5 trends for 2019 to help you improve your call center

Imagine a call center of the past: a dark room with dim artificial light in an office building with a team of agents jammed in a small room with nothing but basic customer details and an old software. And now imagine a call center of the future. What do you see?

If you want to future-proof your call center, the following trends might inspire you:

1.    Improved data analysis

With sophisticated analyses, you can easily transform data stored in your CRM tools into powerful information that your agents can use in their customer interactions. It doesn’t matter how big your call center is or what sector you operate in – high-quality analysis of customer data, work procedures and agent performance is useful for a fashion e-shop as well as for a financial advisory center. It’s not enough to rely on manual monitoring – there’s just too much information, so the most important data might easily get lost. 

2.    Customer experience is everything

If you think that price is the decisive factor in terms of customers’ shopping behavior, you are wrong. Offering the lowest prices on the market is useless if customers don’t feel good about the purchase and they are not happy to shop from you again.

• In terms of customer experience, remember to improve everything you can. You could start by checking your e-shop layout, the shopping process, warranty and complaints procedures, product information or customer support.
  
• Try to answer the caller’s questions and resolve their issue during the first call. This will save the customer’s time, as well as your energy.
  
• You can use customer information and analyses for call routing to make sure that each call is handled in the most efficient way possible.
  
• Don’t underestimate customer interactions on social networks. Being active on multiple platforms and responding quickly to customer questions and comments is the right way to go.

3.    Cloud-based solutions

Cloud-based call center solutions have moved traditional office-based contact centers to a side track. With customer details stored in the cloud, you can work anywhere and at any time and respond to flexible market requirements. The only thing you need is internet connection. That doesn’t sound too bad, does it? 🙂

Cloud-based call center easily adapts to your needs, enabling you to work more efficiently. Explore all the useful features and integrations offered by CloudTalk. 

4.    Artificial intelligence

By implementing new efficient digital strategies and automation, you will definitely boost your call center and make your customers happy. Using AI and automated self-service tools (e.g. interactive voice response, IVR) has become a standard that makes the agent’s job easier and saves the customer’s time. Advanced smart IVR systems recognize voice (and tone) and create personalized customer experience, so that callers are redirected to the right agent based on their past interactions.

Up to 50% of customers consider it important to have the possibility to tackle their issue alone without the help of an agent and 70% of customers expect to find self-help tools on the company’s website (e.g. FAQs or how-to videos).

5.    Employee satisfaction and team work

Employee satisfaction is closely linked to customer satisfaction. To put it simply, happy agents = happy customers. Therefore, your agents should have the freedom to bond, share their ideas and encourage each other. Provide them with regular feedback so that they know their strengths and weaknesses. Find ways to motivate them and don’t forget to implement tools that will make their work easier. 

A new year always brings new challenges as businesses want to be better than before and make a step forward. In this post, we have shown you key trends that will help your call center work more efficiently and not to get stuck in the past 🙂