7 Strategies to improve the performance of your contact center

Posted by Avinash Mittal on October 9th, 2019

With the onset of the digital age, the demands and expectations of customers have significantly increased and similar to every other industry, contact centers face the risk of losing customers in the longer run. If you are managing a contact center, you probably would have been dealing with a lot of unsatisfied customers. Customer satisfaction can be improved only by upgrading the contact center operation. The best way is to start by knowing your audience and finding out solutions that help business satisfy their most pressing needs.

Optimize

To satisfy customers is one of the most challenging tasks and delay of even a few seconds can cost you a lot. Customers demand near real-time communications and assistance to their queries and issues. Meeting this requirement through all the possible channels which customers use should be your priority. Customers who receive a prompt and satisfactory resolution tend to be more loyal with increased chances of using your service in the future.

Call monitoring program

Poorly managed contact center service can damage your brand. Thereby, establish a call monitoring program where several calls are listened to, assessed and graded monthly for each representative for maintaining the quality and uniformity.

Train your staff

Being a contact center, you would be providing new agent training that instructs them about procedures, policies, and expectations. It shouldn’t be a once. Train your staff actively and regularly though. Business goals and customers’ needs change, and your contact center agents should remain informed to deliver better performance results.

Use IVR

Interactive voice response or IVR is one of the most valuable and popular tools for contact centers if used appropriately. IVR technology gathers all information about callers before they get associated with the agent so that they are equipped to help. As this information is shared with the agent in real-time, they gain instant access to customer’s history before they assist them and resolve their queries or issues. This automatic access to information simplifies agents’ task and makes them more laced up with tools to offer a pleasant experience to the customers.

Create buyer personas for loyal customers

You may have an amazing product or service to sell, but it won’t help if you don’t know your customers. Know your target audience to build character personas of your buyers and engage them. It will help you understand why customers should choose you over your competitors. Take account of the major class of customers you serve and what you offer to make their life easier. Gather insights about the audience and step into their shoes to experience their journey. Use customers’ feedback to gain a detailed understanding of your customers' needs and expectations.

Empower agents to make decision

Scripts have considerably eased agents’ tasks and are essential to assure ongoing compliance. However, agents need to feel empowered when they have to make crucial decisions. In certain cases, it is wise to give agents freedom and go off-script to convince a customer. There is no harm if it is for the greater good of the company.

Provide personalized feedback to your agents

No matter how technically advanced your contact center is, its success depends very much on the efficiency of your agents. However, no two agents are the same, and so they shouldn’t be treated as such. Ask your contact center managers to provide personalized feedback to every agent.  When managers take time to review performance results and provide feedback, it makes agents feel valuable and invested which results in better performance.

In addition, it is also important to recognize your agents’ efforts and celebrate their success. Make your agents feel appreciated, and they will continually look for ways to improve their performance.

The contact centers have drastically evolved and have turned more advanced than ever. We hope these tips help you improve the performance of your contact center.