Every company dreams of creating an amazing customer service experience for their customers using the best call center software available in the market.
Immediately, you’ll be plagued with several questions, such as: how to make that happen with the call center management system?
Or, how to choose the correct system that will provide the optimum results?
Spending a lot of revenue on advertisements, and intense marketing planning will not be worth much if there is no one to attend and cater to the customers when they are calling the company.
Studies have shown that a lack of call center provisions can end up resulting in a massive loss of revenue, often amounting to around 2.3 billion dollars!
Most of this is due to the inability of handling incoming calls, while the rest can be attributed to having outdated call management systems.
As technology improves day by day, it is very important for businesses to invest in a proper call center with proper management systems.
This is because a call center can often become the actual face of the company, and having a really good customer service will make the customers come back for more business with the company in the future.
Managers need to be superbly aware what exactly is going on in their call centers. They must be up to date with the software of the call center and take note of the service that is being provided to the customers of the company.
Managers of the call centers, who seek to be the best of the best and gain a substantial leverage over their competitors, must employ progressive, high value call center management tools that are available in the market.
So, what exactly is a call management system?
What are its benefits, and how does it help in the longer run?
This article will provide a list of things that must be kept in mind when selecting a call center management software.
1. The number one thing that the management software must have is a proper call monitoring feature.
Call monitoring is simply opening the door to valuable features that grants access to the managers in various useful ways.
2. Using this feature the manager can listen in on live calls that the agents are attending to.
They can do this without the knowledge of the agent or the caller.
3. Call monitoring feature is really great for quality assurance practices.
It can also be used for training new agents and coaching the existing ones for better responses.
4. Because the call center serves as the face of the company, it is important to have training tools that can guide agents as they solve the queries.
Such tools are becoming the increasingly common place.
5. A proper call center management system will have the option for a whisper coaching.
If the call center manager, while managing the calls especially that of a newer and inexperienced agent, notices that the agent is struggling they have the ability to drop in and speak to the agent directly without the caller being aware of it even remotely.
6. Whisper coaching can also be useful when teaching the agents better and newer ways of responding to customer queries.
7. The managers can also guide an agent so that the interaction between the agent and the caller is smoother!
8. Callers, when talking to the call center agent may often ask to speak to the manager.
In such cases, the manager can jump in directly and establish a connection between caller, the agent and the manager. This feature is called call barging and is very time saving when used correctly.
9. Call barging is also a great feature when the company needs help in residing the calling transfers, or increasing the first call resolution.
10. Call barging can help immensely in maintaining the quality assurance and desired leverage in the training.
11. Overall, call barging provides for an increased customer satisfaction, so implementing this is an overall win- win situation.
12. To appear more professional, it is important to have a good and efficient calling system.
Instead of transferring the call to the manager when the customer demands for it, the manager should be able to come to the caller himself, without hesitation and without time lapse.
13. Conference calling is very effective when to or more calls need to be addressed at the same time.
With this feature, the managers can be connected to several people at the same time, so that the calls appear seamless between the agents and the customers and so that the issues can be solved quickly and proactively.
14. Conference calling is also effective for agents as it also provides the opportunity for coaching the agents.
15. A good call recording feature is a must have in today’s data loaded world.
Not everything can be relied on human memories and techniques and this feature can truly be a life saver.
16. Call recording software, if used correctly of course, is proven to provide an invaluable source of information to the managers for review.
17. Call recording can also help in the monitoring of the performance of the agent team at the any given time.
Not only can it be useful in reviewing agents, it can also be used in training and coaching of agents, and come up with better, inclusive responses.
18. Call recording can also be helpful in the process of streamlining the customer experience and understand the correct needs of the caller.
19. For a call center based on multiple companies, or just one big company with a lot of callers, it is tedious for managers to receive calls constantly and round the clock, without enough time to respond to them individually.
As such, managers can employ the use of a nifty little thing called voicemail.
20. Voicemails are not alien software.
In fact, they are commonplace nowadays and often times it’s a must have a feature!
Call centers often have agents, teams and even departmental voicemails facilities that are helpful in storing the voicemails in the caller activity.
21. Using this handy voicemail feature the managers can always stay on top of things with considerable ease, without worrying about missed calls or messages.
22. Another feature that often comes in wrapped with the voicemail feature is the voicemail transcription feature.
This stores up the voicemail and transcripts it, so that the manager is notified immediately when the voicemail arrived.
23. Along with transcriptions, notification features are also in high demand. Notification features actually help the managers prioritize and plan what calls to answer first, what to avoid, and so on.
24. Missed voicemail notifications and messages may also be important, so it is necessary to have software systems to detect them properly when appropriate.
25. Call disposition codes are great when managers want to keep tabs on specific outcomes of calls, or even decide on the outcome of all the calls.
26. Call disposition strive to provide the final outcome of the call that can be used by agents later.
27. Call center managers can view the call disposition codes in the feed of the caller’s activity, thereby enabling them to run disposition codes and analyze their team.
28. Real time call center metrics can be understood with a tool that most managers in today’s world swear by.
They have the access to the call center metrics in real time using this.
29. They can make data driven decisions, such as service level, number of calls, and so on using the real time call metrics reporting tool.
30. Real time metrics can also help in determining abandonment time and wait time and allows managers to change their schedules accordingly so as to reduce these undesirable effects.
31. However, some call centers prefer to understand their teams comprehensively.
They want to have an accurate forecast on a number of things such as call volume and decisions.
For them, historical reporting dashboards are great.
32. Historical reporting dashboards provide managers with the data they need in a bulk and sort out the most important time frame for the managers.
33. Workforce management software is very important when it comes to call center management. This allows the managers to do a number of things.
34. For starters, this can help call center managers in forecasting the call volume to a decimal accuracy, which is really helpful especially if the company is a big one handling a lot of calls.
35. Workforce management software can help managers schedule agents and adjustments in the real time. This means evenly distribution of agents as and when needed by the managers.
36. Workforce management software is good for the companies that have larger teams which need larger staff, thereby needing more and better scheduling.
37. In short, the workforce management software is important to maintain the well- being of your agents and not let them get burned out doing the same tasks over and over again.
38. If the company is large, it will be a good idea to invest in a cloud based solution to manage the data.
39. Cloud based solutions helps immensely in connecting the agents that work locally.
40. Another thing that managers often look for in their call management system is the automatic call distribution. It helps in not letting a particular agent get overworked while others left under-worked.
41. This call distribution software can perform even better when they come up with customizations that enhance the experience of both the agent and the callers.
42. Because most or all of the software require the internet and not the old PBX structure, most of the programs should be hosted by third parties, thereby clearing up space and organizing everything properly for the manager.
43. Call management system, contrary to popular beliefs, is not at all costly!
Because most of the work is over the cloud and internet, barring the installation and updating costs, they can be really cost effective.
44. Using a call management system can help in starting up a global presence, spreading your business to cities and even countries eventually, thereby drawing in more profit in the longer run.
45. These systems obviously cannot run on multiple numbers. Instead opting for software that provides a virtual number for contacting agents it provides a good, professional image.
46. A call management system can help in polishing up your company name and look, since the company ‘tone’ can help in reassuring the customers that their choice of business is trustworthy.
47. One of the many tools that the managers of call centers find useful is the software that will provide the cost and predict installation charges, training charges and so on automatically.
48. Such a system makes sure that the manual labor required by the manager is lessened and that he can focus on things that needs his additional attention .
49. Call tags are rather important and good call center software will have it already as a part of the package. These are one of those essentials that you cannot live without.
50. Certain managers might find it useful to have updated KPIs whenever they so require, all in real time. It is therefore wise to be on the lookout for such a software.
Call center solutions can be very useful for managers as well as the company alike, because they can run smoothly with the help of these tools.
These telemarketing software can be instrumental in determining the success rate of the call center and hence it is absolutely necessary for the company.
In order to save precious time and resources as well as to make sure that the company is not under recruiting or over recruiting employees, only the online call center software should be utilized.
On top of it, it is important to realize that not all sorts of call center software solutions are ideal for your company.
Selecting and picking only what you need and not what merely seems nice is the key to finding the right balance between revenue, upkeep and profit.