How To Elevate Your Contact Center With The Cloud Software

Contact centers are no longer a place to resolve only customers’ queries and grievances. With a passage of time, call centers are now acting as the primary point of contact between customers and a company. 

It necessitates the use of call center software that enables a contact center to manage multiple functions relating to customer support of the business in no time. 

Such software always creates an amicable environment within the contact center by expediting the customer service process. 

Undoubtedly, by elevating your call center to a cloud based system, you can grab many advanced features, which can be of great benefit to the firm. 

These are the days of technological innovations, and a call center being the center stage of modern business houses. 

Expeditious call center solutions are extremely important to tackle the enormous challenges that customer care executives face day in and day out. 

Another advantage of elevating your call center with the cloud software is its CRM (Customer Relation Management). 

Ideally, the installation of the call center software solutions is an apt way to enhance the productivity of your call center while keeping the calling process accurate and flawless. 

Such a calling device is more than an asset to the firm. 

Top 7 Reasons Why Elevating Your Call Center is Necessary

1.    Managing Large Number of Calls: When there is a constant flow of incoming calls in your contact center, then a customer service representative might find it difficult to tackle such conversations without integrating the best call center software in the calling process. 

Such a calling device is capable of handling enormous amount of calls round the clock. By playing a soothing track on backgrounds and offering astute IVR options, callers will not mind waiting for their turns while the telecalling executives are attending to other calls. 

2.    Call Conversation Recording: Call conversation recording is always a critical aspect of any call center. 

Without installing the quality outbound call center software it is almost impossible to record all calls into the system in a seamless manner without incurring any loss of voice data. 

The use of quality software at the contact center enhances the quality of calling process. 

3.    Training and Basic Etiquette: It is not always possible to teach your call center employees through classroom training programs. 

The use of automated outbound calling software is also a good way to make them well prepared for handling some unexpected calls from frustrated calls. 

The software itself displays some basic FAQs and etiquettes on the front of the telecalling agent’s computer for their assistance and help. 

4.    Cost Effective: You should not just integrate any software into your calling operation. It should be a Cloud-based technology and necessary to install in your system. 

It helps a telecalling agent to get some vital support during live chats with the best telemarketing software. 

For the long run, Cloud-based software appears as an apt option to bring down your overall call center expenditures. 

5.    Speech Analysis: As time passes, the behavior of the customers’ changes too. Unlike earlier, they do not have much time to wait these days. 

More or less, they are impatient. In times of crisis, suppose a customer wants sales agent listens to his problem first, then it becomes mandatory for a telecalling agent to address his grievances carefully. 

The use of cloud customer service software is the best way to move forward. Such software offers the speech analytics option through which a telecaller gets to know in advance that for what purpose the customer has called him using his facial and vocal expression.

6.    Live Web Chat Support: Customers also want to discuss their problems and grievances over the website. 

Since people spend time mostly on computer screens frequently, so unless the entrepreneur integrates a call center with the cloud-based virtual call center software, it is literally impossible to get this advantage.  

7.    Feedback: Getting feedback from customers from time to time about the company’s products and services is extremely important for quality monitoring purposes. 

Constant flow of feedbacks from customers to contact center guides an entrepreneur to formulate his future strategy keeping the customers’ needs in mind. 

The installation of the cloud contact center software is not a luxury anymore. If a company really wishes to retain its customer-friendly brand status, then offering the best after-sale-service to customers using advanced tools is the need of the hour.  

How To Execute Cloud-Based Contact Center Solutions At Your Call Center

Over the last few years, call center software is winning hearts at all contact centers. Such a calling tool is always an asset to the company. 

It offers many benefits to a call center executive that other modes of technology do not provide. 

This is the primary reason why more and more call centers are adopting the cloud customer service software all across the globe. 

Be it Europe, Asia, North America or Australia, the use of appropriate calling solutions is extremely important. 

Be it a big firm or small and medium enterprise, when a contact center works in an efficient manner, it enhances the credibility and goodwill of the firm.

Call it the demand of the time or customer’s preferences, integration of the best call center software is vital these days. 

Customers do not want to wait. They do not have that much time. Once a complaint is registered, it becomes essential to the firm to resolve the same at the earliest. 

The cloud-based calling process has its own advantages and merits. 

Cloud Software: Advantages and Merits at a Glance

1.    Mobile App Support: The use of cloud contact center software within the calling process is a good way to track the consumers’ opinions on mobile apps. 

Using the appropriate software, a customer care executive can stay abreast of the consumer’s latest taste and preferences. 

2.    Security and Safety: Often, customers dial a contact center to purchase the company’s flagship products. 

The mode of payment is usually online through credit cards and debit cards. The integration of the secured and confidential call center solutions is essential to winning the faith of the customers. 

Callers can easily purchase what they want from the contact center itself when above software is installed in the system. 

It works in the confidential 128-bit encryption system that prevents online data breach and fraudulent transactions. 

3.    Social Media Management: Handling customer’s complaints and grievances on social media is very critical these days. 

Since most of the people are already engaged in social media in some form or other, so taking a tab on total complaints is an appropriate strategy to move forward. 

Installing the advanced calling devices such as the call center software solutions alerts a customer whenever a customer registers his or her complaint online. 

4.    Support Ticket: Issuing of support tickets is another critical aspect to after sale service. Every time a customer care executive receives a complaint, it requires immediate follow-up. 

The finest way to win customers’ faith straightway is by issuing a support ticket to them with complete details of the nature of complaints and deadline to resolve the case. 

The use of the cloud-based best telemarketing software is apt to issue so many support tickets in no time. 

5.    Cost-Effective: No doubt, in comparison to other technological solutions and programs that entrepreneur use in call centers, the use of the virtual call center software within a calling process costs much lesser. 

Another advantage of the aforementioned technology is its ability to initiate a hassle-free discussion over website and telephone as and when required. 

It keeps the communication process smooth while removing all types of network errors. 

6.    User-friendly: The biggest advantage of cloud technology is its user friendliness. Even a telecaller having no special skills can still operate the outbound calling software effectively. 

The use of such software creates an amicable atmosphere where customers and telecallers can communicate with each other in a calm and peaceful manner. 

7.    Non-stop support: It is only by use of the cloud-based technology that a contact center can tackle the flow of calls during the late-night hours as well. Such a tool supports 24-hour service to callers. 

A customer can easily register his complaints during the late midnight hours if the customer care center uses cloud technology. 

8.    Speech Analytics: This feature is an icing over the cake for telecalling executives and outsourced agents while handling frustrated customers. 

This option comes preloaded with the outbound call center software. It makes the calling process hassle-free and smoother. 

Actually, the tele-callers can easily comprehend the mood of the customers using this tool. Such a calling device cautions the tele-caller in advance what a caller would speak to him before the actual call using his facial and dialogue expression. 

Cloud software is of utmost priority if you really want your business to touch the pinnacle of success. 

7 Customer Engagement Trends to Follow in 2017

With the beginning of the New Year, it is important to look at new trends and opportunities that might affect the business or work environment. 

As customers continue to occupy an important place in the life span of a business, it has become vital for businesses to come up with innovative communication techniques. 

Thus, it is becoming important to bring a balance in the innovative technologies that drive optimized experiences with the human touch, useful in winning the loyalty of customers, with Call Center Software.

Before we list down top seven trends customer engagement trends for 2017, let us look at a real life example to understand why it is important to look at customer engagement trends.

CASE STUDY:

Karan and Arjun, backbenchers studying in the last year of their graduate studies, have been allotted a project. Both of them are good at their regional languages, but however, are weak at communicating in English.

CHALLENGE:

As they begin their project work, they divide topics and work on the topics individually; forgetting that it is supposed to be a group project. They get all their work done and go to their professor and understand that the project is rejected. 

Now, the challenge was doing this project in a better way. They needed to take each other’s opinion and at the same time understand the professor’s perspective to make sure they were on the right track.

SOLUTION:

They needed continuous engagement from both the parties; they needed to communicate internally amongst themselves, as well as externally with the professor.

Now since they already had the customer’s feedback – who is the professor in this case - they began their work on improving the quality of the product (project). 

This time before they went to submit their project, they brainstormed amongst themselves to understand how they could work to improvise it based on the professor’s feedback. 

They gathered everything needed, divided topics, researched and executed it. 

After execution, they exchanged opinions amongst themselves to understand if it was up to the mark. They had a finished product this time which received lot of appreciation from the customer.

Since, we’ve looked at the need for customer engagement let us take a glance at 7 trends for 2017:

1.    In 2017, artificial intelligence continues to play a significant role in enhancing the customer experience. Chat bots will continue to support our conversations, driven by the context in which it was initiated. 

The technology facilitates a continuous conversation between customers and brands regardless of channels used. 

Furthermore, it has become easier to offer personalised recommendations, improvise on the product/service research experience, and eventually allow customers to purchase and resolve queries faster with precision. Hence, if you plan to pick Call Center Software Solutions, don’t forget to check if it works with AI.

2.    It is essential for companies to give utmost priority to customers. Thus they are now using Virtual Call Center Software to understand customer needs. 

Brands are expected to offer automated options to save time. Customer centricity has now become the new rule and is a profitable venture, as customer centric brands are 60% more profitable compared to other brands.

3.    Importance of Big data continues to grow, as brands recognize the need to collect data from customers to make improvements. 

This further helps companies to get a bigger picture and create effective customer journey maps to meet service requirements. Various sources used for data collection may include social media comments, forums, communities, CRM software, web and much more.

4.    Social media has gained its popularity in the years. It is now strengthening its position as a channel to get customer insights and feedback, delivering real time data. 

Additionally, apps have obtained there importance, surpassing the social media users. They have been successful in adding a personal touch with accurate customization. To establish brand presence companies are now using Outbound Call Center Software, for providing Omni channel support.

5.    The increasing popularity of the mobile apps shows the upsurge in usage of mobile phones. The usage of Smartphone’s is further expected to keep increasing, which not only depicts a rise in demand for mobile apps but also for channels such as SMS, voice and email. 

Companies are optimizing mobile channels based on geographic locations of the customer with scannable codes, easy click-to-call or chat buttons, and marketing offers which can further help customers. 

Additionally, brands now aim to get the Best Telemarketing Software to intensify the whole shopping experience for customers.

6.    The contact center market is expected to rise with its Cloud Contact Center Software. 

The cloud based solutions not only save money and increase the efficiency of work internally, but have also proved successful for many brands looking to exemplify scalability and flexibility providing better customer experience.

7.    The concept of ‘optimization’ draws a small line between Multi-channel and Omni-channel support. Companies are expected to use Customer Contact Center Software Solutions to provide qualitative experience and to meet demand. 

Optimization not applies to marketing, but also applies to internal operations such as training your staff and following the best practices.

In 2017, customer engagement has become the frontline of digital transformation and both are inevitably linked to each other. This shows you should get the Best Call Center Software to keep up with the changing trends.

What are trends in contact centers in terms of citizen services?

The booming call center industry necessitates the development of various tools such as Call Center Software. This software should be able to keep up with the growing competencies in the market. When we can keep ourselves updated with the latest trends, why not the software?

With the human evolution, our means of communication has also progressed - from post cards to emails, text messages and cloud systems that are trending lately. 

Cloud system not only antiquated hard drives but also gave us quick access to the required data and programs, unlimited storage and shared resources. Thus, the ideal Call Center Software Solutions would be the one that works on cloud. 

Still don't find cloud systems in vogue? The list is sure to inspire you:

1.Cloud system is a Virtual Call Center Software which does not require any hardware installations. The system enables mobility of data and provides quick access through online connectivity.

2.Business agility integrated with cloud computing accelerates business innovations. For instance: Outbound Call Center Software enhances the productivity of your team with CRM integration, automated reports and speedy call center deployment.

3.The user friendly behavior of Cloud Systems has helped reduce training requirements. The system can be used by one or more users at the same time and further improvises collaborative working patterns.

4.The platform has accelerated the telemarketing process, maintaining secrecy of data. The platform allows you to change the privacy settings according to your preferences. 

You can also mask customer details so that the number is hidden and the information is safeguarded. This makes it the Best Telemarketing Software platform. 

5.Cloud Contact Center Software reduces your total cost of ownership. When you store your data on cloud systems, the cost of the hardware’s is eliminated. Furthermore, the employee cost to manage the hardware is eliminated as well. 

6.Cloud system provides opportunities to scale their computing resources whenever necessary. Cloud powers you with the ability to alter your plans with fluctuations in business size or needs, making it an attractive Customer Contact Center Software Solution.

7.Unlimited storage and cost efficiency, the rare combo is provisioned by cloud system.

CASE STUDY

Now that we’ve seen the benefits of using Cloud Systems, let’s look at how cloud systems make life easier.
Regardless the industry you belong to, your business will surely benefit from the opportunities cloud systems offers.

The case study deals with a company manufacturing inverters/UPS. The company was looking forward to re-design its product packaging. 

CHALLENGE

The company wanted to accelerate the re-designing effort; however they were finding it difficult to share the heavy graphic files with the printing firm.

The company had to allot this task to a person. This person would carry the files to the printing firm, with every change. This was time consuming and wasn’t an effortless exercise.

SOLUTION

An employee suggested that they should switch to Cloud systems for file sharing. This helped the company share files at a fast pace. Furthermore, it reduced the employee cost – as they no longer needed an employee to carry the files. 

They could simply upload the files and share it with the person they want, everything over the internet. 

Now, don’t you agree to the fact that Cloud systems make life easier? So, the next time you are looking forward to choose the Best Call Center Software, don’t forget to see if it works on Cloud system.

How to Transform Contact Centers into Customer Engagement Centers?

Businesses are expanding their operations and outsourcing has become a key strategy. The contemporary consumer is looking for newer ways to acquire information about products and services, which has compelled businesses to adopt customer engaging techniques. 

This has created a need for traditional contact centers to transform into customer engagement centers with newer Call Center Software. If you need a few tips to transform your conventional contact center to a customer engagement center, just scroll through:

1. The transformation is surely a time consuming one, but will be worth the effort. Take your first step by empowering consumers with advanced contact center tools, which would help provide a time saving yet seamless experience. 

Tools such as IVR and callback act as an arsenal for companies who want to enhance customer experience. Hence, it is vital to choose an appropriate Call Center Software Solution.

2. Customers are looking for quick insights about products and speedy solutions about services. While their fast paced life has developed a need for companies to provide one click access to information, Virtual Call Center Software has gained traction due to features like route management, integration, analysis of customer interactions on any channel. 

The software enables you to integrate various communication channels via a single user interface to deliver the right solutions with efficiency.

3. Smartphone is becoming an increasingly important necessity for the contemporary customer, due to which brands are now aiming to capture customer interest through mobile apps. Additionally, messaging has become a crucial medium due to its high open rate. 

Thus, it would be a good choice to opt for Outbound Call Center Software, which could help reach out to customers at their preferred time. Furthermore, the software provides a user friendly interface with its robust and unique features, making it the perfect option to fulfil your calling requirements.

4. Business development and sales plays a very important role in the survival and growth of any business. Hence, it is vital for companies to focus on their telemarketing activities. 

Using the Best Telemarketing Software makes it simpler for companies to improve the quality of calls. Features like intelligent call recording and call script, provide metrics to analyse the performance of a call and improve it, which makes it essential for you to get one.

5. It has been observed that businesses which lack a holistic approach often have an isolated working pattern. Thus, businesses need to adopt a holistic approach.

6. It is essential to adopt customer-centric approach and map each step of the customer journey to find an accurate solution. At the same time it is important for agents to have real time access to information to get insights into customer history and provide solutions. 

Thus, it is necessary to on-board Cloud Contact Center Software. Apart from boosting customer engagement, the software further helps you save hardware costs and allows you to store all your information at a single place.

7.You should integrate self-service channels with customer support. Agents can have access to communication mediums such as forums, communities, etc… This will ensure customers get personalized solutions.

8.Apart from all the above, the most important aspect to this transformation is tailoring your approach according to customer needs. 

Businesses should look at Customer Contact Center Software Solutions to provide omni-channel support and further interact with customers through surveys, feedbacks, etc… to improvise service and products.

9.Customer information acts as a weapon and provides insights about likes or dislikes or customers. It further provides cross-selling and up-selling opportunities, helping you boost your revenue.

10.Businesses should not adopt contact center software to enhance the efficiency of their customer service team, but should also implement them to improve sales. For instance: You can use the missed call mechanism to engage customers for app downloads or votes.

CASE STUDY:

To get a better understand about how you can transform your contact center into a customer engagement center, lets pick an example. The case in point is an insurance company, founded in 2004.

CHALLENGE:

Customer’s today are well informed and are willing to change loyalties to get a better bargain for the price or better product/service. The insurance company had traditional customer support resources, but was unable to deliver the best.

There were increasing incidents were customer had to interact with two or more agents to get the issue sorted and had to explain the issue from the scratch, every time they spoke to a new executive.

SOLUTION:

The company planned to host a survey and recognised that the calls were lacking customer engagement. They soon started working on this issue and installed the Best Call Center Software to boost the efficiency of calls.

This strategic move brought in a dramatic change in how customer service was perceived. It was easier for the company to provide customers with omni-channel support and optimize on customer interactions. 

It further reduced the dropout rate and helped the company increase on profits with its extensive database.

To keep up with the changing consumer trends, you should aim at transforming your old-world contact centers to Customer Engagement Centers. So, get going now!

Do Small Businesses Need Cloud Call Center Software?

As the world grows digital, it has become easier for start-ups to enter the market. However, business expansion is a challenge due to the kind of expenditure required. Customers are looking forward to getting quick response and receive immediate results. 

In this scenario, small businesses are facing difficulties in recruiting and training the kind of staff required. Furthermore, businesses require huge investments to setup the required technology. The solution to this is simple, get a Call Center Software! Want to know how it can ease your life? 

Let’s take a quick look at how you can boost your profits without much of an investment:

1. You can always choose to outsource operations and pick Call Center Software Solutions to fit your pocket and represent your business to the best of it.

2.  If you are a small business and don’t have the investment required to set up resources, you should look at using a Virtual Call Center Software. The software will increase the productivity of your employees and allow them to work with flexibility.

3. Many a times, businesses are looking forward to receive customer feedback, however, engagement of the customer only depends on his availability and the amount of time he can dedicate to a given call. 

Thus, it is very important to take customer consent before initiating a call and Outbound Call Center Software is a perfect mechanism to schedule calls as per customer convenience.

4. If you are a start-up who is looking forward to employ people, you should aim at recruiting minimum number of employees. The business owner would have to bear losses, provisioning employee remuneration and paying for other expenses, without making profit. 

Furthermore, it is difficult to track sales and generate reports without using an appropriate software. Hence, you should on-board a software solution to get quick analysis of data and enhance the quality of calls.

5. The survival of any business depends on its sales and marketing. Thus, it is vital to have the Best Telemarketing Software for analysis about calls, inquiries, training, sales, etc. It further helps maintain customer data, feedback and call logs.

6. The most vital part of any business is outsourcing operations. Every business wants to best represent itself in front of its clients, which gives utmost priority to information sharing. 

Many a times, customer support executive or a call center agent needs access to customers history or other account details. Thus, it is very important to bring in Cloud Contact Center Software, which facilitates file sharing, real-time data and storage.

7. The user friendly interface allows you to optimize and save on the training cost. Additionally, with the call record feature in the software helps you identify training requirements.

8. While sales operations or customer support can be outsourced, customers want the conversation to look professional, like the call is made from an office premise of the company. 

Additionally, your customer support executive might have to transfer calls to the relevant executive at times, giving utmost priority to call center software.

9. The most important thing for any business is to keep innovating ways to approach the customer. No one likes monotony! 

Brainstorming on new ideas and concepts requires ample amount of time. Hence, small businesses should aim at hiring Customer Contact Center Software Solutions, to shift much of their efforts to business innovation.

10. The software works on a pay-per-user model, helping businesses reduce excessive costs. Furthermore, the software does not demand any infrastructure or additional space.

Accidents may happen when they are least expected, that is why they are termed as accidents. Being a small business you are already low on resources and need to treasure customer data as it is the most important aspect of your survival strategy. 

In this scenario, it is quite possible for you to loose data in case the hardware used is corrupt. At such times, you can easily store data on cloud software which will help you secure important information.

CASE STUDY:

Let’s look at Mr. Arun who began an interior design start-up. Set-up in Bangalore, he commenced his business in November 2015. 

The company was an interior design portal where people could come and choose furniture or designs for homes, offices and hotels. Additionally, customers could hire architects or interior designer to fit their requirements.

CHALLENGE:

Being from an architectural background, he had a huge database of interior designers and architects. He soon planned on hiring interns and wanted them to get these architects and interior designers on-board. 

The database was stored in an excel sheet and it was difficult to track calls. Clashes between the calls they made were increasingly high, as they were unable to fetch real time information about who has been contacted and a report about their response.

SOLUTION:

Arun’s friend suggested getting a cloud contact center software. The software added ease to the calling process and provided real time data to each intern. 

Furthermore, it was easier for Arun to track the work done and analyze their performances based on this new metrics. The call satisfaction index increased and the on-boarding process diverged to a new high.

Didn’t this example ease your understanding about the software? So, what are you waiting for? Get the Best Call Center Software to optimize your resources.

What are some important things for a telecaller?

Telecalling has become an important part of every business. It is an economic method of communicating with prospective and existing customers. 

Businesses can choose to outsource telecalling operation to a contact center quipped with a Call Center Software or either get it themselves. While training telecallers, here are a few things you should train them on:

1. It is very important to have a clear picture of the business goals and set targets about what is to be achieved. The telecaller should have a clear vision in his mind to initiate the campaign. 

The call should start with a dynamic introduction and proceed with a quick description about why the call is made addressing the customers need with an appropriate solution. Thus, contact centers use Call Center Software Solutions to smoothen the telecalling process.

2. The telecaller needs to be persistent in his approach. He may choose to have flexibility in his working patterns with Virtual Call Center Software, but needs to deliver quality.

3. One of the most important things is showing respect for the caller by asking him about a convenient time, giving him options to choose from and then addressing his requirements/concerns.

4. While interacting with a prospect or a customer, it is necessary for telecallers to understand if the caller would like to spare sometime and proceed with the call. 

Hence, contact centers use Outbound Call Center Software, to make it easier for employees to schedule calls and set up appointments, as per customer preferences.

5. It is important to represent a call as help that you are offering to address the caller’s needs rather than giving that traditional sales pitch. So, it is essential for businesses to make sure the telecaller can deal with customers effectively due to which they have Best Telemarketing Software for call monitoring.

6. A telecaller cannot afford to sound dumb over calls or sound as if he lacks knowledge about the product. People usually don’t have the time to wait for you to think and have much more important things to do, which makes it very important for you to check on the confidence levels of your telecaller.

7. At times, it may happen that a customer comes across one or more telecallers. Thus, companies on-board Cloud Contact Center Software making it easier for telecallers to share feedback’s or reports to effectively solve customer queries. 

8.The feedback process should proceed in a question & answer format. The caller can ask questions, feedback can be given or taken depending on customer issues and finally the telecaller should confirm that the caller has clearly understood the solution. He can initiate a call back or confirm it on the on-going call.

9.If it is a sales call, you cannot expect the customer to take a decision immediately so don’t be too aggressive. On the other hand, if it an inbound call where the customer wants a solution to some issue, you cannot talk too fast. You might lose customer engagement resulting in low customer satisfaction.

10.Last but not the least, telecallers need to have a closing for calls and use words like ‘Thank you’ or ‘It was nice talking to you’ or ‘All the best’. This further helps maintain good customer relationships. Hence, companies should put into action their Customer Contact Center Software Solutions.

CASE STUDY:

It is usually very difficult to mug up things, whereas, explaining it with real life scenarios or examples makes it easier for you understand. So let’s look at how Arjun was facing issues handling customer calls.

CHALLENGE:

Arjun was a fresher who’d joined a call center recently. His job responsibilities included calling customers to promote a tourism company and managing customer service for a tea brand. It was very difficult for him to cope with the volume of calls and further handle two client accounts.

He was not able to keep up with his sales targets and callers who called, often witnessed poor problem solving skills which lead to low customer satisfaction.

SOLUTION:

His supervisors knew the only solution that could ease this process would be to on-board the Best Call Center Software which will help keep a track and analyze concerns.

As they brought home the software, they often started monitoring calls to train Arjun and other employees so as to increase the efficiency of calls.  

The supervisor noticed that the employees needed training to understand how the calls should be initiated and a way to move ahead. Thus, a customer oriented approach was implemented to increase the customer satisfaction rate.

Now that you have a direction to improve your calls, it is time to get going with that enthusiastic charm and let your callers feel the ease of calling you.

Why are telemarketers’ pitches always annoying?

With the day-to-day activities turning busier, telemarketing calls sound like a heckle. Imagine yourself in the mid of a meeting and you get a call from some unknown number. 

For the first time, you tend to ignore the call. But, the retry feature that Call Center Software provide, automatically redials unanswered numbers. 

So, the next time when you get a call back you tend to answer and hear a person with that classic telemarketing pitch ‘Hello, may I speak to Mr.ABC.’ Annoying, right? 

If you own a call center or are willing to outsource operations to one, you should definitely look at improving the telemarketing pitch of agents working on the project. Here’s a list of things you need to look out for:

1.    As a business you are always concerned about choosing the right contact center, which can best represent your business, to outsource operations. So, it becomes vital to see if the chosen call center has the right Call Center Software Solution to suit your requirement. 

Especially, when you choose to outsource operations for lead generations, it is essential for business owners to brief agents well, for quality representation.

2.    Soft skills and good vocabulary is the key to create customer interest in your products and services. This is an on-going process and should be looked at, on regular intervals.

3.    Many telemarketing agents from remote places and call centers use Virtual Call Center Software to display a virtual representation of an organisation. However, companies who fail to use virtual software often have employees who lack professional approach.

4.    Many a times customers that are subscribed to ‘DND’ listing are also contacted by telemarketing agents, as they do not have software to manage the listing. Thus, it is always better to opt for Outbound Call Center Software which are designed to manage ‘DND’ listing and can record calls that can further be used to improvise agents’ performance.

5.    Before dialling, it is always important to go through a sample script that can show ways to engage a prospect and overcome objections. Using the Best Telemarketing Software might just help your agents/ sales team improve their traditional pitches.

6.    Agents often mistakenly contact the same customer time and again which creates hassle. This makes it a necessity for every call center to adopt Cloud Contact Center Software that help store database and gives its access, with real time data, to multiple agents at the same time.

7.    It is always important to add a personal touch and a friendly appeal to the call. Customers hate listening to robotic accent.

8.    Agents should have a separated list on contact on the basis of geography/ interest/ age group and profession. They should make sure they are calling the right list, this could help them call up a relevant customer and would further increase productivity.

9.    Avoiding stupid phases while calling prospects is a best practise. At the initial stage your only aim is to get the caller engaged and take the call further.

10.    Rather than just trying to sell a product or a service, agents should aim at creating customer interest by telling the caller, what’s in for him? To bring in a customer oriented approach you should adopt Customer Contact Center Software Solutions.


CASE STUDY:

To understand this better let’s look at a real life example. The case in point is a call center whose telemarketing team was low on productivity. 

CHALLENGE:

The contact center wasn’t able to convert leads and was unable to analyse the core reason for this. They thus decided to deploy call center software. 

SOLUTION:

After deploying the software, they started recording calls and noticed that many of the calls were made to irrelevant customers (who were not related to the product or service). 

They further looked upto calls made by agents who were working remotely and witnessed lot of disturbances during the call. The agents sounded as if they had mugged up the entire script and where using the same one for all the callers.

This helped the call center improve calls and train their agents well. This in return also increased employee efficiency and employees were more satisfied with the performance metrics put in place. 

Why go for that traditional sales pitch, when you can do better? Every lock has a different key and so does every caller. It is hence, advisable to get the Best Call Center Software and record calls to improve the performance of your agents.

How do I start a call center with low investment?

With the growing economy and the fast paced life, all of us are looking forward to possibly run a side business. Often, as soon as we think of starting a side business, the first and foremost question that arises is that ‘what could be the best business with the least possible investment?’ 

The answer includes ‘a contact center’. All you would need to do is get a good Call Center Software and follow these steps:

1.    To start a call center you will first need to decide the type of call center you want to run based on the contracts you want to take up. Your contact center could be an inbound, outbound, telemarketing or a web-enabled one. You could then pick a Call Center Software Solution depending on your requirement.

2.    Now, when you have looked at the type you want to start off, you should look at local and state regulations. Start by filing your documents with the finance and taxation department. If you are starting a home based call center you should check the zoning restrictions as well. 

3.    You can move ahead and start making a detailed business plan which should include investment needed, equipment cost, marketing activities, projected sales and employee salaries.

4.    By now you already have a clear picture in your head about how big or small the business would be. You can thus take a step ahead and invest in a few necessary equipments like office supplies, computers, phones, headsets, internet connection and telephone lines. 

If you are looking forward to make life easier for your employees and speed up operation, don’t forget to buy an Outbound Call Center Software which will enable you to manage calls, keep a track of data and call log.

5.    You can now look forward to hire one or two employees depending on the scale of operations you wish to run. When you hire employees look for someone with prior experience into call centers and good operational skills. 

Train them on the newest Cloud Contact Center Software and look at their communication and decision making skills.

6.    Research about companies or contact centers which outsource projects, depending on the scope and cost of the project. If you are planning to take up projects relating to sales or advertising, be sure to install the Best Telemarketing Software.

7.    Furthermore, you can do an online search about companies that hire work-from-home services. You can train your employees on Virtual Call Center Software to enhance their efficiency.

8.    If you want to take an office premise, you should possibly look for options to suit your pocket. Furthermore, you should look around and learn more about the local competitors.

9.    While you look at all the above mentioned things, it is also important to look at your target market. If you want to specialize and operate a contact center for telecommunication companies or maybe software companies, you can look at giving them promotional offers and choose a Customer Contact Center Software Solution to suit their needs.

10.    You are now ready to kick off your very own call center. You can look up for clients online through 

various ad campaigns or advertise in business journals.

CASE STUDY:

It is always easier to learn from others and understand better solutions. So, let us look at a real life example. The case in point is a person who was working in an automobile company. With the increasing demand he thought of having a side- business which would add to his income. After some discussion with his colleague, he decided to start of a call center.

CHALLENGE:

He recruited 2 employees who would dedicatedly work for this call center. They had phone lines and internet connectivity. However, with the growing operations it had become difficult to track calls and generate reports.

SOLUTION:

It was time he went back to his colleague asking him for a solution to this problem. This colleague suggested opting for a virtual call center software which would ease the process. This further made it easier to maintain call logs and track real time data. 

Sounds easy going right? Virtual call centers are always better to start off with due to its low cost mechanism. With all the other features, be sure to host a web-enabled service which is the most desired service by contemporary customers. Now it is easier for you to be the best, all you need to do is pick the Best Call Center Software.

What was your best Customer experience survey in any kind of service you got?

Customer satisfaction is the core of any business activity. Understanding customer experience is a prophet of customer loyalty and customer retention. Successful brands focus on building a delightful experience to sustain customers. 

A well-structured customer experience survey gives insights which act as a foundation to construct a great customer experience. You can always choose to pick a Call Center Software to keep a track of customer feedback. Few vital elements of a customer experience survey are as follows:

1.When you are making a customer experience survey, look at the main objective. You might want to put across a survey to find out possible solutions to a problem, analyze the performance of your customer facing units and/or staff, improve any process or you might to understand customer needs. 

You can always look at Call Center Software Solutions to design multiple surveys, present it in IVR forms or gather real-time customer comments.

2.Adding just the right pinch of personalization is the most critical part, as it helps improve customer experience.

3.Understand why you want your customers to take up this survey. You should always aim to keep the survey short, so it doesn’t look too confusing and maximum number of customers take-up the survey. No one likes long surveys!

4.While you send the customer survey questionnaire to your customers, remember to cross check your mailing list to avoid emailing customers who might not be relevant to the survey. Remember, No one likes to see Spam Mails! 

It is a good practice to use Virtual Call Center Software in such cases. You can always store your mailing list and safeguard it on cloud security.

5.The survey that you send should be accessible on any device. This will boost the reply rate of your customers. You can use a modern and multi-tenanted Outbound Call Center Software to improve the performance of this survey.

6.Structuring the survey well will help you analyze customer feedback and will provide insights with ease.

7.Branding is the most important part of any business. If customers don’t know whose survey they are answering they will not bother to reply. Neither will your survey give you any actionable insights, because you forgot to tell your customers who they are talking about!

8.Encourage customer participation by using your brand identity - everything from logo to colors that represent your brand. It is advisable to use the Best Telemarketing Software as it helps you maintain the right balance between sales and marketing. 

Customer data coupled with data analytic tools further helps understand training requirements.

9.You can avoid fake respondents by asking them to use the “captcha” or asking them to fill their registered contact details for verification. Use a Cloud Contact Center Software that will let you contact your customers on their terms.

10.To make the process simpler and customer friendly use the rating scale. Furthermore, taking Customer Contact Center Software Solutions on-board enhances business agility and creates a seamless experience.

CASE STUDY

To understand how you can create a seamless customer experience, let’s look at a real life example. The case in point is a retail brand which was losing out on its customers in spite the quality products it had.

CHALLENGE:

Regardless of the quality products the brand was losing out on customers. It wanted to understand the reason and further improve on areas it was lagging behind. It decided to send across a survey to its customers. 

However, the first them they sent it to their customers, they witnessed that 20% of their mails bounced back, many replies where anonymous and irrelevant. The brand was unable to analyze and get an actionable solution on this issue.

SOLUTION:

With lot of brainstorming about this an employee suggested opting for the Best Call Center Software. The brand was soon able to validate customers on the basis of their registered details and now had a metrics to track the performance of its survey and measure its brand performance. 

It noticed that it was losing customers due to poor customer service. This helped the brand come up with a possible solution of training its support team to enhance customer experience and increase brand loyalty.

 So, anytime soon if you are thinking of triggering a survey to your customers, don’t forget to have a checklist of all the above mentioned elements to add value to the customer experience. 

What should I be concerned about when outsourcing by a phone department to a call center?

It’s time to say goodbye to the “ringing-forever” call centers that left you with unattended calls. It is high time we shift to the latest contact centers which integrate landline connections with mobile and online communication with their latest Call Center Software. 

But there are a few things you’ll need to look at when you outsource your phone department. They are as listed below:

1. Outsourcing call center operations can turn-out to be quite costly if you don’t compare benefits received with services availed. At the same time you will also need to look at the performance of your in-house team. 

If your in-house team is working efficiently, the need for you to outsource might not emerge; however, it could be a better option to outsource the call center activity if the benefits of outsourcing can boost your profits. So, be sure to pick the right Call Center Software Solutions.

2. Small scale companies usually fall short of trained customer service executives. Lack of capital and workflow to extensively provide customer service might result in losses. Thus, it would be best to outsource call center operations or use Virtual Call Center Software.

3. If confidentiality is a matter of concern for your business, outsourcing wouldn’t be the right thing to choose. You could choose to sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement); however, you risk the guarantee of the contact center honouring this agreement. 

4.  Every business looks forward to showcase quality, being an essential ingredient in the business process. Thus, it is vital to ensure that you have the best business representation. 

While, contact center agents approach customers through Outbound Call Center Software, you can always choose to record their conversation and train them to improvise it.

5. Contact centers usually have too many client accounts. Thus, they train their agents to handle multiple accounts. This in turn can hamper their performance. Imagine an agent receiving an inbound call for a client to resolve some query and his very next call being for ABC client to sell a product. 

To make this process smoother and efficient it is advisable to outsource operations to contact centers with the Best Telemarketing Software.

6.  Many a times, when you want to outsource both in-bound and out-bound operations, it is necessary that the contact center agents are routed to Cloud Contact Center Software so as to access the account history or other customer details. 

7.  Customer feedback is a vital part in the business process as it provides insights to improve business operations. The whole outsourcing process might cause uncertainties in drawing customer feedback as the two-way communication between your business and the support team is broken. 

Hence, it may be wise to look at reports and ask agents to record customer feedback.

8.  You should also consider taking a look at tools used by your support team and those used by your business to generate reports. If there are discrepancies in both, it may be difficult for you to analyse and measure the teams’ performance. 

You can look at Customer Contact Center Software Solutions to match your requirements.

9.   Make sure to keep a track of activities when you outsource customer service. This will help boost the customer satisfaction index and keep the support team in line with your business goals.

10.  The most important part would be to make sure that the support team works exclusively for you.
You may boost your revenues by outsourcing your call center operations. But, don’t forget to keep regular quality checks on the completed work and keep a track of your business goals. 

CASE STUDY:

To understand the importance of considering all the above mentioned factors while outsourcing call center operations, let us look at a real life example.

The case in point is a software company who decided to outsource its customer service operations due to the increasing number of inbound calls. The in-house support team was finding it difficult to deal with the increasing call dropout rates.

CHALLENGE:

The company was finding it difficult to manage calls and was losing out on customers due to unattended calls. Due to which, the company decided to outsource its call center operations. The business owner chose to on-board a contact center to provide customer support. 

However, now it was difficult for the company to analyse the performance of its external team due to discrepancies in the tools used.

SOLUTION:

The business owner shared his concerns with their contact center account manager and after lot of brainstorming they decided to adapt to the Best Call Center Software available, to increase the efficiency of the process. 

So either you get hold of a good Call Center Software or a contact center that has one!

How Do I Start My BPO Business?

Business Processing and Outsourcing (BPO) is a sub domain of outsourcing which involves contracting operations/responsibilities to a third party service provider, for instance: payroll management. Contact centers continue to rule as a communication method between customers and companies. 

Businesses facing financial constraints or lack of employ’s, benefit from outsourcing. Wondering how you could be part of this booming industry by starting off your own BPO? 

You’ll need to get all the necessary tools like the essential Call Center Software and decide your plan of action. To make it easier for you, here are few things you should consider:

1. The first and the most important step is to start developing a business plan, ‘Your Plan of Action’ as you rightly call it. While you make a business plan you will need to sketch out the company description, funding requirements, management functions, services you will be providing and future projections for your BPO. 

Furthermore, you’ll need to have a proper executive summary and get Call Center Software Solutions to suit your requirements.

2. Moving ahead, you will need to choose a business entity depending on your company requirements. Don’t forget! Every business entity carries its own responsibilities in terms of legalities and taxes. So, make sure you have adequate knowledge about every entity before you pick the best one for your BPO. 

You may learn about business entity through the secretary of state’s website and register a business name through the same.

3. You would surely want to make the work flow simpler through Outbound Call Center Software but, don’t neglect rules and regulations! Be sure to learn about Do Not Disturb listings in your country.

4. After you’ve brainstormed about how your BPO is going to work, take a sneak into rules and regulations you will need to abide by as a telemarketer. 

You can optimize sales/advertising and make the functions more result- oriented by renting the Best Telemarketing Software.

5. Choosing an appropriate business location is equally important. This would require you to analyze the location and understand if you have any competitors nearby or whether you will hold monopoly in the area.

6. If you plan to host a virtual call center with employees working from home, you wouldn’t need to think about renting/purchasing a location. You will only need to setup a Virtual Call Center Software. Virtual offices, used for business purpose, are usually tax deductible.

7. In case you think you should rent/buy a place, you will need to look at all the possible options to best suit your needs in the location chosen. If you opt for a bigger office at a very initial stage of your business, paying off salaries, rent and other expenses it going to be a big time loss. 

So, start off with a small office and maybe one or two employees. Virtual Offices are always advisable.

8. After you’ve got an office premises, you’d want to look at things you’ll require to run your BPO. Get the necessary equipments, decide a workflow, get phone connectivity and an internet connection, look at the necessary software’s, customer survey tools and a few secondary items such as office supplies and cleaning products.

9. Now since you’ve looked at all the other aspects and are ready to start your BPO, let’s look at the hiring part. You will need to sketch out the quality of employees you require and their job responsibilities. 

After you’ve made a note of all the above and have completed the interviewing process, you will need to look at the on-boarding and training part as well. 

You should possibly consider training them on Cloud Contact Center Software, as this will prove fruitful in managing the work flow later. Get ‘On Call’ employees and use them for smaller projects, so that when work dries up they can go home. You surely don’t want to jump ahead of your time, do you?

10. You are almost there and ready to take off! By this time you know that you’ve successfully setup a call center. Now, you need to start advertising you BPO to attract more and more clients. 

The best way to advertise could be through social media websites, although you can consider other platforms as well. Many companies will be leery about opting for a new call center, so give them ‘Free Trials for a period of three months or so’ – but keep these trials short to avoid losses.

Even before you do all this, be an expert in the field yourself. You are the one who is going to supervise work and train people on equipments and functions like IVR, Automatic caller information screen pop, call conferencing, call monitoring, call barging, call recording and reporting. 

You will also have to look at the possible, integration of equipments with your business tools. Train yourself to train your employees and get the Best Call Center Software on-board.