a good FCR (First Call Resolution) ratio.

3. Use omnichannel call center software

Generally, call centers use a call center solution that supports voice calling operations. However, to handle the holiday rush effectively, you need to use an omnichannel call center software. An omnichannel call center solution uses different communication channels such as voice calls, video calls, screen share, instant messaging, SMS, fax, etc.

There are many benefits of using an omnichannel call center solution during the holiday season. For example, the load on agents could be distributed when you have voice calls and chat to offer. In this case, some customers will stay in the voice call queue and some will take benefit of real-time chat to get answers to their queries.

Also, sending an email or SMS is mandatory in some campaigns which provide further information. Thus, make sure to use an omnichannel call center solution.

4. Add social media channels in your call center solution

Social media platforms are one of the channels on which customers connect with brands. They share their frustration and appreciation on different social media channels. Thus, you have to integrate the major social media platform as per your business model with the call center software. It will help in improving customer satisfaction.

These are the top 4 tips you can follow to increase customer satisfaction. This can help you handle the holiday rush and that also gracefully.

We offer omnichannel call center software. Contact us for more details.

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Key Advantages of Call Center Solution for All Businesses

Key Advantages of Call Center Solution for All Businesses

Call center software is specifically developed to provide a tool that can help call centers to speed up its day to day operations and bring the best out of its team of call center agents and supervisors. There are many benefits of using this powerful tool and this is the reason it is not restricted to be used by only call centers these days.

Along with the call centers, almost all businesses use this powerful tool nowadays. There are many benefits of using a call center solution in any business and in this article, we will share the top 5 pros of using call center software in your business.

1. Enhanced customer service

The call center solution offers many features to allow companies to cater to their customers in the most professional manner. They can reach the customers on time and provide value added services.

Moreover, the features of this software make sure that each customer is treated with the highest professionalism. This helps in enhancing customer services to increase customer satisfaction.

2. Speed up the sales process

In any business, it is necessary to speed up the sales process else a prospective customer gets lost to a competitor. The call center software provides required features so executives not only reach the prospective customers within time, but also impress them with thorough professionalism. In fact, with the help of an advanced call center solution, some of the leads get converted within a single call.

3. Increase the productivity of staff

The best call center software makes sure each call is handled efficiently and by the right person. It also provides the required features to perform well in front of the customer.

The team of the business gets world class features to handle a customer in an appropriate manner. The successful calls, happy customers, and increased sales boost the morale of the staff and this ultimately increases the productivity of the staff members.

4. Reduce expenses

The call center solution uses VoIP calling functionality which is cheaper than its counterpart. It also reduces additional expenses related to telecom infrastructure.

Furthermore, the increased productivity of the staff will reduce the costs of training and other relevant activities. Furthermore, the call center software automates many operations, which will save time and money, both for any company.

5. Increase ROI

The call center system gets built to help businesses to speed up their operations and provide the required tools to the team so they can boost performance. The saved time and resources will reduce expenses and the increased sales and enhanced customer services will assure boosted business.

The increased business aka revenue and reduced expenses offer the best returns over investment (ROI) to the businesses. These are the top 5 advantages of using a call center software in your business.

We have developed the most advanced call center solution which is a perfect fit for any business. To know more about it, contact us.

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What You Must Keep In Mind While Performing Call Center CRM Integration?

Tips to Keep In Mind for Successful Call Center CRM Integration

A call center solution is a vital tool these days. It comes with an amazing range of features that aims to increase efficiency and speed in an organization. There are many use cases of using a call center software solution in any organization regardless of its size and industry vertical.

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. This solution is used in different organizations to keep records of customers in a well-defined manner. It is also used to boost digital marketing campaigns to make them more effective. These marketing campaigns often increase results.

These two most powerful solutions, namely, call center solution and CRM software can be combined to work in a streamlined manner with the process of call center CRM integration. The top VoIP companies offer this integration for open source and proprietary CRM and call center solutions.

There are many benefits of integrating call center and CRM solutions together which are tried and tested by many companies and organizations. This is one of the reasons many companies and organizations have started investing in call center CRM integration services.

To leverage all benefits from this integrated solution, it is necessary to assure the integration is performed carefully. How can you assure that? Here are the top 2 tips to keep in mind while your team or your provider performs call center CRM integration:

1. Experience is must

Whether your in-house team will perform integration or you have chosen a VoIP development company to perform integration, it is necessary to assure that the engineers have the required experience in performing call center CRM integration. They must have performed this sort of integration successfully multiple times to make sure they can carry out the process with ease.

2. Take pre-integration steps

Before any sort of development, it is necessary to take some advanced steps to make the stage ready for successful completion. In terms of CRM call center Integration, you need to take care of the following steps:

  • If you are already using a call center solution and/ or CRM software, take the backup of data and records you have in both of these systems.
  • If you are setting up a completely new IT infrastructure, make sure to understand what channels will be integrated and what will be the output.

If you have any specific requirements such as opening encrypted records of the customer, you need to make sure you let your team or provider know about it. Also, define and update the developer whether you want to push data from one system to another in real-time or in batches.

These are the top 2 tips you need to keep in mind and also need to take care of while investing in the call center CRM integration.

We offer call center CRM integration and we have integrated various call center solutions with different CRM systems. We can help you with your requirements. Please contact us for more details.

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Why Predictive Dialer Is Must in the Call Center Software?

Predictive Dialer Is Must in the Call Center Software

Call centers invest a significant amount of money on acquiring different resources, including tools and human resources. For example, every year millions of dollars are invested in agent training in the call center industry across the world. The call centers also invest significant money in getting the best call center solution to provide the required advancement in terms of technology to benefit agents.

Even if the call centers get the best call center software, they use traditional features. There are some features that can help you leverage many benefits. One of as such amazing features available in advanced call center solutions is predictive dialer. In this article, you will learn how you must buy a solution with this form of auto dialer and why you must use it in your campaigns. It has many benefits and some of them are briefed below:

1. Save time

The predictive dialer is one of the most powerful auto dialers offered by the call center software providers. This dialer dials enough calls to assure each agent stays busy all the time. Thus, it saves a lot of time. As soon as an agent finishes an ongoing call, he gets the next call. He will not need to wait to get the next call.

2. Increased productivity

The agents neither need to dial calls nor need to wait for the system to dial and route the call. Predictive dialer will do the needful on its own by dialing leads in advance to pass it to the agents. It means the talk time of the agents will be increased to the next level. This also helps in boosting the morale of the agents which further increases productivity.

3. Reduced abandoned calls

The predictive dialer makes sure to dial all leads and pass only active calls to the agents. It means all calls that are abandoned, couldn’t reach the customer, dropped, or reached a voicemail will be ignored by the dialer itself. It will only pass the calls that are attended by the customers.

4. Increased efficiency

The predictive dialer is efficient in dialing the numbers one by one. It also makes sure to redial the leads which could not be connected in the first attempt. This helps agents in assuring that they are delivering the quality of service to the customers.

5. Increase business

As a predictive dialer is superfast, it can finish a lead list faster than any other type of dialer available in the call center solution. This helps in reaching more customers and prospects in less time. This ultimately helps in reaching goals faster and increasing business.

These are the top benefits of using the predictive dialer. There are many more benefits of using this dialer to run campaigns.

We have one of the top call center software, which has a wide range of features. To know more about it, please contact us.

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Top Tips to Improve First Call Resolution

Tips to Improve First Call Resolution

First Call Resolution (FCR) is one of the important KPIs in the call centers. There are many key performance indicators that define whether the campaigns are successful or not. Thus, it is necessary to work on it.

What is FCR?

It is a key performance indicator that defines the ratio of calls that have given the required resolution in the very first call. It means the customer did not need to wait to get his or her problem gets resolved.

There are many things one can do to improve this KPI. Here are some of the top tips that one can use to improve FCR ratio:

1. Evaluate current FCR

To define the strategy, first, you need to know what your current FCR rate is. Some call center software such as DialShree provides the detail of this ratio in the report section. You can use it to know more about your FCR ratio.

2. Try to know from the customer about their satisfaction

Not an agent, the customer himself or herself can define whether he or she was happy or not. You can use the predictive dialer of the call center solution to run a separate campaign to know whether the customer got FCR or not and whether he or she is actually happy with the services or not.

3. Identify weak areas

To resolve a problem, it is necessary to know the problem. Use reports available in the call center software solution as well as the feedback given by the customers to know the reasons behind the failure. For example, whether there is an issue with the product quality or whether the agent talked professionally or not, etc.

4. Define the solution

Once you get to know what issues are reducing the first call resolution ratio, the next step is to define the solution. For example, if the quality of the product is a common issue faced by all, you need to work in the direction of improving the quality of the product. If your agents are not professional and polite, you need to define a new training program.

5. Execute the defined strategy to increase FCR

Once you are ready with your plan to remove roadblocks that are affecting your performance, you need to execute that plan. Take strategic steps to assure that all your hard work goes on the right path.

6. Train your agents to stick to the plan of FCR

In some call centers, KPIs are different. First Call Resolution and minimum time on the call are two different KPIs. Thus, it is necessary to inform your agents to handle calls by keeping FCR in mind. They should focus on improving this rate.

These are the top 6 tips that one needs to execute to improve the FCR ratio in the call center. The call center solution can be helpful to take the required steps. All you need to do is review, plan, and execute.

DialShree, our call center software, can help you improve the FCR ratio. For more details, contact us.

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Agent Experience in Call Center Defines Customer Experience

Agent Experience in Call Center Defines Customer Experience

Call centers often invest a lot of time, money, and resources to increase customer experience and satisfaction. Many of them receive success and many of them stay puzzled with a question: Even after putting all required efforts, why do not they get expected customer satisfaction ratio? The reason behind this might be dissatisfied agents.

Even if you have the best call center solution, but if your agents are unhappy, you are less likely to achieve success. Don’t believe me? This blog will share the top 3 reasons agent experience defines the customer experience.

1. Increased agent hopping results in untrained staff

If your agents are not happy, it may increase the resignation and recruitment cycle. This not only wastes a lot of money and resources on hunting and recruiting new agents, but it will also result in some unavoidable losses. When you hire a new agent or a team of agents, you invest in the training process.

When agents resign and leave the job, you need to repeat the whole process. The agent hopping will not only waste money and time on training programs, but it will also result in increased vacancies in your call center. It further results in less number of agents and increased call queues.

Also, it increases the number of not completely trained agents. As one can gauge, this may result in bad or moderate customer service.

2. Unhappy agents will not give their 100%

If your agents are not happy for whatsoever reason, they will not give their 100% in anything. All they would need to do is pulling themselves and spending a day to finish it in the call center.

Thus, they will not give attention to the training you provide them. They will also not serve customers wholeheartedly. This results in passing negative energy to customers, which increases customer dissatisfaction.

3. Unhappy agents may increase customer frustration

When your agents are loaded with a lot of work or they are not fully trained, their confidence will be low which will reduce their productivity. This will down their morale.

Furthermore, unhappy agents will not have their souls in their job. Thus, they may lag in their responses or increase customer hold time or fumble in the calls. This will increase the frustration level of customers.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, if your agents are unhappy, they will make your customers unhappy. You should provide them the latest tools such as the best call center software; personalized training; motivational perks and a healthy working environment so they stay happy and serve your customers happily. This will increase customer satisfaction and overall performance of the company.

We offer call center software. To know more about it, contact us.

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Cloud Vs. On-Premises Call Center Solution: Differences and Advantages

Cloud Vs. On-Premises Call Center Solution

What is a cloud-based call center?

Cloud-based call center software is the one that is hosted in the cloud by a service provider. The cloud is used for storage and processing of all information. The functioning of this call center solution depends on an active internet connection having sufficient bandwidth. As a cloud based call center software is hosted in the cloud, it can be easily accessed from anywhere across the globe just by using an active internet connection.

What is an on-premises call center?

As the name suggests, the setup of this type of call center solution is established in the office premises. It requires communication server, hardware, software and other infrastructure for its operation. There is a dedicated IT support team that takes care of the installation and maintenance of all the systems and tools. The on-premises call center software is controlled internally, i.e. in-house from the office.

Differences between on-premises and cloud based call center solutions:

1) Installation

On-premises: Its setup may require several weeks and is extremely tedious and time consuming. It involves purchasing multiple hardware and compatible software to go with it. It also involves obtaining the required licensing.

Cloud-based: Installation of the cloud-based call center software is very easy and can be done within a few hours. It just involves installing the software on the cloud and makes some setup configurations on the PC and you are good to go.

2) Setup and operational costs

On-premises: The cost involved is comparatively high. This is because an on-premises call center solution requires upfront capital expenditure on server, hardware, software and licensing. It also requires infrastructure and office space to accommodate the system. Also, there are on-site upgrades and maintenance tasks that need to be done at a regular interval. This leads to recurring costs as well.

Cloud based: It functions without the need for any expensive hardware or servers. The only requirement is an active internet connection with strong bandwidth and a subscribed plan to host in the cloud. Cloud based call center software involves monthly subscription charges.

3) Reliability

On-premises: Being a traditional system, it relies on physical hardware and server for its functioning. However, the chances of physical system breakdown are relatively more which affects the overall productivity of the call center. One key advantage of on-premises call center solution is its superior call quality and nearly no call lags as well as complete control on the system.

Cloud based: Since its working is based on the internet, stronger the internet connection better will be the call quality. Without proper bandwidth, the call quality will be affected tremendously.

Advantages of on-premises call centers

  • Invest only in the systems and tools that are required.
  • The long term benefit as the upfront cost would be paid off without any continuing costs.
  • Customization is possible as per the business needs.
  • Maximum control over the systems and processes.
  • Safe and secure storage of data over in-house servers.

Advantages of cloud-based call centers

  • Easy setup and installation
  • Minimal management
  • Higher flexibility in business operations
  • Convenient and secure data storage
  • Increased productivity of agents
  • Easy scalability as the business expands
  • Allows remote working option for agents and businesses
  • Reduced operational costs

Depending on the preference, budget, and the call center solution that needs to be installed, one can choose between on-premises vs. cloud call center solutions.

Contact us to get a call center solution.

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Top 4 Habits of Customer Centric Call Center

Top Habits of Customer-Centric Call Center

Companies and call centers invest a lot to keep customers happy. Customers seek for better services and not cheaper prices really. According to one of the statistics shared by the Thikjar, 55% of customers are ready to pay more to get better service. Yes, you read that right.

Customers are looking for customer care support before and after the purchase. Nowadays, companies know the importance of happy customers and that is why they invest in the best call center software, integration of social media and other channels in the call center solution, train agents, and much more to do everything possible to increase customer satisfaction.

In this article, you will learn about the top 4 tips that must be applied in your customer support center or customer care center to make sure you achieve 99.99% customer satisfaction ration.

1. Pay attention to what your customer is saying – listen carefully

Generally, agents are in a hurry to read out the script they are seeing in their call center software window. Some interrupt customers in between. The first thing agents need to learn is to pay complete attention to the customer while he is talking and in any case never interrupt him or her. Thus, the first thumb rule of success is to Listen Carefully to the Customer.

2. Deliver personalized experience

Everyone enjoys the feeling of being known and worth and so do your customers. Let them feel that they are important to you. Try to personalize the conversation and make them feel good. You can use the call center CRM integration so an agent can see the details about the customer, including, his/her liking and disliking.

This will help agents to treat each customer based on their likings and this personalized experience will help you increase customer satisfaction.

3. Add Automation

A majority of customers usually has the same issue. For example, when will my order get delivered? Or do you deliver in my area or not? For a simple yes or no answer, the customer needs to wait in the call queue, which can be less than 1 minute or more than 20 minutes sometimes.

The call center software provides amazing features and those features can be used to cater to customers more effectively. For example, integrate an IVR menu to let customers self serve themselves.

4. Test your tools

The customer care centers use multiple tools such as call center software, CRM solution, etc. Each tool comes with a wide array of features. Generally, once the configurations are made, they are left as it is. This is not a good practice. The call center must monitor and fine-tune the tools to receive good results. For example, the IVR menu in the call center solution needs to be changed based on the current trend.

These are the top 4 habits that are easy to practice and do not take a lot to follow. It delivers the best customer services and increase customer satisfaction.

Looking for tools to empower your call center? Contact us.

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