Lean & Mean – 10 Ways to Improve Process & Productivity
How to improve contact centre processes to benefit both your customers and your business.
Running a thriving contact centre that provides seamless, consistent customer service means productivity must be a top priority. In order to create a system that works for both your business and your customers, you must put the focus on streamlining your processes so agents can concentrate on solving client inquiries while you save money by eliminating inefficiencies. Here are 10 ways to streamline your client service centre’s operations in order to create a lean, mean customer service machine: an efficient, efficacious contact centre.
1. Redirect simple inquiries to IVR
J.D. Power and Associates found that interactive voice response (IVR) represents 27 percent of the caller’s total experience. But, most companies (93 percent!) cannot currently offer an IVR option delivering better customer experience than that delivered by their live agents. If you’re already using IVR menus, improve them! If you’re not, get with the program so simple inquiries like operating hours and shipment tracking can be handled by the computer while agents deal with more complex matters.
2. Record and playback agent calls to take advantage of free training
Providing top-notch service means training must be a priority. Record service calls and play back your best examples so that agents learn from the masters without costing you a dime.
3. Go multichannel to free up live agents
Aberdeen Group, a market research firm, unearthed this stunning statistic: 70 percent of businesses are expected to use social media as a key component of their customer service model by the middle of 2014. Are you being left behind? If you’re not already offering some customer service options by email, social media, and other routes, you risk falling behind the pack.
4. Reconsider your KPIs
Are you using the right metrics and working toward reasonable benchmarks for your industry? Consider shuffling your priorities and getting the right numbers — those of other major players in your particular industry — against which you can benchmark your client service centre’s performance.
5. Give agents the tools they need
Agents need access to the client’s full profile and history in order to provide top-notch, streamlined service. Consider upgrading your client service centre software in order to get your agents a more complete picture of your customers and their needs.
6. Motivate agents with incentives and solid coaching
To operate an efficient, top-performing contact centre, your agents need to be motivated to do the job right. Especially in an industry with shockingly high turnover, it’s important to keep your workforce motivated by offering incentives for improved performance. Be a good leader, and coach your agents to be the best they can be using the carrot-and-stick approach.
7. Offer a call-back option to cut down on wait times
Research from Software Advice clearly shows that 63 percent of surveyed customers prefer a call-back option to waiting on hold. If you’re unable to provide an alternative to significant hold times, consider adding an automated call-back option to let callers “opt-out” of a long wait. They’ll appreciate it, and so will your overloaded agents who already struggle to cover their bases at peak call times.
8. Improve FCR
Focus on first contact resolution – the ultimate measure of contact centre efficiency. Remember, completely resolving an issue at the first contact saves you time, money, and stress down the line. Remind agents that FCR should be the first priority, even it means longer call duration in the short term.
9. Use workforce management to effectively scale labour
Appropriately scaling your workforce to handle call volume peaks and valleys is an important priority. Upgrade your workforce management software to be sure your bases are covered at the busiest times and that you’re not paying for labour you don’t need in the quieter hours.
10. Work with a quality third party contact centre support service
You may consider outsourcing part of your contact centre workforce to a third party contact centre service in order to generate significant savings and help you operate at maximum efficiency. Be sure you work with a company that can provide 24/7/365 service in both official languages so that you get a seamless client service experience whether agents are in-house or outsourced.
Running an efficient contact centre means focusing on productivity and streamlining processes that can ease congestion. Consider the tips above to help improve your operations and even create significant savings. For more information on how to improve your client service centre’s operations, download our free white paper.
