Five Essentials to Expect for Excellence
A call center services provider processes customer orders, answers questions about your products and services, updates your customers about the status of their orders, and calls your prospects for B2B lead generation and sales appointment setting. It sends email notifications to your customers confirming their orders, to let them know orders are in transit and to confirm their sales appointment. And it handles credit card transactions and returned-item processing.
You’re most likely aware of the full range of outsourced services that a call center services company provides… but here’s the key question: What’s the difference between an ordinary call center company and an exceptional one?
Here are the five essentials to expect from the exceptional services provider:
1. Your brand is their brand
A call center services provider should be a partner, not just an outsourced vendor. It treats your customers with care and respect because, as a partner, the customer service call center is an extension of your company. You should always feel confident that your customers are treated with courtesy, and that the outsourced call center service employs agents who are knowledgeable about your products and can express your brand.
2. Customization
Many call centers use a program template – they fit your program into a standard approach that does not allow for much flexibility. But a good call center tailors its services to your company’s specific needs and situation. Privately owned call centers usually offer the most personalized, customized programs.
3. Order size maximization
You understand that every time a customer calls your inbound call center, it’s a sales opportunity. The last thing you want are call center agents who are just take order takers. You want agents with the sales experience and people skills to expand customer orders – by suggesting complementary products and calling attention to sale items. Go with a call center that can up-sell and cross-sell in a way that makes the customer feel good about calling your company. And for that, you need call center agents that have been trained in advanced customer service and sales techniques. So be sure your call center continually invests in its people.
4. Measurable results
Demand detailed, frequent reports from your call center services company and hold them to demanding performance standards. This means fast response time, low abandonment rates, high first-call resolution, shorter average talk time and improved average order size. On the outbound call center side, this means reaching goals for warm leads turned over to you, sales appointments scheduled, win-back customer surveys completed and customer records updated. And you should expect to lower your business costs, because an optimized call center should operate at maximum efficiency. From the outset, work closely with your call center to establish the program metrics that support your business goals.
5. Premise-based agents
Before working with any call center outsourcing company, make sure you not only have the kind of customer service agents you need, but the kind of customer service agent supervision that delivers the results you want. Beware of virtual agents working from home. In nearly all cases, it's better to go with a call center whose agents work within a call center facility, which ensures premium quality assurance, work performance monitoring, teamwork and knowledge sharing.
Use these five features as essentials, not just “extras,” when you’re selecting an outsourced call center services company, and you’re more likely to get the program you need.
Mark Fichera, CEO
OnBrand24
Beverly, Massachusetts