IT & Operations
Sales
Customer support
Company-wide
Software & Tech
Financial Services
Professional services
Education & E-learning
Remote teams
Business phone system
Calling for HubSpot
Micro Business
Small businesses
Medium & Large businesses
Zendesk
Pipedrive
Gorgias
Plecto
Front
Salesloft
The 7 Most Misunderstood Facts About Call Center
Everyone has probably received many calls from various call centers throughout their life. When you think of a call center you most likely imagine someone sitting by phone and calling hundreds of people with proposals, every single day. Calls to the call center are often avoided since it doesn’t have the best reputation and involves dealing with issues that take some attention to solve.
Accept it or not, customer service is an essential factor in running a successful business. Modern contact centers are quite different and use the latest technology to improve their service and have more satisfied customers. However, it may not be clear to everyone – that’s why and how many misconceptions are created and mistakenly shared.
7 common call center misconceptions
1. Working in a call center is easy.
This is a stereotype that is based on those who don’t know what the job actually looks like. It might seem mundane at times, but it is definitely not easy. Those working at call centers have to be energetic, patient and positive people who can solve problems that customers face. They must be well-spoken, good at multitasking and loyal to their company. Another stereotype is that call center employees aren’t educated and don’t have much knowledge about many topics. This is completely false. Call center employees go through training, courses and aren’t placed to the phone right away. These employees go through weeks of training to learn how to do their job well. In order to solve the thousands of issues customers deal with, they must have a lot of skills and knowledge about the topic. They’re determined agents and problem-solvers who are committed to improving customers’ experience with a company or brand. These agents are surprisingly strictly trained to handle customer calls quickly and successfully. They care about solving the customer’s problem and making them satisfied. Of course, technology also comes in handy and makes the customer support process a lot more simple – CloudTalk provides emotion recognition to a contact center, which gives advice using the perfect tone of voice. This actually can be integrated with helpdesks, e-commerce tools and CRM that make the user experience pleasant and personalised.
The secrets to boosting productivity and increasing profit
2. Call centers are annoying and unhelpful.
Since call centers are known to call customers with proposals frequently, they might seem pushy and intrusive. Clients tend to decline calls to try to avoid incoming offers. This all comes down to them believing that call centers don’t have much to offer and are only there to waste their time. Why is this misconception so common? Mostly due to bad past experiences. It’s proven that more than four in five customers told someone they had a negative customer experience. Today’s call center services are more set on leaving the customer happy. Thanks to modern technology, their help is also provided faster and is more helpful since the problem is solved as quickly as possible. 73% of people actually consider customer experience an important factor in their purchasing decisions. Without call centers, customers would have a majority of their issues unresolved and not know who to contact. Call centers are there to provide valuable information and help – customers are their number one priority. They help resolve issues that could potentially ruin your brand’s reputation in a short period.
3. The customer is always right.
Sometimes customers have false beliefs or inaccurate facts about certain topics. You should never argue with a complaining customer, but it’s okay to correct their misconceptions. Sometimes the dialer exaggerates certain issues – this is when you provide them with facts and correct them politely. It’s okay to disagree with a customer from time to time. The way you handle the situation is what’s most important. Having a positive attitude and calm behavior is essential. Some customers aren’t exactly reasonable, but it’s the call center’s job to stay nice, calm and take the problem seriously. Professionalism is a top trait in this field and customers should always be treated with respect.
4. Call centers are only for outgoing calls to customers.
Call centers are mostly known for reaching out to customers with offers. It’s important to note that they also offer multiple platforms for customers to contact them through and raise their concerns. Calling can be stressful for clients, but it’s the best way to solve a complex issue they’re facing. Telephone customer service is only improving, thanks to technology. The integration of call centers with CRM allows for efficient problem-solving while talking to a real person. Virtual call centers offer many options that can help both the company and client, making communication more effective.
5. The call center industry has no future.
Not only do call centers help your business grow, but they are the main way to contact clients or companies. In fact, studies show that two out of three consumers are willing to pay a higher price for excellent customer service. It’s also estimated that humans will still be required in one out of three customer service interactions. AI improvements only enhance the user experience – they won’t fully replace human interaction. Customers tend to prefer human contact – robots only automate the tasks that are repetitive. Cloud-based infrastructure providers now account for more than 18% of contact center seats. This only proves that virtual call centers are becoming more popular and will only continue to grow.
6. Call centers are expensive and only for large businesses.
Call centers have resources that can help support every type of business – from small companies that are just starting or bigger companies with hundreds of employees. They have a lot of productivity tools that work in different ways and for different purposes. Money also shouldn’t be an issue. Cloud-based call centers are more simple and cheaper to run. They provide flexible packages based on the needs of their clients. Your customers should always be your top priority – no matter how large or small your business is.
7. Remote call centers aren’t too secure.
While offshore call centers have many agents dealing with a lot of data at once, online customer support systems offer safe solutions that are highly secured and even have a team of experts that are constantly on hand to monitor and help clients. CloudTalk is GDPR compliant – it follows recommendations from security standards like PCI/DSS, ISO 27001/27002, and the OWASP security project. All passwords and private information are unreachable and can’t be accessed internally. There is no reason for customers to worry about their information being leaked or accessible to random users.
Call centers might not have an amazing opinion in the public eye, but it’s time to change that. They are extremely helpful to companies and customers – without them, there would be many unresolved issues. They can help any business, small or big, grow and become more successful. All of the misconceptions mentioned above are false and outdated. You don’t need any professional IT knowledge to set up a virtual call center and provide satisfying customer experience.
