There are a couple of challenges that the top management has to face on a day-to-day basis. Because call centers are the world’s toughest work environments, this is not surprising! Many call centers are facing such challenges as a hurdle in the path of achieving goals.
Call Center Services of the Call center industry is one of the most powerful sectors, which contributes majorly to the economies of Asian countries like India, the Philippines, Malaysia, and China.
Challenge No. 1: Agents enfeebling
Employee depreciation has long been an issue in high-volume hiring environments, such as call centers. Cramped in a cubicle 9-10 hours a day, answering calls of frustrated customers, low pay, and slim benefits could be why agents do not see a future in this sector.
Here is the Solution:
Recognization and rewarding: Call center managers should recognize and acknowledge the effort and outstanding performance.
Competitive pay and benefits: Compare company benefits and wages to other call centers in the industry and offer incentives and even reward programs to compete for the best talent.
Control and training: A trained agent should provide value to the company. See how you can teach agents to deliver personalized customer service.
Gamification: With the right game mechanics, tools, tactics, and techniques, managers can transform their call center into a customer-centric operation by motivating employee engagement and achievement.
Challenge No. 2: Low Customer Satisfaction
Although most dissatisfied customers will not complain, even worse, they will leave and never come back.
And even if the call center compensates customers to make up for their bad experience, it takes seven positive experiences on average to make up for one bad one.
Here is the Solution:
An IVR System: IVRs collect information about customer’s needs and will transfer the customer to the most appropriate agent or department.
Customer surveys: Customers will provide you with a wealth of information about your product, service, agents, and more. All you need to do is listen.
Reassess your KPIs: Metrics by which you measure agent performance could potentially harm your customer service.
KPIs such as AHT pressure agents to handle calls within a certain amount of time, leading them to transfer the call more than necessary, “accidentally” get disconnected, and provide a generic service.
KPIs such as customer satisfaction (CSAT) are more commonly used than employee satisfaction (ESAT).
Challenge No. 3: Employees, not a priority
A decrease in call center performance levels can result from many things, including low morale. Call centers have learned to place a lot of importance on their customers, forgetting to check in on their staff every once in a while.
Here is the Solution
Focus on non-traditional metrics: Focus on qualitative and quantitative metrics, such as real-time customer feedback, balanced scorecards, and Net Promoter Score which all work to further improve performance levels.
Challenge No. 4: Many Tools More Issues
Many call centers are using multiple and outdated software to help them with their day-to-day operations instead of using a single tool.
Here is the Solution
Integrating: Adopt new software that will integrate with the existing ones in the call center. Or opt for a platform that already has multiple systems integrated into it.
Challenge No. 5: Struggling To Boost Performance
As a company, you want to make sure your customers receive the service they deserve.
However, it may feel you’ve taken your team as far as they can go. They’re achieving good (but not great) results and solving your customers’ issues. The problem is, you want to take performance to the next level but don’t have the knowledge.
Here is the Solution
Reward good behavior
Set metrics goals and depending on the level of difficulty, reward them with prizes on par with the challenge. Whether it be intrinsic or extrinsic rewards, find out what motivates your team and give it to them!
By upgrading your quality assurance software, you’ll be able to easily spot areas of improvement and train accordingly.
Challenge No. 6: Conflicting Business Priorities
A call center may have multiple priorities that directly contradict each other. The senior management needs to clarify which goal to prioritize over the other. Furthermore, they need to communicate this data with the operators effectively. For example, you could focus on customer satisfaction and cost-cutting. However, these goals often oppose each other, and so, it can confuse the agents.
Here is the Solution
Urge your senior management to make a priority list in the order of importance. Also, try to align your services according to other department’s focuses and values. Hence, you’ll create a consistent experience for all your customers.
Challenge No. 7: Lack of Time:
One of the most pressing problems of call center agents is a shortage of time, yet a high volume of customer calls. Hence, they do not solve client problems accurately or spend enough time on calls. Customers feel dissatisfied, and lose faith in call centers.
Here is the Solution
Forecasting heavy call volumes, employee shift rotation, and increasing staff strength are simple measures that can increase operational efficiency in call centers.
Challenge No. 9: Less Career Progression
With limited team manager or leader roles, the majority of employees remain stuck at the base level. This tempts them to move to greener pastures and results in a super-high attrition rate.
Here is the Solution
Get your call center employees involved in the daily running of operations so that they also feel valued. Give them chances to exercise leadership and contribute their opinion towards strategic decisions. The involvement and engagement of call center workers in task management is a great way to create a collaborative environment.
Challenge No. 9: Lack of Training Sessions
Agents remain unable to transfer that knowledge and apply it in the actual workplace. As a result, managers constantly provide negative feedback and have to waste precious time assisting team members.
Here is the Solution
- Make sure to have regularly paced continuous training sessions that reinforce proper practices.
- Try to infuse creativity in training, and have practical sessions such as role-play of customer conversations.
- Team activities, brainstorming sessions, and multimedia content can go a long way in improving the impact of training for VoIP call center representatives.
Challenge No. 10: Short of Budget
It has been a perennial problem for call centers. They often suffer monetary losses due to high staffing costs. This makes top executives view call centers as a heavy cost burden that depletes revenues and profits. Many organizations thus do not set up call centers and resort to other ineffective means to serve their customers.
Here is the Solution
If your organization has fewer financial resources and a tight budget, the best thing you can do is get a business phone system. They have economical calling prices, and most service vendors will customize pricing plans that will suit your calling requirements.
Despite these challenges, the role of the call center remains very important all over the globe. If the right action is taken, then the issues can be sorted easily. And the performance of the call center will skyrocket.