Life Doesn't Follow a Script. Why Should a Contact Center?

As more and more companies move to nearshore call centers for customer service outsourcing, it’s important to understand how contact centers are responding, and adapting.

There are new tools, and constant sources of continuing education, but the heart of the matter is still this: delivering a great customer experience. As a call center, we're not setting out on a complex research project to cure cancer or develop a new computer chip; instead, we're working on getting the fundamentals right.

Customers want help getting information, placing an order, or solving a problem. Frustrations often come from consumers who are met with a chatbot, or robot, which are programmed to answer a certain set of questions. Every problem is unique, however, and that is something that robots cannot detect or adapt to.

Creating a team and the right workflow is not as easy as saying “the customer is always right.” If your agents simply respond in an automated and scripted way, then they’re no better than the chat bots.

In that case, call centers are met with an interesting challenge; reduce the stagnation, and try to understand human behavior. Trying to understand what makes people tick, what makes them happy, and what makes them satisfied, is how call centers can truly excel. With 8 in 10 consumers willing to switch companies due to poor customer service, can your call center afford not to understand those elements?*(1)

Step 1: Stop the Noise

As we enter the digital era, too many companies boast about their acquisition of the newest tools, and most advanced technology integrations. As artificial intelligence rises to the surface of trending topics, those disclaimers often catch the eye of consumers that are coming into the new space of outsourcing their call centers.

What they have limited documentation of, however, is how those tools correlate with customer experience, and how to execute the best customer service as a call center.

There’s no denying that the latest technology can be helpful, but unless agents are highly trained, motivated, and have the right skill sets, there is no technology that can help you succeed.

Your team makes your customer service a success; are you ensuring that your call center agents can (and are allowed to) stop talking and listen to the customers when they need to, so that they may respond appropriately, and uniquely?

Step 2: Focus on Communication

One way to keep the focus on the customer is to emphasize communication. 90% of companies have named improving customer experience as a strategic focus*(2), and that all starts with how they communicate with customers.

At Callzilla, we use strategies that ensure everybody on our team understands what the client wants us to deliver, with training and guides that use context clues and empathy to solve their issues. Then, we set our agents up for success by encouraging them to be free to use their instincts and think about how they can improve the customer experience at the moment. This approach enhances brand loyalty and customer satisfaction with the companies that have outsourced their customer service to us.

The practice of merely listening extends past the voice on the other end of the phone. Monitoring social media, understanding the results of customer surveys, and learning from past customer feedback, are all tools that improve the methodologies of customer communications. In fact, 66% of companies are looking to increase their use of advanced analytics* (2) to improve their customer experience. Now that’s where that technology comes in hand.

Step 3: Execution

Life doesn't follow a script. Why should a contact center? Our agents can make a positive impression on customers' lives, and make them glad they contacted us.

It’s not rocket science; humans want human help. Whether that help comes through a phone, an email, or a chat correspondence, holds little bearing when the end goal is to provide superior customer support. At Callzilla, we know that if we can deliver omnichannel customer service, while also providing some "wow" moments, we'll reap great rewards.

Those "wow" moments translate into incredible things: dollars and cents, lifetime values, loyalty, and customer emotions that go beyond mere satisfaction or tangible rewards, and that’s something that call centers cannot lose sight of.

By expanding your training programs, aligning your staff to meet the goals of the companies you work with, and diversifying the channels by which you execute customer service, the future is bright for call centers.

Reference Guide:

1)    https://getvoip.com/blog/2017/05/16/state-of-customer-experience/

2)    https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/strategy/us-con-2017-global-contact-center-survey.pdf